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Foreword About six years ago, I began working on a project that I thought would be a single work, and I’d be done with it, Exchanged. However, before I knew it, the project had become a serial that lasted well over two years and spanned 360k words, and I ended up editing and splitting it into three separate books for publishing. My sandbox of writing in the Diaper Dimension was genuinely fun! I enjoyed playing around with the mechanics more with several other works that followed. In-Between was the latest, and I thought I would surely be done with the Diaper Dimension after it. I really intended that! Sometimes one’s muse does not go quietly into the night, and I found myself intrigued with an idea that both continued and branched off from my existing stories. It was a siren far too tempting, and I have been working on appeasing the muse in my spare time this past few months. Currently I’m nowhere near completed, but I feel like I have enough of the story ‘in the can,’ so to speak, that I can begin to share it with you all. My plan is to share a chapter each week, usually on Fridays, but that may vary on some weeks in the next month due to some travel plans I have. I hope that by the time I get to the 13th post, I have plenty of material to keep the momentum going here! I really appreciate all of my readers who have left so many great comments, voted on the chapters, and generally been very supportive! Please consider leaving a 'like' on each chapter and/or a comment to let me know what you think! Special thanks to PrincessPottyPants for letting many of us write stories in the sandbox she created with the DiaperDimension! Also, a big thank you to @DiaperedPrince for editing help and letting me bounce ideas off him! Please note that this story will feature diapers, bottles, and other adult baby content. If that’s not something you’re interested in, I would advise you to take a pass on this work. I believe the story is more than that content, but it does feature that throughout the work as a central theme. There are references to my other works, it’s not required that you read them beforehand to understand the story, but you will get more out of it! If you do wish to read in order, I recommend this order: 1) Diamond Tours (Currently available only through Amazon – ‘Tour Guides’ is the title) 2) Undercover Tour (Currently available only through Amazon – ‘Tour Guides’ is the title) 3) Exchanged 4) Little Hope - Exchanged Book 2 5) Alterations - Exchanged Book 3 6) Seems Too Good 7) In-Between I hope you all will enjoy this new work! Thank you so much for joining me on this new journey! Prologue: I LOOKED AROUND my room, glanced at the two closed suitcases alongside my backpack, and tried to make sure I didn’t forget anything. ‘It’s just a semester,’ I reminded myself, eyeing a couple things I was leaving behind. Several half-done projects in builder’s blocks, half-painted figurines, and other knickknacks didn’t really mean much to me, but they gave me things to do as a teenager stuck at home. “Connor, are you ready?” I heard my sister Riley’s voice behind me. I turned and lowered my gaze to look at her. I’d gotten most of Mom’s height, but she was all Mama’s, six inches shorter than my six-and-a-half-foot frame. She had the same long dirty blonde hair that I had, but her blue eyes had a look of sadness that made me grimace. “I guess; what’s wrong, Riley?” “What’s wrong?!?” She asked in a voice above a normal speaking level, but not quite a shout. “You’re going to the other dimension, idiot! You know Mom almost didn’t make it back several times!” I sighed, “I know…?” “And you know how Mom wasn’t like she is now when she left or got back!” I shrugged, “I know… but like she went for their programming, I really want to go there for their film industry. You’ve seen those cool pictures that Grandma shared with us! If I can learn to do half of what they do with filmmaking, I can be our generation's Alfred Hitchcock.” “IF you make it back…?” She insisted, and the tears streaming out of her eyes tore at me. I leaned down and wrapped her in the best big sibling brother hug I could give her. “I’ll be okay, Ry,” I told her. “I’ll make it back, I promise.” She pushed me away and punched me hard in the arm. “You’d better!!!” “Connor, Riley, you coming?” I heard Mama’s voice shout. “Coming,” I said while throwing my backpack over my shoulder. I grabbed the handle of one suitcase and was prevented from taking the other one by Riley beating me to it. Downstairs, Lila and Hannah were arguing about some cheerleading drama, but stopped and stared up at us. “Come on, everyone, we need to get Connor to the university to meet his exchange group.” Mom said sadly, looking at me and motioning to the door to the garage. Mom pressed a button, and the doors to our large family van opened up. Riley and I took our customary seats in the back row while our baby sisters jumped into the middle row they had taken over as babies. With the four of us being within four years of age, we were pretty close most of the time – but we fought like siblings did the rest. Riley was getting ready to finish her senior year of high school this semester when they went back to school next week, and Lila and Hannah were blazing through their junior year at the private school we had all attended. I myself had graduated from there a year and a half ago. I was in my fall semester of sophomore year when the possibility of an exchange semester was brought up at our university. I was currently pursuing a film and computer science double major. Growing up with Mom and Mama meant that we were good at math and science and understood computers better than any of our peers. Riley steadfastly refused to major in anything computer-related, though. When she went to school next year, she instead planned on going into art. Ironically though, she was using art like Mom did, making incredible 3D printed works that were already selling at high prices! I loved to tease her for trying to be a Luddite but doing art with computers anyway! I looked over at her while she clearly was looking at her phone. She had dressed in a grey sweater dress and leggings outfit that she had told me was cute and ‘comfy’ over the years. So she was sending me away in her comfort outfit, and I knew it showed just how much she thought I was an idiot for going through the portal. Lila and Hannah were just casually dressed in a set of their cheer pants and sweatshirts with their school’s name on them. I noticed then that Mom had turned her seat around after starting the vehicle’s drive to the portal. She looked back at us, making eye contact with me. “You sure you have everything?” She asked me. “Pretty sure,” I allowed. “You have Grandma’s number?” I rattled it off to her. “I can just find her at Emerson, too, right?” She shrugged, “I know she’s still insisting on maintaining her office, but I don’t think she goes in every day.” I nodded at that, “How old is she now?” Riley poked me, “That’s not very nice!” “What? I’m just asking… I know she’s older than Mom, obviously…?” Mom shook her head while Mama giggled slightly. Finally, mom looked over at her, “What?” “Just cause you look way younger than your age doesn’t mean you’re a spring chicken yourself. It’s okay for Connor to be curious.” I mused at the fact that after Mom came back, she ended up stuck looking like a kid who failed potty training for years afterward until she somehow sorted herself out. Now she still looked under thirty, while Mama looked their actual age of early fifties. Technically, according to her government-issued birth certificate, Mom was only thirty-eight, even though they’d lived the same number of years. Mom sighed, “I guess you’re right. Your grandma is seventy-two now, and grandpa is seventy-four. Both of them are doing pretty well health-wise though!” “Do people live the same length of lives there?” “The Bigs do. Free Littles are about the same too.” “Adopted?” I asked, expecting her to say their lives were halved by their captivity. “Depends on if they’re rejuvenated or not…?” Mom paused, “Normal adopted Littles lived to like one-hundred-ten years normally. The ones who were being given the rejuvenations were making it to at least one-hundred-twenty-five when I left. No one seemed to know how long they would live as very few of those Littles had died of natural causes.” I nodded. The basics of life in the ‘other’ dimension I was traveling to had become common knowledge in ours. Three races of humans lived in that dimension; Bigs, or Amazons, were these huge humans that grew on average to between ten and twelve feet tall and basically ruled the dimension. There were Littles on the other side of the spectrum that were mostly the same size as us, being under six feet. Sometimes they were smaller – child-sized even by our standards. Finally, in the middle of all of them were the Mids, or Betweeners, between six and eight-and-a-half feet. People did argue and debate about whether things were really as bad for Littles as some stories from people returning claimed. I’d asked Mom once, and she’d said, “Yes, Connor, I was in diapers and babied a lot by your grandma during college. Most of my friends were adopted by the time we graduated.” My eyes had widened at the fact it was the truth, but she had gone on and explained she’d known what she was getting into. Riley and my sisters had badgered her for more information over the years, and it became apparent that she had made a crazy gamble pay off to make a fortune in our dimension. Single-handedly, Mom’s AI development company had changed the world since she returned. Among her success stories was perfecting the software for the L5 self-driving vehicle we were currently sitting in. It was fully capable of automatically driving us safely to the university, where I was to meet our group. “Connor,” I heard and squirmed at the poke in my side. “What?” I squealed. “Mama asked if you were alright!” She told me. I looked back up and realized they were all staring at me. “I’m fine… Just… well… nervous butterflies, you know?” “You can still back out, sweetie,” Mom told me. “Mom, you and Grandpa always told me that Slane men have always gone on adventures, right? So it’s just my turn.” I forced a nervous smile, “Besides, I want to do for movies here what you’ve done for everything else!” “Riiiight,” Riley said beside me. I did what any good older sibling does and stuck my tongue out at her. “Try not to do that over there, sweetie,” Mom said. “Maturity is everything… especially if you end up getting shorter.” “You only got short because it was your second trip, right?” Lila asked. “We were never completely sure,” Mom told us, “But I never risked going back since I didn’t want to get even shorter a third time!” “Don’t worry, Con,” Hannah said, “I’m sure you’ll be at least as tall as Mom was!” “Hopefully taller than that… I mean, Mom was toddler-sized even by our standards here!” Lila retorted. I groaned. “Not helping, you two,” Mama said. “Who said we had to help?” Lila giggled. “With sisters like you two, who needs enemies?” I said aloud. All too soon, our large vehicle came to a stop outside the university building I was meeting our group. “I don’t get why they aren’t taking you through the main portal,” Mom worried. “Supposedly this is safer…?” I said, silently sharing those concerns. “Besides, we’re supposed to be given diplomatic status for our trip.” Mom shook her head, “Don’t depend on it, even if they give you a visa with that listed on it.” The four of them insisted on walking me to the third-floor lecture hall, where we were supposed to get instructions before using a university-operated portal. As we stopped, I could see a few others standing around the room inside the doors. Riley rolled the suitcase she had next to me and then wrapped me in a big hug. “You better come back here!” she said, looking up at me. I nodded, “I will!” “I expect baby pictures if you become a Little!” She smirked at me. I just shook my head, “In your dreams!” Lila and Hannah came up to me one at a time, and I lifted them off their feet and hugged them like I’d done most of their lives. While Riley had nearly crossed six feet too, Lila and Hannah, for some reason, were only in the mid-five-foot range. They were wiping tears away as I turned to Mama. “I love you, Mama,” I told her. “I love you too, Connor. It was hard seeing your mom go all those years ago, but this is harder. Take care of yourself and stay safe!” She told me as I leaned over and hugged her. Last was Mom, who had an odd look of resignation as I leaned up to hug her. “I love you, Mom,” I told her. “I love you too, Connor, more than you can know.” She paused for a second and pushed me away to look at me, “You have your grandparents’ contact information, right?” “Yes, I have Grandma and Grandpa’s numbers memorized and Aunt Megan and Aunt Bella’s on my phone.” She then squeezed me back into a tight hug and whispered, “I’ll love you the same even if you end up as a Little. Be safe and take care of yourself. Keep the toy I gave you safe!” I nodded and wiped some tears away from my face. “See you soon!” I told them as I gathered my two rolling bags and walked into the hall’s door. I purposefully didn’t look back until I was sure they'd be gone. BETH LOOKED OVER at her parents sitting on one side of the plane’s aisle, quietly talking about something. She blushed as her dad gently kissed her mom, and she rubbed his far shoulder with her draped arm. Having parents with such differences in size seemed weird to everyone else, but it was just the way it was to her. Jason and Laura sat on the other side of her towards the window, both obviously completely engrossed in the movie they were watching on their headsets. Along with all of her siblings, she had received the gift of the state-of-the-art headsets for Christmas. Beth was a little more careful about using hers, especially in public! She wasn’t technically a Little… ‘Well, at least now…’ she admitted. ‘Knowing you’re the height of a first grader doesn’t make you feel that safe!’ ‘I still can’t believe the story… even though I know, it’s true.’ A quick glance over at her dad, and she could guess why she had fallen for him long ago before having her mind and body utterly destroyed by her grandmother’s company. ‘I still can’t imagine what it must have taken for Daddy to be willing to try to save me that way.’ Save, of course, was a relative term… She was alive, and biologically you could argue she was the same matter and creature she was before, but truthfully, she didn’t remember anything before she was reborn. ‘The closest I ever got was when Daddy showed me the ‘Inches’ poem I gave him.’ That still hadn’t been a clear memory… but there was a deep feeling that she had made it. Her brain had been destroyed by a chemical in a test product she and her real mom had unwittingly used. Her… ‘mom’ had suggested trying to rebirth her to reset her body. So, using the newest technology at the time, her addled body was implanted into her mother’s womb for nine months and reborn as a bouncing baby girl. Her body had been able to grow again, and her brain learned everything all over again, just like a normal infant. That she had then caused her mom’s womb to suddenly work and gained three siblings made them seem like the perfect family. ‘At least until they admitted to me what happened!’ All of that was ancient history now, and she was on her way back for her fourth semester of college at Emerson – her parents’ Alma Mater. Lance had stayed home and was waiting another day before going back for his second semester at Hamilton University, where their Dad had earned his law degree. It was the university her Dad had wanted her to attend too, but something about Emerson had pulled her back to Ames. ‘Even if I was a Little, there has been some progress there. Thanks to Daddy and Grandma Ruth, Littles rights had made significant gains in the past twenty years!’ She knew that the elderly Ruth Jones was not her biological grandmother, but she affectionated her dad as a son after years of knowing him. She’d insisted as soon as Beth could talk that she was to be called Grandma. Indeed, she was proud to be able to call a Supreme Court Justice her grandmother! It was a bit weirder having one as your dad, though! Her friends assumed she’d follow in her dad’s footsteps and become a lawyer, but she was leaving that to her siblings. Instead, she was studying Electrical Engineering. She loved the subject from what she’d learned so far but wasn’t particularly looking forward to her upcoming semester’s course load. ‘Calc IV, Signals and Systems, Data Structures, alone would be bad enough…Being stuck in that stupid Western Civilization History Class will only make it worse!’ She mused that at least she was taking one ‘fun’ elective course in filmmaking for her arts elective. She glanced back over at her siblings and realized that her own headset would be getting a fair amount of use this semester. She reached into the bag in front of her with a sigh and pulled out a book she had started reading over the break. Her dad apparently imported from the other dimension, and she couldn’t put it down as it told a story of a ring of power and a weird race of Little sounding creatures called dwarves. It fully distracted her for the remaining half-hour of the short flight! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks for beginning this new journey with me! I'll post the next chapter most likely Saturday next week. Please leave me a comment, and press the 'Like' button!
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Alterations Exchanged – Book 3 By BabySofia A couple of weeks back I began reposting my original work 'Exchanged' to the site in a revised trilogy format. I made some pretty significant revisions to the original to post to WattPad the past couple of months, and wanted to make sure there was a copy of this on this site that has been so kind to me! The ending of this book, in particular, features a revised Epilogue from the original. Please let me know what you think once you finish reading! ‘Alterations’ concludes the story of Stacy’s journey from ‘Exchanged’ and ‘Little Hope.’ Stacy is a young college student who chose to travel to a new dimension to study their advanced computing technology at a prestigious university as an exchange student. Stacy thought he knew what he was getting into when he traveled, but multiple events show that he didn’t plan for every problem he would encounter. Recently on a trip his adoptive parents adopted another Little, Bella, to help prevent her from being taken by unscrupulous Amazons. Stacy now begins orientation and classes at Emerson as the small family attempts to stay safe from the outside threat. Can Stacy manage to navigate college classes and everything the dimension can throw at him, and still make it back home with a degree? Credit to PrincessPottyPants for her original story that led to the creation of the Diaper Dimension Universe. THIS BOOK IS ALSO NOW AVAILABLE ON KINDLE: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XLNSGKF Chapter 1: Code of Conduct A LINE OF students and parents formed at the entrance to the dining hall and I looked around hoping to see someone to make a friend with. No littles seemed to be nearby, but a shorter Amazon girl looked down at me, “Looking for your big sister?” I looked up at her and shook my head, “No?” She looked more intently at me and realized I was both in the uniform and wearing a student ID, “Wait… are you a student?” she asked in disbelief before bending down closer to my level. I smiled, “Yep! I’m Stacy,” I said and held my hand out to her like I’d always done. “Oh my god, you’re adorable!” she said, “I’m Mia,” she said taking my hand. “Nice to meet you,” I told her like I always had before realizing that may have been a bit of a male response too. ‘What should I be saying as a girl?’ I suddenly wondered. “You too!” she said and suddenly got the vibe that she was like a cheerleader back home who had always smiled and been peppy with everything she did. She looked up and realized Amanda was looking on, “Are you her Mom?” Amanda smiled at her and extended her own hand, “Amanda,” she said. Her own mother then extended her hand to Amanda, “I’m Janet, Mia’s mom.” “So, you’re really coming here as a student?” Mia asked before quickly saying, “That’s so awesome!” I smiled at her, “Thanks, what are you majoring in?” I asked her as the line moved forward and she stood up. “Biology and Childhood Studies,” she said with a smile, “I want to be a doctor. You?” “Computer science,” I said with a smile. Mia was the first Amazon besides Megan that I actually had a conversation with as an equal… well as much of an equal as you can with five feet of height difference… As we neared the buffet serving lines Mia handed me a tray and actually helped me fill a plate of food too. Nothing was little sized in the dining hall though, so a chicken sandwich and fries that I carried to a table in the corner with Amanda and our new friends was more like a whole chicken! I guesstimated the bun had to be eight inches in diameter, and with my new size… At the table Amanda said, “Let me see if there’s a booster nearby…” I stood next to the table patiently and Mia sat down. “That must suck?” I laughed, “You have no idea!” “I’m surprised Emerson admitted you?” Mia said in a kind voice. “I mean now that you have your student ID it’s a little bit more difficult to adopt you… but aren’t you worried about what will happen to you here?” I smiled up at her as Amanda returned with the booster in her hand a few feet away. “I’m already adopted,” and nodded my head towards Amanda. Mia’s mouth fell open as Amanda helped me into the booster and sat down across from her mom. “You’re adopted… but if that’s true…?” Amanda smiled at her as I tried to get situated with the plate and evaluated how I was ever going to attack the monster sandwich. “As adopted parents you’re allowed to send your child to school, right?” Janet said. Both of us watched them for their reactions. Mia smiled, “So you choose to send her to college instead of daycare! That’s so awesome of you!” Mia’s mom looked at Amanda, “That really is kind of you! We’re from Gaule, and while we have littles that are babied… most of them are treated that way by choice. I was a little worried about my little girl coming over here and being exposed to almost all of the littles being babied without any freedom…” “It’s their choice to be babied?” I asked tentatively. Mia nodded, “It’s the law – even more so than when you all had the law here stating permission had to be granted. With our littles it has to be their choice with a court appointed officer checking to make sure it’s really what they want. After they’re adopted, they have to be treated right, or the courts can step in and grant the little their freedom again.” I looked up at Amanda, “Can we visit there someday?” “Maybe sweetheart, we’ll see,” she said with a thoughtful look as she helpfully cut my chicken sandwich into six smaller sections. ‘If Bella was there, she could be free…?’ I thought to myself. I learned more about Mia during lunch, finding I really liked her, so with Amanda’s permission I traded phone numbers with her. The whole lunch was informal and absent of any speeches to drag on the meal. That meant about noon we made our departure after I promised Mia to talk soon! Amanda and I walked side-by-side to go to her car. “You need a change I’m guessing?” I blushed, but nodded as I walked hurried to keep up with her with my smaller legs. At the car she picked me up and felt my diaper, “Actually, I think it’ll hold until we get home?” I nodded, “I shouldn’t need to go anymore until then.” “Okay, let’s go check and see if your Daddy and sister are back home yet.” “Why not just call them?” I asked from my seat as she closed her door. “Just in case they’re busy doing stuff,” she told me. There was a nervous tremor to her voice, but I wasn’t sure which of the crazy events from the weekend were causing it! After the short drive home, she stopped in the driveway and picked me up out of my car seat. I could see a moving truck blocked our normal parking space. The truck was being unloaded by Grandpa, Fred, and a few other Amazon men I didn’t know. “Just take this stuff to the basement,” Fred was telling the men. “All except that box, take that one up to the nursery please,” he said. “Hi Mandy!” he said walking up to us pulling his work gloves off, “Hi Princess!” “Hi Daddy,” I said while taking in the moving of furniture and boxes. Amongst it all I noticed a number of sewing machines and things that I thought were embroidery machines? A ton of bolts of fabric were also carried in. To my surprise they looked about right for an Amazon to use – none of it looked little sized or amateur in any way! “You get everything from her apartment?” Amanda asked as we stepped inside the house. “Yes, most of it is going into the basement until we see if there’s anything we can use – or should let her use ever again. I can’t believe the sewing setup she had there Mandy – I think it was better equipped than your friends’ shop!” “Hmm…” Amanda said, “Did you separate out her personal mementos then?” “Yeah, there’s a couple boxes that I’m having sent up to the nursery. I don’t think we should make her give up any of it… it’ll just be a matter of figuring out how to find places for it and Stacy’s stuff.” “Maybe we should move your office downstairs and give them each their own nursery?” Amanda said as she carried me into the living room and I found myself settled down in the playpen in next to a dozing Bella. He nodded, “It’s an option, but I also thought maybe it was time for us to look for another place to live?” “This is so convenient though…” Amanda said as she followed him downstairs and I felt like the unwanted abandoned baby. I sighed and watched Bella sleep for a bit while looking at a toy doll that Bella must have brought in with her. It looked old and I wondered if it was from her childhood. I sat there for a while before Bella suddenly squirmed and rubbed her eyes, “Stacy?” she asked tentatively as she sat up. “I think I’m the only other diapered little sharing the house with you…” I told her with a smirk. “Sorry, it’s been a rough morning. Daddy gave me a bottle when we got home and I must have been out in seconds.” I nodded, “I’m sorry you had to deal with that,” I told her. “It seems like they brought a factory with them?” She blushed, “I was really good at making deals online for equipment…” “Looks like it,” I told her and crawled over to her and gave her a hug, “Sorry for everything Bella.” She gave me a light hug back, “Probably best this way… I would have lost it all for certain if you all hadn’t sat next to me on the plane.” “So, everything go… smoothly, at least?” I asked. A tear went down her face, “It was so embarrassing and tough to handle…” she told me honestly. “My landlord was pretty mean about it all. The downstairs neighbors weren’t much better…” “Why?” “Why else would someone be mean to a little Stacy?” I shrugged, “I’m sorry… the more I’m here the more I’m glad I’m not a native little.” “I hope you never really understand Stace,” she told me. I nodded. “So enough about my crappy morning, how was yours?” She asked me while wiping her face of tears and snot and forcing a smile. “Pretty good I guess?” I said, “Definitely better than yours I guess…” “Well tell me all about it! I want to know about my big sisters’ day at college!” I groaned, “Well we checked in this morning and I got my student ID.” I pointed where it was clipped to my dress, “Of course that meant waiting in lines… lines with Amazons for the most part. Definitely some awkward moments there, but I guess I only saw one poor little get kidnapped this morning at least.” “Outside before they got inside?” she asked. I nodded, “How did you know?” “There’s always a couple who think they’re too good for diapers and have an accident out there…” She shrugged, “Of course who am I to talk?” “You didn’t actually have an accident in your panties though,” I reminded her. “Details like that don’t matter when you still end up in the nursery Stacey.” I nodded, “Anyway… after that we went to Amanda’s office and I met her secretary. She seemed really nice! She has littles, but she lets them still do things as much as she can I think.” “So, three good amazons in the world?” she said. “More than that,” I told her, “you just don’t encounter the good ones most of the time. I also met a new friend, her name is Mia, who is also an Amazon – but she’s from another island?” “Oh, which one? I know some are supposed to be better than here… Is she not completely baby crazy?” “Not that I could see…” “Well I see you two are getting along at least,” Amanda suddenly said as she scooped Bella up in one arm and me in her other. “Of course, Mommy, she’s my sister!” I told her with smile. “You clearly haven’t had a sister very long,” Amanda said while shaking her head. “Trust me, they’re okay sometimes, but other times…” Bella and I laughed. “You haven’t met my other sisters yet,” Amanda said to Bella, “Of course I don’t have to worry about you two becoming nearly as crazy. I do however have to worry about some leaking diapers, huh?” She said while looking specifically at me. I looked down and went, “Oopsie…” with my skirt showing clear spots. “Yes, ‘oopsie,’ at school that might mean walking around without your skirt if you’re not careful Princess.” She told me. I turned red and put my head against her shoulder, “You were supposed to change me when we got home?” “Oh, blame it on Mommy,” she said in mock exasperation. “I give up…” I said as she shoved a pacifier in my mouth and laid me down on the changing table. The jumper was off in a flash and tossed in the dirty clothes hamper. My Pamper was then swapped out for another and with another jumper pulled over my head before she sat me on the ground, “There, that’s better…” I looked at my watch to distract myself as she changed Bella, “How are you doing now Bella?” She asked quietly. “Okay I guess…” she told her. “I’m sorry today was so rough, but at least it’s done?” She asked as she sat her up and placed her on her hip. Bella just nodded as she sucked on her pacifier. Amanda gave her a strong hug and asked, “You should go through these two boxes and find a place for your stuff. Stacey’s got her end of the room with the computer desk, but why don’t you make this end of the room yours?” She stood next to the window where the wall was mostly blank, “I’ll try and find you a desk if you want too?” Bella nodded and said, “Kay,” simply but nothing else and just seemed content to stay in Amanda’s arms. I looked at my watch again this time noticing the time and pulled my pacifier out so I could speak clearer, “Mommy?” “Yes Stacey?” “We need to get me to the university again?” I saw her look at the clock and nodded, “I can’t believe it’s already that time…” she said and squeezed Bella, “be a good girl for Daddy and we’ll be back for dinner, okay?” She nodded as she was sat down and Amanda came over to me and picked me up. “Let’s leave your paci here?” she said as she took it from my hand. I blushed and said, “Probably a good idea…” Since it was already almost two-thirty by the time we got into her car she didn’t say long goodbyes to anyone as we passed. At Emerson she pulled me out of my car seat and sat me down on the ground before reaching out with her hand towards me for a second and pulling back. “Sorry, probably not a good idea for all the littles to see you holding Mommy’s hand,” she said quietly to me as she patted my back and we walked as quick as my legs could carry me towards the building that contained Destiny Hall. At the building I could see a hundred or so littles walking through the doors into a large lecture hall. The thing that made my eyes pop open in disbelief though was everyone was grouped in tens, each hanging onto a rope with rings on it like preschoolers would use back home. An Amazon held onto the end of the rope and I could hear one saying, “Come on little chickee’s,” loudly, “let’s get to your first orientation session.” I looked on with a fascinated horror as Amanda said, “I’ll see you after this is over Stacy.” I looked up at her and gave her leg a hug before walking to join the others walking inside. “Where’s your nest group?” A tall Amazon woman leaned down to me as I walked inside. I looked up at her and decided politeness was definitely key with her. Something about her struck me as a proper Chloe like woman, “I don’t believe I have one Miss,” I told her politely. “Tisk, tisk, how did you get lost already?” she said like she was talking to a newborn. “Your dorm room number?” She asked as she grabbed her phone. “I don’t have one,” I told her, “I’m a commuter.” “Oh, you silly girl! You’re a little, you can’t be a commuter…” Her face began to look different and colder, “Are you lying because you already earned a demerit and a spanking from your Nest Hen?” “Pardon me Miss, but I live with my adopted Mommy and she has it okayed through the university? Please look up my information?” She narrowed her eyes, but took her phone and took a quick picture of me with it. “Stacy Westerfield?” I nodded, “Yes Ma’am.” “Well I’ll be… you were telling me the truth. This is…” she paused, “unusual…” “Yes Ma’am, I understand it is.” “Well then… I guess why don’t you go sit over here with Miss Madison’s group here,” she said as she led me down the lecture hall to a row with a girl who looked to have a queen bee personality. “Miss Madison, this is Stacy. She doesn’t have a nest group per se, but she’s going to join yours whenever she needs to get around little events.” I looked up at the well-dressed girl who could have been a teacher and instantly felt glad I had a diaper on. Something about her just didn’t scream pleasant, “Well Stacy, I’m glad to have you join our nest. Girls this is Stacy,” she said as she pushed me forward. I saw Laura was in her group and quickly noted that all of the members of her group seemed to be girls and shorter than average – even for littles. Laura waved at me and Madison noticed, “You already have a friend in our nest?” She said in a singsong voice, “Why don’t you go sit with little Laura over there in that empty seat,” she told me with a pat on my rear. “Yes Miss Madison,” I said nervously. As I passed, she patted my rear and seemed to ascertain I had a diaper on. “Let me know if you need a change by the way Stacy, even though you’re not one of my chicks I’ll be happy to change you.” “Umm… thanks,” I told her, “I’m good right now…” I walked quickly down the row and sat in the huge oversized fold down seat next to Laura. “Hi,” she said to me quietly. “Hi, how’s it going so far?” I asked. “Umm… embarrassing?” She said. I nodded, “I’m guessing the rope for the line wasn’t the worst thing yet?” She shook her head, “Not even close… at least I already had a diaper on. That girl over there,” she pointed to a girl right next to Madison, “didn’t come in one. Let’s just say it was a little exciting getting ready to come over here.” I noticed that the girl’s eyes were definitely red. It looked like there was a little bit of runny mascara she hadn’t cleaned off her face yet from coming over, and I felt bad for her. “You?” “Not bad so far… I’m going to be a bit sheltered from some of it,” I whispered to her. She nodded, “I kind of wish I was already adopted…” “Already?” I whispered back to her. “You know it’s inevitable…” I looked at her and nodded, “Hopefully it’ll be someone nice at least,” I breathed sadly. She reached for my hand and said, “I’m glad I met you, I hope we stay friends this year?” “Through college!” I told her with a smile. “Good afternoon boys and girls!” a lady suddenly said from the front of the lecture hall. I was glad the lecture hall descended into the front, or I wouldn’t have been able to see over the seat in front of me. As it was, I found myself moving to kneel on my knees like a number of others in my row just to see the speaker. “My name is Dean Sanders, and I am in charge of you adorable little boys and girls here at Emerson University.” Her smile made me think ‘Granny, what big teeth you have…’ and I felt a shiver of fear down my spine. “If you have any problems with any of the big kids at school, or you need anything at all, I want you to think of my door as always open. Please think of me as your mother away from home…” I really did shiver at that and noticed several other littles shift uncomfortably. “This afternoon and evening are a bit different for you from the big kids as we need to get you all used to the procedures of this university. I want to begin by making sure you know your rights and responsibilities here as our little Griffin Chickees.” A PowerPoint slide came up then with a stylized griffin in a diaper, and I couldn’t help but know she thought of the room as just a bunch of babies to be. I bit my tongue though as she continued and ‘Protection’ flashed on the next slide. “I want you all to know that protective undergarments such as diapers or pull-ups are strongly encouraged for littles here at Emerson, but they’re not required of any student during the daytime.” I heard someone whimper down the row and wondered why for a second before she continued, “Please know that we consider that wearing these garments is not a sign you need to be adopted by a surrogate family, but rather that it’s a sign of your maturity of dealing with your weaknesses. A simple fact of life for littles is that pee-pee accidents will happen! While some of our bathrooms have been upgraded to have little potties, many times you may have to travel a long distance to find one you may safely use. Having protection means that if you have an accident it’s contained in a sanitary manner.” She smiled, “We have no problems with a wet diapee or pull-up on a little student. Your fellow students, Nest Hens, Dorm Mother, or the medical facility will be happy to help you clean up into a new one if you need help. You’re always welcome to refuse help directly from a fellow student, but they will then take you to your Nest Hen, Dorm Mother, or the infirmary to make sure that you’re cleaned up properly.” She smiled, “After all, diaper rash doesn’t help you concentrate on your coursework!” As if to add insult to everyone a little boy was shown with his pants wet in the hallway. Clearly a college student in his blazer and pants, you could see the terror in his eyes as someone made him pose for the picture. “Unfortunately, we will have a few littles amongst you who are sure they can make it every time. Should you choose to not wear protection that’s your right! If you do have an accident though – anywhere on campus – you will have progressive consequences in the form of demerits and/or spankings.” I noticed a few littles nervously look around then and guessed they might have come without protection on. Her slide flashed to a new one with the words, ‘Ten Demerits’ in big bold words. Below the words it stated what she said, “If you have ten demerits in a year, you will be expelled from the university. Additionally, we will be legally obligated to hold you on campus until a responsible adult can take charge of you.” I could hear a few mutters of anger around, but I kept absolutely silent like Laura next to me. “Any questions boys and girls?” She asked in a demeaning voice. “None?” She smiled, “One other item to note is that while it’s okay for you to have a wet diaper or pull-up in class, if you should have an issue with poopy pants in class, you will receive eight demerits automatically.” One brave little boy raised his hands, “Miss, that’s in class? If we happen to defecate a diaper outside of class?” “Oh, sweetie you don’t have to use big words about the contents of your diapers! I know how hard it is for you all to make it to the potty!” She said in a sweet mom’s voice that made me want to vomit. “Outside of class if you have a poopy accident it’s okay and there’s no punitive consequences. We just don’t want to smell up professors’ classrooms! It’s a sanitary thing you understand?” “Thanks for the clarification Miss,” the little said as politely as he could. I couldn’t see much of him over the tall seats, but he seemed to be on the taller side for a little. ‘Probably just put a big target on his back…’ I thought to myself. The next slide that popped up said ‘Adoption – When Can I Be Adopted?’ with a picture of a smiling little girl with her ‘mommy’ tickling her stomach in what looked like a backyard. The thick diaper couldn’t be missed with the pink t-shirt being the only other thing she was wearing. ‘Mommy’s Princess’ her shirt read and I couldn’t help but wonder how much had been done to her. Just then I felt the need to nervously pee and decided to just get it over with. The warm pee made me wonder a moment later though why that picture made me feel a need to go so suddenly. I noticed a lot of shuffling right then and some whimpering. ‘Great, I hope there’s not some extra hypnosis going on here with subliminal messages…’ “This is an important topic that we must discuss with your rights, boys and girls. At Emerson you are in a place where you may not be adopted unwillingly by another student, staff member, or campus visitor. So long as you are wearing your name badge and uniform around campus – or town – you are protected legally from being forcibly adopted.” Something in her tone said she regretted that law existed. “If you are not wearing your badge and uniform outside your dorm though, you should be aware that bystanders may not know that you attend the university. You are welcome to ask for a university representative at any adoption center to verify your student status, but failure to be in compliance with the badge and uniform rule means you have no standing to contest an adoption.” She passed over to another slide with another smiling little in his ‘mommy’s’ arms. “Should you decide that the university coursework is too much for your little brain, you are more than welcome to come to my office to speak with me. We offer comprehensive adoption counseling to help you find a loving home to place you in.” The room was totally silent at that point as if everyone was shocked anyone would willingly dive into that. Her presentation continued along that vein throughout the rest of the meeting as rules about Nest Groups, profanity, getting around campus, information about free diapers, and other services was given out. One of the roughest things I thought was the requirement that all little freshmen in the dorms had a bedtime of 7:30pm. She added that you could not get out of bed except for emergencies until 7:00am the next day when Nest Hens would check their chicks and help them get dressed. “What about the orientation events that are later than that?” one girl asked, “Griffins Fly is supposed to be at 7:30pm?” The Dean laughed, “Silly girl, that’s an event for the big boys and girls! You’ll need to be in your jammies and night diapees by then. We certainly don’t want to have a cranky dorm of littles all day tomorrow!” I noted in my head that the wording was ‘in the dorms,’ and knew that meant I could probably get out of a lot of requirements that way. I was going to have to be careful to keep that to myself though unless I wanted her to give me some demerits, or find some other way to make my life miserable. “Well then, it’s about time for dinner. Your Nests will go back to the dorms and get ready for dinner. You’ll have a quick dorm meeting at 6:30pm before your Nest Mothers get you ready to roost in your beds for the night! Tomorrow morning there is an opening ceremony for the university that you’ll travel to with your nest group. After lunch if any of you have not taken your CARE exams yet you will need to do so at 1pm. Please let your Nest Hen know so they can get you to the appropriate testing room. Welcome to Emerson University!” As we stood up, I heard Madison shout, “Come on chicks, grab onto the rope so we can all stay in a nice line to the dorms.” I stood unsure what to do and Madison said, “You too Stacy.” “I think my mommy is supposed to meet me outside…?” “Well just grab on, and if we see her, I’m sure she’ll come get you from me.” I wanted to send a quick text message but as soon as I reached for my backpack for my phone, she chided me and said, “Here you go baby, just grab right on to this purple ring next to your BFF.” I turned red as I looked at Laura but grabbed on and followed them outside of the hall. From the row next to me I noted that another Nest Mother was scolding a little boy with wet pants, “That’ll be two demerits Grayson,” she said. “You know the rules now…” I shuddered and followed our rope line out the lecture hall feeling like I was truly in preschool. True to her word though Amanda was standing right outside and waved at me before coming up to Madison. “Hi, I’m here to pick up Stacy,” she told her with a smile. “I’m sorry, but parents aren’t allowed to take their students to dinner today.” Amanda frowned at that, “Since when?” “It’s a university regulation for littles…” “Where is that in the handbook?” Amanda asked with a smile, “As a professor I should know this one if it’s the case…?” Madison looked flushed then and I realized she was blushing. Dean Sanders came up to us the and said, “Oh Professor Westerfield! I didn’t expect to see you around orientation events for littles?” Amanda took her hand and laughed, “Normally no, but my little girl over there is starting out here and I needed to pick her up for dinner.” “Oh but of course, I’d almost forgotten about your unusual daughter! Miss Madison what’s the issue here?” She asked the girl. “Littles are supposed to have dinner on campus tonight with us!” she said with a bit of hiss to her voice. “Normally you are correct Madison, but Stacy here isn’t a resident. She lives with her mommy who’s one of our most distinguished professors. I know that she’ll take great care in making sure Stacy is fed and back for her nest meeting tonight at 6:30pm in the dorm?” “Of course, Jackie I will make sure she’s back. Is it going to be a long meeting? I know the littles on campus have a very early bedtime?” “Thirty minutes should be it,” the dean said. “Madison will make sure that she has your daughter out of there by seven so you can get her home and tucked in her crib for the night.” “Great!” Amanda said and held her hand out to me to grab on. It was only then that I let go of the rope and looked at the other littles looking at me jealously. Even Laura was envious, but I just smiled and said, “See you later!” “Oh, what room is your nest?” Amanda asked Madison as we had started to walk away. “Wenig, room two-ten,” Madison said obviously not happy. “Thanks! Have a good dinner!” She told her and the other girls. I held onto Amanda’s hand for the lifeline it was back to the car. As she lifted me into my car seat, she felt my diaper and said, “Need a change, huh?” “Back home please?” I asked nervously. She kissed my forehead and said, “Sure sweetie.” The drive home was of course again short and she wasted no time carrying me upstairs to the nursery and changing me into a dry Pamper. “So how was the meeting?” Amanda asked me as she carried me back downstairs. I thought for a moment, “Enlightening and scary…” “Scary?” She asked. “Dean Sanders has to be one of the scariest Amazons I’ve met…” “I thought maybe you would think that about Miss Madison there…” she told me with a squeeze. “She’s not exactly the friendly fun-loving RA,” I admitted, “but Dean Sanders basically laid out everything to us about accidents and adoption. When she showed one of the slides I went pee almost as soon as I looked at it... I had no real warning like I’ve been having. A lot of the other littles I think went too… I’m thinking she inserted some sort of subliminal message in the slide?” “It’s possible,” Amanda told me as she reached the bottom step and carried me to my highchair to join Fred and Bella who were already sitting down. “With as common as it is in TV and movies right now, I could see them easily doing that.” “Doing what?” Bella asked. “Subliminal messages,” I told her with a grimace. I looked and saw she was already bibbed and ready to eat with a baby bottle of apple juice on her tray. “All the time…” she griped. Chapter 2: Aerie “HOW DO YOU defend against that?” I asked curiously. She shrugged, “I don’t think there’s any sure way of doing it. I knew some people who swore by wearing contacts with a slight tint to them. It would at least let them notice the images some of the time if it was an embedded still image. Doesn’t help when it’s just an occasional frame every hundred frames or so though.” I nodded and watched as Amanda settled my tray in front of me onto my highchair, and brought me a sippy cup of juice. For a moment I felt a bit of jealousy over Bella’s bottle, but bit my tongue and asked, “What’s for dinner?” “Your daddy made shiskabobs,” Amanda said as she walked over to the stove and brought over two plates with food. Mine was cut somewhat smaller when she placed it in front of me. Bella’s though was practically mutilated into little minced pieces. Amanda left Bella’s plate just next to her own, but began putting a few pieces at a time on another small toddlers’ plate in front of Bella. While I was getting to use my tiny utensils, Bella was just using her fingers. I frowned at that, “Bella?” “What?” she asked me. “Umm…” “It’s okay Stacy,” Amanda told me, “remember what we talked about in my office…” I thought back to our conversation a couple hours before that Bella had asked to be treated like a baby to make things easier for her. With the constant pressure to avoid adoption and torture, she seemed to be mostly okay with having Amanda baby her, versus what she would have had with anyone else as her ‘mommy.’ Bella seemed to catch on to what I wanted to say, “It’s okay Stacy, I’m actually kind of enjoying everything today…” I looked at her and believed she was telling the truth, “If you’re sure…” I muttered and kept eating my food. “So how did your little orientation event go?” Fred asked. I retold, now in more detail, all that had gone on with that and then in the morning. “So, we knew everything about all of that though,” Fred said after I finished. I shrugged, “I guess?” “You have even less to worry about than anyone else Stacy,” Amanda told me reassuringly. “Except maybe from this Madison girl. I was really hoping you would be able to avoid having a Nest Hen assigned to you…” “Why do they call them Nest Hens?” Bella asked curiously. “Because the school mascot is the Griffins?” I told her. “What’s that?” “How…?” I paused, “How can you not know what a griffin is?” “I dunno? I never really paid attention in school?” “Harry Potter exist here?” I asked. “What’s that?” Amanda asked. I slapped my forehead, “I wonder if Mom and Dad can send me a shipment of cultural items…?” “Important back home?” Fred asked. “Probably one of the largest books and movie franchises to exist back there. This author…” I paused and realized it wouldn’t matter… “Anyway… this author created an epic long series about a kid in a magic school. His dorm that he’s a part of has a Griffin as their mascot.” They all stared at me like I was from another dimension or something... I sighed and looked at Bella, “It’s a half-eagle and half-lion creature.” With the continued blank stare, “eagles raise their young in nests, so I guess they decided that littles are grouped in nests too.” “You’re also chicks to them,” Amanda said with a nod. “Chick, huh?” Fred said. “That’s Princess Chick to you,” I huffed as all three of them laughed at me. When Bella was done with her solid dinner, Amanda released her from her high chair and carried her to the living room where she sat down in the rocker with Bella cradled on her lap. I sighed and looked at the small scoop of ice cream the Fred had given me while he munched on a larger bowl. “It’s smarter this way,” he reminded me. “I know, but if you’d told me a few weeks ago I’d be feeling withdrawals from not breastfeeding…” “I suppose you could always give in, and just give up?” He said softly. I shook my head, “No, my dream is worth more than that… You wouldn’t happen to know a way to cancel out the bad effects, would you?” He shook his head, “I wish I did, it would make it easier on you and Mandy both!” I quietly finished my scoop and felt a little rumbling in my stomach, “May I use my potty please?” “Sure chicklet,” he told me. I glared at him as he released me from my straps and I walked to the potty. With a little bit of effort, I pulled the tabs of the dry diaper off and sat down on the potty before pushing out a couple small chunks of poop and some pee. “Good girl,” Fred said, “can you hold your skirt up so I can wipe you clean?” I did as he asked and he wiped me clean. “Thank you,” I told him softly. “No problem,” he told me, “You want to try and put your diapee back on while I throw this out?” I nodded and picked up the discarded garment. I remembered it was easier standing and leaning so I pulled it up and leaned against the cabinet and was able to pull the tabs tight. He bent down and checked when he returned, “Why aren’t you just a big girl!” I stuck my tongue out at him and he picked me up to give me a hug. “You ready to head back Stacy?” Amanda asked after I’d sat in his arms for a few moments. I shrugged, “I guess. I have to imagine this is going to suck…” “It might,” Amanda said, “but from now on unless you’re talking about sucking on your pacifier or a bottle, I think it would be a good idea to skip using that word?” I nodded. “Sorry, Mommy,” I sighed. She carried me to the car and we were soon parked on a lot close to Wenig Hall. She wasted no time in getting me out of the car and walked me up front to the entrance where a couple Amazon girls and Mrs. Walters were talking. Amanda walked me inside and said, “Good evening, I was told Stacy needs to meet with her nest group for a little bit tonight?” “That’s right, Dean Sanders mentioned that. I guess she was assigned to Miss Madison?” “Room 210?” I added helpfully. “That’s the right one sweetie! What a smart wittle girl!” she said condescendingly. “Did you happen to bring your orientation shirt?” I nodded and patted my backpack, “It’s in my backpack?” “Great! I’m sure Madison will help you get it on really quick before we do our last activity before bedtime. Professor Westerfield, if you want, you can just hang out here in the lobby until seven? All of our residents are going to take a picture just before then and then you can take her from here?” “I think I’ll actually just run to my office for a bit,” she told her. “I’ll come out for the picture and pick her up then,” she added. “Melanie, would you please help Stacy here find her nest?” “Sure thing!” the larger of the girls said. I couldn’t help but notice she had a very plump body with large breasts compared to most. I squirmed internally as I thought of the fact that she probably would have a lot of littles feeding from them at some point… She held her hand out, and I nervously took it like it would bite me. She led me down a hallway, past the desk, and to a bank of elevators. “So why are you so special that you’re only here for the nest meeting?” She asked inquisitively. Her voice was friendly, but she seemed to have a wary tone to it. “I’m adopted,” I told her, “so I have to live with Mommy and Daddy instead of in the dorms,” I told her. Something inside of me told me that trying to behave maturely in these dorms wasn’t a bright idea. I kept my senses on high alert for details and noted that there were five floors in the dorm total when she pressed the second button. “Wow, and you’re still coming to school?” I nodded and said sweetly, “Mommy wants me to be smart like her and Daddy.” “Aren’t you worried your classes will be too much for your little brain?” I giggled, “I think I’ll be fine.” She shook her head but led me outside of the elevator as it opened. “Let’s see, here we go! Room 210, Miss Madison’s Nest.” I felt my mouth drop a bit as I came into the large open room that was more like a barracks in some ways than the modern dorms that I had seen at universities back home. Well… a daycare barracks! Parallel to the walls on three sides of the room were ten lofted beds over desks. Each bed had a small staircase leading up to it from one side, and then side rails made of mesh like a playpen ringed them about two feet above the mattress. ‘So that littles can’t fall out?’ I wondered. I noted that the height of the beds meant most of the Amazons could probably still reach in and pluck out a little if need be. The desks seemed to be decent sized, but all of the white furniture in the room just screamed ‘baby girl.’ I noticed that a sign in baby block letter font had been placed on each bed for the girls in the room. A small wardrobe and dresser adjoined the bed/desk units. The walls of the room were painted in the sickeningly sweet pink of a nursery a mother would use to hopefully have a girly girl for a baby. As I turned to the side, I noticed that Madison had Laura up on a large, well-stocked changing table, with her legs and naked rear held in the air to moon me. “Miss Madison, I found a visitor for you,” the girl said and with a pat on my head left me there alone. “Who?” She asked with a quick turn of her head, as she placed a fresh diaper under Laura, “Oh, cutie, it’s you! Come on in!” I noticed that all of the other girls had their orientation shirts on now with their uniform skirts. For most of the girls the shirts fit them fairly well. As Laura was sat upright, I could see the shirt was way too big for her. It hung like a knee length dress on her as Madison tutted, “One of these years they’re going to remember we have some tiny little girls!” I watched as she pulled the shirt back up and removed Laura’s skirt. She let the shirt hang down again and tied a white piece of ribbon around her waist in a large bow in the back. “That being said you look like the cutest little here now!” I heard her stage whisper to Laura. The other girls sat in their desk chairs nervously as Madison sat Laura down. “Go sit down at your desk Laura, I’m just going to help our guest get ready too.” “Thank you, Miss Madison,” Laura said while blushing deeply. I could tell that the whole situation mortified her – and I really felt terrible for her! As she moved away Madison looked down at me, “Where’s your shirt?” I took my backpack off and opened it to pull it out, “here,” I told her. “I can put it on myself really quick?” “Much faster if I do it,” she said while quickly reaching down, picking me up, and laying me down on the changing table. A moment later my blouse was off and my skirt was gone. “Aren’t you just adorable wearing regular baby Pampers?” she teased me. “I guess your mommy at least knows what you need to be wearing.” Her hand squeezed the padding before her finger went in the side and I gasped a bit as it brushed me in a way that was completely unnecessary. “Guess you must have had a change before you came?” I just nodded, “Yes, Miss Madison.” “Well let’s pull this shirt over your head,” she told me, “Arms up like a pretty ballerina!” I actually did giggle with as hard as she was trying to embarrass me. “Okay, let’s stand up and see just how bad this one is on you…” She tutted a moment later when she realized it came to my ankles, “Wow, as tiny as Laura is, you definitely take the cake, Sweetie! What size clothes do you normally wear?” “Three months,” I told her. “Good thing you’re already adopted! I don’t think you would last a week on your own otherwise!” She said that while grabbing another piece of ribbon, and then duplicated what she had done with Laura’s shirt to make a dress. She sat me down then and said, “Can you be a big girl and put your blouse and skirt in your backpack for me?” I nodded, “Yes, Miss Madison,” and completed the task just as I saw my watch said it was 6:30 on the dot. As I stood up, I noted that my shirt hung down to past my ankles like a floor length gown! “Okay chicks, come on over here to the carpet in the center of the room so we can all chat a bit as a nest before we go take our dorm picture.” She sat down on the carpet and added in a singsong voice, “Sit crisscross applesauce everyone!” I sat down next to Laura who reached out and squeezed my hand. As I looked at her face, I could tell she must have been crying a little in response to her embarrassing treatment. ‘I wonder what happened before I got here,’ but I had no time to ask Laura anything before Madison began. “Okay, so a few rules I need to make sure we go over. “You should have all see that you have your potty star charts over there on the wall,” she pointed to a row of ten charts. One of the girls raised her hand, “Yes, Brooke?” “Miss Madison, what about Stacy?” She asked, “She doesn’t have a chart? She’s a part of our nest too now, right?” Madison pursed her lips and asked me, “Do you need a potty chart Stacy?” I thought quickly before answering, “No Miss Madison, Mommy keeps me in diapers – it would be kind of pointless!” “Well there you have it, Brooke! Baby Stacy there doesn’t need one because she already knows she’s not a big girl like you all are.” She paused before smiling, “Unless you don’t need one either Brooke?” I looked at the girl as she gulped and said, “I guess I do need one since I use the potty Miss Madison.” “Good girl!” Madison said with praise. “Now there are spots on the chart for the morning. Each day I will check and mark whether you were a big girl and have a dry diapee still, or have a wet diapee. Most of you will have a wet diapee, but that’s okay because it’s totally normal in our dorm. No one gets out of bed until I come and do a diaper check on you each morning. If you’re dry, I’ll let you put on whatever underwear you want. If you’re wet, I’ll change you into a pull-up unless you really want to risk having an accident without protection. You are allowed to tell me you want your big girl panties at any time, except bedtime!” I grimaced - she probably hoped someone would choose that. “If you wet a pull-up or big girl panties that you’re not ready for, I’ll mark that on the second line each day. If you poopy them that’s another mark I’ll make on the chart.” Another girl raised her hand, “Miss Madison, Dean Sanders said as long as it wasn’t in class, it was okay if we had a poopy accident?” Madison laughed like the girl had just done the most mundane task, “of course Jasmine it’s okay silly girl! We just mark it down for the school’s records! One of the things that will be on your report card and transcript each semester is your potty progress. You can get a Gold Star for absolutely no potty accidents, a Silver star for up to five wetting accidents or one poopy accident, and a Bronze Star if you have no more than ten wetting accidents or two poopy diapers in a semester.” “Jasmine you had another question?” “What happens if we don’t have any stars on our report card?” “No harm, it just means when businesses look at you for jobs after college, they’ll know they are probably going to have to accommodate for some potty issues.” She paused and looked around the room, “Okay, so other things – you obviously know the potties are in the bathroom next door, along with the showers. If you need any help with showering or using the potty don’t be shy! We also have a bath tub on the floor that I can use to give you a bath if you would prefer a bath.” I noticed that there was a door marked ‘Bathroom’ on one side of the wall not far from the changing room. Another door was marked ‘Miss Madison – Nest Hen’ on the outside of it. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have been sure I walked into a daycare rather than a dorm room. I was honestly surprised there weren’t more toys sitting around. She looked at her watch, “Okay two other things really quick. I know many of you have your favorite stuffies here, but if you forgot one please feel free to grab one from the jungle over there,” she nodded her head towards a net of stuffed animals and dolls. “I insist everyone have a friend to sleep with!” She smiled, “I even have my favorite teddy bear that I sleep with each night too!” ‘I actually believe that…’ I thought to myself. ‘Gabby had a billion stuffed animals still…’ “Also, if you would like a binky or a night-night bottle that’s fine, but those have to stay in your bed.” “A binky? Seriously?” A blonde-haired girl asked. “We’re almost the same age! We’re not really babies you know…” “Oh Alyssa, you and I are going to have a lot of fun! It’s not mandatory at all, but I know some littles are very comforted by them. I just like to make sure everyone knows I don’t have a problem if you need one. I can always lend you a binky for the night to see if you would like one?” She smiled and I swore there was a cartoon like gleam off her white teeth just then. “No thank you Miss Madison,” she said, clearly remembering her precarious situation. “The offer is always on the table for anyone!” She said before looking around. “Real quick, I want to make sure everyone has at least heard everyone else introduce themselves! Let’s go around the circle and say who we are, what our major is, and what our favorite thing to do is.” She smiled at us and I noted that I was sitting to the left side of her and might be going first. “I’m going first,” she said and I felt a sigh of relief that I didn’t voice. “My name is Miss Madison Trestle, I’m in grad school working on my doctorate in Little Psychiatry, and my favorite thing is to hang out with all of my adorable little friends!” I wanted to gag at that and noticed another girl across the circle make a fitting face, but no one dared to say anything. “Okay, Stacy, you go next!” I sighed, “I’m Stacy Westerfield, I’m majoring in Computer Science, and I love to swim.” “I’m Laura Windsor, I’m majoring in accounting, and I love reading romance novels.” “I’m Brooke Kestler, I’m majoring in Business, and I love photography.” Brooke, at about four and a half feet tall, was one of the tallest littles in the room. Her brown hair was tied into twin pigtails tied with yellow bows. Only a head taller than me, the next shortest girl looked to be Asian, “I’m Annie Gao, I’m a math major, and I love calligraphy.” “I’m Jasmine Cook,” another of the taller of us who was African American started, “I’m a theater major, and I love making funny voices,” she said the last part in a voice that sounded eerily like Madison’s. “Cute,” Madison said verbally while I noted her eyes looked like she was thinking something entirely different. “Next?” “I’m Esther Medelsheim, I’m going to be studying Psychology, and I like painting.” Esther was a bit shorter than the girls around her, but still way taller than me. The next girl I noted had a nose piercing but looked to be of Indian heritage and I remembered that being a normal cultural tradition, “I’m Anaya Anand, and I’ll be studying Biology. I like to embroider scarves and other clothing,” she added. She looked to be just a bit taller than Laura, but shorter than most of the rest of the girls. “Chelsea Jackson, hi,” the next girl said nervously while playing with her brown hair. “I’m studying chemistry, and I like to draw.” “I am Natasha Annikova, I’ll be majoring in Art, and I like being the tallest person in the room other than Miss Madison for once!” Everyone else giggled and I figured she was still shy of four feet eight inches, but in a room of short girls she was indeed the tallest. “I’m Alyssa Drummond, I’m going to be a fashion designer, and I love makeup and all of the looks I can make with it.” The blonde-haired girl seemed to epitomize a Barbie Doll or Valley Girl personality… Somehow, I was pretty sure her makeup days were numbered with as cute as she was. “And last I’m Gemma Hamilton, I’m majoring in engineering, and I like computer games.” Gemma was short and a little stockier than the rest of the littles in the room. Placed into a family I had little doubt it would be baby fat before long for her. “Okay now that we all know who each other are; we need to come up with a name for the nest other than Miss Madison’s nest. Anyone have any ideas?” There was an awkward silence with no one speaking up, “How about Mice, Miss Madison?” Annie asked politely. I noted that she was wearing her shirt like Laura and I as a fake dress. “Hmm… What do you think about that girls?” Everyone shrugged, “It works because we’re probably the tiniest nest of littles?” Laura said. That had some giggles added to it. “Let me just check and see if anyone has claimed it yet?” She said as she got onto a tablet and smiled a moment later, “Okay my little mice, we need to go down and take our dorm picture. Everyone, grab onto the caterpillar!” I grabbed my backpack on my way to where she had the girls lining up on the rope and she asked, “Why are you taking your backpack Stacy?” “Mrs. Walters told my mommy that I would go home with her after the picture Miss Madison.” “Oh then… We’re going to have to find a way for you to spend some more time with the nest sometime this week Stacy,” she told me. “I’d like that,” I lied to her with what I hoped looked like a genuine smile. ‘Actually, I would like to hang out with some of the other girls… just not her! We were led downstairs and to the front of the building. A large set of steps led up to it and I could see many of the other nests were already lining the steps to prepare for the picture. Madison said, “Mice let’s go down there to the front since we’re the smallest!” I groaned but found myself sitting with my legs crisscrossed at the front of the picture next to Laura and Annie. “Say cheese!” a happy voice said a few minutes later and I noticed that Amanda was taking her own pictures of it with her phone too. Several minutes later Mrs. Walters called out loudly, “Okay nests, you need to get upstairs, get your jammies on, and it’s lights out at 7:30 for Freshmen, 8:00 for Sophomores and Juniors, and 8:30 for Seniors!” “Yes ma’am,” was a chorus of voices as Madison and the other Nest Mothers gathered their chicks and I reclaimed my backpack from the side where I had sat it and walked over to Amanda. “Well don’t you look cute!” she said to me as she picked me up and placed me on her side. I leaned my head onto her shoulder and said, “Always,” as I watched the other littles look at me in a mixture of horror, disgust, and… jealousy? I waived at my nest, which all waived at me and enjoyed my ride on Amanda’s side to the car. “I hope I didn’t embarrass you?” she said a little apologetically. “Mommy, with as horrible as the ‘nests’ are, I’m just glad I’m YOUR baby girl!” I told her. BACK HOME AMANDA carried me inside and I couldn’t help but feel a bit tired from the day. It was only seven-thirty though as we got home, and I certainly didn’t want to be like the other littles if I could help it! “Daddy was supposed to give Bella a bath already, if he did, I’m going to put her to bed and then I’ll give you your bath?” She asked. “I thought we had to take baths together?” I asked confused. “Since you’re our big college girl, you have a later bedtime than Bella. She’s going to be like a baby as far as potty, feeding, and bedtime is concerned.” “I really don’t get it… but maybe you can explain while I’m taking my bath?” She smiled at me and gave me a hug, “Sure sweetie. You have your tablet in your backpack? Why don’t you get on it and check tomorrow’s schedule?” “Okay,” I told her with a smile and walked over to the couch with my backpack. I scaled the mountain so to speak and sat down before pulling the backpack off my back and opening it up. My transparent tablet seemed to turn on magically as I looked at it. Even after a few days I couldn’t help but marvel again at how amazing the technology behind it really was! I glanced at the next day’s schedule quickly before pulling up the rest of my e-mails. I noted that there were e-mails from my parents, grandparents, Gabby, and several from the university including Dean Sanders and Mrs. Walters. I decided Dean Sanders was probably the most important to read first. Dear Stacy, It was a pleasure to meet you today with your mommy. I just wanted to welcome you to the university and invite you to come see me if you ever have any problems with anything. I know you’ll be missing out on some support without being on campus for help, but feel free to let me know if you ever feel the need to spend a night or two in the dorm as a sleep over for your study groups. I’m sure your mommy would go along with that and we could get a portable bed in your nest for the night. If you have any little friends, they can also go home with you overnight as long as Mrs. Walters gives her okay. Your mommy is one of our star professors and I know you will be one of our star students, Cordially, Jacqueline Sanders Dean of Little Students ‘Just who is Amanda that she gets this kind of deferential treatment?’ I wondered. I would have to look into that more, but just shrugged and opened Mrs. Walters e-mail. Stacy, It was a pleasure to meet you and your mommy today! I wanted to suggest that you meet your nest at around 4:30pm tomorrow (today if you’re reading this Tuesday like you should be!) to go to dinner and the orientation events until lights out. It’ll give you a chance to make some friends on campus. It’s not mandatory, but it would be a good thing to do so you can make some more friends! I know Miss Madison will keep a good eye on you for your mommy. She’s also more than welcome to attend with you if she would prefer to! See you soon, Mrs. Walters Wenig Hall House Mother I thought through the fact that according to the university I should be in bed, and decided to not reply to either message until the morning. As much as I didn’t want to spend any time with Madison, I guessed it wasn’t a terrible idea to go hang out with them either… As I opened my parents and grandparents’ emails, they were just quick ‘Good luck’ e-mails on the first day. Gabby’s was basically the same along with some stories about her own first day. While I was sitting there, I messed around with the tablets apps some more and remembered something I had wanted to try with it. Back home my iPad had been great for sketching on. I’d only taken one year of art in school, but I found that I loved how easy it was to sketch detailed charcoal and ink drawings on the iPad. It was something I found out I was pretty good at. I opened my backpack and found the little sized stylus that had been at the little store and then opened a drawing app on my new tablet to see if it would work. I smiled as I found it worked better than my Apple Pencil had! ‘What to draw?’ I thought for a moment before seeing a picture hanging up in the living room of Amanda and I from before the cake the other day. ‘When did they have that printed…?’ I had to wonder before deciding it was a good project. I had made pretty good progress on sketching it out when Amanda came downstairs then and asked, “Ready for your bath?” I nodded and slipped my tablet and stylus back into the backpack and held my hands out to her in the universal ‘pick me up please’ gesture. Apparently, Amanda didn’t need told twice and she scooped me up and gave me a hug. “Everything okay?” she asked as we went upstairs to the bathroom where the water was already running in the tub. I nodded while quickly letting go of a stream of urine in my diaper so I could be empty. “Just a strange day…” I told her. She nodded and helped me out of my shirt dress leaving my wet diaper exposed. “You need to get more liquids in you Stacy,” she said as she pulled it off. I looked down and noted it was pretty yellow inside. “I’ll try and remember to drink the bottle of water you have in there for me tomorrow,” I told her, “but I didn’t really have a lot of downtime to drink anything after dinner?” She squeezed me, “we’ll figure it out,” she told me as she lifted me and placed me in the fairly filled tub with lots of bubbles. “So, what’s the schedule for tomorrow?” “Well at nine in the morning they have some tours and buses to show everyone around the city… I figure that’s not really needed?” She shook her head, “No, you can skip that one. I doubt they let many littles even go on that one unless it’s to tour all of the daycare and adoption centers…” I tensed but nodded, “Sounds about right,” I said softly while thinking of the girls I had been with a while ago and imagining each of them with a mother like Cassie or Chloe. I shook my head and said, “There’s a university welcome ceremony at eleven that looks like it’s the last parent and student event. Then there’s the programming placement exam at two.” “You’ll be fine on that by the way sweetie,” she said as she moved a mitt up and down my back. I shrugged, “Even if I’m not, I’m okay with it, that’s why I came here!” “Anything else tomorrow?” “Well Mrs. Walters sent me an e-mail asking for me to go to the dorm about 4:30 to go hang out with my nest, go to dinner, and then do the orientation events until it’s bedtime for the littles?” “Do you want to?” She asked, “Lean forward a bit baby,” she said as she cleaned my rear. I blushed as I didn’t think that would ever feel normal… “I guess?” I said, “I’m a little worried about spending too much time around Madison though.” “Did she do anything to you earlier?” Amanda asked with some steel in her voice. “She insisted on helping me get dressed…” “Not surprised there…” “And checked my diaper by squeezing it like you do…” “Normal?” “Then she put her finger inside the diaper to make sure it was dry…” “That little bitch!” Amanda said then and as I turned, I saw the face of a really angry momma bear. “I know… What did she do to everyone else though?” I asked sadly. Amanda quietly washed my hair then before saying, “Unfortunately she’s now assigned as your Nest Hen and is one of the people you can’t refuse changing you… And I don’t think I’ll get anywhere with an abuse case this time. If she does it again, I want you to say these exact words, ‘My Mommy said she’s the only one who can touch me like that. Please just wipe me with a wipe and change my diapee.’” She paused and I let it sink in, “If she continues then you have a good case to file an abuse claim and she’ll know that.” I nodded, “Okay…” paused then said, “I guess I do want to go to that event just so I can make some friends. Maybe even after they’re adopted?” She nodded, “You do need friends dear.” “I wish I could go to the Casino night event at 8pm so I could maybe hang out with Mia or something…” “They’d find some way to give you some demerits if you did,” Amanda told me, “best to pretend I’m making you go to bed like every other freshman little at 7:30. In fact make sure you don’t send any e-mails or anything after that either?” I nodded, “I’d already thought about that and didn’t respond to either Mrs. Walters or Dean Sanders.” “Dean Sanders e-mailed you?” By then I was just sitting in the tub as she sat back and looked at me. I filled her in on what the e-mails had said. It was probably time for me to get out, but I said, “Mommy?” “Yes Princess?” “So, what’s going on with Bella? You said you would explain it to me in the bath…?” I looked up where Amanda knelt closer to the tub. Her face was definitely clouded with a mixture of concern and embarrassment as she sighed, “I did, didn’t I?” she pushed a hair out of her face with a wet hand and said, “I wish I understood what I was doing myself here.” She seemed to think for a moment before unplugging the tub and wrapping me in a towel, “Let’s get a diaper on you and we’ll go sit in the rocker downstairs and I’ll try and explain.” I was dried quickly, wrapped in a towel with my hair wrapped in what was probably a washcloth for her, before carrying me to the nursery where I could hear Bella softly snoring in our crib. Amanda just grabbed a diaper and a onesie really quick before leaving back downstairs. I was laid down on a changing pad she had downstairs and quickly diapered, dressed in the onesie, and then she grabbed a comb and a brush and sat down with me in rocker. “So, Bella?” I asked again as she began combing through my hair. “Daddy and Grandpa saw some more signs of that group we ran into when they were getting her stuff earlier. When my dad got to her apartment, he kept everyone out for a few minutes, and ran some scanning equipment. He found the whole place had been wired for video and sound. Once he disabled it all, they began loading her stuff up. Not long afterwards a lady claiming to be from Little Protective Services went up to Daddy flashed a badge. She claimed she was investigating a case of a neglected little and asked what they were doing…” Chapter 3: Lifestyles MY EYES GREW wide with the information that LPS was investigating already. “What happened?” “Fred had just sat Bella down in a playpen with a bottle of juice and a fresh diaper. I guess she pushed her way through the door to look around for a few minutes before coming back to talk to him. She had to admit it looked like they were doing a good job of cleaning up the littles mess and she seemed to be well cared for now. Some of her comments alluded that if she was discovered not being a good baby girl for her new parents, that maybe someone else could better help her …” “That’s horrible…” I breathed. “But… how far do they expect you to go?” I asked nervously. “Well that’s the thing… we’d already talked to Bella about something like this happening. That’s when she told us last night just to go ahead and treat her like a baby with most things. Height wise she’s a little shorter than a two-year-old, but she’s so skinny the younger infant clothes fit her better. She asked for us just to treat her like she’s about eighteen months old as far as the potty, eating, sleeping, and everything else.” “You’re not going to…” “We don’t have to do anything else Stacy. She’s old enough at that age that she can crawl, walk, or run. She can feed herself finger foods and eat solid foods, but she’s still young enough that nursing and using her baba and pacifier are considered normal.” “What about doing stuff like getting on the computer or playing with things other than dolls? Her sewing?” “With an adult supervising we’ll let her do some of those. The sewing is going to wait for a couple months until we’re sure LPS is going to leave well enough alone though.” “And me?” “What about you?” “What about LPS and me?” “Oh, silly girl, you’re fine. You’re a well-adjusted little who as far as they’re concerned knows her place is in her diapees, but is too smart not to go to school.” I nodded, “It’s not fair though that I get to do some things she can’t?” “Like?” “Like she’s already in bed by eight?” “Remember you have those nanites Stacy – Bella’s a normal little. Normal littles, even the ones who are independent, rarely stay up past nine! Remember we have our longer days here. Bella has gone to bed around eight for her whole life. It’s not like it’s a punishment.” I looked at the clock and saw it was nine-thirty, “So do I have a bed time?” “Well I’d definitely say before your Mommy and Daddy!” “Obviously… kind of hard to get into my crib by myself!” “Exactly! So probably no later than eleven on most weeknights?” I nodded, “Okay, I guess I can live with that.” Amanda kept stroking through my hair until it was dry enough that she could loosely braid it. “Umm Mommy? When am I going to be able to get my hair done?” “I have an appointment for you and your sister at nine tomorrow?” “That soon?” I asked suddenly a bit nervous. “I figured tomorrow was the best time with the tours going on?” I nodded, “What are we doing with it?” “I thought maybe you could just have the length evened up to just above your shoulders, and we’ll get it curled under?” She suggested, “Probably also have them cut bangs into your hair?” I nodded knowing that could be way worse, “So I can still have a ponytail or pigtails?” She smiled at me and hugged me, “Yep!” “What about Bella?” “We’re going to get hers done into a short bob,” she told me, “it’s a pretty normal looking cut for a little her size to have,” she added. “How long will you have to treat her like this?” I asked going back to our earlier conversation. She squeezed me in a hug and whispered, “only as long as we have to, and she wants to continue with it. If she decides she really wants to be done with it at some point, I’ll let you make contact with some people to get her free.” I smiled back at her and returned the hug. “Now, I spoke with a few colleagues about your placement test for tomorrow since I’ve never really paid much attention to it. They said you can choose which language you want to use as long as it’s something they have a compiler for.” “Okay… You know which ones I understand – which should I use?” “I think if you base your answers off what you called C#, that would be best?” She said and I nodded, “It’s not exactly the same with some of the higher order language functions of what’s current here, but it’s close enough that whatever you code should compile.” “Okay… what’s different about the newer version you all use?” I asked thinking back to our earlier conversation where it had been apparent that they seemed to have had all of our languages decades earlier than we did. “Most of the differences have to do with some of the AI Cognitive Mapping functions that we’re using in my studies…” We had a totally nerdy conversation as she told me about some of the things she was working on. It turns out that AI and the nanites were her primary focus. Her studies were based in the hopes of making it possible to remotely start civilizations on other planets with pre-built habitat domes. It was something straight out of science fiction, but sounded really cool! She’d also been involved at low levels with the coding foundations for Tessa, but wasn’t directly hands on with the project anymore so she didn’t know how far she had come along until last week. When all was said and done it was ten-thirty when Fred peaked his head in and said he was going to bed. As he left Amanda asked, “You want a bottle before bed?” “I’d rather nurse,” I said sadly. “Well you didn’t have any poopy accidents today? Let’s let your body clear until this weekend and we’ll try to go back to nights?” I nodded and sat comfortably on her hip as she filled a bottle with regular milk and some honey, heated it up, then sat down with me and fed the bottle to me while she hummed a lullaby to send me off to sleep. I WOKE UP the next morning to the flash of a camera. I blinked and came to the slow realization that I was being held. As I became more aware, I realized that I was serving as a teddy bear for Bella who hadn’t apparently become aware of the attention yet. I looked up at Amanda and said, “Do you have to take pictures all of the time?” “No, just when there’s an adorable moment,” Amanda said smiling down at me. “What…?” I heard behind me as Bella stirred. “Let me sleep in…” “I need you to let your sister go Bella, she has to get ready for her day and so do you!” Amanda said as she reached down and lightly tickled Bella’s side. “Stop it!” she whined while I made my escape. I noticed that I really needed to pee and let it go into the dry diaper while Amanda picked me up. She felt my diaper warming and asked, “needed to go huh?” “Wish I would just go in my sleep and not think about it,” I admitted to her. She squeezed me and said, “can you wait until after breakfast for a change?” I thought about it for a second, then nodded, “Yeah.” Fred came in right then and she passed me to him, “Would you get Stacy going with breakfast? I made some oatmeal and cut up some fruit for her that’s on the table.” “Sure sweetie,” he told her as he took me and gave me a gentle squeeze. As he carried me out the door, I watched Amanda pick Bella up and moved towards the rocking chair to nurse her. I sighed heavily as he carried me downstairs, “Are you sure you don’t want to just avoid her milk forever Stacy?” He asked as we made it to the bottom step, “I think you might never kick the habit if you start again?” I shook my head, “Pretty sure… but you’re right, it’s an addiction. Every time I see Bella nursing, see Aman… Mommy pumping, or another little feeding from their mommy… it causes this huge craving!” “Is it getting easier?” He asked as he gently sat me down in the highchair and began buckling the harness. I thought for a second and shook my head, “Not really…” “Hmm… I wonder if there’s something you missed with the nanites? Most littles who escape from their ‘parents’ seem to be able to move on with life without that problem?” he asked as he velcroed a bib onto my neck. I shrugged, “I don’t know?” and then added, “How active are the nanites still?” “That would be a Mommy question Stacy, but I think they are at least present still. Even if they are deactivated, I’m pretty sure they don’t leave your body completely.” He put the tray on the highchair, before placing the oatmeal, fruit, and coffee in front of me. The spoon sat in the oatmeal and I drank a large gulp of coffee before beginning to carefully eat. I could feel the cloth padding of the cover of the seat on my legs since the onesie I was wearing only covered my diaper. ‘Oatmeal with Amanda’s milk is a lot better than this…’ I whined in my mind as I took each bite, but kept eating it a spoonful at a time, alternating it with the fruit to help with the taste. Fred read something on a tablet as I ate, so it was quiet enough for me to just think. ‘The nanites… I wonder if they can be programmed still?’ The thought of being able to maybe do something about the side effects of her milk and who knows what else was intriguing. I thought back to the code from the lab and remembered I had managed to get a copy of it onto my own computer. ‘Maybe I can hack my own nanites?’ I thought with a bit of a grin. “All done?” Amanda interrupted my thoughts as she deposited a sleepy Bella into her highchair. She was dressed in a frilly pink bodysuit outfit with a skirt that hung well above the bottom of the crotch that was snaped shut. The result was that it easily showed off her pink princess diaper to the sides of the flap. Her long hair was pulled back into a simple ponytail that descended half-way down her back - which made sense with us getting a haircut. I gulped the last bit of coffee and nodded, “I guess so.” “Let’s get you changed then and dressed so we can get going,” she pronounced as she came over to me, pulled the tray off, unbuckled me, and picked me up. “Do you need to use your potty?” she asked. I thought for a second and shook my head, “not right now?” “You sure?” I nodded, “we’ll be able to come home before going to the university later?” “Yes, we’ll have to drop off your baby sister,” she told me. I just shook my head at the absurdity of having an older adult, over a foot and half taller than me, being called my baby sister! Upstairs she pulled my wet diaper off and wiped me before asking, “What kind of diaper do you want sweetie?” “Just a regular Pamper?” I asked, “I don’t need anything thicker… right?” She shook her head, “No, but I just wanted to make sure you didn’t want a thinner one?” I shrugged, “All the girls last night saw my diaper and I made no attempt to hide I’m not using the potty. Madison was talking about their Potty with them when one of the girls tried to pick on me.” “What did she do?” Amanda seemed more than a little bit upset about me being picked on. “It wasn’t anything big, she just wanted to know why I didn’t have a potty chart…” “You said?” “Well actually Madison did ask me then if I needed one… I told her my mommy keeps me in diapers so a potty chart would be kind of pointless…” Amanda laughed then, “Okay, you handled that well at least.” I nodded and Amanda and I chatted as she dressed me in my uniform. As she finished, she handed me a dark green leather lanyard wallet that my student ID was now in and visible. “When did you buy this?” “Yesterday while you were in your little seminar,” she said as she quickly pulled my hair out of the braid that she done night before. She let it just hang loose around my head. “I can’t wait to have this styled so I can do more with it!” she told me with a smile. I shrugged, “Just as long as it’s not too short!” “Don’t worry Stacy, I want to have at least one daughter that I can play with her hair!” ‘One daughter?’ I thought to myself before remembering the plans for shortening Bella’s hair to a short bob. It was sad given how pretty her long hair was! Soon enough both of us were strapped into our car seats with pacifiers in our mouths, and on the road to whatever salon she had chosen. Oddly to me the video screen she had strapped to the seat came to life and a cartoon began showing. “Umm… Mommy? Is this safe?” I asked nervously. “Yes Stacy, it’s a regular Amazon cartoon with no messages. I did a lot of digging to make sure it was safe…” “Okay…” I said and found myself watching a cartoon that was a cross between Dora the Explorer and a Disney Princess cartoon. I decided that it had some decent production value to it, almost like an anime back home. We were almost done with the episode just hitting a cliffhanger when Amanda stopped the car and the video turned off. “Mommy!” Bella whined, “It was just at the best part!” Amanda giggled as she came around and unbuckled me first, “It’s okay, it’ll be there when we leave. Let’s go get my two princesses pretty though!” To my surprise she pulled the pacifier I’d forgotten from my mouth, and left it in the car seat while she sat me down on the ground. I followed at a close distance behind her while she went to the other side to grab Bella. While she was gathering her up, I looked at the strip mall salon and saw it was named, ‘Little Styles for Big Lives.’ “Come on Princess,” Amanda called to me when she had our diaper bag over one shoulder and carried Bella on her other hip. ‘Why isn’t she carrying me?’ I wondered a little as I ran after her, taking four steps for every one of Amanda’s trying to keep up with her long legs! ‘I wonder what it’s going to be like to go for a girl’s haircut?’ As she pushed the door open a happy electronic chime sounded. “Welcome to Little Styles!” A plump amazon woman said as we walked in. “I have an appointment for my two little girls?” Amanda told her. “Absolutely, what’s the last name?” “Westerfield.” “Got you right here! We should have both of your stylists ready to go here in a couple minutes. Why don’t you wait over there and we’ll call you back in a sec? I’ll make sure they put your two princesses in adjoining chairs!” “Thanks!” Amanda said and carried us over to some chairs next to your typical waiting area where small children were involved. A lot of baby toys sat inside a fenced play area, while magazines covered a table in front of some chairs. Amanda sat down with Bella still in her arms and I climbed into the chair next to her. ‘This is weird…’ I thought to myself. ‘Why is she making me walk and basically ignoring babying me?’ There was no doubt I was feeling jealous of Bella getting to get carried. As we sat down Bella was given a bottle in exchange for her pacifier and I just had to sit there hoping I wouldn’t go stir crazy. Amanda surprised me by handing me my phone, which made me smile. I began looking around my apps and e-mail. ‘I should reply to Dean Sanders and Mrs. Walters,’ and began quick, but professional sounding, replies to both of them thanking Dean Sanders and letting Mrs. Walters know I would be coming as suggested. I had just hit send on my e-mail to Mrs. Walters when I heard, “Westerfield?” A tall Amazon woman and a much shorter in-betweener man stood by the desk waiting for us. I hopped down while Amanda pulled Bella’s bottle from her mouth, replaced it with her pacifier, and followed them back. “I’ll take care of your little one,” the Amazon woman said, and I expected her to take me, but instead she took Bella and sat her in a weird stylist chair that had a harness and spots to tie down your arms and legs. “And I’ll work on you sweetie,” the betweener said, “I’m Alex,” with a very effeminate voice. ‘Talk about living down to your stereotypes,’ I nearly giggled, but appreciated someone slightly closer to my size. He directed me to a chair that was next to the other booth. This one seemed to be more like a regular salon chair back home. It was probably sized for a little, but I was so small that I was still a bit small for it, but other than that it seemed to be a normal chair. “I’m Stacy,” I told him after a moment when I had climbed up. “And who’s this?” The woman asked in a sickly baby talk voice. “Bella,” she said softly around the pacifier. “You must have just found a new home, huh?” She asked. Bella nodded nervously. “Well mommy what are we doing with her hair today?” the Amazon woman asked Amanda. “I thought she would be adorable with a short bob? Maybe just a bit below her ears so it’s not so easy to get in her din-din?” “Easier to clean and take care of too?” The woman looked for a moment before nodding, “It’ll be a great look for her. Anything else you want? I can do a perm?” “Nah, the Shirley Temple days are long gone, I’m not a fan of curly hair.” “I can understand that, it’s a pain to maintain too,” the woman replied. “Now do we need the arm and leg straps? You just got her right?” “You can go without those; Bella is a pretty good girl and the harness should be enough.” “We’ll see, huh?” the lady said before getting to work. The betweener then asked, “Ma’am, what are we doing on your big girl today?” “She can tell you,” Amanda said. I must have looked like a deer in the headlights then, but I said softly, “Can you even it up to my shoulders to where I can curl it under? Then cut my bangs? I still want to be able to put it in a ponytail or pigtails?” “How about some layering?” He asked me as he studied my hair. I shrugged, “Sure.” “Okay, with you Mom?” He asked Amanda. “Sounds perfect to me,” she said in reply and settled down in a chair across from us. My first ever experience in a salon was definitely a new one for me. Alex washed my hair before beginning to snip with his scissors and I had to fight from crying at all of the hair that was falling everywhere. I tried to stay calm though because Bella certainly wasn’t so calm next to me. “Oww…” she cried at one point and I hoped she was okay. Sobs were definitely coming from around her pacifier from what I could tell. “It’s okay Baby,” Amanda cooed at one point. I eventually felt like I really needed to go pee and let it out into my diaper without even thinking much about it. After a while longer I really began to feel the need to go the other way too, but fought to hold it in. ‘Pooping in this chair seems more than slightly embarrassing…’ Just as Alex was finishing with my hair and turned me towards a mirror a small fart probably gave away my need to go to Amanda. “What do you think Princess?” I looked at my face and turned my head back and forth a bit. The haircut was really cute on the little girl in the mirror! The fact that I was that little girl was still a bit of a shock - but I definitely liked it! With the haircut and my uniform, I looked to actually be about eight to ten years old. Well… at least if size was taken out of the picture at least! I smiled, “Thank you, I love it!” “What do you think Mom?” he asked as I saw Amanda stand up now holding a Bella with shockingly shorter hair. Whereas my haircut added to my age, hers made her look like a young toddler. “She’s beautiful, just like my big princess!” she smiled and kissed my head. “We’ll have to get her nails done next time we come in…” “Our nail tech is great actually, and all of the nail polish is kid safe! We do that so if she sucks her thumb still there’s no worry about what she’s eating,” the Amazon that had cut Bella’s hair said. ‘Great…’ I mumbled to myself, knowing I had sucked my thumb on numerous occasions to deal with someone like that. “Let’s go pay, then we’ll go home and show Daddy!” I reached the ground with help from Alex who I turned around and said, “Thank you for treating me like a big girl today.” He smiled widely at me and leaned down to whisper, “That’s why I’m here honey, the big girls get me! Just make sure your mom asks for me in the future, kay?” I smiled and gave him a hug before following Amanda to the front. Just after she paid and I began waiting for her at the car to put me in my car seat the urge to poop came back stronger. ‘Come on, you can hold it…’ I screamed at myself as the car began moving again. I distracted myself with the video that came back on, but there wasn’t much else there to try and forget what was going on. As soon as she parked in the garage I asked, “Mommy, can you please hurry I need to go potty bad!” “Just a moment Stacy,” she told me calmly as she came around to my door, picked me up gently, opened the kitchen door and sat me down. I hurried to the potty and pulled my skirt up, let the wet diaper plop down beneath me, and hurriedly sat down on the potty just in time for a mess that I was glad hadn’t gone into my diaper! “What a big girl you are!” Amanda cooed at me as she came inside with Bella in her arms. She carried her straight to the playpen and sat her down. “Bella I’m going to be right back,” she told her and came over to where I was sitting with the wet diaper in front of me and still on the potty. “Lean forward baby so I can wipe you,” she told me. A moment later, “what did you eat yesterday? This is icky…” I thought back and said, “I had that bottle of regular milk last night?” She nodded, “Maybe…” Once I was cleaned up, she handed me another Pamper and said, “put this on while I go clean out your potty. I think Daddy’s upstairs in your nursery if you want to go show him your new haircut then?” “Can I wash my hands first?” “Sure sweetie, just let me go clean this out. This is worse than normal…” I peeked in as I stood up and agreed. The watery stool was particularly putrid for some reason, but I was proud to have held it for what must have been a solid hour! I leaned against the cabinets and put on the fresh diaper just as she collected the wet diaper in a ball and tossed it in a new diaper genie that I hadn’t seen before. “When did you get that?” I asked as she picked me up to wash my hands in the sink. “Yesterday your Daddy made a trip to the store with Bella to pick up a few more things. With two of you in diapers in the house it seemed like a good idea to have one downstairs too.” I nodded as she sat me down and asked, “Mommy may I have my phone back so I can take a selfie of my new hair?” She laughed, “Teenage girls are all alike!” She produced it and I ran upstairs to show Fred and find the mirror in my room. I just caught her picking up Bella and saying, “Let’s have a snack and then I want you to take a nap for your Daddy before lunch…” ‘This must be what it feels like to be a big sister normally… I hate how jealous I am that she’s getting all of the attention from Amanda… and all of her milk!’ Upstairs I found Fred assembling a pink bed in the nursery. It took me a second before my brain stopped and I said, “Daddy, why are you putting a big girl’s bed in here?” “Well Stacy, we needed to get another bed for Bella. But your mommy and I decided we’d surprise you with a big girls princess bed since you’re the older sister!” I felt my mouth drop a bit as I realized that a toddler’s bed had ironically become a big step up for me! Of course, the bed was ridiculously pink and cute. It was obviously meant to be a bed fit for a ‘princess,’ featuring tall bed posts topped with crowns and flowery painted details that were so sickeningly sweet I knew every mom in the world would awe over. I ran over to him and hugged him, “Thank you Daddy,” I told him. “You’re very welcome Stacy. Now Mommy will talk to you about the rules of a big girl’s bed later, but why don’t you try it out really quick?” He smiled at me. I kicked off my shoes and hopped onto the exposed mattress of my new bed with a smile on my face. No longer being contained by bars every night was something I could really appreciate! There was still a railing along half of the bed to keep a baby from rolling out of bed, but other than that it was pretty nice. The mattress even felt like it was nice and firm like I liked! Amanda came in then without Bella and said, “Do you like your new bed?” I jumped off the bed and ran over to her and said, “Thank you Mommy!” As she picked me up and hugged me, I asked, “Why Mommy?” “You’re a big college girl Stacy, you should be in a big girl’s bed…” She sounded sad about it. “As much as I want to baby you all of the time it’s not necessarily the smartest choice if you have to get by…” “We also want to offer you the option of pull-ups at home if you want them,” Fred added. I shook my head, “There are no potties small enough for me at school, so I’ll just keep my Pampers if that’s okay?” “Sure sweetheart,” Amanda said. “Don’t you two need to get to the luncheon?” “Oh, yes we do,” Amanda said and checked my diaper before saying, “Oh, Daddy what did you think about Princess Stacy’s new haircut?” “It’s very pretty, just like her,” he replied as he came and hugged us both and kissed me on the forehead and her on the lips. “Have a good time Stacy,” he said. “Thanks Daddy,” I told him. “Bella is taking a nap after her snack honey. She had a hard time dealing with the haircut earlier…” she added. Fred looked pained but said, “Okay, I’ll check on her in a bit. I just have a few more things to do in here for Stacy. We might go out shopping for a few more things later… Or, go to the park or something.” “Okay, Dear,” she told him before walking downstairs with me and setting me down so I could grab my backpack and see that Bella was indeed out like a light bulb. ‘Poor Bella,’ I couldn’t help but think while remaining supremely confused about my own status. Other than helping me into the car seat I didn’t feel like Amanda treated me at all like a baby as we traveled to the university. ‘Why does that bother me…?’ I wondered. ‘Do I like being babied?’ As much as I hated to admit it, I decided the answer was ‘yes, yes I do.’ I didn’t want to be one of Cassie or Chloe’s abused littles, but the loving treatment Amanda was giving Bella was making me completely jealous. ‘I know she talked about having to have me grow up… but I guess I wasn’t expecting her to really do that.’ Apparently, my thumb found my mouth on the way because Amanda said, “You want to lose that tasty thumb before others see you?” I blushed but pulled it out and let her wipe it off with a baby wipe she held in her hand. After discreetly tossing that into a trash bag hanging from the seat, she picked me up and sat me down on the ground. “So, this is supposed to be the last time we’re supposed to see you until Labor Day,” she teased me. “I guess I’m not going to get that lucky, huh?” I teased her back. I walked alongside her having left my backpack in the car since I didn’t need it yet. The luncheon was apparently in a location called Venture Commons. I discovered that it was a huge indoor athletic facility with plenty of space for tables of all of the new students and their parents. I could see as we walked in that each table was covered with an elegant place setting. “Professor Westerfield!” a voice greeted us as we approached the front of the line. “President Nitsche!” Amanda replied happily with a smile at the voice. I looked to see a very large man with graying hair and a nice suit on. Amanda stopped next to where he was standing by the ropes of the line. “What brings our distinguished professor to an opening undergrad event?” “My daughter, Stacy,” she said with a smile and patted my head. I decided to go for broke and try a curtsy, “Pleased to meet you sir.” “Aren’t you adorable?” He said with a smile, “Nice to meet you too!” He looked at Amanda, “I had totally forgot about your little exchange student. Surely this can’t be her?” he seemed surprised, “I thought she’d be larger?” “So, did I,” I said with a smirk. I became a bit self-conscious though when I realized a number of students and parents were staring at our conversation. “Something either about a second trip through the gate or something… we’re not really sure what happened to her,” Amanda told him, “but she’s every bit as intelligent as we hoped she’d be.” “That’s great! It’s definitely unusual to let a little live off campus… or even accept an adopted little to the university, but you do have an unconventional way about you my dear.” Amanda smiled at him before he said, “It’s nice to meet you Stacy, please let me know if you ever need anything ladies, I know you’ll want to eat something soon!” As we traveled down the remaining distance the stares continued and I wondered just what I didn’t know! At the front of the line attendants were seating the students and families as they came in. “One adult and a highchair?” ours asked. “No, two chairs please, but a booster seat would be helpful?” Amanda asked. “We can do that,” the lady said and directed us to follow her to a table. When we arrived, I couldn’t help but get a sinking feeling as out of the eight chairs, a family was taking up four of them. A mother, a tall amazon college daughter, and two highchair bound little girls sat across from Amanda and I. Their little girls were sandwiched between the mother and her daughter. Amanda possessively sat between their mother and I. A moment later we were joined by a geeky looking, but tall amazon boy and his mother. As I was helped by Amanda into the booster seat the ‘mother’ of the littles helpfully said, “They do have high chairs available if you ask for them.” “That’s okay, my daughter will be fine in a booster. It’s just a matter of helping her reach the table,” she said with a smile at the woman. “To each their own,” the woman said snippily. With that I had a moment to stare at the two little girls. She clearly had some treatments to them as they both had babyish smiles practically plastered on their faces. Drool dripped from their mouths to their bibs, and both alternated holding and gnawing on, teething toys that were pointless with their teeth removed. One started to fuss a little and the mother said, “Phoebe here’s a jar of food for Fifi, would you spoon feed it to her?” “Yes Mom, I’ll feed the rugrat.” She looked at the jar and said, “Mom, really, you’re making me feed her carrots again? I have things to go to later and I’m going to be a mess because she hates them...” “She loves carrots,” her mom said condescendingly. “Just do it.” “Rugrat you’d better not spit this up all over me,” the girl warned severely to her sister who began whimpering. “Be nice Phoebe, you won’t see your sisters for four months while you’re here at school…” “Hi, I’m Jackson,” the boy next to me said suddenly. I looked up at the tall boy and said, “I’m Stacy, nice to meet you!” “I see you have a uniform on? You’re a student?” “Yep!” I smiled, “I know I’m short, but I can’t wait to start classes here!” “What are you going to study? I’m studying Computer Science?” “Me too!” I said with a smile. “Hi, I’m her mother Doctor Westerfield,” Amanda said to him. I watched his eyes go like bug crazy for a moment and really began to wonder just who she was. “The professor of AI studies?” “That’s me,” Amanda said. “I’m Janice, his mother,” the lady next to him said. “You’re really bringing a little that cute to the university?” Phoebe’s mom asked suddenly interrupting after spooning a mouthful of peas to the little closest to her. “She’ll be adopted before she graduates and can use her degree.” I smiled at her and said, “Actually I’m already adopted ma’am, so while you’re right, you’re also incorrect.” The lady snarled at me, “Be quiet! Baby girls should be seen and not heard.” Chapter 4: Dangerous Enemies “THE WORLD VIEW of a dinosaur Mom,” Phoebe said, “Please shut up so you don’t embarrass us anymore?” “Young lady!” her mom said. “I don’t have to put up with this anymore Mom. Yes, I agree that littles are cute! But before you brainwashed, modified, and otherwise enslaved these two women they were fairly bright adults living just fine on their own. Some littles are more than capable of taking care of themselves and doing things. Leave it alone.” My opinion of Phoebe went way up then! “You…!” Thankfully before her mom could speak anymore, a man stood up at the podium and introduced himself. “I’m Doctor Donald Machnar, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and it’s my distinct pleasure to welcome all of our new students and their parents to this traditional event…” An exceptionally long, at least to me, procession of speakers came up to greet everyone. President Nitshce was the final speaker, and finally at the end of his speech he said, “And now for what you really came here for, lunch! From what I understand they want this side of the room to start and we’ll move towards the other direction…” For once in my life I was shocked to see I was sitting in the lucky side that got to start! I wasted little time in scrambling off the seat and joining Amanda in a line at a large buffet. I knew Emerson was an expensive private university, but I was truly shocked that they had huge crab legs, steak, and sides for everyone at the buffet! My expensive looking plastic fake china plate was heavy by the time I finished going through the line with Amanda and went back to the table. She sat the plate on the table for me and helped me back into my seat. The offensive mother was sitting there openly breastfeeding one of the littles then. I definitely wasn’t jealous this time though; her personality was terrible and I couldn’t imagine nursing milk from a witch like that! She glared at my plate of real food, and I saw the first signs of anything being left in ‘Fifi’s’ eyes as she looked enviously at the crab. I looked guiltily back down to the plate, even though there was nothing that I could do for her, I felt bad for eating real food in front of her. To my right Jackson soon rejoined us and in between bites he began asking me about myself. “Well… I’m actually from the other dimension?” I told him. “I came here so I could study here since Emerson is so far ahead of our dimension.” “That is awesome! I’ve heard that… Although I once got to try a video game from your dimension and it was so much better than ours…” “Which one?” “Grand Theft Auto…” he said quietly to me. I laughed, “Great game… I didn’t bring it with me. I did bring some other games and systems though.” “Seriously?” He asked excitedly. “Any chance I could come over and try them sometime?” Amanda made a noise and he looked sheepish, “With your mom’s permission of course…” She giggled then so he knew she wasn’t really upset. “Classes have to come first. If Stacy and you are both maintaining a 3.5 or better at midterms, I’ll let her have you over for a gaming session.” “You just don’t want to share,” I said to her with my tongue out. He laughed then as she nodded and agreed, “No, I don’t.” Phoebe looked pretty miserable when she returned with a plate of food for herself and her mom who had by then switched to Fifi on her other breast. “You know you could help out here,” her mom told her. “I know how many pads you go through a day.” “Mother…” poor Phoebe hissed as her face turned red. “I’m just saying, it’s a waste of good milk…” “That’s it, I’ll see you at Christmas!” Phoebe said to her mother as she stood up. She looked at us apologetically, “Sorry to disturb your lunch, hopefully we’ll have a more pleasant meeting sometime. Stacy?” She said, “Not all of us share my mother’s beliefs and I hope we get to have a class together sometime and talk!” She turned her back and walked away as her mother pulled the little girl from her breast, and began chasing her with both littles in her hands as best she could without really pulling her shirt up properly. “She was a piece of work…” Jackson’s mother said. Amanda just nodded and we sort of tried to ignore what had just happened! When all four of us had finished lunch, we excused ourselves and left the center. It was a bit after noon, and I had a while to kill before the exam. “I’m guessing you need a diaper change?” Amanda asked me softly when we were away. I realized I hadn’t gone yet and nodded as I released my bladder into my diaper. “Yeah… stop by a bathroom somewhere?” “Could go to the university bookstore and look around there?” Amanda suggested, “There’ll be a bathroom there you can change your diaper in.” “You’re not going to?” “You need to get used to it,” she told me with kind of a pained expression. I ended up nodding, “I guess. Let’s stop by the car and grab my backpack?” A plan made, we walked to the lot she had parked. Amanda took a moment to make sure I had a few spare diapers in the bag before we left the car. When she was done, I slung it on my shoulders and walked holding her hand to the student union. She led me to a downstairs bathroom just inside and pushed me to go into a stall while she went in another next to me. I was really weirded out with the change in her behavior, but shook it off and pulled a clean diaper and my wipes from the backpack. Holding my skirt up carefully I pulled the tapes off of the diaper and let it lay on the floor while I wiped myself quickly and methodically and dropped the used wipes in used diaper. Now clean, I grabbed the new diaper and used the stall wall to help me put the new one on, pulled my skirt back down over my new diaper, balled up the old diaper, and zipped up my backpack and put it on. As I walked out of the stall I thought, ‘that feels the most grown up thing I’ve done in weeks?’ As I tried to reach up to throw the used diaper away, I couldn’t help but think, ‘It’s so much easier to have Amanda change me though…’ I had just managed to toss it in when Amanda came out of her stall and pointed out a stepstool to help me wash my hands on a lower handicap accessible sink. I managed to get soap and wash my hands by myself on my own too… and it felt weird! “Good girl,” she said as she gave me a hug and led me out the door. “Shall we see if we can find sort of Emerson clothes for you here?” “Sure!” I said with a smile knowing that in my size everything would probably be as babyish as it could get. Sure enough, wandering the clothes it became apparent that not much was available in little sizes. What was available was expensive and awful! “Let’s look at the baby sizes,” Amanda whispered. I nodded as I figured that would be inevitable. In one corner we found several racks of onesies and a rack of dresses looked like they would fit me. A couple of the onesies looked cute and I pointed out a pink and purple set to Amanda, “Mommy, how about those?” She saw the ones I was looking at and looked at the sizes. “They only have them in your size, not your sisters…” “I was talking about for me…” I whined a little. “Oh…” she said and I wondered what switch had flipped in her brain that she wasn’t thinking of me for them! “I guess we could get one of these for you. You want one of these dresses too?” she held up a green polo t-shirt dress that had an E monogrammed on it. It looked about as mature as a dress for a three-month old could get, and I nodded. “Sure!” With that she walked around and grabbed a few more things including a couple sippy cups and bottles that were branded with Emerson. “I think your sister would like these,” she said to me with a smile about the bottles and a couple bibs. In another area I found a large yellow floppy hat that looked cute with my uniform. With a smile Amanda added it to the pile. As we checked out the Amazon at the checkout reminded her, “You know you can’t adopt her with her ID there, right?” “I know, the baby stuff is for her sister.” “Sister?” “Already adopted,” I said to the girl with a smile. She looked confused but just finished checking Amanda out. As we left the store she said, “Hopefully you can get a chance to wear a couple of those outfits on the weekends at least. You will look so adorable in them!” “Don’t I have to wear the uniform all of the time like the other littles?” I asked. “If you’re in a cute outfit with me, your dad, or other adults you’ll be fine,” she reminded me. “No one is going to try and take you directly from us…” Just as she finished that thought, time slowed to a crawl as I watched Amanda fall down! It took me a moment to realize it was because someone shoved her! I turned to look at what happened, but meanwhile a woman walking next to us with an empty stroller suddenly reached down to grab me! I noticed only at the last second, and jumped and tumbled away from the woman! At the same time I began screaming, “What are you doing?!?” I stared at the woman for a moment as she seemed confused that I had avoided her. “Get over here baby!” she hissed at me as she began walking towards where I stood. Just as her hand reached out to grab me again, I dodged around the other side of the stroller she had let go of. She snarled a moment before turning the handles of the stroller to try and knock me down with it! I quickly dodged back again, and just missed the wheels hitting me! As I jumped back my hair lagged behind me, and I felt her grab on to some strands. I felt the pluck of some pulled hairs, but luckily, she’d missed the majority of my hair and I kept moving away leaving a small amount of my hair in her hand. I ducked underneath a nearby table to try and get some distance between us. Turning for a just a moment I saw her accomplice was keeping an eye on us. It was a massive mistake on his part though, because Amanda swept his legs from underneath him and I heard him cry out in pain as she landed an elbow into him. My own diverted attention was just as big of a mistake for me though, as I nearly got caught again! The woman had closed the distance to the table I had just crawled under ridiculously quickly! I just managed to leap on top of a nearby table, and then did a backflip off of it as she again tried for me. As I flew through the air, I managed to kick the side of her hand with my foot. She yelped in pain and grasped it for a moment. As I lept away again I caught a glimpse of some sort of tattoo. For the next couple of moments, we played a vicious game of keep away. I jumped between, over, under, in and around tables and chairs that were set inside the courtyard trying to stay out of her reach. Bystanders weren’t sure if they should help her catch her unruly little, or stop her. Like most situations though absolutely all of them did nothing except watch! ‘If she gets her hands on me, I’m done for!’ Just as I began feeling cornered against a wall, and wondered how I could fend her off for much longer, I heard someone shout, “What’s going on here?” With that I watched as the lady and her accomplice abandoned the stroller, and their confrontation with Amanda and me, to flee the campus security guards who were pouring out from a doorway. “Mommy, are you okay?” I ran over to Amanda who seemed a bit dazed, but mostly angry. Her hair was a mess and the winces in her face gave away the level of pain she was feeling. She hugged me tightly and said, “I think so… It’s going to hurt in the morning, but are you okay?” I noticed that we both had tears coming out of our eyes as a large man in a police uniform approached us. “Are you and your daughter okay ma’am?” She nodded, “I’m pretty sure those two were trying to kidnap my baby girl here…” “Is this stroller yours?” he asked. I shook my head, “No, that woman was pushing it…” There wasn’t much to tell about what had happened, but we gave our statements anyway. As the officers went through the stroller one of them held something up, “Sir, look what was in here!” He held up a rattle of some sort and I felt Amanda’s arms stiffen and begin shaking with anger. I turned to look up at her, “What’s that?” “It’s an illegal mind control device for littles,” the man answered gently. “We’ll have to have it checked over and tested to be sure, but it would at least have temporarily made you go to La La Land so she could get you away without you alerting anyone you were being kidnapped.” “Doctor Westerfield do you have anyone who might have a grudge or something? This seems more planned than a simple campus snatch?” I looked at Amanda and wondered what her answer would be. She seemed to think for a moment before saying, “This weekend we took a trip to Selegnasol and we met a little on the plane next to us. After talking with her for a while on the plane we made a mutual decision for us to adopt the little girl as a sister to my Stacy here.” “Go on…?” The large man who seemed to be in charge said. “Over the weekend it became clear that we seem to have managed to get in the middle of a shady Little trafficking ring. We had issues in the park and at the airport, but hoped nothing would happen back here at home?” She sniffled a little. Both of our emotions were running high and tears were going down her face and mine. “That may very well have something to do with this then,” he said. “Let me check with my office and see if they got a good picture of them on our security cameras…” He was on his phone for several minutes and didn’t look happy while he was doing so. He finally looked down at his phone and shook his head before coming back over to us, “Look, my men will keep an eye out on you for the rest of the afternoon while you’re here on campus until we find this lady. She seems to have had a man helping her too, but the cameras didn’t record a good view of either of their faces.” “Damn,” Amanda swore. I thought for a second before suggesting, “I could sketch her face on my tablet if you give me a few minutes?” He looked at me a little dubiously and said, “Sweetie I appreciate you want to help, but your stick figures won’t help?” “Well darn, I was going to give you something more like a professional portrait from a sketch artist…?” “She’s serious?” The officer looked at Amanda. Amanda shrugged, “I’ve never known her not to be.” “Come on then, let’s go back to our office and give you a place to work…” the detective said begrudgingly. “Thanks,” I beamed up at him with my best little girl smile that I’d occasionally been practicing in the mirror. The effect worked as he blushed and muttered something. Amanda helped me up and I looked at the time. “You still have an hour until your test,” Amanda told me. I nodded, “Should be enough time I hope…” The officer led us through a door right from the area next to the attach that I learned led to the main security office. I was surprised to see an office like that in the student union, but with all of the signs and literature about reporting rape posted… I guessed it was probably to help victims report crimes easier. ‘Of course, they don’t allow the little victims to report…’ I thought darkly. What Madison had done last night wasn’t something I could report – but it should have been! He led us to a conference room and Amanda helped me get settled into a too large metal chair. She handed me my backpack, and I pulled out my tablet and stylus. I saved the other image I had been working on before she could look at it and began a new canvas. I closed my eyes for a second and brought up my memory of the woman. ‘Yep, the nanites gave me a perfect photographic memory…’ I thought with a smile. I locked into the moment I’d looked into the woman’s face and began drawing. I was quickly able to render her face and features using charcoal and ink options in the app. The dexterity settings in the nanites seemed to have translated into a lot of fine motor control for me as well because my hands worked better at this than they had ever done before! A memory of a mole on her face stuck out, along with another on her neck in a pretty obvious place. Thinking back to it there was also a tattoo on the underside of her wrist I’d seen. As I sketched on my tablet, the detective and Amanda would occasionally look over my shoulder. I couldn’t help but feel like a freak with some of the stares both of them gave me. Forty-five minutes later I had a pretty darn near photographic rendition of the woman. “This is her,” I told him while showing him the picture. “And she has this tattoo on the underside of her wrist,” I said pointing to a side drawing. He stared at both, but in particular the tattoo, which seemed to make him frown. “That’s not good, that means she’s a part of the Trelini crew.” “Trelini Crew?” I asked. Amanda’s face showed a combination of recognition and fury. “Think mafia kiddo,” he said with a sigh. “You’ve got some enemies that are probably not going to give up easily. Can you e-mail me that sketch? If it’s accurate, you’re a hell of a lot better than the sketch artist at my old police department.” “What’s your e-mail?” I asked and sent it off to him. He gave it to me and Amanda asked that I copy it to her too. Soon finished I said, “I have to get to a placement exam now…” “I’ll have a couple of my guys go over there with you,” he said, “in fact we’ll give you a ride.” I was glad to see they meant a ride on a golf cart like vehicle as opposed to a police car! I noted that all of the campus security officers seemed to be armed with guns, tasers, and clubs. ‘Definitely more police department than security,’ I admitted. They left Amanda and I outside the lobby of the Kilby center where I quickly waved my student ID at the entrance. Amanda waived hers as well, and we went upstairs to the third floor where the test was scheduled to be held. Outside the door she said, “Good luck! If I’m not outside when you finish just come upstairs to my office.” I nodded and walked into the room where a professor was overseeing a couple dozen Amazons signing in for the test. “Did you get lost sweetie?” the professor asked as I came up to the table that towered over my head. “No sir, I’m here for the placement exam?” “Umm… we don’t get many littles who take this test… No little sized computers in this lab… I don’t know if you’ll be able to manage it?” “I’ll be fine,” I smiled that same little girl smile at him and he took on the look of ‘oh sweetie you’re so cute. I’ll let you make a fool of yourself…’ “Your time to waste I suppose…” he said, “name?” “Stacy Westerfield,” I replied. “Are you related by chance to Professor Westerfield?” He asked, cluing in immediately. “Does it matter?” I asked back. “No, it shouldn’t. You’re just a little after all…” he said condescendingly. His interest seemed to deflate and I let him point me to a large computer system in the front row that was spaced away from the next giant student. The boy looked familiar and I realized it was Jackson. “Hi Jackson,” I said as I approached the seat. “Well hi again Stacy,” he said with a smile to me. “I should have known I’d see you here.” I smiled back, “Of course, have to entertain myself somehow, right?” “Your dollies aren’t fun enough?” One girl a row away snickered. “They said you were going to play with them today,” I said in that sweet voice. “You promised them you would wear a diaper just like them!” The girl looked at me like she was ready to leap over the desk and pound my butt, but a moment later her face cracked and she began laughing, “I like you kid!” Now free of the banter I looked at the gigantic chair and hoped I still had that plastic portable booster seat thing in my bag so I could reach the keyboard. Thankfully Amanda seemed to have thought about it and I found it inside next to my other spare diaper. Thinking about my diaper I realized I was about to leak! “How much time before we begin the test?” I asked tentatively. “Ten minutes?” Jackson said. “I need to head to the bathroom really quick,” I said as I ran out and waved at the professor – not giving him a chance to say anything. Luckily, I found a bathroom close by and quickly changed my Pamper for another, making it back to the room and into my portable booster before he began instructions. “Your skirt is tucked into your diaper,” Jackson whispered to me as he started. I blushed when I realized that the back of my skirt was indeed tucked into my diaper and everyone could see the characters and green backing of the back of the diaper. I sighed and just pulled my skirt back down ignoring the snickers of the girl behind me. ‘At least she didn’t follow me to change me…’ I thought. ‘Glad I caught it before I leaked all over my skirt.’ “Good afternoon,” the professor at the front said, “I’m Doctor Wernstrom, I teach the intro to computer programming classes here at Emerson. Please make sure your phones and other devices are turned off.” He paused while people did that. ‘Amanda has mine…’ I thought to myself and wondered about my watch. There was no way to airplane mode it from what I remembered, so I decided I’d play dumb if it came up. “I need you to go ahead and login now to the testing screen in front of you with your Network ID and Password.” I reached and managed to use the lever on the side of the chair to push me up as high as it would go. With the booster, I was able to reach the keyboard almost comfortably as long as I was kneeling on my knees. I heard a giggle behind me, but ignored it as I typed on the large keyboard. Even though it was huge compared to me, I was still able to type rapidly. I mostly was hunting and pecking, but I’d figured out a way to kind of do a three-finger system with my pinky, middle finger, and thumb on Fred’s that had let me speed up a bit. That technique had me logged in before one of the professors teaching assistants walked by to offer assistance. His face kind of amused me when he realized I wasn’t a total idiot! I just smiled at him and waited for the next instruction. “Okay, many of you may have some formal coursework in coding, others may have just had hobbyist experience,” Doctor Wernstrom said. “This test will let you test out of up to four semesters of computer programming fundamentals which are CS 110, CS 111, CS 131, and CS132. It is possible you will only receive credit for CS110 depending on your scores – or of course nothing at all.” He looked right at me when he said that, making me turn red and fume. “The test must be completed in two hours. Your code for each problem may be in any standard language that we have a compiler for. Do not use anything that’s an oddball proprietary language – it won’t earn you extra points and it won’t be graded!” He said that sternly as if someone had tried that many times to make brownie points. “The software is designed to recognize formatting in most of the major languages automatically for you to help you edit quickly. It will not however give you information on any functions or codes that you may have forgotten. All of your code must compile and meet the directions. If any code doesn’t operate correctly, end as noted, or give proper results it will not receive credit. The way the software works though you will not be able to compile it to test it – this test assumes that you have good fundamental understanding of how the code works.” I gulped and hoped everything would run since I frequently checked my code by compiling it! “Please understand that the most elegant solutions will receive the best scores! Less code is more! Due to the open nature of this test it may be Thursday before we have some of your results. Any questions?” He asked. “Seeing none, go ahead and click the start button and good luck!” He told us. I quickly followed his directions and read the first question. It was a simple problem of generating numbers based off the Fibonacci sequence and I quickly wrote a very minimal few lines of code that would do so. I’d done that in the first week of one of my classes in high school so I was sure it would work! The program then delved into ideas of ‘game of life’ sequences and other fairly simple problems before advancing onto using matrices and databases. The test kept me zoned out to the world as I worked. Only a brief feeling of needing to pee and releasing that into my diaper made me think at all about where I was at. The wet diaper though was quickly ignored and I went right back to coding. The final question was a much more advanced task that made me actually think. I reached it with an hour to spare and began carefully coding the project in the hopes of cracking it. It very much reminded me of the Lego Robot challenge I had done my senior year. This question did give some information on code that was available and essentially demanded you design a robot to autonomously navigate a field of obstacles and challenges. ‘This could be a DARPA award question…’ I grumbled to myself as I did my best to give a solution. “Thirty minutes left!” the professor called as I was half-way through coding my solution. I sighed heavily and found myself chewing on my tongue as I kept moving on. ‘I wonder what someone would say if I used a pacifier in class…?’ I shook my head and got back to work. The problem was you had to first code a set of responses for the obstacles… not terribly difficult, but very time consuming! I hoped I was on the right track as I then moved into an if/then statement that covered the first challenge when the robot reached it. I was stuck on how to recognize that it had reached it when I noted a hint they’d given in the question and information above and incorporated it. “Ten minutes remaining,” he called just as I attacked the final challenge on the course. It demanded an answer to a number problem query. It was a simple little code exercise once I came up with a way for the problem to call for the response. I had just clicked save and submit five seconds before he called, “Time!” I had just a moment to view ‘Congrats you finished the test,’ before the screen locked me and the other students out. All around me students grumbled, “I didn’t understand anything past question two!” Jackson looked at me as I stretched out and began considering jumping down, “I made it to the last question but that was too much for me, how’d you do?” I smiled, “I think I did pretty well.” “What question did you finish last?” He asked me as I slid down and began folding up my portable booster seat into my bag. “The last question?” “So, you were stumped there too?” “No,” I shook my head, “I finished the last question. Hopefully it compiles, I clicked submit a couple seconds before he called time.” “Wait, you finished?” A girl asked who had given me the hard time before the test asked. “You mean you just submitted a made-up answer for each question, right?” I laughed, “They should be right answers, we’ll have to see.” I walked towards the elevators and saw Amanda wasn’t there yet. I was shocked a moment later when the girl said, “You’re wet again little girl! You definitely need a diaper change, want me to do it?” “No thanks,” I said politely. “Well I’ll have to take you to your dorm or the infirmary then?” “I’m just going up to my mommy’s office, she’ll take care of it for me, but thanks,” I told her. “If you could push the up button for me and then the top floor, I would appreciate it.” “What?” The girl was confused. “Your mommy works here?” “Yes, she told me to meet her on the top floor. If you’re really that worried about me you can come meet her… but I am already adopted, so there’s no point in badgering me?” “She’s not making that up, I met her mom earlier,” Jackson told her with a smile. “By the way I’m Jackson?” “Hailey,” she told him. “I’m Stacy,” I told her as the door opened for the up elevator and Jackson pressed the button for me before stepping back out. “Nice to meet you Hailey, maybe some other time?” The doors closed on a thoroughly confused giant and I couldn’t help but laugh and breathe a sigh of relief at the same time! When the doors opened Kimberly greeted me with a smile, “Well hi Stacy! Did your mommy forget you downstairs?” I laughed, “You know her with her toys!” “I do indeed. The number of times your daddy has had to call me to go interrupt her so she would go home makes what I do a full-time job!” I giggled, “I’m going back to her office?” “Her doors probably shut, let me go back and open it for you,” she told me. Sure enough, the door handle, which would have been out of my reach without a serious jump, needed her to open it. “I found a lost little girl looking for you,” she told Amanda as she started from her computer and looked at a clock. “Oops… I guess I forgot about you, huh?” “Uh-huh,” I smiled at her. Kim laughed as she closed the door behind me and I walked over to Amanda. “How’d the test go?” I shrugged, “I think it went well? I finished it, and I think I did it right. Most everyone else looked overwhelmed at all but the first question or two.” “You finished it?” she asked with some surprise. “Completely? The autonomous section too?” “I think so… It should compile and work. I hated that I couldn’t run test runs of the programs to make sure they were bug free…” “Hmm…” she looked thoughtful as I walked up to her. “What were you doing that you forgot about me?” I kidded her. “Umm… using your sketch to try and find the woman who tried to snatch you?” “Oh…” I said, “any luck?” “Yeah, I think so. I used a processing software one of our faculty members has been testing on facial recognition through the local police departments online mugshot database…” “Wait… is that a public database…?” I asked. Her blush made me think it wasn’t, “well it’s not exactly heavily guarded?” “Mommy, Daddy is not going to be happy if he finds out…” I smiled at her. “Good thing he won’t, huh?” she smiled back and picked me up to set me on her lap in front of the computer screen. A picture of the woman that matched both my memory and my sketch exactly was displayed on the screen. Serena Ricci, Age 42 Convictions: Petty Theft, Assault, Drug Possession – May 2003 Known Affiliations: Trelini Mafia Suspected crimes went considerably longer on her ‘rap’ sheet. “She’s a piece of work?” I said. Amanda nodded, “Yeah she is. Dangerous one too… I’m going to send this to my dad and see what he can do to help us out.” I watched as she composed an e-mail before she felt my diaper under my skirt, “Feels like you need a change?” I nodded and shyly asked, “You do it?” She turned me around in her lap, “Stacy… You probably…” “Please?” I asked. “I thought you want to be a big college student?” “Well yeah… but that doesn’t mean I don’t want the most awesome mommy in this dimension to still take care of me?” She squeezed me tight, “I want you to be able to get by on your own during the days…” “I changed myself several times today, it’s mommy’s turn,” I tried a smile on her. “Oh, I see how this is,” she said as she began mercilessly tickling me and I found myself wetting the diaper some more. The tickling session ended with her standing up holding me upside down for a second before she grabbed my backpack and laid me down on her couch. She pulled a changing mat from somewhere that she moved underneath me before reaching into my backpack for a diaper and wipes. “Uh-oh,” she said. Chapter 5: Unprepared “UH-OH?” I asked. “Yes, uh-oh… This is your last Pamper in here…” “Oh… well hopefully it’ll get me through dinner and the events?” “I guess we’re going to have to hope for that. You might make sure you get any other pee-pee out into that diapee before I change you?” I nodded and tried to force my bladder to completely empty, but there wasn’t much left as far as I could tell. I guess I must have had a face that said I was done because she pulled the tapes loose on my diaper and began cleaning me up. She didn’t take a long time, but it was definitely different from my quick changes earlier. I smiled as she taped me into the new diaper and hugged her, “Thank you Mommy.” She hugged me back, “You’re very welcome Princess.” After a moment of holding me she pushed me away so she could throw the diaper in a disposal sack and then into her trashcan. “You ready to go meet with your nest?” I shrugged, “Not really… but I figure I should try and make some friends though. Never know when that can help!” She hugged me and said, “That’s a really smart attitude! Do you want me to come find you later with some more diapers?” I shrugged, “What’s the worst that will happen?” “A diaper change?” She tried to sound hopeful. “Hopefully that’s it… remember you are tiny though! They may not even have your size!” “I’ll risk it this time I guess,” I told her. “Remind me to stock my bag though with a lot more!” “I’ll bring a box of your diapers here to keep in my office tomorrow too.” “Kay,” I told her as she helped me up and used her fingers to straighten my hair. “Remind me to get you a hairbrush for your bag too,” she said grabbing my hand. “Here’s your phone, Sweetie,” she said as she helped me tuck it into the front pocket. We caught the elevator downstairs and checked out with the security desk where Amanda asked, “There’s supposed to be someone from security who can take us over to Wenig?” It was a different guard than normal who looked at her for a moment before his eyes registered some information. He quickly said, “Let me call them.” A few minutes later one of their team was pulling up with a cart and we hopped on for the ride across campus. “Can you wait here just a moment?” Amanda asked him when we pulled up. “I’ll need a ride to my car?” “Sure thing, Ma’am,” the polite man said. Amanda helped me hop off of her lap where she’d held me and walked me to the door where an amazon girl was watching. “Can I help you?” “Stacy is here to get together with her nest?” “You know where you’re going, hon?” She asked me in that condescending baby voice. “Yes ma’am, may I go ahead and go upstairs?” “Go ahead,” she told me and I walked to the elevator after waiving bye to Amanda. The elevator did actually feature a button that was low enough for me to press to call it! The elevator featured a double set of control panels inside to make it easier for littles to push their destination. I pressed ‘2’ quickly and watched the doors shut. I sighed and hoped this wasn’t something I would regret doing! When the elevator opened, I could see a hallway oddly empty of any littles. A few bigs, mostly girls, were wandering around and I assumed they had to be Nest Hens. I made a point not to make eye contact but just walk straight to the room and managed to get in without being challenged. The door was open so I walked in and saw all of the littles seemed to be doing their own thing in the room – almost seeming like normal college students! Madison was nowhere to be seen, but Laura seemed to be intently trying to do something with her computer so I walked over to her, “Hey,” I said. “Stacy!” She said with a smile and gave me a quick hug. “You came back today?” I shrugged, “Mrs. Walters sent me an e-mail last night asking if I would come ‘bond’ with my fellow students today now until the end of the evenings activities when you have to go to bed.” “When we have to go to bed?” Laura whispered with a smile. “You know what I mean… I have to go home.” “Somehow I think I do know what you mean, but I don’t blame you and I won’t accuse you.” She told me with a smile. “I didn’t see you earlier?” “Where?” “The city tours?” “Oh… well since it’s not like I’ll be getting around on my own anyway, and I sort of live in this city, I went to get my hair done instead.” “I thought something was different, but I haven’t seen you long enough to know if it was just a different way you styled it!” “What do you think?” “I like it!” she said as she looked at it and actually ran a hand through it, “It’s like elementary chic!” I stuck my tongue out at her, “Better than daycare chic?” “Definitely!” “Were you at the luncheon?” I asked her. She shook her head, “Only littles who still had their parents could go. Everyone else had bagged lunches on the lawn in front of the dorm.” “That sucks…” I said. “What was at the lunch?” “A feast of seafood… well and crazy bigs… but you know how it is,” I told her. She nodded sadly, “Yep.” “So that was hours ago, why are you just now showing up?” “Oh, I had to take the computer science placement test.” “How’d that go?” “Good I think… we’ll see how the test grade turns out though.” For the next twenty minutes we talked and were joined by Annie, Esther, and Gemma. Esther’s parents had still been there so she’d been at the luncheon, but everyone else seemed to have been just at the dorm hanging out and getting situated. Apparently, a couple of littles from other rooms had not taken the CARE exam yet. They’d watched them leave with nest mothers escorting them to the test that morning, but none of them returned to the dorms when their escorts came back from lunch later. That evolved into a question on how everyone else had made it through the test. Most of them had known about the change in rules in advance, but one girl was just lucky enough to have worn a diaper and not needed to go poop. “How did you make it through it?” Gemma asked me, “You’re so tiny…?” I laughed, “It helps when your adopted daddy is a surgeon? Let’s just say I was completely clear of everything and leave it at that…” She looked at me, “So you really are adopted?” I nodded, “I’m not from this dimension… I’m here more as an exchange student. I was scared to live here in the dorms… having heard some things in advance. I decided my best bet was to find foster parents so to speak.” “You’re going back to the other dimension when you graduate?” Laura asked. “That’s the goal at least…” I sighed, “Not sure if it’s going to work out easily with the tracker that they stuck inside of me. It starts going off the second I go through the doors at the portal.” “You’ve been back to the portal?” Annie asked with surprise. “Why would they take you back there?” “To talk to my parents?” “They let you do that?” Gemma asked. “It’s one of the things in the contract,” I told her. “Contract?” Esther asked. “This is my second trip to this dimension,” I told them, “on my first I saw how things are for littles. I’m actually betweener size back home, but here I’m like half my size this time… Anyway, my adoptive parents and I set some ground rules before I came on what was and wasn’t acceptable.” “Oh,” Laura said curiously. “Like wha…?” Before any of the girls could badger me for any more information, I heard Madison’s voice, “Oh Stacy! You decided to join us!” I looked up and forced a smile, “Hi Miss Madison, Mrs. Walters invited me to come over for the afternoon.” “I’m glad you did! You seem to all be making good little friendships now too, huh?” Her patronizing voice desperately made me want to strangle her, but I kept the smile on my face and just nodded. She asked, “Well are all my little mice ready for din-din?” “Yes, Miss Madison,” the other girls said together as a chorus. Thankfully she wasn’t looking at me so she didn’t notice that I missed the cue. “Why doesn’t everyone use the potty one more time before you go?” she suggested. She led everyone to the bathroom door and I watched her lift each girl’s skirt up as they passed. Everyone had dry pull-ups on until she got to Annie whose pull-up was sagging. “Something you need to tell me Annie?” “Sorry, Miss Madison I had an accident… Would you please help me change my pull-up?” “Why certainly,” she told her. She picked her up and sat her on her hip before looking at me, “Well Stacy, don’t you want to try and go use the potty like the other ‘big’ girls?” “Miss Madison you’re silly, I told you last night I’m not potty trained!” “Oh, that’s right, I forgot we had a baby little already, huh?” She said. “But I’m guessing Annie here’ll be joining you soon, huh?” She tickled the stomach of the little in her arms as she lay her down on the changing table. There was no pretense as she pulled her skirt up, ripped the pull-up, and began wiping her with a baby wipe. “Now Annie dear, do you want to try and be a big girl in a pull-up or use a diapee like Baby Stacy?” “Pull-up please,” Annie said in a shaking voice that I assumed meant she was in tears. “Okay Annie, but one more daytime accident today and you’ll be wearing diapees, just like your baby friend until you can show me for a week that you can stay dry during the daytime.” “Yes Miss Madison, I’ll do better!” Annie whimpered. “Good girl,” she said to her a moment later when she sat her down while flashing her new clean pull-up. The other girls were coming out of the bathroom as she ran in there to make sure she was empty and Madison rounded on me. “Now Baby Stacy, you said you aren’t potty trained so I need to at least make sure you’re all dry before din-din. Would you be a big girl and pull your skirt up so I can make sure you’re dry?” I blushed a little but did so, “See I’m all dry!” She turned me around and pulled my diaper back open, “And clean too! Maybe someday you’ll be ready for the big girl’s potty like everyone else, huh?” She said to the audience of girls who I noticed were a mixture of disgust, fear, relief, and embarrassment. Somehow, I was pretty sure every girl had all four of those emotions showing! A moment later she had the rope in her hand and said, “Come on Mice, let’s make our caterpillar line!” I grabbed onto the last purple ring again and noted that my name was now written in sharpie on it. I hung on as we were led to the elevator and then downstairs to a large lawn area with a big white tent setup with catering servers. As we walked in the line, a lot of the amazon students snickered and stared at us. Several we passed said, “Awe! She’s so cute!” referring to one of us. ‘Probably me,’ I admitted. “Okay now girls, you’re going to each get one plate of food and then come sit down on the grass here outside!” Madison said. “I’ll have blankets down for you when you get back for you to sit on so we don’t get grass stains all over your cute uniforms!” “Yes Miss Madison,” I joined everyone in saying this time. Joining the line with the other littles I found myself noticing the group already seemed smaller, even if it was only a few from the CARE exam… ‘Where did the others go…?’ I wondered. Apparently for dinner, they took our size into consideration, and we received pieces of chicken breasts that had to have been quartered from their original size. Even still they were big, but given the size of food I saw on the bigs plates I knew they had done the right thing! Once I had chicken and the sides I walked back to the blanket and sat down. “Oh, you didn’t get a drink?” Madison asked as I sat down. “I have one in my bag already Miss Madison,” I told her politely and pulled my backpack off my shoulders to grab the bottle of water Amanda had me put in there. “Are you sure?” she asked, “Everyone else is getting some really sweet punch that looks yummy?” I noted then that everyone was getting cups of punch in open cups, and groaned at their stupidity for taking them! Most walked with full cups that they seemed to quickly guzzle and chug. I had a gut feeling that it was just a matter of time before disaster in some form was going to strike. ‘Will it be immediate? Or, after she diapers everyone for bed?’ I wondered. “I’m sure Miss Madison, I’m following my mommy’s rules. You wouldn’t want me to get in trouble with her, would you?” I asked with that smile I was perfecting. Her face was adorably pissed off and I fought the urge to giggle. “No, we wouldn’t want that.” Laura and everyone from the nest came and sat down on the blankets Madison had setup before she went for her own food. I noted the bigs had picnic tables inside the pavilion to sit at, but we weren’t allowed to join them for some reason. “Why do we have to eat on the ground?” Annie asked my question for me. “Another way to demean us as future babies,” Brooke answered her. “We’ll probably all be pissing and shitting our diapers like Stacy there long before we have a chance to graduate.” “Well at least I have a head start,” I said as I stuck my tongue out at her. The other girls laughed at her. “Hey at least she’s been adopted to a better situation than any of us will get…” Gemma said. “So enough about adoptions…” Laura said, “it’s depressing. Anyone have any tips for tomorrow’s math test you’ve heard?” Welcoming the change of subject some of the girls said what they’d heard. “I know you can’t use a calculator,” Gemma said. “Like seriously?” Alyssa asked. “I’m just going to go in and take it and know I’ll be in the remedial classes. I still don’t know how my CARE score was enough to pass!” “What’d you get?” Annie asked. “Overall like a 1039,” she said, “but on the math it was like a 200? If it hadn’t been for the other subjects I’d have been screwed.” “Well, and you made it through without shitting yourself,” Chelsea said. Out from nowhere I watched as Madison had reappeared, pulled Chelsea up and over her kneeling knee, pulled her skirt up, panties down, and began pounding her butt with her hand. “You will not cuss little girl!” By the end she was a blubbering mess and Madison’s, “I won’t give you a demerit this time, but next time you’ll be seeing the Dean!” “Yes… Miss Madison… Tha... Thank you…” she stammered out while snot and tears covered her face. She walked away towards a tree to collect herself for a minute. After an awkward moment of silence, I asked Laura, “What did you get on your test?” “Oh… 1350?” she said. “That’s really good!” Jasmine said. “I only got a 1200.” I sat and tried to keep quiet as I knew my score was a bit out of the normal range. “Okay short stuff, everyone else has said what they got, you haven’t – what’d you get?” Madison asked when she figured out that I’d been quiet about my own score. “Oh… a pretty good score…” I said hoping not to make everyone feel like I was a genius. “Pretty good?” Laura prodded. “Like worse than Alyssa?” Annie asked tactlessly. “Umm… no, it was better.” “You are seriously not going to try and feel like you’re going to be embarrassed by a bad score, right?” Brooke said. “I mean obviously you’re here?” I sighed, “1929,” I said quietly. “You’re lying, right?” Madison said. “No Miss Madison, I guess it’s a pretty good score but I was just doing my best,” I told her. I watched her dig out her phone and go digging into something. “Let me see your ID Stacy,” she told me and I watched as her phone must have taken a picture and scanned it. “Well I’ll be, you’re telling the truth… probably the highest score anyone has in your class Stacy.” She seemed a little impressed as she scrolled through a screen, “Wait, you’re the little that almost got kidnapped earlier?” “Kidnapped?” Laura asked. “What?” another girl asked. I sighed, “Yeah, that’s me…” “What happened?” Annie asked. “Not really sure…” I kind of lied, but thought I would tell some of the truth too, “Mommy, Daddy, and I went to Selegnasol this weekend for a vacation and they ended up adopting another little as a sister for me on the plane.” “Big sis or little sis?” Someone asked. “She’s bigger than me but littler?” Everyone nodded as if that odd fact made perfect sense… and I just continued on, “Anyway, apparently someone else wanted her and they’re not happy with my parents.” “That’s scary!” Jasmine said. “I know… I’m just glad I saw the woman just in time to jump out of her way! Otherwise I’d be a mindless baby right now...” I sighed, “She had some sort of illegal hypnosis brain scrambler thingee in the stroller they were going to push me away in…” Several girls hugged me then and I knew that they understood how scary that was. Worse yet was that it was probably most of their fates to be stolen away like that… That depressing thought made some more tears go down my eyes before Madison said, “Okay girls, we need to go back to the dorm and freshen up before going to the stadium for the freshman class photo.” Funnily enough for some reason Madison seemed to give me a sympathetic look then too, and I wondered if she might have a heart after all? I doubted it. During the walk back I couldn’t help but note that even though I didn’t drink a ton of my water, I suddenly had to pee! ‘I really want to hold it until after the picture…’ I thought to myself. As we rode the elevator up to the second floor again, I couldn’t help but release it into my diaper though. While I felt relieved, I couldn’t help but worry about not having another diaper to change into. “Okay my little mice, why don’t you all go ahead and go potty and make sure you’re ready so we can go to the stadium and take our picture with the big kids.” “What are we wearing?” Alyssa asked, “Do we need our shirt from yesterday?” Madison giggled, “No, the big kids wear those tonight, but we just want to see all of you adorable boys and girls in your cute little uniforms tonight. So, make sure you straighten up, and those of you who spilled juice on your blouses switch them out quickly.” She paused and looked at Anaya, “I know that big glass was a bit much for you Anaya, so make sure you also get your uniform soaking so you don’t end up with any demerits for your uniform being dirty the next time you wear it.” I watched Anaya gulp and the other girls work on going to the bathroom. That was when she rounded on me, “You were doing the potty dance in the elevator so I’m guessing you have a wet diapee?” I sighed, “Yes Miss Madison, I wet my diapee.” “Do you have a spare with you in your backpack?” “I went through all of them today with the kidnapping incident…” I said with a sad look on my face. For whatever reason that must have been the right card to play, “Oh no sweetie! I can totally see that messing things up for you… Let me look at your diaper and see if it’ll hold on through the picture?” I stood still as she pulled my dress up and the girls who were still in the room got a view of my yellowed diaper that was beginning to droop. “Sweetie unfortunately this one’s about done. Let me see what I have in our changing supplies that might be small enough for you… What size do you wear?” “Newborn in little diapers or Size 1 in baby diapers,” I told her feeling tears nearing my eyes. “The smallest size I have in here is a Size 2 in Littles…” she said. “Stay right there, Sweetie! I’m going to go check our supply closet down the hall.” “Thank you, Miss Madison,” I said. I let my skirt fall back down and noticed the other littles were shying away from me right then and trying to look busy over by their desks. I sighed, ‘Well… that’ll teach me to not have enough diapers… I hope she’s not bad when she changes me…’ Madison came back a moment later with a large box of ‘Comfee Plus Overnight’ little diapers with a large N on the size. “We’re in luck sweetie, they had a box of these hidden away in the closet!” I forced a smile and said, “thank you for looking…” “You’re very welcome,” she said as she opened up the box, “I’ve never actually seen anyone use this brand before here. Usually they just use them in the daycare centers…” My eyebrows went up a bit then and as soon as she pulled out the diaper, I knew there was a reason for that comment. It was thick. REALLY thick! Before I had a chance to register my concerns though she picked me up and laid me down on the changing table, pushed my jumper out of the way, and pulled the tabs loose on my Pamper. “You know I’m so used to bratty littles fighting their diaper changes, that it’s weird changing a good baby girl like you,” she whispered in my ear. “I know you’ve been through a rough day so I’m not going to mess with you anymore.” I smiled in appreciation knowing that this time her messing with me wasn’t going to be in the form of anything but the humiliation of that diaper. She gently used a baby wipe to clean me up before laying me down on the thick pad that was more pillow than diaper. As she taped it shut, she said, “Oh my God you look so adorable!” I groaned internally but said, “Umm… Thank you Miss Madison.” She sat me down on the ground. That’s when I immediately lost my balance and fell on my rear! I heard a few giggles then but couldn’t tell who it was before Madison said, “Do you need help standing in your new diapee?” I soon found myself standing like an infant learning how to stand for the first time while holding onto her mommy’s hands. The diaper was comically thick, and I didn’t know how anyone could possibly walk in it ever! As she left me carefully balanced, I got a look at the side of the box and realized there was a reason for it. One of the sides proclaimed it to be ‘The perfect diaper to keep your little girl dry and on her back or belly right where you leave her!’ “I’ll keep these here in case you run out again Stacy. Let’s put a couple in your backpack too just in case!” I just kept standing nervously hoping I wouldn’t fall over as she reached into my backpack and left two of them in the bag. They singlehandedly made the front compartment so full she couldn’t zip it shut! ‘And this is dry…’ I groaned. My dress looked like it was bubbled out from a petticoat or something - but I knew everyone would recognize it as a ridiculously thick diaper the moment they saw it! “Let’s line up my little mice!” she said a moment later. As soon as I tried to take a step towards the rope I fell straight back onto my well-padded butt! Chapter 6: Alarmed RIGHT THEN I just wanted to cry for my mommy! Instead I reminded myself I was a big college student and forced myself to just grimace. A big college student in the biggest damn diaper ever invented! I heard lots of giggling but one girl, Natasha, took pity on me, “Piggyback ride?” she asked me with a smile. I nodded, “I think that would help…” She helped me stand up, then knelt in front of me to let me climb onto her shoulders. The sad thing was that I knew this was the littlest Nest of littles and she was easily able to handle me on her back! “Better?” She asked. “Other than my pride?” I whispered to her. She giggled and grabbed onto her loop, “We’re ready to go Miss Madison!” “Hmm… if you get tired Tasha let me know and I’ll take over for you.” “Thanks Miss Madison, but Stacy has to be the lightest little ever! She actually makes me feel big! I got this!” There were some giggles, and I watched as Laura looked at us further down the line rolled her eyes, but no one said anything else as Madison pulled our little caterpillar rope along. Thankfully for us it was only about two blocks to the football stadium on the other side of the big residential halls. “Right this way,” Madison said as we entered a gated area and were led onto the enormous football field. Some mass chaos ensued for the next several minutes while they organized the class of mostly Amazons, and the smaller number of littles, into a huge capital ‘E’ on the field. Of course, all of the littles were directed to go to the front in order to be seen. Natasha took a break from holding me and me down towards the middle. “Thanks,” I told her and gave her a hug. “Don’t mention it shrimp,” she said to me with a smile as she returned my hug. Most students seemed to be ignoring the photographer’s directions making things take longer than they should have. After a few minutes I saw Amanda show up along the front rails of the stadium seats, and I was relieved to know I would have a way out that wasn’t going to involve making some poor friend carry me! Just as the photographer said, “Now on the count of three, everyone say ‘Griffins,’” my bladder demanded immediate attention. Knowing it was useless to resist I let the urine run into the overgrown pillow that was the diaper. The results were almost instantaneous, and caused a photo I knew had to be comical as I fell down onto my butt just as the flash went off. There was no way I could stand as the padding expanded even further! It was beyond anything I could imagine! I just groaned and smiled for the next two pictures while looking up to the camera from my padded seat on the ground. “That’s it, ladies and gentlemen! Casino night starts at 8pm, hope to see all of you there! Well, all of you except the littles who need their sleepy time!” a loudmouth Amazon yelled. I decided he must be one of the orientation leaders as he shouted through a megaphone. “Asshole,” I heard from somewhere nearby. Almost immediately I heard a loud smack, and a little began screaming from a spanking. I tried to struggle back to my feet but quickly realized that effort was pointless. As I sighed and tried to figure out what I was going to do to get to Amanda, I was relieved to look up and see she was already almost there. Before she got to me Madison said, “Time to go Stacy.” “I know, my mommy’s right there,” I pointed at Amanda less than ten steps away. “Oh, well then, we’ll see you sometime tomorrow maybe?” She asked. “I don’t know actually. We may have other plans… I’ll try and let you know if I am coming though so I can find out where you are?” “Okay,” she said with a smile and ended up helping me stand for a second as Amanda walked up. “Sorry, she was all out of her cute diapees and I had to go dig into the storage closet. All I could find in her size were some infant diapers.” “That’s okay, we were both kind of worried about her running out, but decided to take a chance,” Amanda told her, “I appreciate that you found something dry to change my sweet baby girl into.” “No problem Professor, good night!” She said as Amanda scooped me up into her arms. I watched her pick up the end of the rope and begin pulling the girls along back towards the dorm. As they walked away, I saw Laura wave at me, then make a weird face. Right then even from a distance as I heard loud farts from multiple girls in the line. “Hmm…” Amanda distracted me from watching them then as she tickled my side and smiled, “I might have to get some of these to keep you out of trouble!” “Ugh… there’s already two in my backpack… and Madison put the rest in the changing table…” I groaned. “Don’t let me ever forget to have like a dozen extra diapers every day!” Amanda laughed a lot and said, “Did you have fun at least?” I shrugged, “I got to know the others a little better, I guess. We were talking about scores on the CARE exam and Madison didn’t believe me on mine… she ended up scanning my ID and verifying that I’m too smart. Unfortunately, she then noticed that I was the little that was nearly kidnapped today.” “What did she say about that?” “Well she was pretty shocked and just kind of blurted it out… I think everyone else was pretty terrified for me sort of too. On the other hand, every little basically expects to get kidnapped at some point… so it’s kind of normal… Madison was actually nice to me after that though.” “Except the diaper?” “She probably did enjoy that, but for her I think she was being downright sugary sweet.” As she came to the end of the fence with everyone else, I saw a security cart waiting for us again, and clung tightly to her as it drove us to her car. The officer watched us get into our car before he drove away. I couldn’t help but notice that Amanda locked the doors as soon as she got in too. “So… umm… did you hear anything else yet?” I asked. “About what?” she asked in an odd voice. “The thing?” “No, no one has any in-stock so we’re out of luck for a day or two.” “Oh,” I said. I guessed that meant the car was, or might be bugged, so I just sat quietly. Just then though I realized I needed to pee again. As I let loose into the padding, I couldn’t feel a single bit of dampness on my skin. There would be no chance of leaks with this monster diaper, since it almost seemed to laugh at all that I put in! As we pulled into the garage, I noticed that Amanda did something quickly with a keypad on the center console. I fidgeted in my seat as I waited for her to come get me. “Let’s go show your sissy and Daddy just how cute you look in that ridiculous diaper!” Amanda said with a smirk as she picked me up. She started to set me down on the ground next to the car, and I said, “Umm… Mommy… I literally can’t even stand in this… would you please carry me?” She laughed, “Only to the kitchen,” she said with a smirk. “What…?” I complained as she grabbed my backpack and held it in her other hand and walked through the door into the house. True to her word she sat me down on the ground and I lasted a second before I landed on my rear and stared at her departing figure. “You’re mean!” I called after her. I sat there for a moment before I figured out that I would have to crawl. I soon discovered that even crawling was difficult then! When I finally covered the distance to the living room, I saw Fred rapidly taking pictures with his camera. Bella just stood next to him in her pajamas giggling at my pain, and Amanda was obviously using her cell phone taking pictures or a video too. At the bottom of the stairs I just sat down and asked, “Would someone please get this pillow off of me?” When the laughter finally settled Amanda kindly picked me up and carried me upstairs to the nursery and laid me down on the changing table. I let out a huge sigh of relief as she sat me back down on the floor in a thin Pamper after giving me a hug. “Should I leave these in your backpack?” She asked me as she fought for a moment to open the front compartment and giggled at them. “How did they even get these in here?!?” I had no response so I just glared at her before wordlessly sitting down at my computer. As I started to login she said, “Actually sweetie, can we move you and your laptop down to Mommy’s work room for the moment?” “Sure… umm… why?” I asked curiously. “Baby Bella needs to go to bed here in a few minutes, and you can work in there without keeping her up?” I nodded, “I guess… Just out of curiosity… does she really need to go to bed this early?” Amanda knelt down and hugged me, “Remember the changes we did to you with the nanites? They really do let you get by with a lot less sleep than her. Remember also that you’re not from this dimension… The 7:30pm bedtime of the dorm is actually really smart as most littles tend to need fourteen hours of sleep a night.” “But that only leaves half the day to do anything?” I asked in confusion, even knowing that their days were thirty-two hours long that seemed crazy! “The only other way you can see that time expand is if they take an hour nap in the morning and in the afternoon. I’m going to try and get Bella onto a schedule like that, but we still have to sort out where she’s going, once I start working again…” I nodded knowing that was going to be tough to figure out without putting her in a crazy daycare. “You need a hand grabbing your power cord?” She asked me as I closed the lid and grabbed the laptop. I nodded and she grabbed the converter, strip, and power cord and led me down to her workshop. I saw she had that other highchair setup there and I asked, “Why didn’t you just have Bella use this one?” “I didn’t even think of it,” Amanda said, “but this one would be a bit small for her I’m afraid.” “The short jokes today are getting old!” I groaned. She laughed as she plugged everything in and then lifted me into the highchair, put the tray on, and helped me plug it in. “There, comfy?” She asked. “I could use a bottle…?” “A bottle? Not a big girl cup?” she raised her eyebrows. “Please?” “Okay, let me go get you one,” she told me and I opened up the computer as she left. I wasted no time in logging in and searching for keyloggers. To my amusement I found someone had in fact installed something – or rather tried. I had setup the system to totally sandbox anything that might try and get in, so it wouldn’t do anything like they wanted. I took a quick moment to activate a dupe program I’d designed for fun back home that made the spyware think I was doing various web surfing activities. Of course, if the person checked they would discover the websites didn’t work in this dimension… but messing with them would be fun! Especially since I was pretty sure in this case it was Amanda! ‘I’m guessing she’s curious…’ I thought, ‘I doubt she’s being malicious with it. It’s just a new toy to her!’ I logged in and opened my e-mail account to look for any new messages. To my surprise I had a lot of e-mails come in since I had last checked! I remembered I hadn’t e-mailed my parents much of an update so I figured that would have to happen tonight since I still had some time before bed. I noticed an e-mail from ‘Dr. Og Wernstrom’ who had proctored the test earlier. ‘Good evening Ms. Westerfield, I wish to inform you that I have graded your test and I have some concerns. I would like to meet with you, your mother, your advisor, and Dean Sanders tomorrow at 1pm. Dean Sanders and Dr. Butler have already indicated they will be able to attend, please let me know as soon as possible if you are unable to make the meeting, Dr. Og Wernstrom Associate Professor Computer Science Emerson University’ ‘Great…’ I thought, ‘either I completely bombed it, or blew it away and they’re sure I cheated…’ I figured Amanda was probably feeding Bella still, so I decided to wait until she came back in to panic any more about it. Another university wide e-mail informed me that my math placement test would be in different location based on a chart by last name. To my relief the letters ‘Q-Z’ were testing in the lecture hall in the Kilby building, so I’d be just downstairs from Amanda’s office again. The test was set to begin at 10am, so that would be plenty of time to get there and wake up. I looked through the other e-mails and saw a campus wide alert had gone out about our incident earlier. I clicked it and discovered they had attached my sketch and information to stay on the lookout for anyone suspicious on campus. If spotted we were to call the security extension immediately! I was curious then to see if there was anything on the local news about it, but was kind of disappointed that none of the local sites seemed to be carrying information on it. ‘Must be trying to avoid bad press for the university…’ I decided with a shake of my head. I clicked through a few other messages that really weren’t important before starting an e-mail response to my moms’ message from the other day. Hi Mom, I don’t know if I’ll have time to type up everything that’s happened since last Friday - but I’ll try. I know Amanda is probably coming to give me my bath soon, so sorry if this ends up short! The last two days have definitely not been dull - and neither was the weekend! I think I mentioned a little bit about it in my last e-mail, but Friday when we were on the plane to the city, Selegansol, a little sat down next to us. For the most part, if my hair is covered, my new appearance lets me blend in as a regular Amazonian infant. Amanda had kept me in a sling and hidden me as one most of the time going through the airport, since that way I don’t draw extra attention. The little just glanced at us, but otherwise kept to herself, when she sat down. About midway through the flight one of the stewardesses gave her a hard time about not drinking the sippy cup she had put in front of her. I watched as she forced her to drink it. I kind of guessed, and rightly, that it was spiked with something! I didn’t want to see her ambushed like that, so I quickly gave her an antidote that Fred has disguised into an easy to hide form for me. Amanda let her know I wasn’t a regular baby then and began talking to her in whispers. She made a quick decision to try and help the girl, and Bella decided to let her help her when she realized her other options were worse. In the end Bella verbally had to give Amanda permission to adopt her to protect herself. Amanda then made the stewardess give her a diaper that would fit her, before putting her into it in the bathroom. It was supposed to just be a ruse to get her off the plane and safe. Unfortunately, in the airport Bella saw the stewardess and another woman talking with the man that had been her contact for a clothing deal she’d been trying to make. She was completely devastated by that fact! It became apparent that she had been lured with a fake business deal to catch her. We quickly discovered there was a pretty significant group behind it, so we ended up going to an adoption center and making Bella my ‘sister’ officially to protect her. After all of that we ended up at a hotel that basically is the Disney World of this dimension. Apparently, Looney Tunes got the park here, and Disney’s just movies and toys. We had fun over the weekend going around the park, and I was actually able to get into a tank and go swimming with these massive dolphins! I’ll have to get a picture from Amanda to send you… It was a blast! Sunday, we ended up enjoying their waterpark and I was given permission to swim without the floaties and in the regular pool that most littles never see… Oh yeah… that’s because we kind of had a couple more run-ins with that group that tried to kidnap Bella. They’re not a good group of people and we had some more excitement with them. The park provided us security though to the airport and we hoped we left our problems there. We did run into them again there, but Amanda was amazing and took care of the problem and security took them away. On Monday Fred and Amanda’s dad moved Bella out of her apartment, while Amanda got me situated on campus with my student ID, and the first Little orientation event. I also got assigned a ‘Nest’ so that I’m sort of a part of the littles dorm even though I don’t live there. I’ve made a couple other friends that are sort of my size… actually even the shortest of them is still almost two heads taller than me… I wish I knew why I shrank so much! Today we went and got… I was typing still when Amanda came in, “Mommy?” “You about ready for your bath?” “Actually, before that can we talk and you maybe let me have some copies of some pictures before I send an e-mail to my mom?” She looked at her watch and shrugged, “Sure, what about?” “Well first did you see the e-mail from Doctor Wernstrom?” “No?” I minimized my current e-mail and pulled that one up. “What in the world?” she said squinting at the small font. “It sounds like he thinks you cheated?” “I know… do you think he thinks you coached me beforehand?” She shrugged, “It’s possible, but I didn’t do anything more than talk about coding languages with you. You’re just naturally one of the best student coders I’ve seen.” I blushed, “Thanks…” I timidly asked, “Do you think I’ll be in trouble?” “Well to manage to cheat on that test would be really tough! You’d have to be an amazing hacker and have gotten access to it in advance,” she glared at me, “which I know you actually are, but they don’t!” I giggled, “And a memory beyond even yours, I think! Also, I’ve never actually had much of a reason to be involved with them other than to suggest the AI problem.” “That one may be the problem though?” I asked. “Did you solve it?” I shrugged, “I think so?” “Hopefully he brings a printout of your test and I’ll be able to show him some reasons it’s your work. You have a couple quirks I’ve noticed in your code that still leave it functional, but just aren’t standard practices here. Really you’re like a dinosaur with most of your code!” I stuck my tongue out at her, “I know, that’s why I’m here!” “Okay, you said you wanted pictures?” “Me with the dolphin? Maybe one from earlier with our new haircuts so I can show her who I’m talking about with Bella?” She nodded, “Give me a few minutes and I’ll e-mail you those. It’ll be a bit quicker…” “Thanks!” I said and went back to my e-mail. Today we went to get Bella’s and my hair styled in the morning. I’m attaching a picture so you can see my new haircut and what Bella looks like. I really like my hair! I mean I know I still look like I’m in elementary school, but at least it is an improvement over daycare bound? That unfortunately I think describes Bella’s haircut… Unfortunately, things seem to be continuing with whoever we made mad, so Bella has volunteered to play baby more… I’m not sure how I feel about it – but I am sure it’s nothing Amanda is forcing her into at least… It’s weird that I’ve only been here a few weeks and already feel a bit jealous about someone else moving into my space! Guess being an only child couldn’t last in both dimensions! This afternoon after a university luncheon (you should see the size of crab legs here!!!!) I took my placement test for computer science. I felt like I did pretty well, and I think that I’m one of the very few who finished the test today. Not sure anyone else did actually… I just barely clicked submit before it ended, so hopefully it was okay. There was an email from the proctor though that wants to meet with Amanda, my advisor, little’s dean, and myself tomorrow. That part sounds odd and I just hope everything is okay. I’m personally guessing he’s going to have some bias that there’s no way a little could have completed the test without cheating… I’m REALLY glad I have Amanda in my court though! I know she’ll make things work out! “Check your e-mail sweetie,” Amanda said as she patted my head, “then wrap up your e-mail and let’s get you in the bath.” “Kay Mommy,” I told her. I minimized the window and found her e-mailed pictures. I hadn’t had a chance to see the pictures of me and Suzy swimming, but Fred had clearly outdone himself and gotten some amazing ones! I immediately decided that one with me holding onto Suzies fin leaping out of the water was my favorite! My face and smile were fully visible, and it would be my new profile picture if I ever did social media stuff in this dimension. I selected that one, one with Amanda and I and our dolphins, one with all of us plus the characters before dinner, and then one that Amanda had taken with both Bella and I that morning with our haircuts. I quickly compressed them a lot more for the trip through the dimensional link, before I attached them to the e-mail. Amanda just sent me those pictures and I’ve attached them. I think you’ll be aweing a bit. I need to go now; I’ll e-mail you again when I get a chance. Not sure what the next couple days will be like. Love you! Stacy I clicked send and saw Amanda waiting for me, “Ready?” I nodded, “Thanks for being patient.” “I know you had a lot to tell your mom,” she said as she took my closed laptop from me, my cord off the chair, and then released me from the highchair. As she picked me up, she gave me a squeeze, “I love you Princess, I want you to know that. You’ve only been here a short while but I can’t imagine what life will be like without you.” I smiled at her, “I love you too Mommy,” and returned the hug. She carried me to the bathroom and I chose to use the diaper for what little urine I had and realized she’d never brought a bottle to me and I was really thirsty. “I’m thirsty…” I told her. “Oops… I never brought you a bottle,” she said, “I’m so sorry…” “Any chance you could get me something before the bath? I really am thirsty…” She stood back up from where she’d been about to set me down and carried me downstairs to the kitchen. From the fridge she pulled out a juice bottle that had already been poured and handed it to me, “Here you go sweetie.” She began walking upstairs while I was drinking out of it still. I was so thirsty I had about three-quarters of it gone before we got back to the bathroom. “You really did need something, I’m so sorry I forgot about you baby,” she told me with a squeeze. I pulled it out of my mouth, “It’s okay, I know Bella distracted you.” She hugged me and sighed, “We’re both going to have to get used to me having two girls to care for.” I nodded and she grabbed the bottle from me and pulled my jumper over my head, top over my head, then pulled the tapes of my diaper open while I stood and she wiped me real quick with a wipe. “Can you take off your socks while I check the water?” She asked me. I nodded and pulled them off, leaving me completely naked. “Let’s put this shower cap on your hair today,” she told me, “it’ll make tomorrow a bit easier.” I nodded and after she placed it on my head, she plunked me into the bath. “Water okay?” She asked me. I nodded and let her begin to wash me. She was gentle and thorough as always and asked, “I’m trying to remember, what’s tomorrow’s schedule?” “It should have just been my math test and a visit with my advisor maybe? He hadn’t sent me an e-mail yet?” “But now we have the meeting with everyone…” “Yeah,” I sighed. “Do you think I’m in big trouble?” She shook her head, “You didn’t cheat. There are cameras running to make sure you weren’t looking around at other students. You turned your phone off, right?” I nodded, “I didn’t even have it – you had it,” and thought for a second, “I didn’t my watch though?” She shook her head, “You and I both know it can make video phone calls, but it’s something that would have been obvious to everyone. The video will show you weren’t looking at it either. It’s a protective measure for you as a little so I don’t think they’d have any ability to say anything.” I nodded, “Hope your right.” “The worst thing they could say is that I somehow pre-taught you the exam, but like I said – you do weird things with code that are uniquely Stacy. I read the e-mail and responded myself that we would be there. Doctor Butler being there too is a good thing. He knows my code and after ten seconds of looking at yours he’ll know it wasn’t mine.” “Anyway, it’s just the test tomorrow otherwise? There’s a movie night at 9pm, but of course that’s not for the littles.” “It’s so unfair that the littles get to miss all of the best parts of college orientation!” Amanda said sadly. “We could have our own movie night tomorrow night if you wanted?” “Really?” “Make it a pool party and invite Megan?” She suggested. “How about your parents too?” She shook her head, “If I invite them… it can’t just be them - it’s one of our family rules. I can’t only invite one sister along… So, I’d have to invite Cassie and Chloe.” “Yuck,” I said. “Just Megan then!” “You can show her your big girl bed then!” She smiled at me. “Why didn’t you just buy another crib?” I asked. “I told you earlier… as much as it goes against my instincts, I have to let you grow up some. The original plan was to turn your crib into the toddler bed last week.” “What happened?” I asked curiously. She flushed and looked embarrassed, “It was too easy to want to just keep you safe in a crib? Every instinct of my being wants to just keep you as a baby… This weekend reminded me more of the stakes.” “What about Bella?” I asked. “Once things cool off again, I’ll ask her if she would be happier in her own big girl bed too.” She shook her head, “I have a feeling though she’ll tell me she’d rather keep the crib though.” “That’s weird…” I told her. “Is she at least going to be able to play with her sewing stuff at all?” Amanda shook her head, “Not until things cool down a lot. Once it does maybe we can set her up to do it if your Daddy or I can watch her.” “I feel so bad for her,” I told her, “But I’m also jealous…” “I know, I read over your shoulder… I’m sorry.” “Do I have to be a big girl all of the time at home?” “For a while I think that’s a good idea Stacy… I’d put you in training panties at home if they made them small enough for you.” I laughed at her, “Apparently they barely make diapers small enough for me!” “You know I think Madison kind of did feel bad for you,” she told me. “Given she didn’t mess with me in any other way I think you’re right…” “Come on sweetheart, let’s get you out of the tub now before you shrivel up into a raisin.” “Not that!” I told her as she pulled the plug and wrapped me in a towel. She sat me down on the counter for a moment and handed me a toothbrush to use. As I brushed my teeth, she pulled the shower cap off of my head and pushed my hair behind my ears to keep me from getting toothpaste on it. I spit out the toothpaste and she handed me a cup to rinse out before I spit again. “Let’s get you dressed for bed then,” she told me with a smile. She quietly carried me into the nursery which was lit only by a couple nightlights. Bella’s snores surprisingly loud right then. Silently she dressed me in a thick princess diaper and pulled one of my pink nightgowns over my head before carrying me back out into the hallway and downstairs. I had a moment of hoping that maybe she would let me nurse from her, but that was quickly dashed as she picked up a warmed bottle that had to be plain old milk. I sighed and she squeezed me tight, “I promise I’ll let you nurse Friday night,” knowing the problem, “if you can make it through Saturday without a poopy accident, we’ll do it again Saturday night too.” “So, we can get back to bedtime?” I asked hopefully. “I hope so,” she told me with a smile, “but if it does anything with your control over your poopy, we have to stop. Hopefully it won’t be too late for you by the time we realize that.” That made me think of the littles departing earlier, “I think there will be some poopy littles in the dorms tonight…” “Why do you say that?” I sighed, “I’m pretty sure someone spiked the punch at dinner.” Amanda sighed, “Sounds about right… Well, as long as they have a pull-up or a diaper on tonight, they’re okay.” “Tomorrow during the test, they won’t be though? That counts as in class?” “Yes, it does… they won’t be safe there…” she said softly as she carried me to the rocking chair, and gathering me up in a blanket that she had draped on the chair. I felt calm and relaxed as she sat down and eased me into her arms and laid me back to hold the bottle to my lips. I made no motion to hold it myself and just suckled it gently as she began singing one of her sweet lullabies. ‘WHAT THE HELL is that!’ was my next thought as a loud siren klaxon rang through the air. I sat up in my new bed and saw Bella looking scared in the crib. I heard a car screech away and suddenly Amanda was in the room grabbing me into her arms, followed by Bella. “It’s okay,” she shushed us as she then hurried to their bedroom and shut that door, locking it behind her. “What’s going on?” I asked her. “That’s the intruder alarm.” Sirens filled the night as she took us into their walk-in closet and sat down. Bella began whimpering and having a full-blown panic attack then, while I just wondered why I hadn’t grabbed my switch. ‘What would a shrunken 9mm even do to an Amazon?’ I wondered darkly. ‘I need to do something else with it in case something like this happens again…’ As Bella cried fairly quietly, Amanda wrapped us into a protective hug and said, “shush, it’s okay…” As the door to the closet suddenly opened, I smelt something that told me Bella had another reason to cry now. I looked up, afraid of who was coming in… Chapter 7: Added Up I NERVOUSLY LOOKED up in the dark at the opening door and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that it was just Fred! He knelt down and wrapped us all in a hug. “It’s okay girls,” he said while wiping off tears from my face that I didn’t know I had, “the police are here. They’re looking around downstairs and want to speak with us.” “Okay,” Amanda said, her voice a little shaky, “you want to take Stacy? I’m going to need to change Bella before we go downstairs.” Bella was hiccoughing non-stop, and I wondered if there was any point into bringing her down at all. Fred took me and gave me a tight squeeze, “It’s okay,” he told me as he and Amanda split up at the staircase. Downstairs I could see that someone had smashed through the glass of the back door. It seemed clear to me that they had shattered the glass, tried to get in, and then were being frightened off by the alarm sounding. “I thought the backyard was supposed to be covered now…?” I whispered to him. He squeezed me tight, “It’s supposed to be! That is a good question we need to answer,” he told me. “I’m not sure how they got around that grid.” Several cops were walking around with flashlights looking everywhere. “Sir, you have a pretty sophisticated system here, do you have cameras hooked up by chance?” A young officer asked. Fred sat me down in the playpen and grabbed for his phone. ‘Gee thanks…’ I thought as I was penned away like some dumb baby then. Knowing there wasn’t anything else I could do I sat down with a sigh and rubbed my eyes. “Here you go officer,” he said as he played a video with sound that I could hear glass break on, then the alarm went off. “They’re all wearing masks…” the officer frowned. “And gloves it looks like too…” “I doubt we find much right now rookie,” an older officer said. “Go look around the other side of the fence. Maybe someone dropped something before they hopped over.” “Yes sir,” he said and walked away. Amanda came down about then with Bella swaddled tightly in a light blanket. She cuddled her in her arms like a small infant more my size. She’d thrown a robe on too before coming down. “Sir, I noticed as we looked at your address that there was an incident this afternoon with your wife and daughter?” Fred nodded, “Amanda was with Stacy at the university and someone shoved her down and tried to grab Stacy and run with her.” “The school gave us a sketch,” he said while opening up the tablet he had for notes, “was this her?” “Yes, that’s the drawing my daughter gave.” “Well it looks like she’s been identified but not picked up yet…” he said and walked over to me, “Is this her?” He leaned over the rail of the playpen and showed me a picture of the same woman that Amanda had identified earlier. “Yes sir,” I said, “who is she?” I asked to pretend I didn’t know yet. “Her name is Serena Ricci, and she’s a bad lady,” he told me like I was an idiot. “I got that part when she tried to kidnap me and scramble my brains officer.” I glared at him. Fred reached back over and picked me up from the playpen. I think he did so to keep me from jumping over the rail and decking the cop! “Sorry, I guess you would have, huh?” “Excuse me?” A woman detective asked towards Fred mainly, “Did you just have one security system or two?” “It’s actually three,” Amanda told her. “Three systems?” she asked in surprise, “Why?” “Just a hunch,” Fred told them. “When we adopted our baby girl over here this weekend, we seem to have gotten a group angry at us.” A knocking on the front door interrupted anything else they would have said. “Excuse me,” Fred said and I sat in his arms as he peeked through the peephole for a second and then opened up the door. “Hi Joe,” he told Grandpa who had shown up. “What the hell happened?” He asked. I watched the lead detective gulp before he reached his hand out and said, “Hey Joe, how are you doing?” “Pretty good Jake, except this crap happening to my daughter!” He looked at the back door and then at us, “Is everyone okay?” “Yes Daddy,” Amanda told him as he gave her and Bella a hug. He gave me a friendly wave before saying, “Your video cameras get anything?” “Not anything usable…” Amanda said. “I’m going to go back and look at the backyard myself. How did they get past that system?” “I think the detective here was about to tell us that Joe,” Fred said. He looked at the detective who had been asking questions and she seemed to gulp nervously before saying, “It looks like they managed to splice the power line and feed over on the system that was on the exterior. I think they believed they’d knocked down the whole system, but Ma’am you said you had two other systems?” “Yes, redundancies just in case…” Amanda looked nervous, “I never would have dreamed they’d be needed though. That first layer is not your average system…” “Let me go take a look at it,” Joe said and I watched as he left the room. “Joe’s your dad?” The older detective asked Amanda. “Yes sir, he is, how do you know him?” “He’s helped us out a number of times over the years. I also sparred with him during a training seminar he did one time when I was younger and dumber… Didn’t make that mistake again!” Amanda laughed, “He’s pretty intense.” Another thirty minutes of questions being asked, and re-asked, occurred before Joe signed a copy of the initial police report. They left at about 3am with not much more than a promise of extra patrols. In the end it was just a relief to get them out of the house! Fred and Amanda still held us. I was wide awake, but Bella had long since succumbed to her stress and went to sleep in Amanda’s arms. Joe came in it didn’t help calm me down when he said, “Mandy, I don’t know how we’re going to stop these guys… they’re not amateurs.” “What did you find Dad?” she asked. “Why don’t you put the girls back to bed first and then come to look with me?” “Can I come?” I asked. He looked at me oddly but nodded, “She might see something else we don’t.” Amanda whispered to Fred, “Here, can you put Bella back in her crib and I’ll take Stacy?” “Sure,” he said and they performed a baby swap maneuver that was more than a little awkward for me, but Bella never stirred. “I’ll stay upstairs with her until you get done.” “Thanks honey, I’m guessing she’ll be upset when she wakes up again.” Amanda stood and watched him go upstairs for a moment before readjusting me on her hip and saying, “What did you find?” “Over here,” he said as he led out the broken glass door. At the edge of the closes fence post to the house you could see they’d pulled a board away and accessed a cable running along it for one set of motion sensors. Some alligator clips were visibly still hanging onto the line. “I think this was their first point of entry,” he said. “Makes sense…” she said as she examined it, “Not bad actually… but that only got that side of the yard down…” “They hit the system control panel over here next,” he told her. A gray box concealed some of the guts of the new system. As she came up to it, I could see a little black cube hooked into it with some leads of some sort sticking out. “What is it?” I asked. “I don’t actually know Stacy… You recognize it Dad?” He nodded, “It’s military grade equipment – we give them to our special ops people for when they run into systems like this.” “Shit…” Amanda said. “How can they be this pissed off about one little?” “There’s got to be something more going on here that you don’t know,” Joe said. “Is this booby trapped?” She asked him as she pointed to the device. “They didn’t used to be,” he told her. “Be careful…” he warned. Amanda sat me down on the ground and used her fingers to pull the little device loose. When nothing happened except the alarm starting to beep, we all breathed a sigh of relief. “Come on, let’s get you both back inside. Do you want to come over to our house tonight to sleep?” “Daddy I have two babies…” “We still have a crib upstairs in the nursery they could use?” Amanda shook her head, “It’s not like we have a long time to sleep now anyway. I’m going to put this one back in her bed at least so she can at least try to get some sleep before her math exam.” I groaned, “Why couldn’t they have picked another night to do this stuff?” “Well Stacy, as soon as I figure out who’s behind this there’s going to be some hell to pay from me. No one messes with my family and gets away with it!” “Thanks Daddy,” Amanda said at the bottom of the stairs. “I’ll send Fred down so he can help you figure out the door in a moment.” “Sounds good,” he said. “Come on Princess,” she told me and carried me up the stairs. She walked down the hallway to her workshop first though and put the cube in a box that she had. “What’s that?” I asked her sleepily. “Souped up Faraday cage,” she told me. “Just in case it’s more than it obviously is. It’s also thick enough that if it’s an explosive the box should contain it…” “That’s a pleasant thought…” I said as she carried me into the nursery. Fred was watching over a sleeping Bella from the rocking chair as we came in. Amanda felt my diaper, decided it needed changed, and walked over to the changing table to quickly change me into another of the princess diapers. “Try and get some sleep if you can,” she whispered as she tucked me in my new toddler bed. Not having the rails actually made me more nervous about everything then. “Mommy?” I asked. “Yes sweetie?” “Paci?” She smiled and found one that she placed in my mouth before kissing me on the forehead and said, “Good night, we’ll keep you safe – I promise!” “Lub you,” I told her around the pacifier and watched as she and walked away. “Love you too baby,” she told me. I tossed and turned for a long while then. Between Bella’s occasional whimpers, other sounds in the house, and everything it took me a long while to fall asleep in my new bed. The last time I looked at the clock it said 5:30am. MORNING CAME WAY too early as Amanda had to tickle me to wake up. “Shh…” she said though and I could tell that Bella was probably still asleep. I sighed and asked, “What time is it?” as she carried me from the nursery. “Eight-thirty,” she said, “I figure you need to get some breakfast and coffee in you before you go for your test.” “Lots of coffee…” Fred must have heard me say that as she rounded the last step with me. He said, “Believe me, when we finish this pot, I’ll be brewing another! Glad I didn’t have any procedures scheduled for today.” He helped Amanda lift the tray out of the way on my high chair before she had me quickly buckled in, and sat a cup of coffee on my tray. I wasted no time guzzling half of it down in the hopes of waking up. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and tried to focus on the room around me. “Now that’s a proper little,” Grandpa Joe said as he walked over from the living room. I hadn’t noticed him. “Huh?” “Coffee drinker!” He laughed, “Good for your momma for letting you have it too!” I blushed, “More like addict…” I admitted. He went and poured another cup for himself too. By the time Amanda brought over a plate of eggs, bacon, and pancakes I had already finished the first cup. “This is the only time I’m not going to give you a hard time on drinking too much coffee… just be warned you will probably have a really soaked diaper,” she warned. I nodded, “As long as it’s not the one Madison put me in…” Amanda snorted out some of her coffee with that comment, “I do have those two spares if you really want them? You could probably last a full twenty-four hours in one!” I glared at her and took another long drink of coffee before working on the eggs. Half an hour or so later I felt the need to use my potty. “May I get down and use my potty?” I asked Amanda. I turned red as I asked, and even redder as Grandpa Joe half-watched while I grunted a large log into the potty. As soon as I was done, and wiped clean, Amanda carried me upstairs to get changed. “Do you want a princess diaper to be sure you can get through the test?” “I can barely walk when they’re wet…” “Better than having to change your uniform or being told to go without your uniform because you’re not mature enough for it?” I sighed and consented in the end, “You’ll be around when I’m done to change me, right? I can’t pull those tapes off…” “I should be, and if I’m not I’ll get Megan to swing by.” “Kay,” I told her and raised my bottom to let her put the offensive pink garment on me. She handed my skirt and blouse before helping with my shoes and my hair. When she was done, she gave me a hug and sat me on the ground, “I need to get your sister up. As soon as I’m done getting her ready, we’ll get going.” I just nodded and walked to my desk chair. As soon as she gently woke Bella up the poor girl began to sob hysterically. I sighed and opened my backpack up to see if it had enough spare diapers in it. Amanda must have restocked it at some point because six new pampers were stashed at the bottom of the bag. ‘I’m going to throw in two more to be safe…’ I thought. I also checked on wipes and was glad to see there were a lot left in the little pouch still. “It’s okay Bella, we’re not going to let anything happen to you,” Amanda told her as she changed her diaper and outfit. She was crying, “But… it’s all my fault – and I don’t even understand why they want me this bad! You should just call them and give me away…” “No chance silly girl,” Amanda said, “You are part of our family now, and I’m not about to let any two-bit crooks get you or Stacy!” She continued crying and I watched Amanda’s face cloud for a second before she moved her blouse out of the way and offered Bella a breast that she latched onto with some encouragement. I looked away so I wouldn’t be as jealous, “I’m going downstairs Mommy… we need to go in not too long.” I reminded her. “Let me just try and get Bella sorted here and we’ll go,” she told me. The princess diapers had at one point seemed like the thickest things I could possibly wear, but after last night’s diaper they felt thinner than the really thin diaper that I’d tried the first day! I had a bit of a waddle going downstairs, but it wasn’t too bad compared to the pillow. Downstairs Fred looked up from his paper and said, “Your mommy almost down?” I shook my head, “Bella was having a panic attack or something when she woke up, so she’s trying to get her calmed down.” I looked at my watch anxiously every couple of minutes. It was almost 9:30 when Amanda finally walked downstairs with Bella on her side, along with the bigger diaper bag. “You have your backpack Stacy?” I nodded and held it up, “Let’s go then.” “Dumb question but you have a stylus, right?” “Yes Mommy,” I said but double-checked and saw I had a plethora of pencils, pens, and my tablet stylus. “Come on then,” she said and she leaned down to pick me up. She stopped at Bella’s side of the car first and said, “I’ve got to put you down here sweetie, I promise we’ll be in the car too in just a second though.” As she carried me around to the other side I asked, “Is she okay?” Amanda seemed unsure, “She’s acting almost like we’d regressed her this morning – I’m not sure what’s going on. I’m hoping she’ll snap out of it this afternoon… There’s no way I can leave her with Daddy this morning though, so I’m going to have to take her to my office with me. I had your daddy put your playpen in the car to put in my office. No one will think it weird to have a newly adopted little there with me. We’ll have to pick up another one for home later though.” I nodded as she opened my door and laid me back in my carrier seat and buckled me in. Fortunately, she wasted no time getting going down the road. I lay in my seat and hoped that I would be able to focus on the stupid math test! I was exhausted from not sleeping, and was fighting my eyes closing even with all of the coffee I’d drank with breakfast! Bella kept sniffling in her seat and I could see tears still going down her face still as we pulled into Amanda’s parking spot. Just as she put the car into park, I heard a fart and smelled that Bella had definitely finished off her current diaper. A look at my watch showed it was quarter till nine and we still had a bit of quick walk to go! Setting me down on the ground she seemed to know we needed to hurry. I heard Amanda groan as she opened Bella’s door, “Sorry, Bella,” she told the whimpering girl, “you’ll have to wait until we get Stacy to the test and then we’ll get you cleaned up. She grabbed the diaper bag and quickly wrapped Bella up in the blanket before I had to follow along. On the ride up to the lecture hall level one of the Amazon girls on the elevator said, “Oh my, someone is stinky!” “This one?” another girl said and pulled my skirt up and checked my diaper without asking. “Aww… what a cute diapee!” I blushed and wanted to smack the girl. “No, it’s definitely this daughter. Next time leave my other baby girls skirt down. I’m more than capable of checking my daughter for a messy diaper myself.” “Sorry ma’am…” the girl that pulled my dress said. “Professor,” she told her tersely. “Umm… sorry Professor,” she said and blushed more herself as the elevator door opened. Amanda patted me on the head and walked with me as far as the sign-in table before saying, “I’m going to go change the stinker and head to my office. If Megan or I’m not here when you’re done, go upstairs. You can always stay with Kim until I get back if I’m not there.” “Kay, Mommy,” I told her as I nervously waited through the crowd signing in. Towards the front of the line I heard, “Stacy!” I turned and saw Laura, “Hi Laura,” I told her sleepily. “You don’t look so good,” she said. I looked at her and made the same observation, “Neither do you?” “You have the runs all night too?” I shook my head, “No, that would have been easier to deal with…” She looked embarrassed and shocked that I didn’t think that was bad, so I added, “of course I’m in diapers all the time and used to it, but you’re not…” “How come you didn’t get them then? The whole dorm had them,” she whispered to me. “Most every little is in a diaper today and we’ve been warned we’re not allowed to take them off ourselves to use the potty…” she blushed. “I’d guessed that they spiked the punch and didn’t drink any of it,” I told her. “It’s why I always have a sealed bottle of water in my backpack.” Her eyes opened as we got to the front and an Amazon leaned over the table. “Name?” He asked me “Stacy Westerfield,” I said with more confidence than I felt right then. He looked at something on the table before handing me a clear wrapped packet, “head on inside.” “Laura Windsor,” I heard Laura say and I waited for her to get hers and walk in together. An amazon girl who must have been a TA looked at us with disdain and said, “We have some little seats up front for you two.” “Thanks,” I said with a pleasant smile even though the comment was meant to be demeaning. It was a very large lecture hall that descended as you closed into the front. At the very front of the lecture room there was indeed a row of little sized seats that looked to be almost little highchairs. Something about them seemed ridiculous, but I wasted no time walking up to them and was surprised they didn’t have the little straps to hold us in. To my dismay, I was still a little small for them and reach the little side table, so I grabbed the booster from inside my backpack and put it on the chair. “You need a booster on a little sized seat?” a nearby little asked me. “Yeah, seems like it…” “How tiny are you?” “Thirty-six-and-a-half inches tall,” I told her with a smile. The girl in question actually seemed much larger than most of the littles I’d hung around so far. She seemed like she was probably closer to my old height. “Wow… That’s like newborn size when an Amazon gets ahold of you, ouch…” she whispered. “Yes, it is,” I told her. “Though actually three months for the clothing size,” I told her before grimacing, “Unless it’s a swimsuit…” “I’m Kristina,” she told me. “Like my adopted cousin…” I said, “I can remember that. Though you’re able to do a lot more than her…” “Adopted cousin…?” She asked. “On my adopted mommy’s side,” I told her. “Wait… you’re adopted?” I nodded. “But how are you here…” “Just go with it,” Laura said, “She’s got like the perfect setup where her adopted parents actually let her go to college…” “What do they get out of it then?” “Well I’m paying for room and board… but I’m also letting her get some of her… umm… maternal desires out… or at least I was…” “Was?” Laura asked. “My new adopted baby sister seems to be getting a lot more of that time now than I am.” “Well that’s got to be good, right?” Laura asked. I blushed and shrugged, “I’m not going to lie… I kind of liked the attention.” I dug out my several pencils, and got set with the table in front of me for the test. I remembered that Amanda asked about my stylus so I set it next to my pencils too. “How do you think you’re going to do on this?” Kristina asked. I shrugged, “I took a lot of calculus in high school, but this is a new dimension for me.” “Wait… what?” She asked just as a professor started speaking directly in front of us. “Good morning ladies and gentlemen, I am Professor Lieberman. I want to get this test started on time this morning so we have plenty of time to grade your tests and have results to your advisors. You should have each received a wrapped packet – please open it at this time.” I followed his direction and undid the plastic wrapping on the test. When done I expected it to separate out into a test booklet, scratch paper, and a scantron style document like my tests back home. ‘I’m surprised they have these still…’ I thought before I opened it and realized that what I thought was completely wrong. ‘I guess I see why Amanda asked me about the stylus,’ I thought to myself as I looked at the contents. There was only a fairly thin… electronic tablet? It looked more like an old-fashioned piece of transparency for those old projectors that math teachers liked to use. That was the only thing I could think of calling it though as it activated itself and the professor said, “Once you have your tests open you may begin. You have two hours for this test. We will be looking at your work for any questions we may have on how you arrived at your answers. If you’re borderline on passing into a regular math class that may sway us one way or another, so I recommend you show us that work. Any questions? No, good luck!” On the screen it asked for my name, network username, and password before it advanced to the first question. For question one I could clearly see that it gave a spot to select the answer like a bubble, but also space below to work out the problem. I grabbed the stylus and pressed on the screen and was rewarded with it drawing a line. I took that to mean I just used it to write directly on the screen, and began working through each problem and tuned out the world around me. Not even fifteen minutes into the test the coffee began calling out to me, and with a sigh I just let it go in the diaper, knowing it would hold anything I could throw at it. I paid neither my bladder, nor the diaper, any mind after that though and kept answering questions. I’d made it through forty questions when the professor said we had a half-hour remaining. His announcement made me notice the room again. I heard a whimper, a fart, and smelled something awful coming from beside me. One of the proctors came over and began smelling down the row. She looked at me, “Would you please lean forward?” “Why?” I asked stupidly as she pulled my dress up to show my diaper to the world and looked in the back of it. “Wet, but all clean! What a big girl you are with such a pretty baby diaper on!” She said to me eliciting some giggles from the auditorium. She moved down to the next chair where Kristina sat and I glanced over to realize this was a bad thing. The poor girl was shaking and sure enough when she was made to lean forward the girl said, “Uh-oh, someone made us a big pwesent in her diapee! Let’s press complete on this test since I’m sure it’s probably too hard for you anyway, and then we’ll get you to your Deans office so she can give you your spanking and eight demerits. You might set a new school record for getting kicked out of Emerson and going back to daycare to be with the other babies!” Around the room the giggles were everywhere, and I felt terrible for the girl as she was led waddling out with her things up the staircase. Everyone in the room seemed glued to her walk of shame. Just as she was almost to the top of the room, someone tripped her and she fell back on her butt. Instantly you could see that she had splattered the runny poop out of her diaper! The disgusting mess ran down her legs as she was helped up and continued to leave, obviously crying. ‘Poor baby,’ and ‘look at the poopy pants,’ were among the many comments I heard. The taunts from the Amazons continued until the professor said, “Enough! Back to work!” I gulped and wondered if I should take one of my charms just to be safe! I focused back in on the test though. The questions kept me on constant guard with the adjustment to Base 60 math. Why this dimension kept using that, instead of adjusting to Base 10 after the Babylonians faded from history, I still hadn’t found out! It wasn’t the most difficult thing, but it meant there were several times I had to slap myself and re-answer a question. A trick question almost got me midway through. I almost missed my mistake because they had given the right answer in Base 10 as an option too! I giggled quietly though when one of the last questions asked for students to treat the question as a Base 10 math question. I was pretty sure that one had an answer from me quicker than any of the others in the room. I pressed submit on the final question with fifteen minutes still left on the running clock. As I looked up the professor noticed I was done and came over, “Gave up?” “Gave up?” I asked confused, “No? Question fifty was the last question, right?” “Uhh… yeah it was.” “I just finished it. Do we turn this into you and leave?” I asked with a whisper since I had noted others had been turning them into him. “Yes, umm… go ahead and hand it to me,” he said. “Thanks Doctor Lieberman,” I told him while I awkwardly stood up in my excessively puffy diaper. The stupid diaper had done as advertised and made it a tough struggle to walk up the steps without crawling. I pushed on though even through the giggles of the Amazons I passed. I heard more than one, “Oh just crawl sweetie, you’re obviously not ready to walk,” before I got up to the top. I sighed as I waddled through the open door and realized I had Laura right behind me. “Why did you wear such a thick diaper?” she asked me. “I didn’t want to risk the wet dress after the gallon of coffee I drank earlier,” I told her quietly knowing some wouldn’t approve of a little having that beverage. “You get to drink coffee?” she hissed. I smiled, “I really do have an awesome mommy.” “I don’t want a mommy besides my real one, but yeah… I’m not going to lie – I’m jealous – I know I won’t get that lucky if it happens to me. Where are you going now?” “Upstairs to her office.” “Oh, that’s right, you said she’s a professor here?” “Yeah, what are you doing?” “Well today is the first day they haven’t insisted on us being led back to the dorms on those stupid ropes, so they said we could get lunch on our own?” I smiled at her, “That’s cool… I have a meeting in an hour I have to go to, but you want to go up and see if my mommy wants to go to lunch with us at the union?” “Umm…” “She’s really not one of those crazy Amazons… the only reason I have a new sister is because we were saving her from a nasty flight stewardess… who turned out to be connected to some crazy group that kind of has me angry right now…” She looked at me like I was nuts, but shrugged, “Sure!” I smiled at her and walked to the elevator with her. An amazon girl had called for a down elevator, “Would you please push the up button for us?” I asked nicely. She looked at me with a smile, “Why on earth are you going upstairs? You should know better than to play with the elevators…” “Mommy works up there,” I said with a smile. Her face contorted but she pressed it anyway. We ended up getting an elevator before her and Laura started giggling as soon as the door closed. “You do that way too well!” She kidded me. “Well, I am adopted… Trust me when I’ve been in baby mode, I’ve learned it’s a good idea to develop that skill!” “What do you mean?” She asked. The doors opened though, “I’ll tell you some other time. Let’s just say that there’s not much I haven’t done since getting here…” She had a horrified look on her face but I shrugged, “Hi Miss Kim,” I said to Kimberly as the door opened. “Well hi Stacy,” she said, “your mommy is back in her office. I’ll let her know you’re on your way back.” “Great!” We kept walking without her asking me anything about Laura to my surprise. As we came to her office, she opened the door holding Bella who seemed to actually be smiling. “Well there you are Stacy!” She said with a smile, “Who’s your friend?” “Mommy this is Laura, she’s in my nest.” “Nice… nice to meet you,” Laura said while noting Bella was in a very babyish sunsuit with a very wet diaper on display. “You too,” Amanda said. “I’m Bella,” Bella actually spoke to my surprise given the way she’d been acting when I saw her last. Amanda closed the office door and directed us towards the couch. “We have that meeting at one, so Daddy is supposed to come get Bella soon… but I don’t know how we’ll get lunch in time.” “Well… May I just go with Laura to lunch at the union and meet you at the administration building?” She looked at me like I was crazy, “after last night and yesterday you want me to let you go alone?” “They won’t expect me to be alone with another little after that. If I were them, I’d back off for a while…” She shook her head but shrugged, “I said you needed to be a big girl now, so I guess that’s this. You want your diaper changed really quick?” “Please?” I asked. She made no attempt to preserve my modesty to Laura as she quickly pulled a changing mat out and laid me down on it and grabbed a diaper from a box that now sat in a cabinet next to the couch. My naked crotch was wiped and sealed back in a normal Pamper when I heard a fart and smelled an accident. “Bella what did you eat?” I asked but then realized it was Laura that was looking red and embarrassed. “Oh no, you poor thing,” Amanda said guessing it too. “I can change you into one of Bella’s regular Pampers if you want? Or give you one to go change in the restroom?” “We’re not allowed to change ourselves after last night…” “My mommy can change you though, right?” I paused, “What exactly did they say?” “A ‘grown-up’ had to do it.” “Well, Mommy’s a grown-up professor, so no worries. How were they going to enforce it?” “My diaper is little proof,” she said with a shamed face. “Hop up Princess, and go to the diaper bag and get me one of Bella’s Pampers. She won’t need them since I’m keeping her in the princess diapers most of the time right now.” “You don’t have to…” Laura tried to say but Amanda just picked her up and put her down on the changing pad I had been laying on. “One of Stacy’s would definitely be too small, but other than being a little bit big I’m guessing Bella’s will fit you fine. She has some weird hip measurements that means a regular baby diaper has to be smaller.” “In other words, I have no hips,” Bella grumbled. “Neither do I,” I reminded her. I turned away for Laura’s sake as Amanda opened up the stinkiest diaper I’d smelled yet! From the sounds Amanda made, she thought it was bad too, “They spiked the punch last night?” She asked as she taped the new one on. “That’s what Stacy thinks…” “Tell you what, there’s a bottle of water in my fridge you can have that’s safe. Maybe we can get permission this weekend for you to sleepover at our house one night, and we’ll go on a supply run for you to get some drinks that you can be sure aren’t messed with.” “What about the coke machines? They wouldn’t be able to mess with those, would they?” Amanda shook her head, “I wouldn’t count on it right now. Especially when there are so many littles that can be caught with poopy diapers in class.” “I know… that poor girl,” Laura sniffed. “Poor girl?” Bella asked. I nodded as I grabbed my backpack, “A girl we just met… She was actually practically a betweener sized girl… Well, let’s just say what Laura just let out was practically the smell of roses compared to her mess. Some jerk tripped her going up the stairs on the walk of shame she was already taking to the dean’s office. She fell back straight back on her butt and smushed it.” “Eew…” Bella said. “Yeah, from experience I know that sucks.” “If you’re going to go to lunch girls, you’d better get going. Don’t be late to the meeting Stacy!” Amanda told me. “We’ll be quick,” I told her as she opened the door. “Miss Kim would you please call for the elevator to go to the first floor for us?” “Sure sweetie,” she told me. “Who’s your friend?” “Oh, this is Laura,” I told her. “Nice to meet you ma’am,” Laura said nervously. “Oh, don’t worry if you’re up on this floor sweetie, Doctor Westerfield and I only have littles because we were keeping them out of the hands of other people. You’re safe from me.” “Thank you, ma’am,” she said unsure of herself as the door opened. Kim stepped in briefly to press ‘1’ and said, “Have a good day girls!” “That was so embarrassing,” Laura said as the elevator went down. “Better than Kristina?” “Well definitely better than her…” Chapter 8: Verdicts WE BEGAN WALKING quickly down the path to the student union, which wasn’t too far. Inside there was a long line of littles at a sandwich restaurant that reminded me of Subway. Some sign said ‘Little’s Special Today! $1 Six-Inch sandwich and chips!’ and I said, “Split a pizza?” “But they said there’s a special…” “Special probably means ‘special’” I said while holding up my fingers in quotes. “Oh… really?” “Blondie you’re going to have to be a lot more careful if you want to actually make it through this week, let alone four years here…” She nodded in reply, but didn’t say anything else as we joined a small line of amazons waiting for some pre-made pizzas that reminded me of Pizza Hut. “One pepperoni,” I said to the guy at the counter. “We don’t have little sized ready…” “I don’t mind the big one, we’re sharing,” I told him. He looked at me oddly but nodded, “Well if you’re going to be cautious like that, I won’t keep you from having something smart.” I didn’t fully know if he meant that they were the safe ones or not, but I just handed him my card which I knew had money on it to swipe. “You’re all good sweetheart,” he told me as he handed me the personal pizza that might as well have been a very large size pizza to me back home. “Thanks!” I said and found our way over to a little sized table. “Why didn’t you get the little special?” Someone asked us as we sat down next to them, “Only one dollar today!” “Because it’s probably spiked with something?” I said casually. “Like the punch last night?” They looked at the half-eaten sandwich in horror and ran out to the bathroom while throwing their food away. “Was that mean?” I asked Laura as she took a piece and began cutting it in thirds to eat it. “No… Not nice, but not mean…” I kept a close eye on my watch for the time and ended up filling her in more on my life since I’d arrived in the dimension. “You’ve really breastfed?” She asked quietly. I nodded. “How do you still have control?” I sighed, “I haven’t nursed in a week… and I hate it.” “But…” “I think if I only do at night it won’t be a huge problem, but Amanda wants to wait until the weekend to test that.” “Why would you want that?” “It’s calming…” I started, “and I kind of like not knowing that I need to pee in the middle of the night. I lose bladder control for the full night, and usually don’t notice my bladder the next day.” “But if you poop…” “Yeah… so I’m restricted until we can figure it out… or I can find a way to counteract that part of it.” We talked about the test and some other things about Emerson while we both ate. I had a lot of fun talking to her – she reminded me of Gaby actually! I looked at my watch again as I was full, “I’ve got to go next door to the administration building, see you later?” “Sure! If nothing else, see you tomorrow at the little seminars?” “Sounds good – be careful what you eat or drink before then… and if you feel like it’s going to happen let me know and I’ll give you something to keep you from going… it’ll just have some side-effects you have to worry about.” She looked skeptically at me but nodded, “Okay.” I gathered my backpack and dodged the large amazons moving to and fro, out the door, and across the lawn to the large administration building. More than any of the other building I had seen, this one reminded me of a traditional Ivy League campus back home. “I’m looking for Dean Sanders office?” I told the lady on the front floor. “Already in trouble dear?” She said as she sniffed the air a bit to see if I had a poopy diaper. “No ma’am, at least I don’t think so… I think it’s about a test result?” “Well either way you’re going to go upstairs to the third floor, let me call the elevator for you,” she said with a smile. “Thanks,” I said and then “Have a great day,” when she left the elevator. On the third floor I quickly found Amanda waiting patiently in a chair next to Doctor Butler outside the office. They were having what seemed to be an amicable conversation. I walked up to her and she possessively picked me up onto her lap as the sounds of blood curdling screaming came from the office we were waiting to go into. “Bad baby!” was accompanied with more smacks and, “Is that what you want to be? A diaper pooping baby?!?” The sad sounds of a bawling girl came loudly for a long uncomfortable few minutes, before eventually a teary-eyed Kristina came out of the office. Earlier she had been dressed in the uniform like I had been, but now she just wore her blouse and a large diaper that had ‘Baby’ in blocks around it. “You have nine demerits young lady, one more and you’ll be in the nursery where I’m pretty sure you belong. This is your last chance! Don’t blow it!” “No ma’am,” she said and walked to the elevator with her head held down without ever noticing her audience. “Poor girl…” Amanda said so quietly only I could hear. “Sorry about that unpleasantness,” she said as she turned towards us. “Doctor Westerfield, Doctor Butler, nice to see you again.” “You too,” Amanda said as she stood and set me on my feet. “And Stacy, so good to see you again too! Sorry you had to see your classmate go through that, but sometimes some littles don’t quite have as exceptional of maturity as you do.” “I can see that…” I said with a hedged statement. “Oh, and Doctor Wernstrom!” she said as the man huffed up from the closing elevator. “Hi Dean Sanders, sorry I’m running late,” he said. “No worries Ogden,” she said, “come on in and let’s meet about whatever you wanted.” She had an office that was surprisingly smaller than Amanda’s, but had a glass conference table to one side that she led us to. Amanda sat me in the office chair before Dean Sanders said, “Oh, sweetie here hold up a second, I keep these chairs especially for my little visitors…” She pulled out a highchair that I immediately recognized as a genuine little high chair; complete with the awkward restraining straps and all! I gulped as Amanda lifted me into it and closed only the waist strap around me. “Aren’t you going to fasten the other straps?” Dean Sanders asked. “I don’t think she needs them,” Amanda said. “Well… I guess you are her mommy,” she said before looking at Dr. Wernstrom. “Just why are you making all of us come to a meeting today? This is one of my busiest days for little discipline problems…” “Sorry ma’am, but this may be one of them too,” he said with a dour look. He turned to me with an intimidating expression on his face, “Yesterday Stacy, you took our placement test for Computer Science.” “Yes sir,” I said. “I don’t know what the problem would be though that would be disciplinary. I didn’t cheat in any way if that’s what you’re implying.” “Young lady, watch your tone…” Dean Sanders said. “Actually ma’am, she’s right I am implying that! I don’t believe any little can take this test and do as well as she did without cheating. Her score makes it obvious that she somehow cheated! As soon as I saw that her code all compiled, and performed the tasks given properly, I knew we needed to meet.” “That’s a very serious accusation,” Amanda said coldly. “Where’s your proof? Did you review the security footage?” “Yes, I did… but she must have done something clever, because I don’t see her looking at any other person’s computer or any devices…” “Wouldn’t that just point to her not cheating?” Doctor Butler asked. “It sounds like the only reason you’re accusing her of cheating is that she scored better than you think she should. You know I’ve felt many times that you have too much bias here. I don’t know that you’ve let a single little pass your classes since you began teaching the intro courses…” “Well, I’m wondering if Doctor Westerfield may have taught her to regurgitate the correct answers?” “Of course, she didn’t,” I said with a sigh. “Do you have a copy of my code?” I asked. “Here,” he said handing over a thin tablet. “Good, Doctor Butler, would you please look at the code I wrote? I’m guessing the problem is that he can’t understand me answering the last question.” “Why should he look at it?” Dr. Wernstrom asked. “I’ve already given my assessment that there’s no way you could have achieved that test result without cheating? After all no other freshman student has ever completed the full exam!” “Just let him look please,” Amanda said. “If I truly gave her the answers, he’ll be able to tell just from the syntax. Do you have more copies? I would like to examine it too? Especially since you are essentially accusing me as a faculty member of academic misconduct.” Amanda’s tone on the last statement was colder than ice. “Sure… umm… here you go…” he said, his voice shaking with understanding of how far he had pushed. Amanda took the other offered tablet and scanned the code as quickly as Doctor Butler. He occasionally made some comments like ‘that’s interesting…’ and other sounds. When he reached the end of his reading, a good fifteen minutes later, I awaited his verdict. “Dean Sanders, I believe Doctor Wernstrom here is falsely accusing Ms. Westerfield.” “You sound certain?” “Have you ever looked a paper and known it was plagiarism just because the language didn’t make sense?” She nodded, “Frequently, it’s amazing how many of our students don’t get that we can tell in ten seconds…” “Okay, this is like the opposite case. Stacy, your code is brilliant, but full of some really weird quirks. You said you came from the other dimension because we’re further ahead of your technology?” I nodded, “Yes sir.” “Well it shows in your code. If I didn’t know any better, I would expect a seventy-year-old retired programmer wrote this, and clearly not someone in their thirties like Doctor Westerfield.” He shook his head and looked at Dr. Wernstrom, “Ogden, grow up and accept that she is a little that can code. But she’s more than that, she has potential to be the student that makes our university very rich as people look and say ‘she went here.’” “Doctor Westerfield?” Dean Sanders asked as Amanda finished the last page. “I know I’m going to be accused by Doctor Wernstrom of being biased, but truthfully her code is her code. Doctor Butler nailed the reasons. We could have a few other professors look at it, but you know Henry wouldn’t cover for either of us. We like arguing about budget amounts too much!” Dr. Butler laughed then, while Dr. Wernstrom fumed in his seat. “So, there are no issues that I’m needed for?” Dean Sanders asked as the wailing sounds of someone being beaten outside her door came through. “I guess not…” Dr. Wernstrom said. “So, if she scored perfectly on the test, she’s definitely going to need to schedule some different classes Amanda.” Dr. Butler said, “If you want to walk down to my office, we can get that done really quick so you don’t have to run her back here later?” “Probably should check her math scores first,” Dr. Wernstrom said, “Probably didn’t pass the test there.” “Why? Because I’m a little? Or because I’m a girl?” “That’s enough,” Dean Sanders said with a fatigued voice before looking at me. “Young lady you will you speak to faculty members with a more respectful tone! There will be demerits and spankings if I ever witness that again.” I gulped but said, “Yes ma’am, sorry sir,” towards him. “That being said Ogden, you might want to consider how this might be viewed by an outsider. Especially with her mother present, I would say consider your words…” With that he huffed out ahead of us through the door. “Thanks for your time,” Amanda said, “it sounds like you have another issue to deal with now,” as the wails became louder with the door open. “You’re welcome, I hope not to see you much this year young lady,” Dean Sanders said. “Yes ma’am,” I said contritely and stood as Amanda sat me down on the ground from the highchair. We walked to the door and as we opened the door, I saw the source of the sounds. I cringed as I saw a nearly naked little wearing only a pair of panties with poop dripping from them and smearing the down the girl’s legs. As we walked quickly past her, and the Nest Hen holding her ear, I heard her say, “This little girl thought she didn’t need to wear the diapers we made mandatory after last night’s oubtbreak…” “Well sweetie, I think we’ve got a few demerits to go over here…” I walked a little faster and was grateful when the elevator doors closed. I instinctively leaned against Amanda’s leg and she patted my head. Doctor Butler led us to his office on the first floor and closed the door, “Have a seat,” he said directing us to two chairs in front of his computer. “Amanda by the way I was crushed that you tried to slide her by me without letting me know she was yours,” he said as he sat down at the computer. “I wanted her to be able to stand on her own two legs so to speak,” Amanda said diplomatically. “Well that she’s doing well with… well excepting with Ogden. The only good thing about that meeting is that now you won’t ever have to take any of his classes Stacy.” “How many classes did the test count for?” “Well, if you answered the test correctly except the last question, it counted for four…” “And the last question?” “It’s another class in AI design, but given the professor is considered to be the most prominent expert in that field, I would probably recommend you take her class anyway.” I had a guess on who taught that class, so I looked over at Amanda who blushed a bit, “Yes I teach it, and yes you’d benefit still from taking it.” “Okay, so we’re going to switch out your Intro to computer programming class for Principles of Machine Learning… and let me check your math exam score…” He typed for a moment before laughing, “And we’ll have to change this too.” “How did I do?” I asked. “The test gives weight to certain questions, the test is scored out of a total of 200, with each question weighted differently. More points and weight are given to the more difficult questions…” “And I got?” “Well they noted in the computer that they graded your test manually twice, checked the cameras for cheating, in addition to the automatic grading completed by the software… before putting in the score of 190?” “Cool!” I said with a smile. “I have to say it’s unheard of for freshmen in general, but for a little it’s highly unusual…” He shrugged his shoulders, “Obviously you are an unusual little though given both test scores and your CARE scores. I’m looking forward to seeing how you do at Emerson.” “I am too, thanks!” I said with a smile, “So what am I taking for math?” “Well that score places you out of the first four semesters of Calculus, but if you’ll take some advice, I’d recommend taking Calc three this year.” “Why?” “Well, I just read an interesting paper recently that your dimension uses Base 10 math, correct?” “Yes, it is, I’ve been practicing a lot before I came here on using Base 60 instead.” “Obviously, or you would have failed the test massively!” he said, “You’ll probably find that calculus class to be review, but it’ll also let you get through a math class here while knowing the material. Sometimes different universities approach things a little differently too, so it would help you adjust to Emerson’s method. Just based on your test scores though you could be in the final fifth semester class if you want, but I just think it would be wise to not skip the entire sequence.” I nodded, “I’m okay with the third semester.” “Great, let me play around with this for a second…” Amanda reached over and gave me a hug while he worked and ended up bringing me over to her lap and sitting me on her knee that she lightly bounced nervously. “Here you go,” he said as he reached down to a printer and handed me a schedule, “I emailed it to you too.” I glanced down at it quickly and said, “Thanks! Is there anything else I need to do?” “Nope, good luck on your classes! Let me know if you need anything.” “Thank you, sir,” I said as Amanda sat me on the ground. “Thanks Henry,” Amanda said. “We’ll see you around Amanda…” he paused as we turned, “I think this is one of the crazier things you’ve done, but I suspect you’ve adopted the smartest little ever!” Amanda laughed, “Thanks Henry – see you at the faculty meeting tomorrow!” She looked at me and patted my head, “Come on kiddo, let’s go home if you don’t have anything else to do on campus. We have a couple projects to get done before tonight!” I nodded and followed her outside the building, when she stopped for just a second to put sunglasses on, I impulsively decided to put my arms up, “Up?” She laughed as she picked me up and tickled my belly, “You’re probably the most brilliant student of your year, and what do you want? To be carried around and waited on like a newborn?” I stuck my tongue out at her but leaned in towards her protective warm body. She readjusted my skirt to keep from flashing my diaper, but I honestly didn’t care at that point. I had survived a big test and serious accusations of cheating; I was lucky enough to have her! At the car she felt my diaper and said, “You really need to be drinking more sweetheart, this should be more wet…” “Sorry, I actually did drink a good bit out of that water bottle… The test kind of made it difficult though.” “Well I guess you were concentrating too much…” she laughed as she closed the door by my car seat and hopped inside, “I wonder if you’d gotten more sleep last night if you could have scored a perfect score?” I looked at her through the mirror in front of my car seat and shook my head, “That last question was something I hadn’t learned…” She drove us back home and pulled into the garage and unbuckled me. Once she had me clear she started to set me down but I just clung on, “Carry me in?” She sighed, “Clingy today?” I shrugged, “I just like being held sometimes?” She squeezed me tight, “After last night I guess I understand.” She grabbed my backpack and threw the small bag on her other shoulder, “Come on, let’s go see if Daddy got the window fixed and how Grandpa’s crew is doing on the alarm system.” A couple weeks ago being held on her hip was kind of scary, but now it was comforting. As we walked inside Fred called out, “Amanda?” “Yes Fred,” she said. He walked from the backdoor up to us and I could see he had been sweating and had working clothes on. He was going to hug Amanda but she said, “Not until you shower, you stink worse than one of our daughters’ diapers right now.” I stuck my tongue out at her. He smirked, “Okay, I guess if you two had been working hard all day you two would still smell like roses.” “Of course!” I said. “So, how’d your test go?” Fred asked. I smiled, “Pretty good.” Amanda looked down at me and shook her head, “I’m curious to see what good or amazing look like for this little girl…” “Aced it?” “Ten points from perfect,” Amanda said. “What Doctor Butler didn’t tell you Stacy, was that sixty points would have gotten you into your first calculus class. I don’t know of many of our students who have scored any better than you…” “So how did your meeting go before that?” “We were right that he was accusing her of cheating… But they had no case for her cheating any better than trying to say I had either coached her, or taught her all of the code she would need like some sort of parrot.” She shook her head, “Thankfully Henry was there and he could instantly see that the code couldn’t have been mine. It was still good working code, but Stacy has some quirky coding habits. Her comments are also more consistent in her code than mine have ever been… except maybe in college when I was getting graded on them.” “So how did Wernstrom take that?” “He didn’t like it one bit… A little being better at coding than anyone else? That doesn’t sit well with him. Really, you would think he was a baby crazed woman!” “So why exactly was he so concerned she cheated?” “Oh…” she squeezed me again, “this little girl likes to cause problems on tests. She’s going to have a class full of students who hate her if a professor grades on a bell curve… or likes to adjust from the highest score only.” “So, like her math test?” “Worse… one-hundred percent perfect.” He raised his eyebrows, “Your dad was right, you just wanted a nerd baby!” I smiled at him, “Well she lucked out.” “Anyway, how’s Bella doing?” “She’s napping upstairs in her crib. Your mom is keeping an eye on her for right now while your dad and I have been finishing up repairing the door and wiring a new system he wanted to put in. You’re probably more help with that than I am, but I can at least do the grunt work on it.” “Yes, you do make a nice grunt,” Amanda said to him with a smirk. “See what I put up with Stacy?” “I’m staying out of this…” I told them both. “How long has Bella been napping?” “Your mom gave her a bottle about twenty minutes ago? With as long of a night as we had last night, I figure she’s probably going to sleep for a while.” “Probably…” Amanda said. “What about you, kiddo?” She asked me, “You need to lay down and take a nap?” I shook my head, “I feel wide awake right now. Can I just get on my computer up in your workroom like I did yesterday?” She looked thoughtful for a second, “You’ve got a good battery on it, right?” I nodded. “Why don’t you just bring it outside and work on a blanket on the patio?” “No desk?” “Do you really need one?” “It’s easier to do stuff when I can set stuff down?” She sighed and thought for a moment, “Can you be absolutely quiet if I have just letyou go into your room, where my mom is watching Bella?” “As long as she doesn’t distract me?” Amanda looked doubtful, but said, “Okay I guess,” and started to carry me upstairs before feeling my diaper again and turning back to the kitchen. She opened the fridge, “Bottle or sippy?” I hesitated before saying, “Bottle please,” I told her while blushing a little. She shook her head, “You’re not helping my ability to think of you as a big girl?” “The sippy cup takes more work to drink out of,” I told her honestly. “Really?” I nodded, “Yeah…” “Who would have thought?” She asked as she handed me an uncapped bottle and carried me upstairs and stepped over the baby gate into my… our room. Granny was sitting in the rocking chair with her eyes closed and seemed to be dozing herself based off the sounds from her. Bella was snoring loudly in her crib, and I just hoped I’d be able to get anything done with them both sawing logs! Amanda sat me down and said quietly, “When I get back in a bit, I want that bottle of juice empty, or I’ll be mean and take your babas away – you’re much too big for them now.” She winked at me and gave me a hug before slipping out of the room. ‘By this point my head is so messed up I don’t know if I want to be a big girl or a baby…’ I groused to myself. My computer and the power cords were on my desk and I reattached everything so I could turn it on and keep it charged. I looked back at Granny sleeping soundly and decided it was time to check out a few things I’d been thinking about trying. ‘I should probably update my calendar with my new schedule though first…’ I checked my e-mail first and began closely looking over my new schedule. Day of Week Time Department Code Course Title Location Professor Credits MWF 9:15am-10:15am MATH225 Calculus III Destiny Hall Lieberman 3.0 MWF 11:00am-12:00pm ENGL140 Technical Writing Jennings 230 Benning 3.0 MWF 1:30pm-2:30pm EECS245 Principles of Machine Learning Wenig 630 Westerfield 3.0 MWF 3:30pm-4:30pm CHEM115 Principles of Chemistry Kendrick Hall Casio 3.0 TR 9:30am-11:00am HIST134 History of Amaz. Civ. Destiny Hall Evergreen 3.0 T 1:00pm-2:00pm SEMN001 Little Freshmen Seminar Destiny Hall Sanders 0.0 ‘I have a lot of free time on Tuesdays and Thursdays…’ I thought, ‘the other days are going to be busy though!’ I moved over to my calendar and moved my math and programming classes around in the schedule so that things were set. ‘At least my first class is later now!’ I thought as I took another look. ‘Stupid Little Seminar is only one day a week, but it’s for an hour and I don’t even get a credit for it???’ I looked back at Granny again to make sure she hadn’t stirred and then began working through some projects I wanted to do without too many eyes on me. I quickly nursed the bottle down so Amanda wouldn’t badger me more about being dehydrated when she came back. As soon as I was done, I thought, ‘First things first… where did I put that copy of the nanite code…?’ I ENJOYED A couple of hours of time alone digging through code before hearing Granny groan and stretch. I quickly used a shortcut key to save what I had been working on and switched to an e-mail I had open to my parents updating them on my test results. I had just clicked ‘send’ a few moments later when I was picked up. “Hi Granny,” I told her quietly since Bella hadn’t stirred. “Well ‘hi’ yourself,” she said to me. “How long was I out?” I looked at my watch, “Two hours since I came in? I think Daddy said you’d come up with Bella about twenty minutes before that with her bottle?” “Sounds about right,” she said. “Speaking of bottles, yours is empty, but this diaper doesn’t feel very wet. You need another one? Your mommy mentioned she didn’t think you were drinking enough yesterday.” I shrugged, “I would drink it…” She squeezed me, “I’ll let you keep working then while I go refill it. I’ll get Bella a fresh one too for when she wakes up. Last night really got to her,” she told me in an even quieter whisper. “Okay,” I said as she sat me back down by my chair and I retook my seat as she picked up my bottle, grabbed Bella’s from before her nap, and went downstairs. With no one in there now I dug through the open closet where my old backpack had ended up and found my Switch. I almost moved it to my new backpack, but thought better of it, and instead walked over to my new bed and pulled up the mattress by the headboard and placed it there. ‘I don’t think it’ll do much more than piss a giant off right now…’ I thought, ‘but maybe the idea will work when I get a chance.’ I returned to my seat and was looking at tomorrow’s schedule. Time: Location: Event: 9:00am-6:00pm Various Advisor Appointments for Scheduling 9:00am-6:00pm Fisher Hall Returning Students Check-In 9:30am-11:00am Destiny Lecture Hall Littles: Legal Rights and Responsibilities* 1:00pm-2:00pm Destiny Lecture Hall Littles: Planning for the Future* 6:00pm Sherwood Lawn Welcome Back Barbeque 7:00pm Fraternity Row IFC and Panhellenic Councils Sponsored Block Party Seeing the block party information, I remembered that the ΛΔΠ event was supposed to be tomorrow… I dug back through to Sarah’s e-mail and saw it was to begin at 4:30pm. ‘Of course, littles can’t be a part of the block party, their bedtime is much too close!’ I grumbled. No one had said I was bound by the rules of the dorms, but I wasn’t about to risk getting a demerit by showing up there! That thought brought up the sad memory of poor Kristina. The poor girl had fallen victim to whatever they had put in the food last night - I was sure of that! ‘It makes sense if you really just want littles to be babies instead…’ I thought, ‘just put some sort of laxative in the food one of the early nights and you can cull the herd pretty quickly.’ Since Kristina now had nine demerits out of her ten allowed for the year – I knew it was just a matter of time before she was dragged kicking and screaming to the daycare and a lifetime of forced babyhood. Granny came back in then and picked me up, asking, “What’s wrong Stacy?” She set one capped bottle of milk down on the changing table area, but kept my smaller one full of juice in her other hand. “I don’t think I’ve seen that expression on your face much.” I sighed as she sat down in the rocking chair holding me to where I was sideways on her lap, “something I saw earlier.” “Another little?” I nodded but didn’t say anything else. “I’m assuming you think I wouldn’t want to discuss that?” I looked at her, “You had your own little – so I’m not sure you’d agree with me?” “Your mommy has two now?” “Well I’m kind of an oddball case… and well with Bella… she was just being a decent person I think?” “It was the same with my Hannah at first…” she said sadly. I kind of perked up, now curious to hear more, “What do you mean?” “Stacy I’m not going to lie to you and say I didn’t enjoy babying the daylights out of our baby girl Hannah, but I didn’t kidnap her off the street like most of my friends.” She paused and I could sense some difficulty going forward. The nipple of the bottle she held was gently teased between my lips. She watched to see that I began nursing from the bottle before she started, “I met Hannah one day when I went to walk in the park. I was pushing Chloe in her stroller. She had just been born a couple months earlier and was the most beautiful baby then, and sometimes the only way I could get her to sleep was taking her for a walk. I walked and watched all of the littles, babies, and kids playing on the playground, and I was daydreaming of when my sweet Chloe would be old enough to play with them. Part way through my walk I was startled when I noticed a group of teenagers gathered around something like vultures and a lot of screaming happening…” I pictured the sight and nodded for her to go on as she let go of the bottle for me to hold, “I decided to check out what was going on and found that they were pushing this sweet little girl around back and forth lifting up her skirt and showing off her panties. The poor girl was in tears and didn’t have a chance against one of them, let alone eight big kids like they were. I couldn’t help myself, I yelled at them to get lost before I decided their parents needed to know how immature they were acting… I guess my voice must have been enough to scare them as they all scrambled away.” “That was a good thing…” I told her while pushing the bottle nipple out of my mouth. “It was, but when they were gone, she just stood there trembling, ‘Thank you ma’am,’ she told me in this sweet, but trembling voice. I stood there talking to her for a few minutes before hearing her stomach rumbling of hunger. Her clothes looked to be dirty, faded, and baggy. I guessed that they had already been torn even before the bullies. ‘Maybe you should get home?’ I suggested to her.” “She nodded, but grimaced as she said, ‘Home would be nice… but I think my parents were adopted a couple days ago and they changed the locks to the apartment by the time I came home from school…” “She was homeless then?!?” I asked. “That’s terrible!” “Yes, it was,” Granny said. “I asked her then how old she was and was surprised when she said she was twenty.” “She was still living with her parents though?” “She was going to school at the community college. Since they don’t have dorms to stay in, she didn’t have to live there.” “Oh,” I said, “So what happened next?” “I told her I was sorry to hear that… Did she have anywhere else to go? When she said she didn’t I told her I wouldn’t force her to come with me, but as soon as someone else found out she was homeless they would either take her for themselves or force her to go to an orphanage.” “Are those really the only two options?” I asked. “Stacy things are rough right now, but they were way worse back then for littles! I know she had to have been shocked that I was even willing to let her walk away from me. Hannah later told me she expected me just to immediately pick her up and start walking with her.” “She stared at me for a long while and Chloe began to whine a bit. Without a word to Hannah I unbuckled Chloe from the seat she was in and changed the messy diaper she was complaining about and gave her a pacifier to settle her down. I just rocked and hummed to her for a moment before she went right back to sleep. As I buckled her back into the stroller Hannah asked me, ‘How much will you treat me like her?’” “I thought for a long moment before answering, ‘Probably a lot? I don’t think I’ll be able to help myself?’ She nodded and asked, ‘Will you treat me with love and not beat me up or torture me like some mommy’s do?’” I noticed Amanda had snuck in at some point and was holding a Bella who was also now an attentive audience member but didn’t say anything. She stood quietly and bounced Bella up and down on her side gently. “I told her that her life would be that of one of the best taken care of babies ever, if she came with me. I couldn’t guarantee that everything would be roses, but I wouldn’t abuse her, I wouldn’t beat her needlessly, and most importantly I wouldn’t go out of my way to bully her.” She paused, “And so she said, ‘Okay, I’m yours.’” A part of me could actually feel like she wasn’t the evil queen witch that Amanda had made me feel like she was before I met her. “You never told me that story Momma,” Amanda said breaking the spell of the story. Granny looked at her, “To protect her and you.” “What do you mean Momma?” She sighed, “I learned more about Hannah when I got home with her. Her parents were actually betweeners and nearly Bigs in height. Hannah’s short height was caused by one of the weird mutations that seem to happen every now and then to betweener kids. Both of her betweener parents being adopted was really uncommon, especially with their size being seven feet tall! Even back then with less protections for everyone it was weird, so I wondered what had led to someone suddenly kidnapping and adopting them. Joe was on leave then, so I asked him to look into it through some of his contacts. It turned out they had been adopted because they were involved in an embezzlement scheme with the Trelini family. Something went wrong… and I guess the mafia took it out on her parents. He also discovered that there was an active hit out for Hannah too.” I looked up at Amanda who looked stunned as this was the first time that she’d ever heard this story. Amanda asked, “So you kept her as a baby and didn’t potty train her because…” “Because a baby isn’t a threat to anyone Amanda. A big-girl little isn’t considered much, but she’s way more likely to be seen as a target. Anyone who came and looked in on a little girl being fed at her adopted mommy’s breast, and being babied all of the time, would be seen as already having gotten what was coming to them. Especially with Joe being deployed overseas for a good chunk of time, it was the safest way to protect Hannah and the rest of you…” “So, what about when things got bad for Hannah?” “Well… that’s where they say the path to Hell is lined with good intentions…” Granny sighed, “sorry for my language girls… When Chloe and Cassie were both babies it wasn’t like they saw Hannah as anything different than them. She was just a fellow diapered baby playmate as much as anything. By the time Chloe and Amanda were getting a bit older, things started happening… and I’ll be honest I even lost perspective a couple times…” she paused, “Probably why your mommy was reluctant to tell me about you Stacy…” She grimaced, “But Amanda most of what happened to Hannah was at daycare or from Chloe and Cassie, wasn’t it?” I looked at Amanda and the scales of childhood were falling from her eyes. Realization dawned on her that her mom was telling the truth. I turned back to Granny, “So…” “Yes?” “I’m not trying to upset you or Mommy, Granny, but Mommy told me about what happened to Hannah a couple weeks before Hannah died… and then about how everything happened…” I took a breath, “Hannah didn’t really die? Did she?” “Stacy!” Amanda said reproachfully. Chapter 9: Truths TO MY SURPRISE Granny began to laugh, and I heard a deeper voice join in from just inside the room as well. “Amanda you weren’t kidding when you said she was smart,” Grandpa Joe said. “Wait, what?!?” Amanda practically screeched, and I noticed Bella became nervous and shook with her shout. “She’s right?!?!?!” I looked at Granny and she nodded, “Yes she is. Hannah is alive, safe, and free on one of the little islands.” “But… why… how…?” Amanda’s face was filled with tears. I felt bad that I had just upended a core belief of Amanda’s then and kind of wanted to switch places with Bella as she sat down on the ground in shock. I wriggled around and Granny got the message, letting me go down to the ground while she held my hands and my feet landed. Amanda had sat Bella on one knee and I climbed onto the other and hugged her, “You told me you were at summer camp, remember?” I told her. “You made me come home…? There was a casket… and a funeral?!?!?” Amanda asked her mom. Grandpa Joe sighed, “Honey, Chloe and Cassie were getting more and more violent towards Hannah. We… well, your mom hadn’t seen it because she’s always had a blind spot with those two, but after your mom had falsely punished you that weekend everything tumbled out of Hannah about how the two of them were ganging up on her, and how sometimes they were even picking on you too. Hannah was terrified of Chloe, but she didn’t want to see you getting punished anymore. When Chloe and Cassie were gone your mom went to nurse Hannah before her afternoon nap. Just as she was going to start nursing her, Hannah told your mom about what had really happened. I think you figured that out when we apologized to you and ended up punishing your sisters the same way the next weekend…” he grimaced, “I wish we could undo both of those actually…” Amanda shook her head, “I hated Mom for that… but even though I didn’t do it to Hannah you won’t catch me abusing Stacy or Bella with an enema ever after that!” Bella asked, “What?” “Tell you later,” I told her. “Or maybe Mommy will since it’s her story. So, I’m guessing something else happened and they retaliated again on that playground?” Granny nodded, “Hannah DID have a head injury. Chloe forced her into climbing a tall set of monkey bars. Once she had her up there, she hit her hard and shoved her off the top. She fell head first and suffered a bad head injury when she landed. I wasn’t there with them, but I got the call to come to the hospital just as Chloe and Cassie ran in to tell me that she fell off. I called Joe at work, since he was closer to the hospital, to meet them, and told him I would call as soon as I got to the bottom of what happened.” “Did they tell you what really happened?” Bella asked. Granny shook her head, “No, they had struck some sort of sisterly pact that neither would rat out the other… but I could tell they were lying because neither were doing a very good job at it. Joe called me and said they were working on Hannah, but I should hurry to the hospital as fast as I could because it didn’t look good…” Granny was crying then, “I knew those two had to be responsible, and told Chloe, ‘You stay here and do a better job of looking after Cassie than you did with Hannah.’ I got in the car and drove to the hospital.” Granny was beginning to have a hard time talking then and I could see tears streaming from her eyes. Grandpa took over, “By the time your mom got to the hospital the doctors had been out to tell me she was still being worked on, but warned me it was not looking good. They almost lost Hannah several more times during the six-hours of surgery, and she came out of the operating room without a clear answer of if she would make it. All they could tell us was that if she made it through the night her odds were good. We were allowed to sit with her in the NICU and watched her on life support in her crib with all of the tubes plugged into her… We could only just pray that she would make it.” He wiped a tear from his eye, “Well… let’s just say you can’t watch your baby girl in that kind of situation and not get angry. Your mom kept me from going home and tanning their hides right then because she didn’t want me to be abusive… Even though I so wanted to be then! Lord knows they deserved it! While we waited for her to regain consciousness a police detective came and investigated the incident. After we spoke with him, he said that they were writing it up as an accident, but ‘off the record’ the detective was pretty sure that Chloe had intentionally tried to kill her. If they had been certain they would have arrested her, but he warned me that if Hannah made it through her injuries we needed to be constantly on watch because he was sure she probably wasn’t done.” Granny had regained her breath, “As far as I could tell the only remorse Chloe showed was that she might get in trouble… I don’t think she really cared that she had hurt Hannah… she might have even enjoyed that.” “That’s sick Mom,” Amanda sobbed out. “I always thought she had to have done it… but to know for certain…” “The whole reason we had taken Hannah in was to protect her, and in the end, we had failed miserably,” Granny said morosely, “I knew we couldn’t trust your sisters to not hurt her more. But we couldn’t just release her on her own then since she was injured and would just be adopted by someone else. Besides, the Trelini family was still keeping an eye on her.” “Even after all of that time?” I asked. “Every month or so we would get a visitor who would watch us all for a day or two,” Grandpa said, “I discussed it with them more than once, but someone new from their crew would keep showing up. They knew that we knew, and were watching to see if at any point we let her grow-up and release her.” “So, while it’s more involved than I can remember now, your sister when she woke up… well we told her it was time to get her somewhere else that would be safer.” “She really did wake up?” Amanda both sobbed and sounded happy. “Oh yes, and surprisingly there was no lasting damage to her brain or anything. She lost a couple teeth that I had the doctors replace with implanted teeth… They wanted to just pull the rest since it made the most sense to them. It took me a lot to convince them to replace them and leave her teeth…” Granny shook her head, “We had a couple days that we waited before we came for you, during which we started moving pieces into place. I had a friend who created a death certificate for her. We bought a casket and had a funeral, never letting anyone know that it was a farce. All the while we had Hannah stay at a friend’s house that we had sworn to secrecy. I did the best I could to start re-teaching her how to use the potty as she healed. After she was better, we told you girls that your dad was redeploying for a short mission, but he really took Hannah to one of the islands. There he helped her get paperwork to show that she was a free little, an apartment, and enrolled in a program to help littles learn how to take care of themselves after being in captivity.” I looked up at Amanda whose face was streamed with tears and smeared makeup. “She’s alive after all these years? Have you ever talked to her again?” I looked at Grandpa Joe who had come to sit down next to us, “we secretly trade cards every Christmas, and we’ve visited her a couple times over the last couple years since Megan began college.” “Do… do… you think she’d…” “Like to talk to you?” Granny asked with a smile. “I’m sure of it. The time zones are kind of weird, so it’d be best to wait until about ten our time, but I’ll send her your number and let her know that we finally told you the truth.” “She… won’t mind?” Grandpa Joe wrapped his arms around Amanda’s shoulders above Bella and I, “She actually always wanted us to let you know. You were the one sister that loved her and cared for her. You had a couple mean moments just not thinking as a kid, but you were the only sister who she actually considered to be her sister.” I had tears in my own eyes with the story and felt Amanda’s arms around me tightly, “Thank you,” she whispered to me. “Now, no one else can ever know she’s alive though,” Grandpa Joe said to all of us. “I don’t know anyone to tell,” Bella said. “You won’t catch me talking to Cassie and Chloe if I don’t have to…” I said. Granny looked sad at that, but nodded, “I wish I could somehow go back and fix whatever went wrong with those two…” I nodded my affirmation there before thinking it was time for a subject change when my stomach grumbled, “So dinner?” “Stacy, is food the only thing you ever think about…?” Bella grumbled. I shrugged, “Computers?” She stuck her tongue out at me, while Amanda hugged me and whispered, “Thank you…” “Well I need to start the grill up. You want to change into your swimsuit before you go down there?” Fred asked me. I stood up quickly and said, “Swimming!” in an excited voice. “Clearly there is one other thing she values over food,” Amanda said tickling my side. Everyone else giggled at it and I hoped it had helped Amanda and her parents regain a little bit of composure. She walked over to the drawer she had put my swimsuits in and handed me one. “Can you reach one of your swim diapers over there on the shelf?” I looked and nodded, “I think so.” “Bella do you want to go swimming too?” Amanda asked as she stood up and settled her onto her hip. She shrugged, “I really don’t know how…” I could tell she was nervous of the water still. “We have your floaties and the ring you can sit in that we bought,” Fred told her. “You can just sit in the water with the shade up and just float?” I watched her face go through a few expressions before she nodded, “I guess… If nothing else I’ve got my heroine big sister who will save me?” I groaned and stuck my tongue out at her while everyone else giggled. Fred and Grandpa started walking out the door as Granny stood and asked, “Do you need a hand Stacy?” I held the swimsuit and had just grabbed the swim diaper then, “Maybe later Granny? These are just pull-ups basically.” She smiled and nodded, “I’ll hold you to that!” Granny decided to leave then, so it was just Amanda changing Bella on the changing table, and me standing on the ground next to it. I pulled the uniform I was wearing off and then pulled the tapes off of the pretty soaked Pamper. “Mommy, would you please hand me a wipe?” “Sure sweetie,” she said as she held a hand on Bella and grabbed a wipe to hand to me. I used it quickly and wrapped the used diaper and it to put into the diaper can. “Here, I’ll get it in there,” she told me since it was just a little too high for me to easily do it. “Thanks Mommy,” I told her with a smile and pulled up the swim diaper before donning the stretchy one-piece swimsuit over the top of it. I adjusted the straps then and pulled my socks off. “Make sure you put your clothes in the hamper over there,” she told me with a reminder. “Yes Mommy,” I told her with a sigh. ‘Somehow I don’t think she’ll ever let me get my room as messy as Mom did back home…’ She put Bella down on the floor next to me and said, “I’m going to go change into my swimsuit and then I’ll come get you both to go to the pool.” “Daddy’s the only one cooking tonight?” I asked in surprise. She smiled at me, “Grandpa and Granny are helping him too.” I nodded and watched as she closed the baby gate behind her, leaving the two of us alone. Bella walked over and sat down on the edge of my bed. Her pink swimsuit had several rows of ridiculous frills on her butt and chest. You could just see the swim diaper peeking out from the edge of the bottom. “You doing okay?” I asked her. “Okay?” She asked with a bit of bite to her voice. “Not really…” she sighed. “Which is the part that’s the worst?” I asked. “You mean the baby part, or the part where there’s people who want to both make me a baby and make me have babies for them?” “It’s not the freedom part?” She shook her head, “Stacy, so far I’ve gone out and done more things with our ‘parents’ in the last few days than I did in the last two years total…” “I guess you couldn’t risk going anywhere?” I asked. She shook her head, “No, I couldn’t. I’m not as helplessly cute as you are, but I’ve also known my whole life that if I grew taller than the average three-year old Amazon toddler, I would be lucky…” she shook her shorter hair, “I didn’t get lucky.” Before she could continue Amanda was back and held two small swim caps in her hands. She sat down on the ground next to me and tugged at my hair for several minutes to get it covered safely by the swim cap. “Come here Bella,” she smiled at her sitting on my bed. Bella stood patiently as Amanda had an easier time putting hers up with there being less of it. She kissed the top of her head and picked us both up, putting us each on a hip. “You two definitely are good for getting a workout!” Bella actually giggled at that and we went down the stairs in her arms. Outside Fred and Grandpa were gathered around the grill and Granny seemed to be working on some sort of salad. ‘Ick!’ I thought to myself about that. As we went through the outside door, I could see that the window had been replaced. The glass looked a little bit different and I had to ask, “Same material as the tablet?” Amanda looked down at me and shook her head, “you are too smart for your own good. Yes, it’s a new thing you can buy. Supposed to be indestructible, and the cool thing is it’s also possible to make it project a screen for a movie.” I looked at it closer and noticed the huge sliding door would make a sweet movie screen indeed to watch from the pool! “Which side does it show on?” “It’s like the tablet, it can display on either side.” “I am here too still you know,” Bella reminded us both as Amanda laughed and kept moving towards the pool. Inside the gate she sat us both down on a deck chair and sprayed us down liberally with sunscreen. I saw a weird pink baby flotation device thing sitting on the concrete next to the pool. It looked like you sat down in some sort of seat that let your feet get wet, but kept your upper body above water. On the top was a canopy that shaded the baby that was sitting in it. ‘That does not look comfortable to me…’ I thought since you wouldn’t have the freedom to swim. ‘Maybe for Bella it’s a good way to get her acclimated to the pool though…’ I admitted. As soon as she had finished spraying me down with sunscreen, she handed me a new pink pair of miniature goggles. “I thought you might like these for your laps?” I smiled, “Thanks! It’ll be nice to keep the chlorine out of my eyes!” She patted my head and kissed my forehead, gave me a light pat on the butt and I took that to mean I could get in the water. She didn’t need to tell me twice before I dove into the pool! I dove down into the water to touch the bottom before swimming to the surface and turning to see where Amanda was just finishing spraying Bella. As she began spraying herself, I decided to start swimming some laps and let her worry about Bella and herself. I swam through the water, making lap after lap thinking about everything that had happened in the last couple weeks. So much had gone on, and I wondered what was going to happen next. I couldn’t help but fear the group that was after Bella. ‘Wait a second, it was the Trelini family in both cases?’ I thought to myself. ‘So, they already had a reason to have a grudge against Amanda’s family?’ I still wanted to know why they were so interested in Bella though. She didn’t seem that special… I thought about that for a while before I found myself ambushed in the water by Amanda. “I caught a fish!” She giggled as she hugged me tightly, suspended out of the water by her side. “I was swimming…” I whined. “Time for din-din,” she told me, “your sister’s been out of the water for like twenty minutes now.” “How long was I swimming?” “A bit over an hour-and-a-half?” I looked up at her then and said, “I don’t feel tired…” “The nanites,” she reminded me with a whisper. I nodded and let her carry me out of the pool, wrap me in a towel, and took me over to where a picnic table was setup by the back door. “Your parents had joked they had a fish, but I didn’t believe them until I saw you swim,” Grandpa Joe said with a twinkle in his eye as he brought me with a smaller chunk of a huge sausage and a mini burger. “I keep telling them, I’m not a fish, I’m a dolphin…” I rolled my eyes. Bella for her part laughed at my response. I noticed then that Megan had shown up as planned and came to sit down next to me. As she sat down, I leaned over and gave her a hug, “Hi Megan!” “Eew… I have fish water all over me now!” she joked before tickling me a moment and hugging me back. I just stuck my tongue out at her, “I’m surprised you’re not at the movie night event tonight?” I asked. She shrugged, “I went my first couple years, they’re okay – not that great.” “You still live in the dorms though?” I asked. “Yeah, even with Mom and Dad being so close to the campus I prefer my space?” She said. “Besides, my full-ride covers it.” I nodded and talked with her for a few minutes before Granny waved at me from across the table. “So, with everything going on, I never had a chance to hear how you did on your test Stacy?” she asked. “It went well,” I said, “I tested out of four semesters of math, but I’m going to only skip two to be safe.” “You did well enough to skip four semesters?” Megan looked at me like I was an alien, “But littles don’t do well with math…” She paused, “Hell I had to take the remedial math before beginning Calculus…” I shrugged, “I’m sure some actually do Megan, you just don’t hear about them because their parents keep them too busy at daycare… Plus I’m from the other dimension and we don’t have bigs there – we are the bigs and littles.” “It must be a really nice place,” Bella told me, “I don’t understand why you would ever leave it. Your computer test scores?” “Umm… perfect?” “Perfect as in good?” Megan asked “Perfect as in the perfect score,” Amanda said, “almost ended up getting her into a lot of trouble by doing that well actually.” “You have to be careful Stacy; you’re going to have a lot of bigs who will feel threatened by you. They may not be able to adopt you, but they can find other ways to humiliate you…” Bella advised. I nodded as I took another bite of the ginormous sausage. Dinner shifted to other topics and I watched Amanda behaving quite nervously as I think she was waiting for a sign that her long lost baby sister would give her a call. ‘I can’t imagine the hurt she felt, and the new hurt she probably feels… I can’t imagine Hannah having lived through Chloe and Cassie much longer though if Chloe already almost killed her. She seems to have been a monster all of her life…’ “Earth to Stacy?” I heard along with a poked from Megan. “Huh?” “Grandpa was talking to you sweetie,” Amanda said to me. I looked up at him, “Sorry, what were you saying?” “Are you done eating?” I looked down at an empty plate of food and nodded, “Yes sir.” “Come on then, we need to talk about your schedule,” he said as he picked me up and put me on his side. Given the fact that I barely came up to his knee with the top of my head it was a long way up to his level. He put his elbow below my swimsuit covered rear and carried me inside to the nursery and sat me down on the floor. I dug through my bag and handed him my schedule, “Here it is.” He looked at it and seemed to think some before grabbing a phone from his pocket and comparing schedules. “Okay, I think I’ll have your Granny pick you up from your little seminar on Tuesdays, and your class on Thursdays to bring you to my studio. We’ll have a bit over an hour before my first class comes in after school lets out for us to train you by yourself. I’ll probably have you join that next class too since it’s one of my elementary classes…” “Is that a good idea?” I asked. “They’re all bigger than you, but you should be okay. It’ll also help you learn control to only do enough to stop, not permanently injure or kill someone.” I nodded, “Umm… I would normally probably not feel like I’m in a rush to fight, but given everything these last couple days… any hints on how to fight off someone your size?” He nodded, “Unfortunately your options at your height are limited. Normally most littles are at least a foot or more taller than you… Still you should be able to punch up at my knees?” He motioned for me to try. I slow motioned a fist forward and could just make contact there, “It’s a stretch though?” “Well it’s the first place you should probably attack because if you can knock the person hard enough then they can’t chase you. Until we get you fully trained, you’ll just have to aim to disable and then evade them… Kind of like you did with my daughters and that lady. Most of us are not going to like seeing a little kidnapped from their adopted family. Just managing to scream and keep out of reach for a limited amount of time should allow help to get here.” “Where else is vulnerable?” I asked. “I’ve known some of the little operators to go for ankles. If you can kick hard enough you can injure someone there. The other option is if you have a knife you can cut through calf muscles or maybe even bury the knife into the back of the knee…” I nodded, “I don’t have a knife though…” “I’m going to find one for you that we can conceal on your body somewhere. “With my diaper being a constant target to change… clothing that can be easily taken off… it there anywhere safe to hide something?” He shook his head, “It won’t be easy, but something where you would wear like a bra, a shoe, or maybe on your back is what I’m thinking. The shoe would be my first choice, but your feet are so tiny though it’s going to be tough. I’ve got a friend though who I’m hoping can help out.” “Thanks for all of your help,” I told him. “You’re welcome… if something happens to you or Bella, I’m pretty sure my daughter wouldn’t know what to do.” I nodded, “I’d hate that for her too…” “So, I’ll see you on Tuesday… we might try and see if your mommy can’t get you to me this weekend sometime too. Plus, there’s the Sunday lunch that you’ll be coming to again.” I tried not to make a face, but failed, “I know, my daughters are a pain in the rear. Hang out with Bella though, don’t abandon her just in case they try something on her…” I nodded, “thanks for the advice. I’ll do so.” Amanda came in then with Bella and an odor that I knew meant she had to have gone poopy in her diaper. Bella looked mortified about it, and tears were obviously streaming down her face… I couldn’t blame her. “You two get it figured out?” Amanda asked as she stripped the swimsuit off Bella. “I think so,” Grandpa told her, “Tuesdays and Thursdays I’ll have your mom pick her up and bring her to the studio. She can stay with us until you or Fred get off then to pick her up.” “That works I think,” Amanda said. “Still trying to figure out what to do with Bella…” “Could she stay with you?” I suggested. “In the classroom?” Amanda asked back. “Take a playpen and something for her to do? You could say she has to be close so you can nurse her? You hate bottle feeding?” I suggested. Bella looked at me as she was sat up from the changing table completely naked. “That might be worse than daycare…” Bella said. “Stacy, let’s talk more in the bathroom. Why don’t you come take your bath with your sister tonight?” I nodded and she added, “Go ahead and take your swimsuit, swim cap, and swim diaper off.” Before I did so I took a second to use the swim diaper since I hadn’t gone in a while. It started to leak a bit before absorbing most of the urine. I pulled everything off and looked for a robe… before admitting she probably expected me to take a naked stroll into the bathroom. I obliged her, feeling my body fully blushing by the time I hurried in through the doorway, and found her just lifting Bella into the tub of less water than she used with me. I sighed in disappointment at the shallow water as she lifted me in. As she sat me down next to Bella, I could see she blushed as brightly as I was. Amanda washed Bella first as I watched, “What do you have tomorrow Stacy?” Amanda asked. “Those two Little’s seminar sessions. The first is nine-thirty to eleven, and then one to two in the afternoon. There’s also that sorority event I was invited to at I think four-thirty?” “Are you sure it’s a good idea to go to that?” Amanda asked me. I shrugged, “As long as I can nearly get kidnapped while walking right next to you on campus, I’m pretty sure I can also run into trouble anywhere?” She nodded, “I guess you’re right…” Bella asked, “Aren’t you scared they’ll get you?” as Amanda moved on to wash me. I shrugged as the soapy mitt met my shoulder blades, “We’ve done everything we can to make it to where I can be found if I do get kidnapped.” I held up my watch, “Mommy when are you getting one for Bella?” “Tomorrow after we drop you off,” Amanda told me, “while you’re in class I figured we’d run and buy one of those for her. I also need to go buy some more diapers for both of you.” As she washed me, she asked Bella, “So you would rather go to daycare than be with me in the classroom?” I sighed as she massaged my body as well as washed it and I couldn’t deny that it felt nice while I was curious for her answer. “Could I stay with Granny?” Amanda looked thoughtfully on that, “Maybe… problem is she might want to go see the other grandkids and you might get stuck around Chloe or Cassie… and that’s risky.” Bella sighed, “Is daycare terrible?” she actually asked me. I shrugged, “I have no idea Bella, I’ve never been.” “Oh, right…” she said with a frown. “I guess maybe could I try daycare? And if it doesn’t work maybe you take me to work?” Amanda sighed, “It’s probably the best option… I’ll try and find a place where you won’t be bullied too much. The university has one for faculty… but since it’s geared towards getting college kids prepared for their new lives once they’ve flunked grown-up life, I’m not sure it would be pleasant.” “What about the hospital?” I asked just before she dumped a cup full of water to rinse my hair. I spat out a bit of soapy water that went into my mouth. Bella giggled at me and I stuck my tongue out at her before preparing for another cup to hit my head. “It might be better actually… Daddy does have free daycare as a perk with his job. We could try both I guess and see which one you’re more comfortable at. I’ll also research if there’s any others that are better to littles… You won’t need to go until at least next week though no matter what,” Amanda told her. “I might even take off more leave if I need to since my maternity leave allotment started anew Saturday with you.” She eventually had gotten us both cleaned up and said, “I’d love to have you both stay in the water all day, I know that’s what Stacy wants, but let’s get you dressed and we’ll watch a movie with your Aunt Madison.” “What about Granny and Grandpa?” Bella asked. “They had to go home already,” Amanda told her. “Oh…” “Granny said she might come back over if she can get ahold of Hannah…” Amanda’s world was still completely rocked by the new information so I leaned over and hugged her leg. She returned it as Bella said, “Good, I hope she does…” I got the feeling that Bella had started to bond to Granny that day, as she already seemed pretty attached to her. Learning she wasn’t a completely psychotic little kidnapping monster may have helped her feelings there too. Amanda picked Bella up first, and then me, while wrapping us in towels. She stood both of us on the countertop and handed us toothbrushes with toothpaste on them to brush. I brushed longer than Bella before spitting it out into the sink and rinsing with the cup Amanda offered. She pulled the swim caps off of our heads then and kissed both of us and ran her fingers through our hair. “Let’s go get you girls in your diapees and jammies and we’ll go watch that movie!” Amanda lifted us both by our rears onto either side of her and carried us to our nursery. She sat me down on the ground and went to diaper Bella first. “Silly girl, couldn’t wait until I could get your diapee on?” She said a moment later. Bella started sniffling, “I’m sorry… I didn’t even feel it…” “Shh… it’s okay, it’s what we expect to happen, remember?” Amanda must have slid a pacifier into her mouth as she pulled out the wet towel from under her and replaced it with a diaper. A moment later she was dressed in a pink footed-sleeper with white polka dots and a cute little monkey in a dress peeking out from the side. The monkey had a tiara on and I almost ‘awwed’ out loud myself, but was afraid I’d end up in a matching outfit! Amanda sat her down on the ground and picked me up to put me on the changing table. The towel I had wrapped around my body was quickly removed and my ankles were in the air as she slid one of the pink princess diapers under my bottom. “Why not my regular Pampers?” I asked her. “We’re sitting and watching a movie anyway, it’s not like you’re moving around?” She countered, “Besides you did fine earlier?” I sighed, “I guess…” She left me buckled on the table for a second and returned with a purple version of Bella’s footed-sleeper. I started to frown, but she tickled me, “I saw that smile when you saw what Bella was wearing. You thought it was just as cute as I do!” I giggled uncontrollably until she stopped, I sighed, “Okay, yes, it is cute…” Dressed, she brushed out both of our hair before she gathered us in her arms to go back downstairs and to where some blankets had been placed facing the TV in the living room. “I thought maybe we’d watch a movie in the backyard on the new glass?” She shook her head, “Not until things calm back down…” I nodded and smiled as Megan walked in holding a massive bowl of popcorn and two bottles of juice. Soon I found myself in Megan’s lap watching some bizarre version of Mean Girls where a four-foot tall little is somehow made popular at school. She somehow ended up with a bunch of huge Amazonian cheerleaders as her ‘friends.’ Occasionally Megan would bite off the edges of the popcorn kernel and feed me the middle puffy part while we watched… I could remember my mom doing that with me when I was little too… I tried not to think of the germs she was sharing! In the end there was a lot of laughter from Amanda, Megan, Bella, and I… at least until the end of the movie when I felt my blood turn into ice. Instead of being some sort of learning moment of morals at prom, the little is seen jumping into the sweet nerdy girls’ arms, and asks her to be her mommy… Someone gave the nerdy girl a diaper and a moment later the dress was gone and a naked little in only a diaper was shown smiling happily as she was bounced in her new teenage mothers arms as they danced around the prom. “That was…” I had just said when the TV paused in the credits and showed that someone from Grandpa Joes house was video calling. Amanda did something and Granny showed up on the screen, “Hi Mandy, what are the girls doing up still?” “Movie night Mom, remember? We just finished it and I was going to be putting the girls to bed…” “Oh, that’s right… I guess Bella did have a nap today, Stacy should be exhausted though by now?” I shrugged, “I’m fine actually…” She shook her head, “Anyway, I called to let you know I got ahold of Hannah just now. Do you want to video conference with me too, or just with her?” I looked up at Amanda who was kind of shaking, “With you?” “I thought so… here, let me get her on too then.” As she began pushing buttons on her side I stood up and sat down on her lap next to Bella. She trembled as she wrapped us both in a large hug and the face of an older woman came onto the screen. She had gray hair and looked to be in her late forties or fifties, but I knew she had to be around sixty since she was twenty years older than Chloe. She looked surprised for a moment before smiling, “Mandy?” Chapter 10: Hard Truths “HANNAH?” AMANDA ASKED still obviously shocked to learn that her ‘sister’ was still alive! “Yes, it’s me… You grew up!” Amanda laughed, “You didn’t I’m guessing.” “No, but I’m on an island of people our size, so it’s normal… You… umm…” she looked with her eyes at Bella and I. “This is Stacy,” she said putting her hand on my head and brushing her fingers through my hair, “and this is Bella.” “Hi girls,” Hannah said with a bit of a sour look on her face. “Hi Aunt Hannah, it’s nice to meet you,” I said. “I’m here willingly, Amanda didn’t kidnap me… she’s just my temporary Mommy while I go to school at Emerson.” Hannah looked a little startled then, “She’s able to go to school?” Then she shook her head, “Preschool doesn’t count…” “No, she’s going as a college student Hannah. Since she’s my adopted little I can decide to let her go to school wherever I want.” “But…” “I’m from the other dimension,” I told her. “I was scared to stay in the dorms since I know they’re practically little mills. I managed to find Amanda and her husband to take me in as an exchange student. I’m going through orientation week right now,” I told her. Fred popped by just then, “I’m Fred, her husband,” he told her, “I’ve heard a lot about you over the years and am glad to know you are alive for her sake.” He hugged Amanda, “I’m going to bed,” he told her and gave her a kiss. “Can you take Bella up with you?” She suggested. “Grab a bottle and warm it up on your way.” “Sure!” He said and took her while Hannah watched on. “Hi, I’m your baby sister I guess,” Megan said a moment later with a wave reminding us she was there. “Baby sister?” Hannah asked, “Oh, right… you must be Megan.” “Yes, I know we never met… but I’m glad to hear you’re alive too.” She paused, “and don’t worry about us telling Chloe or Cassie!” She leaned over and gave Amanda a hug where she held me and said, “Why don’t I take Stacy upstairs now too and you two can catch up. I need to go back to the university and keep unpacking into my dorm anyway.” I looked at Amanda’s eyes streaming tears as she hugged us both and handed me to Megan. Upstairs she whispered, “I always wondered too… but I never had the guts to ask Mom and Dad about it.” She hugged me, “Thanks for doing that for Mandy, she was always heartbroken about Hannah as I grew up.” I smiled at her, “It was just a mystery to me that needed solved…” She laughed and we saw Fred was sitting down with Bella in the rocker and placing the nipple of a bottle he held into her mouth. “So, you have a brand-new big girl bed I see,” she kidded me quietly. “Now if only we could just get you to not be afraid of the potty monster!” she had squeezed my padded bottom through the pajamas and could tell I needed a change. “But everyone keeps telling me the potties are scary? One person told me they just flush littles down the drain…” I told her with smile. “I do use my potty though for poopies!” I reminded her. She hugged me and then laid me down on the changing table and unzipped the sleeper from the shoulder to my right foot. After pulling my legs free she pushed the sleeper underneath my back and ripped the tapes from my diaper. The fluids I’d drank during the movie had really only made a small dent in the padding, as such it was still mostly dry. I was glad she still changed it though, since it had begun cooling and not felt as comfy. When she was done taping the new one on, she gently zipped me back up, and laid me down on my bed. I noticed as she stood up that Megan’s shirt was spotting like Amanda and watched her grimace. “Guess I’ll have to go borrow one of Mandy’s pumps before I leave…” knowing I knew what it meant. “You could nurse Bella?” I told her quietly. ‘Or me…’ I whined in my head. “Not this time,” she told me with a peck on my forehead as she pulled the covers up and handed me my dolphin to cuddle. “Night Stacy,” she said and left the room. I lay in bed then as Fred gently rocked back and forth with Bella until she finished the bottle that he held for her. I was tired enough that I actually was drifting away as he laid her down in the crib, turned off our light, and gave me a quick kiss goodnight. SOMETIME LATER IN the night I heard screaming and jumped up quickly out of bed! It sounded like someone was being physically tortured then! I frantically searched for the source of the threat, before I realized it was Bella crying. I looked over at where she was standing at the bars of the crib and felt bad for her. I was just about to get up to walk over to the crib when Amanda came in bleary eyed and turned the light in the room up slightly. She looked at me briefly and then walked over to Bella and picked her up out of the crib. “Oh, did you wake up messy?” She asked her as she hugged her and cuddled her for a moment before walking over to the changing table. “Ni…” she struggled, “night…” she hiccoughed, “nightmare…” “It’s okay, you’re safe baby,” she told her as I decided to roll over and try and sleep. I heard the ripping of tapes as she changed her diaper and then moved to the rocking chair to try and calm her down. “I think…” she paused and sniffled, “I lied about some stuff… I think I know why they might be after me?” I sat up at that statement and stared in curiosity at the rocking chair where Amanda asked, “What do you mean?” “My parents’ story is almost the same as what Hannah went through… they were both scientists, barely betweeners, and one day were just gone… I kept calling and finally guessed they were adopted when their house was repossessed… I’ve never seen them again. I would even have preferred to have seen them in someone’s stroller and at least know they’re okay… like I’ve seen some of my friends who were taken…” “What were they working on?” Amanda asked her as I grabbed my bear and squeezed it tightly while I sat still, quietly eavesdropping. She sighed, “I don’t honestly know… just that it involved nanites. The only thing I know is that Dad said one time that there would be a way to make me grow out of being a little at least…” “What were your parents’ names?” “Jacob and Samantha Drexler,” Bella replied. “I think I met them once…” Amanda said with some surprise, “They were both really smart but constantly looked nervous…” “Sounds about right… Mom and Dad had both just barely kept themselves free most of their lives. Mom had actually been stuck back in diapers by her own parents for a couple years in middle school…” she giggled, “I used to laugh when my grandparents would give her a hard time about it.” “Are they still alive?” Amanda asked. “No, they passed away while I was in high school. They were Bigs, while Dad’s parents were also betweeners who passed away while I was little.” “Sorry,” Amanda said sincerely. “That’s life,” she said sadly. “At least I can hope my parents are still alive out there somewhere…” “So why do you think the Trelini’s would be after you?” “A few years before they disappeared, they started getting really jumpy about something. Mom was the computer programming side of their team – you and she would get along really well – and I guess she was worried about Dad’s research on the actual nanites getting into the wrong hands. Two years ago, she convinced me to let her put a chip in my arm that would unlock their system once every other week when I came to visit them. Without that visit the system would lock up and be impossible to decrypt.” “How long had it been since you visited them when you discovered they were gone?” Amanda asked gently. “I had just talked to them the night before I was supposed to visit… and found the front door ajar when I came home. As soon as I saw stuff looked like it had been ransacked, I backed out and left… “ “Why didn’t you stay and call the cops?” Amanda asked gently. She laughed, “I was an orphaned little at that point?” She wheezed, “I would have been taken to an orphanage right then and there.” Her words became strained and devolved into sobs then. The last thing I really understood was, “They must know I’m the key to whatever they were researching… you have to let me go…” I heard Amanda pat her back and gently soothe her for a long time, while I thought through the implications of what she said. ‘It sounds like her parents were into similar research as Amanda…’ I thought for a long while about what she had said and wanted to get my computer out to see if I could figure out if her parents were well known. After a long while the sobs transformed into slow breathing, and Amanda stood up laid her on the changing table for a minute. I heard rips of tapes and then the zipper of her sleeper getting zipped back up. Her eyes fell on me then and asked, “Need a change?” I nodded and she quietly sat Bella in her crib before picking me up, changing me, and sitting down with me in the rocker. She rocked me back and forth and said, “You probably want to know about their research as much as I do…” I nodded as she continued to rock me and put a pacifier in my mouth. “We’ll figure it out,” she said and began humming softly to me. I wouldn’t believe that my brain could shut down after all of that, but I quickly found my eyes fighting to close and let myself drift into sleep. THE NEXT MORNING was there before I knew what hit me. Amanda prodded me awake, “Morning Princess, you had asked about starting your day with swimming… Do you want to do that today?” The fog in my brain made me take a moment while the words rolled around a bit inside my head before I sleepily nodded. I stretched out on my bed and then sat up and held my hands out to her. She carried me to the changing table, stripped my pajamas off of me, took off the dry diaper, and dressed me in a swim diaper and my swimsuit. “Daddy will watch you swim. You’ll have about half an hour,” she told me as she padded down the stairs. Fred waited downstairs and I was passed over to him while the two of them kissed over the top of me. “Icky,” I kidded them. Fred just tickled me briefly though and grabbed a cup of coffee, his tablet, and carried me out to the pool. He sat his stuff down before quickly spraying me with sunscreen and then just tossed me into the pool. I swam to the surface, stuck my tongue out at him, and then began swimming laps. The repetitive motion of my arms and legs was a good way to wake up as I pushed myself to swim faster to see how many laps I could do. Over and over I tumbled at the sides and thought over what Bella had told us last night. ‘She’s like a living cipher…’ I mused. ‘I wonder if Amanda will beat me to figuring out how it works… She definitely has more free time to work on it!’ Now it made perfect sense why the mafia wanted her. The news that she didn’t really know what happened to her parents, and had lied about knowing the reasons before, made me kind of nervous though that maybe she was still lying. ‘She really didn’t know us then, so I guess I don’t blame her…’ I thought. Being able to get inside and program nano-technology, specifically the ones inside of me seemed like a good thing to be working on. I sighed as I turned over and went to the other side of the pool on a new lap again. ‘Little Legal Rights’ I scoffed to myself as I continued swimming remembering that was the first of the seminars I had to go to today. From what I could gather it seemed like there really weren’t many legal rights for littles. All of the laws seemed to only lead to a life of diapers and abuse for most littles. While I didn’t mind the diapers and the babying, I at least knew I had ‘parents’ that didn’t see me as a pet to abuse. Not to mention a future if I could get back to my home dimension after this crazy adventure! After a while I noticed a shadow over my touch spot on the wall and drifted to a stop looking at Amanda now fully dressed for the day. “Come on my little fish, you need to take a quick shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, and get to the school.” I nodded and crawled to the edge of the pool and pulled myself over the edge. She was prepared with a blanket and practically swaddled me in it. A quick kiss to my forehead and she squeezed me tight to her. “I really do love you Stacy,” she told me. “Love you too, Mommy,” I told her with a smile. She carried me up to the bathroom and quickly stripped the swimsuit from my body. The diaper quickly followed and I was shaking at the cool air from the air conditioning. I watched as she started the shower and made sure it was a good temperature before setting me inside and grabbing the shower nozzle. Amanda handed me the nozzle, “Hold this for a second,” she said as she reopened the shower curtain and took it back from me. She handed me a loofa with some soap on it, “Here…” For the next ten minutes I showered as she held the shower head for me or occasionally used it herself to get into some spots like my rear. My hair was washed with shampoo and conditioner before she shut everything off and wrapped me in a towel. “Brush your teeth, then let’s get you dressed, breakfast, and head to school…” she said. “What time is it?” I asked a little concerned. “Just after eight, so we have about forty-five minutes and we need to be out the door…” she told me. In the end I barely had time to gulp a cup of coffee, eat the toast and oatmeal she gave me, before it she was carrying me with my backpack out to the car. As she buckled me in, she smiled and said, “We might need to wake you up earlier if you want to keep swimming in the mornings.” I sighed, but nodded as the clock said nine on the dot as we pulled away from our house. I absentmindedly poked at my diaper that was exposed under the summer dress. Somehow Amanda had convinced me that I wanted to wear the pale green checked dress because it was going to be so hot today. It was a near thing with diaper exposure when I was standing… but it was even worse when the straps of the car seat connected between my legs. I was grateful at least that Amanda thought a regular Pamper would suffice for the day instead of one of the thick pink princess diapers! Before long she pulled into her spot in the faculty lot and we walked hand-in-hand to a large brick building that looked more like a castle than a modern school building. The building was topped with a parapet wall that was outlined in white stone that contrasted the red brick below that made up the majority of the wall. Around windows and doors, the white stone was used again as a border, and I decided it was one of the most beautiful buildings on campus. I could just make out stained glass windows as we approached the entrance. From what I knew of the campus it was probably one of the oldest buildings at Emerson. I knew we were arriving at the right place because littles on ropes were behind and in front of us. “Good luck sweetie,” Amanda told me as she hugged me and then kissed me on the head. “I’ll see you at lunch,” she said reassuringly before I turned from her and followed the littles into a large lecture hall labeled ‘Destiny Hall.’ “Where’s your nest sweetie?” A kind looking girl asked me as I approached the doors. “Not sure, my mommy just dropped me off.” I groaned a bit at having used the babyish name for her. I watched the girls brain turn that over before she looked oddly at me and shrugged. “Who’s your nest mother?” “Miss Madison,” I told her. “There she is,” the girl said pointing behind me at the line of littles she tugged along. “Thanks,” I told her and waited for them to come over to where we stood. “Hi Stacy!” Madison said in a sing-song voice, “Ooh, you decided to wear the summer uniform today! I tried to get your nest mates to do that but none of them wanted to be as cute as you I guess…” she said. I groaned, “It was my mommy’s idea Miss Madison,” I told her truthfully. “Well it was a good idea!” She said bending over and patting my butt as she gave me a hug. “You’re so cute I could eat you up!” Another group passed us then though and it seemed to make her realize she needed to keep the group moving, “grab onto the end ring there Stacy,” she told me. I groaned and joined the human caterpillar of my nest and let myself be led into the large lecture hall. I looked around and saw the front of the room was covered from floor to the very tall ceiling with video screens that seemed to be some sort of electronic dry-erase boards. With all of them together it would make for an exceptionally large video screen, but seemed to currently be made up with separate panels that could be windowed with specific information. A slide showed in the middle section stating, ‘Welcome to Emerson - Little’s Legal Rights and Responsibilities.’ I was surprised to see a step stool being brought in and placed behind the lectern at the front of the room as we reached a set of seats in the second row of the large room. I opened my backpack and pulled out my booster seat. I caught several littles and Madison staring at me. “What?” I asked self-consciously, “I’m short…” Madison laughed and several of my nest mates giggled nervously. I climbed onto the boosted seat which let me just barely see over the top of the seat in front of us. In that chair a short littles head just showed their high ponytail sticking out above it like some sort of periscope. Laura leaned over, “Normally we avoid showing weakness of being a baby,” she explained to me. Her unboosted seat, still had her an inch above me since she was a bit taller. I shrugged, “For most of you that matters… I’m adopted, so what’s the point?” She started to say something and then thought better of it, “I don’t actually know,” she sighed. “At least I’m in panties today…” she whispered to me. I giggled, “Are you sure that’s a good idea after yesterday?” She looked nervous but nodded, “I’m being really careful what I eat and drink now,” she whispered in my ear like it was some sort of secret. I nodded and looked up as a video camera began showing the lectern up on one of the top parts of the massive screen. To my surprise a well-dressed, gray bearded little, in a suit walked up to the podium. “Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,” he said as his voice came through an amplified system, “I am Professor Marshall, and it’s my pleasure to welcome you to our fine university!” The dichotomy of a little leading this lecture after I had watched so many horrific acts holding littles back the last few weeks was jolting to me. He reminded me of any older distinguished professor back home though, or even of the Amazon adults. There was no doubt in my mind that he was the oldest looking free little I had seen. There was a definite hint of padding on his rear as the camera switched views from overhead to side automatically. He seemed to have no fear of anything though as he confidently spoke. “I am a professor in the law school here at Emerson. My specialty is in law regarding Little’s Rights and advocacy for abused Little’s.” I heard a couple gasps and down the row heard I heard Esther kind of squeal in excitement and got the feeling she was excited to meet him. I thought the idea of a little lawyer was kind of cool, and figured if anyone knew how to avoid being adopted it was probably the lawyer. “At this time, I would please ask that Nest mothers and anyone who is not a freshman little please leave. There is a break room with doughnuts, coffee, and juice down the hall for you all to wait in.” I heard a mixture of grumbling and cheers from the Amazons as they made their way out the door. “Okay, now that you’ll feel more comfortable without them… Today my goal of speaking to you is to be blunt and honest about your futures. Each year at Emerson about three-hundred Littles attend the university’s first day of school across all of the classes. Your class has over a hundred-and-fifty that were signed up to begin. You’re already down to a hundred-and-twenty… To say that your likelihood of graduation is low, is a massive understatement.” Murmurs were made around the room at this and I nervously shifted on the boosted seat. “In recent years the biggest class Emerson graduated was twenty-eight littles. That was two years ago at the height of the new laws to protect us from unwanted adoptions. I say this not to scare you, but to make sure you are informed as you navigate your future. I want to help increase that number of graduating littles by you knowing about your rights.” A slide changed and listed a law, ‘Little’s who have enrolled themselves in a higher education institution are deemed to have turned over their power of attorney to the institution. The institution must give consent to any adoption, and must engage in well-regulated due process before consenting to the arrangement.’ I wondered suddenly if given the way the law was written, did the university still have that power over me? “This law is the first law that you need to be aware of and know by heart. It’s the only thing stopping a random Amazon from adopting you on the street, walking across campus, or in the dorms. So long as you have your student ID on you, the individual must go through the university in order to adopt you. The law states that in order for the university to give consent there must be a process to evaluate the need and demonstrate a clear case of maturosis. This comes back to your student handbook and the code of conduct you were informed of on the first day of orientation.” “Should you be forcibly removed from your surroundings without that process, your best bet is to go along with the situation until you reach the mandatory adoption clinic visit. At that time, you should present the ID as proof that you are a student and that the university should be contacted. By law even if you don’t have the ID, and tell them that you are a student, they should still contact the university. Given carrying the ID is within the student code of conduct though, you would be in violation of the code of conduct and the university will generally sign off on the adoption if you don’t have it.” A hand flew up in the front row, “But what if we have our ID and it’s thrown away by the Amazon kidnapping us?” He nodded sagely, “That’s an excellent question and a very valid worry. It’s another reason why wearing your uniform at all times is a good idea since the chip inside the crest has some information there for your defense. The only thing I can suggest at that point of being taken, is try and conceal it somewhere.” I sat there for a moment and knew that nothing would stop it if a giant just picked you up, stripped you, put you in a diaper, and carried you away. It was too easy to remove both the uniform and the ID. “There is also another option available,” he continued, “that is currently recognized in the courts, clinics, and hospitals. The bookstore sells these,” he held up his wrist and showed off a forest green wristband. “They’re only removable with special cutting tools that are illegal for most to own. They are the only way to remove them without damaging you and cutting off a limb. They contain your ID information and are considered legally the same as your student ID both by law and by the university.” I couldn’t help but wonder if the wristbands weren’t an Amazonian version of a star right then, as I knew every little, probably including myself, would be going to the bookstore to immediately buy one. “They’re not cheap, but they are well worth having for insurance purposes,” he said with a sigh. The next slide came up and talked about due process from the university with the handbook regulation that had been explained to us the other day. “As long as you’re a student, you should be okay then with the wristbands preventing you from being adopted unexpectedly. That just leaves the student code of conduct with the many ways to gain demerits to worry about…” He sighed, “There’s a limit to how much you’ll be able to avoid demerits. Truthfully only about three littles a year avoid any demerits at all, and half of you will have your ten and be done by December.” There was so much murmuring, that I wondered if he could get control of the room again, but I wasn’t surprised to hear that. He held his hand up and everyone got quiet again, “Your best bet is to follow the rules and be as agreeable with your professors as you can. If you can get cases of water, soda, and such off campus you’re better off. There are a lot of students who will take advantage of you if you leave a drink unattended. From what I understand it sounds like most of you already encountered some issues the other day after the barbecue outside. Being paranoid is your best friend here and elsewhere in life.” A hand went up in the air, “Yes sir,” he said pointing towards a boy I couldn’t see, but heard ask loudly. “If we’ve had a demerit is there any appeals process?” The professor shook his head, “Dean Sanders is the one who deals with discipline of littles and she is the final authority on any disciplinary action as well.” I heard him sigh, “Thanks.” “Sorry, any other questions on the code of conduct? I know they covered it pretty thoroughly your first day.” There were a couple others asked, but nothing that mattered or really were worth asking. He eventually nodded, “Okay, so… like I said earlier, the blunt truth of the matter is that most of you will not be graduating from here. Let’s talk about those of you who will not make it. The majority of you are going to find yourselves at odds with the demerit system. What happens then?” There was dead silence in the room. He had basically told everyone that there was little chance of escape, and that at least ninety of the littles in the room wouldn’t get past Emerson. He showed a picture of a daycare on the next slide… only there wasn’t a single real baby in the picture from what I could tell. “The university has a boarding daycare that such students are immediately taken to. Your belongings are placed into a storage area pending adoption down the road. Once your new ‘parents’ are selected they can decide what to do with it all. If you’re lucky those parents will keep any keepsakes you have from your family. Many will not though, and unfortunately the day you are placed in the daycare you are no longer allowed to make any of your own decisions.” He showed a slide with bullet points then ‘Your Process,’ it stated. “First thing you can expect to happen is you’ll be taken from the Dean’s office downstairs to be processed. You will most likely be in a diaper at this point…” he paused, “and maybe only that…” “Why are you supporting…?” One little shouted angrily. “I don’t,” he said quietly as someone shushed the little, “but don’t you think information is helpful here?” He drank some water out of a water bottle he pulled from his jacket. “Truthfully most of you only know rumors of what happens, right?” Everyone including me nodded, “so let’s get rid of rumors and give you some facts.” “Yes sir…” the girl who had objected said quietly “Once you’re taken from the office it’ll be a short walk to the campus daycare. Depending on your behavior going to the daycare, and whatever offense they punished you for, you will be treated differently when they take you in. If you want to have any chance of freedom someday, your best bet during this trip is to keep your mouth shut and not scream. Cussing, screaming your head off, biting, or making threats will only result in them putting a lockable pacifier in your mouth… and those get painful in a hurry.” I rubbed my jaw sympathetically thinking about it right then, “Yes they do,” I whispered. Laura gave me a glance but I looked forward as he kept speaking, “By being a good compliant little, they usually won’t feel the need to treat your ‘maturosis’ as excessively. The more offensive you are during this time… well more than likely they will decide to remove your teeth, the ability to speak, walk, or even crawl.” There were a ton of gasps then as people pictured that happening. I pictured my ‘cousins’ in my mind and felt a bit of urine escape into my diaper. “How is that legal…?” One person asked. “Good question,” he responded. “Unfortunately, it is fully endorsed by the psychiatric and medical communities currently,” the professor answered. “It should be seen as completely wrong and inhumane, but the simple fact is that it is completely legal at the present time. Once you’ve been labeled as having a case of ‘maturosis’ and needing re-raised, you have to know any of those things can happen.” “So just shut up and be a good baby?” Natasha fairly spat. He nodded, “I know that sounds stupid, but during that time that’s your safest bet. The more you fight the younger you’ll be treated. It’s not like you’re going to manage to fight off an Amazon for long… Understand that the university makes money off the adoptions for their endowment. Littles are mostly directly adopted from the daycare to rich donors. They will only adopt out the compliant ones though. Those that fight and behave poorly are going to be sent to a couple etiquette centers that support the university endowment in exchange for having you to sell themselves.” “It’s slavery,” one boy spat somewhere behind me. “Yes, it is, and I hope that someday we find a way to end it,” Professor Marshall said with a sigh as he pulled his glasses off his face to rub his eyes. “The eventual goal of both places is that you end up in the hands of a new set of parents. Those parents for the most part will be fairly wealthy. This is because many believe that university students make much better littles. If you didn’t fight, and didn’t end up in an etiquette center, make sure you do your best to form a bond with the new parents as soon as you can. Don’t fight them at all as it will make your life much less painful. Most that adopt won’t abuse you for the sake of abusing you. They’ll mostly only engage in that behavior in retaliation so that they get a ‘good baby’ and properly treat your maturosis.” He sighed, “I’ll come back to that in a moment. For those that end up in an etiquette center there’s not much you’re going to be able to do to fight anything. You most likely will at least be hypnotized. It’s also likely other physical modifications will also be made to you, but again the less you struggle the better off you’ll be. Understand that there is no realistic escape from an etiquette center. Between the Amazons who will have no problem containing you, and the many robotic nannies they use, escape is all but impossible. When you get adopted if you still have anything left upstairs do your best to again behave.” “But if you behave all of this time, you’re still stuck being a baby doll for some crazy person?!?” One little asked with alarm. “You’re still being treated like a baby, but hopefully you can avoid the mental and physical modifications then. If you can form a bond with a parent then you are more likely to convince them that maybe you can grow up and be on your own someday.” “Is there any line that’s too far? Can they just do whatever they want to us?” I heard a worried Laura ask next to me. “Yes. The Little Protection Services exists theoretically to watch out for abuse. Many times, if they find out a little is left alone frequently without a caregiver, not being fed, being neglected, etc. then they will pull the little from the home. Sometimes that ends up meaning foster care or another etiquette center. Usually if LPS gets involved you have to know it’s bad though, and you’re probably better off even in the etiquette center.” “Umm… how long… how long are we stuck like that?” One girl nervously asked. Several littles snickered rudely which she calmly added, “I’m not from the mainland… we don’t have Amazons where I’m from…” “Possibly for the rest of your life,” the professor answered honestly. “Assuming you are given all of the hypnotic triggers, you probably won’t even notice… Especially if you fight it right away the answer is a very long time. Often times though if you’re good you’ll find your new family is at least willing to consider you might be worthy of growing up as they eventually tire of diapers and feedings. Unfortunately, throughout any time that you are adopted, or taken as a ward of the state, you are essentially given the legal standing of a baby less than a year old. The court doesn’t recognize your right to speak for yourself in any way.” He looked at his watch and said, “I don’t have much more time. I do want to let you know that if you are in a situation and you are legitimately being abused your best bet is to tell an adult at your daycare, or a doctor or a nurse. They may be your only hope of help due to the requirements that they report suspected abuse. Any other questions?” A hand nearby went up, “How did you stay free?” the girl asked from out of sight. He laughed, “I didn’t. I survived college, got my law degree, and a client kidnapped me two months later. Fortunately, I followed the advice I gave you and was eventually able to reason with them that I was mature enough to be potty trained, and eventually was freed… I spent eight years as their little baby boy before being free now for the past twenty.” He sighed, “Even now I follow a strict policy of making sure I wear protection just in case someone gets handsy with me. Remember the way the law is written once you’re out of school, is that you’re mature if you chose to wear protection - even if it’s not dry or clean. If you aren’t wearing that protection and you’re busted with even a little bit of a skid mark in your underwear, or a few drops of urine in your panties… You won’t be free anymore.” The room was somber and silent until a loud bang happened in the back as the doors opened and the nest mothers strolled back down. I looked at my watch and realized it was already eleven. I stood up and put my portable booster seat back into my backpack. “At least you don’t have to worry about all of that,” Laura said to me quietly. There was a deep sadness to her voice. I shrugged, “who knows what can happen in this crazy town… Maybe you won’t need to worry about it either,” I told her. I didn’t believe that though, she’d already had a close call with the dirty diaper yesterday. I was a little surprised she would take a risk like not wearing one so soon after that disaster… Chapter 11: ‘Options’ I GRABBED AHOLD of the rope as Madison led us out, but was relieved to see Amanda waiting for me. She stood next to Fred who was holding Bella and lightly bouncing her up and down. Bella was dressed in a very babyish yellow dress with a ruffled scoop neck. I could see there was a set of attached bloomers covering her diaper. The frilly bloomers showed around Fred’s hands where he supported her by her bottom. Amanda asked, “Ready for lunch?” I followed her as I could hear growing murmurs of shock from my fellow littles. I ignored them and nodded, “Where are we going?” “There’s a restaurant nearby that a lot of doctors go to for lunch with good sandwiches?” Fred said tentatively. I smiled, “Sounds good!” I walked with them a little way until we were out of sight of the littles heading to the cafeteria. Amanda must have been waiting for that, because she picked me up and sat me on her hip, and began walking faster than I would have been able to. I leaned into her and squeezed in the best hug I could manage then knowing how fortunate I was right then. She squeezed me back gently. I think she knew I was upset about something as she patted my back gently. When we’d made it a block down the road away from campus she asked, “Everything okay?” I shrugged, “Nothing new, just a really depressing session,” I told her honestly. “Who ran it anyway?” “Professor Marshall?” I said. “Oh… That’s really cool,” Bella said from Fred’s arms having heard me. “Why?” “He’s the biggest advocate for littles civil rights out there. I can’t imagine a session with him being depressing?” She said confused. “Well he was being pretty blunt about what the majority of littles in the room should expect in their futures,” I told her. Her eyes opened, frowned, and then she nodded, “You’re right, that would be depressing…” Neither Amanda, nor Fred really tried to pry anything else out then. Instead I sat and listened as Amanda and Fred talked over lunch about what they were doing when they went back to work with Bella. I sat in a booster seat while Bella was in a highchair with a bib on. It was a novelty to eat outside of the highchair, and be without a bib. “Just in case another student comes in…” Amanda had whispered. I wasn’t sure what the point of avoiding babying me was, but I just went with the flow and was careful with my food. It was nice to be treated like a big kid at least! Apparently, they had toured the university daycare that morning with Bella. “It was awful,” Bella said quietly before taking another bite of an enormous pickle sliver she was holding. “I didn’t see a lot, but what I did see makes me agree,” Amanda said with a sigh. “It’s really just another etiquette school…” I nodded, “Sounds about like we heard earlier…” “What did he say about it?” Amanda asked curiously. I made eyes around the room, “I’ll tell you more later… but basically he walked everyone through the process if they get their demerits. The way he talked made me think the daycare here was more about breaking littles than taking care of them…” Bella shuddered and nodded as she took a bite of the pickle. “Well, we’ll go check out the hospital next I guess…” Fred said, “It’d be better if we could use one of the two because they’d be convenient for us.” “Yeah, but you don’t want her to be picked on all the time, right?” I said softly. “No, we don’t,” Amanda said. “You sure you don’t want to just come to class with me?” She shook her head, “Especially with my ‘big sis’ being in your class, it would probably make things worse for her.” I opened my eyes at that, but couldn’t help but think she’d be right. Just having other littles see her when I met up with them caused some stares and grumbling… “You may be right…” Fred spoke after a moment. I looked at my watch and said, “We need to start walking back if we’re going to get me back in time…” Amanda stood up then and picked me up out of the booster seat and sat me on her hip while Fred gathered the diaper bag and Bella. They set off at a pretty brisk walk back towards campus. Just as we came to the building Amanda sat me down on the ground and grabbed my hand to lead me back into Destiny Hall. “Destiny seems like a really terribly ironically named place to hold these seminars,” I told her as we approached the room. “It was renamed fifty years ago and supposed to be about the destiny of making it to the stars,” she told me in response. “But I agree… there are other halls.” She felt my diaper and said, “You need changed…” She looked at her watch quickly and pulled me along to the bathroom. “Let’s get you up on the table,” she said clearly a little stressed as she picked me up and put me on the changing table. I turned red as she reached for my backpack, grabbed wipes and a diaper, before pushing the skirt of my dress out of the way as I blushed. She had just pulled the tapes loose from my diaper when Madison and a couple littles from my nest walked in the door. “Go use the potties over there, let me know if you need help using the potty!” Madison said in a condescending voice before turning and making eye contact with me just as Amanda pulled the front of the diaper down. “Oh, hi Stacy!” She said with a squeal, “You’re such a cutie!” I grunted a ‘thanks’ as Amanda picked my ankles up in her hand and slid the wet diaper out and used a wipe on my bottom before setting me on a new diaper. If I thought I couldn’t get any redder, I was wrong as Natasha came out the door of the stall and made eye contact with me too. I turned my head in embarrassment and looked at the wall wishing I had a pacifier right then. “Oh Natasha, out already?” Madison said, “Let’s just check your panties and make sure you’re all clean!” I couldn’t help but look as Natasha had her skirt pulled up to her chest and panties exposed. Madison had her turn around and looked down the back of her panties before pulling her skirt down and saying, “Just a couple of drops that you missed, huh?” Natasha flushed red but didn’t answer. “Maybe training panties would be a good idea tomorrow?” Madison said, “Just a suggestion. It’s not like you need actual baby diapers like Stacy over there,” she reassured her. I bit my tongue then and as Amanda sat me down on the ground, I pulled my skirt back down. She washed her hands and then held me up to do so as well. We left before Madison and the two littles and she bent down and gave me a hug, “I’m sorry Stacy.” I shrugged, “I don’t know why it feels like such a big deal since I know every little is getting diapered at night and was yesterday…” She kissed me on the head, “Go into your lecture, I’ll be waiting when you get done.” “Don’t forget there’s that Lambda Delta Pi event this afternoon?” “You still want to go?” “If I may…?” “Hmm… Maybe I’ll see if Megan can actually pick you up from here and take you? You could hang out with her in her dorm… You have plenty of diapers?” She whispered the last part. I nodded, “I’m not making that mistake again…” “Okay, I’ll text you when I figure it out.” I looked around for Fred but Amanda said, “They waited outside, I’ll see you later,” she hugged me and left me to walk into the lecture hall where I found my nest sitting in the same spot. I had just managed to sit down on my booster when Natasha caught my eye and mouthed a ‘sorry’ to me. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ I mouthed to her with a shrug. At that point a large Amazon lady with the beginning of gray in her hair began speaking at the lectern. “Quiet down now boys and girls…” ‘She sounds like a kindergarten teacher…’ I thought to myself and found myself instantly annoyed and wondering what kind of future she wanted us to plan for. The slide for the session said, ‘Planning for the Future’ and had a smaller subtitle that said ‘Know Your Options.’ “Good afternoon,” she said to silence. “Oh, you can do better than that boys and girls! I said, good afternoon!” I found myself half-heartedly repeating it back to her a couple times with everyone before she was happy. “Now that’s how you properly greet someone! My name is Mrs. Beauregard, and I serve as the Director of Student Services and Job Placement for Littles at Emerson.” She paused as if wondering if she needed to use smaller words. The patronizing tone to her voice was painful to my ears. “My job is ultimately to make sure that all of you have a wonderful future when you leave Emerson. Today I would especially like to tell you about some of the choices you have as you move on with your lives. College is a very hard path for anyone, but littles often struggle more than our big students. Finals, loans, maintaining your GPA, course work, and even social situations often times bring our smaller students to tears. It’s sad, and when we see you struggle so hard, it makes sense that we offer you some other options in case you get in over your head.” No one dared to speak out against this speaker, but I could hear a lot of uncomfortable shifting in seats. The squeaking of the fold down seats moving up and down a little was a little annoying. She changed the slide, ‘Finding your way into a New Home.’ It showed a male and female little about our age being held by two smiling parents. The boy was in a onesie with a diaper proudly showing its edges while the girl was in a dress that seemed to be surreptitiously pulled up by her ‘mom’ just to show her thick purple diaper. The two ‘babies’ had disturbingly wide smiles that at least showed they still had their teeth. Both smiled at the camera as if they were the happiest babies that they could be, seeming to not have a care in the world about their lack of freedom! There was more shifting and now some muttering in the back with this slide. “Quiet now please boys and girls. Now I know some of you think that you’re really big boys and girls, but this is a great option for many of you! My office has a service where we help you get matched with a compatible family to adopt you to their loving home. We screen all applicants before they even get near any of our students. You also get a chance to have some input on whether you feel comfortable with one set of parents or not.” She selected the next slide that showed some facts about their adoptions and satisfaction, “We have a Ninety-Five percent satisfaction rate with our littles that go to their new homes. Our participants in the program always thank us for taking such good care of them and finding them their new loving homes.” A new slide said, ‘Benefits.’ “The benefits for a little participating are numerous! You won’t have to worry about those difficult math and science classes, you won’t have to pay another bill, you don’t have to worry about having a roof over your head, a bed to sleep in, or where your next meal is going to come from. Our adoptive families are given extensive training before adoption in how to care for your every need and give you a loving home.” The next slide said, ‘How to Enroll in Happy Griffins,’ and featured the smiling little girl from earlier with her head being dipped by the ‘dad’ who was goofing around and flinging her down so her pigtails flew through the air. “If this seems like something that interests you please understand you’re allowed to join the program up until you receive the ten demerits of disciplinary action. If you reach that point you are no longer eligible for our program. This is just a practical policy since you will no longer be a student at the university. Providing you begin the paperwork before that point you are then exempted from the demerits while we process your application. If this sounds like a fun and exciting future to you, then all that you have to do is come to our office and say you want to join!” ‘Process,’ was the next slide that showed with the boy now grinning from a swing in a park. “Once you join the program, we will move you to our dorm that is reserved just for our special participants! Our caregivers in the dorm will immediately help pack away anything you don’t need into storage for your new home, while also getting you used to your new future. You won’t have to worry about the potty monster anymore there, and you’ll get to sleep in a nice safe bed! While we’re waiting to find just the right family for you, your days will be spent relaxing and taking it easy with the other participants. You’ll no longer be paying tuition at this point and you’ll be off to easy street from then on.” ‘What a load of crap,’ I thought in my head. For the next twenty minutes she explained then how you would meet potential new families and in general join what I would consider the little mill… One little finally had enough and shouted, “This is bullshit!” Mrs. Beauregard looked at the audience and picked out the boy who had shouted. “Young man come up here now…” He stayed put but said, “No ma’am, I have a right to speak my mind freely - I’m still a free little.” She walked down to the chair he sat in and all of our eyes and heads turned to watch what I assumed was a coming train wreck. Wordlessly she went to him and picked him up under the arms, “Put me down!!!!!” She didn’t, and easily manhandled the squirming boy as she moved back to the front of the lecture hall and found a chair that was sitting there that she sat down in. Without saying a word, she yanked the boys pants down to his ankles and examined his regular underwear. “Hmm… some tracks in here, so you have poopy pants. You were a big boy before, but obviously that’s not the case now. Before you go to the Dean, I’m going to make sure you understand your new place.” Her hand began raining down blows on him over and over and over again. I internally reached thirty before I stopped counting and felt my eyes water in the thought of that much pain. He was a blubbering mess as she let him sit up and pulled off his clothes. I blushed at the sight of his naked body and felt terrible for him as she spoke to one of the nest mothers. She dug around in a bag before handing her a thick diaper covered in juvenile cartoon characters. She had him dressed in it quickly as his cries continued, “Go ahead and take him to Dean Sanders, let her know about his poopy pants, talking back to a teacher, and swearing. I count sixteen demerits there, so I guess we have our next student moving on. Tell her I think Tippy Toes is the best facility for him.” The silence as we watched him be carried out in just the diaper blubbering in pain was painful. As the door to the rear of the room slammed shut, I couldn’t help but think that so had the boy’s future. I’d have to go look when I got home, but I had a feeling Tippy Toes was an etiquette school… and probably not one you wanted to be in. “Well, sorry for the bad behavior of your classmate. Like I said many of you may find that volunteering to join our program may be in your best interests.” She spoke for a few more minutes but I think most of us tuned it out before finally changing to a slide about ‘Job Placement.’ “Now, many of you in here are perfectly capable of being big boys and girls and will be looking for a job when you graduate Emerson. We believe strongly in every one of our students leaving the university with a loving home or a great job. We have several services that help you locate jobs in your field that are willing to consider hiring littles for those jobs. We also help your future employers understand the grants and special financing options that are available to them through the government for taking on a little worker.” “We also understand some of you may be interested in starting up your own businesses and help with loan applications for that process.” She paused for a moment, and just from her demeanor it was obvious what she thought about littles and where they should end up. “Any questions?” There was dead silence, “Well in that case good luck to you all here at Emerson, and I wish you a successful future! Please come see me for any needs you have!” For some reason as she said that her eyes found me and narrowed. I smiled sweetly at her and then opened my bag quickly to see if Amanda had texted me. A quick glance said Megan should be waiting for me outside, and I smiled at the thought of hanging out with her for a while on my own. I joined the line that Madison was corralling us into to leave the building and take the other littles back to the dorm. As soon as we passed the door of the lecture hall, I spotted Megan who waved at me and came up to me. “What the hell are you doing here shrimp?” A nearby nest mother hissed at Megan. I watched in horror at realizing Megan’s short Amazonian frame was completely dwarfed by the tall girl who yelled at her. I swallowed my fear though to let go of the rope and began walking towards Megan anyway. The brown-haired Amazon seemed to be just a bit taller than Amanda, making Megan look like a little in comparison. Her body was very plump, with breasts that couldn’t seem to stay contained inside of her ill-fitting top. “I’m here to pick up my niece,” Madison said warily. “Oh, I thought maybe you figured out you should be joining the littles?” the girl said nastily. “I’m not the one that feels the need to move in with them? I’m in a big girl’s dorm.” Megan countered. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to pick up my niece… Unfortunately, I’m sure we’ll see each other in classes next week…” She chose that moment to pick me up protectively and held me on her hip, “Where are you going with her?” Madison asked testily having turned around to see her leaving with me now. “Ms. Madison, this is my Auntie Megan, my mommy asked for her to pick me up.” “That’s true?” Madison asked Megan. “Yep Madison, I’d stay and talk but I promised my sister we’d go take care of some things after I picked up my niece.” “What’s going on here?” Mrs. Beauregard asked as she came of the hall. “I’m trying to figure out what this runt is doing with a student little, since we all know that they can’t be adopted,” the large girl said. “I’m picking up my niece to watch her for my sister, Ma’am,” Megan said politely. “And you are?” She asked me. “Stacy Westerfield,” I told her. “Oh… you…” she said with a tone that made me more than slightly nervous after the last hour and a half. She looked at the large Amazon girl, “Did she confirm this was her aunt?” “Yes, she did,” Madison said to our side holding onto the line of our nest. “I know her mommy said it was okay for her to pick her up. I just hadn’t officially met her yet… Megan, right?” “That’s me,” Megan said nervously. “Well, we can’t all stand here all day, seems like everything’s okay, move along now.” Madison walked away then and I whispered, “Who is she?” “A conniving two-faced bitch,” she told me softly as we exited past the littles who stared at us for the confrontation and my position being carried by a short giant. I waved at a few of my new friends as she carried me away and down the sidewalks towards the dorms. “Let’s just say I’m really a betweener in height according to some of the girls I’m in classes with.” She hissed, “They think that means I might as well be a little then… Last year I helped tutor her when she was failing a math class. For some reason then she turned around and stabbed me in the back with a professor in another class and accused me of plagiarizing. If it wasn’t for Mandy, I probably would have been expelled…” “What’s her name?” “You mean two-faced bitch doesn’t count?” She laughed, and I had to giggle too. She was such a breath of fresh air since she wasn’t talking to me like I was a baby who it was inappropriate to swear near. “Nancy Dannigan,” she said, “avoid her at all costs if you can. By the end of the lasty year she had several of her girls from her nest openly breastfeeding from her in the cafeteria. Anytime someone questioned it, she said they asked her to… Let’s just say that’s not long before went missing to wherever it is littles get stolen away to…” “I’m not surprised,” I told her. She walked along for a few more minutes before saying, “So we have about an hour and a half to kill, what do you want to do besides change that wet diaper you’re wearing?” “Pour bleach in my ears so that I can forget everything I just heard in that seminar?” I said sarcastically. “That’s the one where they basically point out you’re better off letting yourself be adopted out, rather than continue as a student?” “You’ve been there for it?” “No, but I’ve made some friends with littles over the past couple of years and heard about it. It’s despicable and that woman is about as awful as anyone can get. I think she’s actually worse than Chloe and Cassie…” “That’s low,” I said, “but probably about right.” She gave me a squeeze and I watched passively as she carried me down the sidewalk to her dorm. Megan sat me down outside the doors and touched her keycard to the sensor before holding open the massive door for me. “Hey Megan!” a friendly voice said as we walked to an elevator. “Hi Raileigh,” she said in response and I looked to another fairly short Amazon. She was still taller than Megan, but definitely shorter than average. Her blonde hair was hanging from a messy ponytail and she seemed to have been working out. “Who’s this?” she asked curiously as she joined us waiting for the elevator. “She’s adorable!!!!” “Raileigh this is Stacy,” she introduced me, “Stacy this is my neighbor Raileigh.” “Nice to meet you,” I said politely. “You too… but who is she?” she asked Megan suspiciously. “Oh, my niece,” she told her, “she’s going to school here.” “Your niece…?” she asked. “My sister adopted her as a sort of exchange student deal.” “So, you mean she really is a student?” She asked curiously as she stared down at me. “Yes, I am,” I told her myself a little annoyed at being talked about. “Sorry…” she said bending down, “my only encounters with littles are my brothers at home… they don’t do much but drool, cry, poop and pee in their diapees…” I sighed, “I hope to make more of my life than that.” “Umm… You do know how small you are, right?” The girl asked in an incredulous tone. “There’s no way you’re going to graduate?” I smiled, “I will do it! I’m more than capable.” Megan picked me up then and hugged me, “She’s smarter than you would believe. She placed out of the first two semesters of math, she might even be in your calculus class actually, you’re taking the third semester again, right?” I watched the poor girl blush, “Yeah… Math is just not my strong suit…” She paused, “I’m sorry for mocking you there… Maybe we could study together sometime?” I smiled, “I’d be happy to if we can figure out how... You might have to come to my house.” “I’d like that… Megan’s a good friend of mine…” she paused as we reached a door that led to some other closed and locked doors, “I’ll see you later though.” Megan used her card key on a card reader panel and opened up a large dorm room with a single bed, desk, closet, and TV. I couldn’t help but smile at the princess pink theme throughout the room, complete with a glittery tiara decal at the head of her bed. “I didn’t realize you were a princess fanatic,” I told her with a smirk. “Obviously, since I am the baby of the family, I am the true princess,” she told me with her own smirk. “I’m guessing you don’t use those words too much around your sisters?” She shrugged as she picked me up and sat down with me on her gigantic bed, “I’m the baby sister and I know it. I also know I am short… But for the most part I’m never really that worried about it.” “Do you ever worry…?” “What? That they’ll really go ahead and decide to baby me?” Megan laughed. “I know, it sounds silly…” She shook her head, “Actually it happened once with Cassie when Mandy had moved out and Mom and Dad were gone for a weekend. I was ten and she was the only one around that could stay with me. I accidentally spilled a coke on her and she became livid. Next thing I knew I was in diapers and she was attempting to get me to drink out of a baby bottle.” “Where did diapers big enough to fit you even come from?” I asked. She shrugged, “I was still small enough then that I easily just fit in the largest size regular baby diapers. I guess she had a few in her car from babysitting a baby the week before.” “How’d you get out of that?” She smirked, “I gave her the baby she wanted and let loose a load in the diaper that made her puke. When she refused to clean me up, I said, ‘Guess I’m not being babysat anymore.’ I stood up, untapped the diaper, and shoved the mess on her shirt before I calmly walked back to my bathroom to take a shower.” “What did she do then?” “Once she got over her shock she began pounding on the door to my room. I ended up hiding in my room after the shower and called Mom to let her know about it…” “What did she say?” “She… wasn’t happy… let’s just say that was the last time Cassie was left alone with me.” I shuddered, “both of your sisters other than Amanda…” “I know, right?” She shrugged, “So we have about an hour before we have to go, anything you want to do?” I shrugged, “I hadn’t made it any further with planning. Plus, the afternoon kind of put a downer on any thoughts I might have had.” She looked at me for a second and smiled, “You don’t have your nails painted, do you?” I held my hands out to her, “Umm… no… kind of surprising actually given how girly girl Amanda likes dressing me.” She smiled, “Well, in that case it’s my solemn auntie duty to fix this terrible act of neglect!” I watched from my perch as she went to a drawer and pulled out a mini (to her) milk crate of nail polishes and tools. Before she sat back down next to me, she asked, “How’s your diaper doing?” I shrugged, “It’s wet…” “Do you want me to change it? I can let you do it too?” I looked at her for a moment before saying, “You’d be quicker?” She smiled and made quick work of it before beginning to work on my nails. She filed them to a round shape before she painted a base coat of forest green that matched the school colors. A yellow E was then carefully painted on my thumbnails, while she put some other little squiggles on the other nails. My hands were so tiny compared to hers, I considered her patience with the small details to be really impressive. “There, now you look cute!” She told me with a smile before glancing a clock on the wall. “And now it’s time to get you to that meeting too…” “Thanks Megan,” I told her and gave her a hug. “You’re welcome Stacy,” she said as she quickly put away her supplies. “That diaper still good?” I nodded, not having needed to go since she changed me. “Okay then, let’s go meet your friend.” She hustled me out of there with my backpack on and walked quickly down to an area in the student union where meeting rooms were. A large sign outside the room said, “Lambda Delta Pi welcome party.” As Megan and I approached a girl at the front looked up angrily, “This isn’t a party for Bigs,” she told her. “She’s just escorting me here,” I told her calmly bringing her attention back to me. The girl was dressed wearing a nice dress and had a light white jacket on that had the Greek Letters ΛΔΠ embroidered on it. A gold pin was prominently displayed on her jacket. I guessed it was a sorority pin based on what little I knew about such organizations back home. “And you are…?” She asked. “Stacy Westerfield, Sarah Evans invited me?” “We’ll see about that…” she said suspiciously and called out, “Sarah?” Sarah came out shortly dressed similarly, “Hi Stacy!” before looking a little shaken at the short giant next to me. “Umm… I’m sorry, but Lambda Delta Pi is only for littles?” Megan laughed, “No worries, I’ll leave her here.” She looked at me and said, “Amanda should be here for you at five-thirty. If you need to leave before then, call me.” I walked over and hugged her as she leaned down and then walked back to the stunned expression of the girl. “Are you crazy?” The other girl asked a moment later, “she only wants to adopt you!” I laughed, “Somehow I think her sister wouldn’t be too happy with that.” Sarah laughed too, “Yeah, and she’s a lot bigger!” “What’s so funny?” the girl asked. “Relax Jess, we’re laughing because Stacy is already adopted.” “Then what is she doing here?” Jess the girl panicked, “she’s probably just trying to get dirt so her mommy can swoop in…” I held my hand up, “Stop, I’m not your average little, and my ‘mommy’ isn’t your average Amazon. I’m here as kind of an exchange student from the other dimension. I knew I didn’t want to live in the dorms and not have a chance of anything other than being a mindless baby in a nursery, so I found a pair of crazy Amazon parents to foster me while I’m here.” “You’re from the other dimension?” Her eyes looked me up and down, “Is that why you’re so tiny?” Sarah asked curiously. I shook my head and shrugged, “No idea what went wrong.” “Well, let’s try this again,” Sarah said with a sigh, “Jess this is Stacy, Stacy this is Jess. Jess is one of our senior members this year and she’s a bit paranoid about adoption this close to the finish line.” I nodded, “I can understand that…” “S… sorry,” Jess said sheepishly, “I’m just convinced everyone is against us.” “Well that’s the whole point of our sisterhood Jess.” “If that’s the whole point then why invite her?” She asked suspiciously. “I was wondering the same thing,” I asked curiously. “For that you would have to join, Stacy… Jess I’ll tell you later.” I looked up suspiciously, “Am I being setup for something here?” She shook her head, “we just hold the secrets of our sisterhood dear. Come on in and meet everyone,” she told me and ushered me forward to a room with little sized tables filled with hors d'oeuvres. With as short as I was it seemed like they were still adult tables compared to me. I watched Sarah bite into a loaded potato skin before considering if I would want to eat anything there. “It’s all safe Stacy, we prepared it all ourselves.” I shrugged knowing I didn’t have classes tomorrow anyways, and grabbed a few things. Plate in hand, I let her lead me around the room introducing me to their officers and about two-dozen members. It seemed like there were only a few sophomores that were members that were being sought after. I cornered Sarah after a while, “Why am I the only freshman?” Chapter 12: Taste “MOST OF THE time we give everyone a year to shake out if they’re going to be stupid and get adopted, or if they actually have a chance to survive until graduation.” “And me?” “You’re already adopted and safer than any of us will ever be…” she paused, “And, I liked how gutsy you were when I met you.” She smiled, “Not to mention you have really cute nails!” “Thanks, my ‘auntie’ did them for me earlier.” I continued circulating around the room after that and learned that the girls didn’t have a house to stay in obviously since they were littles, but that they were allowed to live on the same dorm floor next to each other. Somehow, they also seemed to have managed to avoid having too invasive of RAs babying them. One of the officers, Lisa, sat down with me and asked me some questions. “How did you do on your tests this week?” “Pretty good,” I told her. “Numbers?” I looked at her and got the feeling I was being evaluated as a piece of meat at a cattle show. It had been pretty apparent so far that I was being recruited by Sarah to become a member, but not everyone else seemed sure that the idea of an adopted little being around was a good idea. “Which test?” “Math placement?” “One-ninety,” I answered her. “Bull shit!” She said. I laughed, “Really, I’m good at math.” “No kidding, you’re telling me the truth?” She still looked dubious about my statement. I dug into my bag and pulled out the paper copy I had been given. My computer science placement test and CARE exams were right there too and she just shook her head, “Are you a robot from the future or something?” I giggled, “No, just a plain old little girl.” “So, what’s with your adoption? She… your… big is a professor, right?” I nodded, “And my adopted daddy is a doctor.” “And you’re okay with being adopted?” “It beats being taken off the streets? Or forcibly put into the daycare and orphanage here?” She nodded, “Yeah… so what happens if you end up demeriting out?” I shrugged, “I don’t honestly know, or plan to find out. Hopefully I would just be told I had to go back to daycare, but I suppose they could use that as a reason for LPS to take me away. I haven’t really considered it that much though.” “And how much… Umm…” “How much have I been babied?” She grimaced but her head went up and down. “Basically, everything they would do with a baby my size I’ve done, leave it at that?” “Including breastfeeding?” She asked with a hiss. “Yes…” “Currently?” I pouted unintentionally, “No… Mo… Amanda doesn’t want me to have a poopy accident in class.” “Keep it that way! That milk is highly addictive and you won’t have any control over your body in a month.” “I kind of liked that with my urine,” I told her. “Why?” “You may have noticed I’m even smaller than you. Potties my size don’t exist commercially.” “Or at all…” she agreed. “Well… I made one actually…” I ended up telling her the story of the incident from last week and she laughed with me. Soon several other girls gather around, and I alternated laughing and cringing as I heard stories from their own misadventures with Amazons. Some were from before college, and others happened at the university. Every single one of them had been diapered and endured some other babying at some point before they joined the sorority. From talking to them it seemed like life got better for them after they joined… “So, what do you all actually do as a group?” I asked finally noting that it was getting close to time for dinner. “Mainly we hang out and help each other out academically. If we need to go shopping for something, we go in a large group of so that we can cover for each other. Generally, we all work together to get good grades and escape Emerson without ending up in the nursery,” Jess said. “Though in your case I don’t know what the goal would be…” “Graduating and helping you all out?” I said. “How can you help us? You’re already in diapers and a nursery?” Jess asked. I smirked, “I’m pretty good with computers… let’s just say I would make a good ally?” “How good?” she asked. “I tested out of a lot of classes?” “You’d need to, that department is the worst at letting littles pass…” Sarah said. “Huh?” I responded. “Doctor Wernstrom seems to be single handedly responsible for a dozen or more littles being kicked out each year. As far as I know actually, I don’t think a single little has made it through one of his classes…” “He was an ass,” I agreed, “I’m glad I tested out of all of his classes.” “All of them?” Jess said. “There’s like four or five of them?!?” I smiled, “I could be of value?” I then asked, “So how many of your members actually graduate?” “Most of the time we get ninety-five percent of our members to graduation,” Sarah said matter-of-factly. “Last year everyone graduated that had joined from the pledge class.” “Cool,” I said. A tall Amazonian man with graying hair came in just then, “Time to wrap it up girls,” he said in a kind voice. “Don’t want to miss your official dinner and have your RA screaming at us.” With that everyone broke up and I walked out to see Amanda waiting outside. She waited patiently by a pillar a little way away and I turned to say goodbye to Lisa who had followed me out. “Thanks for having me,” I told her. “Thanks for coming Stacy… I think we’ll be in touch about some other events coming up if you’re interested?” I smiled, “If you all can help me be sure to graduate, then I’m definitely interested!” She smiled, “Is that your Amazon?” “Yes, that’s Amanda.” “I assume you call her Mommy?” She asked nervously. “Well it helps with blending in…” “I guess…” she said unconvinced, “Well we’ll see you around,” she said and gave me a quick friendly hug, “It was nice meeting you!” I walked over to Amanda who asked, “Did you have fun?” as we walked away. “I did actually,” I told her. After we had exited the building, she couldn’t help herself and picked me up to place me on her hip. “Ready for dinner?” “What are we having?” “Your baby sister suggested Chinese food?” I shrugged, “That works for me.” “What do you want?” “Sweet and spicy chicken?” I paused for a second, “Extra spicy?” “Are you sure about having spicy?” I nodded, “I like spicy food.” “You haven’t had anything we consider spicy yet?” I shrugged, “you have milk in the fridge if I get in over my head…” She laughed, “well I guess you’re right we do have that. She hugged me tight and carried me the rest of the way to the car, felt my diaper under my dress, and laid me down without warning in the back of her SUV and changed my diaper. As my rear end was hanging in the air, an Amazon girl I had seen at the math placement test gaped at me and waved. I turned bright red and stayed that way as Amanda buckled me into my car seat. She kissed me on the forehead, “Sorry, but it’s going to happen…” she lightly grabbed my hand then and said, “Megan always was good at nails, I’m guessing she did these for you?” “Yes, she did,” I told her still flushed red. “They look cute, remember to keep your thumb out of your mouth though with that polish on. I’m guessing it’s not the safe kind for babies that still suck on their thumbs.” I turned red and sighed. I sat quietly as the car ran and she texted my request to Fred to order our dinner, and then I killed some time with the game on my watch as she drove us home. I’d walked a lot that day and had a fair amount of coins to spend on my virtual pet. “So how did this afternoon’s session go?” she asked as she stopped at a red light. “We learned all about how we could choose to go into an adoption of our choice instead of being sent through an etiquette center…” I told her. “Oh, and five minutes on job placement services available if we manage to beat the odds…” “I had a feeling it would be something like that when I found out who ran it. She once offered me the ‘pick of the litter’ if I would help her out on a project.” “What did you do?” “I politely declined saying I appreciated the offer but had too many things on my plate right then…” The rest of the drive home she asked about the sorority event and even what I had done with Megan. “I like them, may I join them if they ask?” “You wouldn’t be able to live in the dorms with them…?” “I know, but I can still go to events and meetings maybe?” “We’ll have to see… if they do in fact give you a bid, we’ll talk then.” She pulled into the driveway at the house just then and carried me inside with my backpack. “It’ll be a little bit until the food gets here, why don’t you go upstairs until then?” “Thanks,” I told her and started my slow and methodical climb up the stairs with my backpack on. I could almost pretend to be climbing a mountain or something with a pack and it felt like an accomplishment every time I made it up the ten steps. I walked down to our nursery and found Bella engrossed in playing with a tablet. “Hey,” she said, “how was the rest of today?” “Well the afternoon session was awful, but I liked the sorority sisters that I got to hang out with. Megan is cool as always too, and she painted my nails,” I showed her. “Those are cute… I’m amazed that she could paint that small!” I stuck my tongue out at her and she giggled in response. She went back to her game and I sat down at my desk and logged into my laptop. I surreptitiously made sure to look around and saw she was well engrossed in her game and began working on a few projects I needed to do. The first was hacking into the video baby monitor in the room and the security cameras outside. It took me a few minutes but I setup a routine that would let me get some alerts if someone was in either area. In this case it also let me discreetly warn myself if someone was coming to check on me! I checked every now and then that Bella was occupied and engrossed in her playing. Amanda was downstairs still as far as I could tell waiting for the deliveryman with our dinner, while Fred seemed to be in his office working on something. Other than coming to close the gate that should have been closed before, neither seemed to want to intrude while we waited for the food. ‘Can I access the nanites still…’ was a burning question to me. I quickly found myself accessing my copy of the coding that had been used. Just as I was about to figure out how to access a connection to them, I heard the gate open and quickly shortcut keyed myself to a safe screen and hid what I had been working on. Amanda unlocked the gate, “Ready for dinner you two?” She asked before sniffing. “Uh-oh, Bella, did you make a stinky?” I turned and looked at the reddening Bella who I hadn’t even noticed that she’d pooped her diaper. “Yes Mommy,” she said timidly. “Well let’s get you changed really quick, Stacy, how’s your diaper?” I felt underneath my skirt and confirmed what I thought, “I’m dry, can I go downstairs?” “Sure, we’ll be down in a moment,” she told me. I pressed another quick shortcut key as she turned towards the changing table with the red Bella and walked down the hallway and hopped my way down the stairs. Fred walked up to me when I reached the bottom and picked me up to deposit me into the highchair. “Mommy said you wanted the sweet and spicy chicken?” He asked a little surprised. “Why is that so surprising?” I asked “Littles like sweet usually, but spicy is usually something they can’t tolerate?” He paused, “I think I remember a study once done on littles showed that their tastebuds were more in-line with our young toddlers… I know much of the time they’re biased, but sometimes there’s a grain of truth in them?” “I loved spicy food back home…” I told him with a shrug, “Like I told Mommy, if I can have a cup of milk, I’ll be able to deal with it even if it is spicy?” “It’s your tongue, don’t say I didn’t warn you!” he said with a smile before putting a sippy cup of milk on my tray. That was joined a second later with a small plate of chicken and rice. I could see some large peppers mixed in and noted that they were much bigger than I was used to. A pair of chopsticks was handed to me and I began eating. I had just finished a couple pieces of chicken as Amanda walked downstairs. The spice was not nearly as bad as I was afraid it would be with their warnings. Really it was only one step above mild in my mind, and I wondered if it was due to the fact smaller the chile pods were, the spicier they were back home. These were as big as poblanos… “How can you eat that?” Bella said as Amanda slid her tray in place. “What?” “It’s spicy… Look at those peppers, I’d be crying by now,” Bella told me. I shook my head, “It’s not spicy at all to me…” Amanda curiously took a piece of the chicken out of the container and tasted it. I watched while her face lit up, “You call that not spicy?!?” She quickly guzzled some water. Fred looked inquisitively and took his own taste and seemed to agree it was pretty hot. For my part I looked at a piece of the large chile pepper and decided to go for it. Amanda said, “Noooo…” as I crunched happily down on it. My mouth lit up in a wonderful sensation that let me know I was alive and I smiled, “You really have to get out more if you think this is spicy…” I shook my head and kept eating while they stared at me in shock and began eating their own meals. I was full and a little bit remained in a takeout box. Bella asked, “Can… can I try it?” “I don’t think that’s a good idea sweetie…” Amanda said. “I think you’ll cry a lot…” Fred added. “Stacy seems to have some odd taste buds…” She looked at me and I shrugged, “I’ve always been the wrong person to ask. If they think it’s spicy then it probably is to them and you?” “Please?” She asked. “It’s your funeral…” Amanda said with a shake of her head and put a tiny piece of chicken on the tray in front of her. Bella looked at it before tentatively popping a small amount in her mouth and instantly turned red with tears pouring down her face. “Hot!!!!!” she cried… “Mommy give her my milk,” I told Amanda who looked panicked. She did as I told her to do and Bella guzzled it for several long moments before the crying became a whimper. “Better?” Amanda asked as she now cuddled her in her lap. “Sort of… You’re crazy…” Bella said to me. “We could have some fun with this though…” Fred said looking at me mischievously. “Conning people into betting what I can eat?” I smiled widely at him. Just then I felt the need to pee and let it out in my diaper. “Something like that…” “You two…” Amanda said disgruntled while she cuddled Bella. “So, what are you doing tomorrow?” Fred asked us, “There’s nothing on the orientation schedule, right?” I shook my head, “We’re done until Monday when classes start, I think…” “Dad called earlier and he wants me to bring Stacy by in the morning to his studio and spend the day with her until his afternoon classes start.” I looked at her, “I’m glad we can finally work out a time…” “Well it’s going to be more often starting next week, but he thinks it’s a good idea to go ahead and evaluate you. He wants me to drop you off at nine…” “Cool,” I said. The rest of the weekend was roughly planned out over the next twenty minutes that we finished dinner. Sunday we would be going to her parents’ house for dinner again. After she dropped me off tomorrow, she planned on going grocery shopping with Bella and Fred for things like diapers and food the next week. “Did you find a place for Bella to go?” I asked while looking at Bella. “The hospital daycare didn’t seem to be too bad?” Bella answered me. “You think you’ll be safe there?” She shrugged, “definitely better than the university daycare. Most of the ‘babies’ there were actual babies. There were only two other littles there and they said other than the normal baby treatment, it’s not bad. Daddy can come check on me through the day too?” I nodded, “I can’t imagine that there are many better places than that then…” “I’m going to keep looking though,” Amanda said to both of us. “A friend mentioned there is a new daycare near the university that is supposed to just be for littles.” “That sounds like an etiquette school?” I asked worriedly. “It might be… so I’m going to keep researching it before we even go visit it,” she added. I sat there for another minute before I wanted to get down and back to my project, “May I get down and get back onto my computer?” She smiled and said, “I guess, why don’t you go ahead and e-mail your parents while you’re at it?” I grimaced, “You’re right, I’d better…” She wiped my hands and then Bella’s hands with baby wipes as she removed the highchair trays. Those out of the way she picked me up, putting me on one hip, before placing Bella on the other. Once upstairs in the nursery she sat Bella down on the floor and felt my diaper, “Hmm… someone needs changed, huh?” She tickled my side before setting me down on the changing table. “We should probably get in the habit of you changing into play clothes when you get home from school Stacy.” I nodded, “Okay…” I was given a diaper change into a new Pamper and dressed in a one-piece romper fit for a newborn. I just sighed though and let her dress me before she sat me down on the ground. “Remember, email your mom,” she reminded me. I nodded and unplugged my computer to use it on battery and jumped onto my bed where I could have the wall to my back and my screen in front of me. I knew that Mom had probably emailed Amanda asking for an update, therefor prompting her reminder… so I emailed her first and filled her in on some of the events from the past few days. I didn’t want to worry her though so I kept the break-in and some of the discouraging information from today out of the email. Mostly I let her know about my course schedule, and that I was alive. It was a shorter email than some I had sent, but I still included my safe codes and knew she would be okay with it. After that I went back to my current project to see if I could connect to the nanites inside my body. Amazingly it seemed they were still able to respond to a signal if you could generate the right frequencies. My computer couldn’t do so by default, so I began looking to see if it was a coding or a hardware solution I would need to break. Bella was coloring something quietly while I worked, but I lost track of her as I continued digging for a software solution that would be easier to deal with. Her sudden weight on my bed was a shock and I quickly engaged a hide shortcut. “Whatcha doing?” she asked me. “Playing around with some of the coding software from this dimension,” I told her honestly. “I’m bored…” she told me. I sighed, “Sorry… I know how I felt the first couple days when I was getting full on babied, but at least I’m getting some mature time… You’re just stuck…” She nodded, “I knew it was inevitable… it could have been a lot worse actually…” “But it still sucks,” I said while mentally wondering if the filter I had installed on the monitor really would filter my usage of that word out… ‘I know there’s no way I can get rid of that word from my vocabulary!’ I had thought at the time. “Yeah… Play with me?” she asked. “Huh?” “You were a boy growing up, right?” I nodded. “So, you have no idea how to play with dolls…? Right…?” “What’s with you and dolls?” I asked, “I thought girls grew out of them?” “Doesn’t mean we wanted to… I know of several of my friends that played with them still even when they were grown up… I had a collection of them hidden in my apartment even…” “Huh…” I said. I thought for a second and closed the lid of my computer, “I guess…” For the next hour or so we dug out a couple dolls from the toy chest and pretended we were the amazons and they were the littles… Actually, I had a lot of fun with it before Amanda came into our room and said, “Bella it’s bath time and bedtime sweetie…” “What about Stacy?” she asked. “Stacy is a big college girl; she stays up later.” I thought for a second, “I could go ahead and take a bath with her though?” Amanda looked at me in surprise, “You sure?” I scooted over on my wet diaper closer to her and hugged her, “she’s fun.” She shrugged and said, “Okay then, let’s go down to the bath tub. Just remember she’s given shallower bath water,” she reminded me. I sighed, “We have got to teach her how to swim…” The water was embarrassingly low to me! Because I was at least shorter than Bella my belly button was covered, but the water barely covered her groin. I took care not to stare, but her chest was a lot more developed more than mine was. She caught me looking and said, “It’s okay to be curious…” I sighed, “What’s it like to have them?” She shrugged, “embarrassing when all of the big girls grow theirs sooner, and they get a lot larger than yours. I was the smallest of my little friends with even less to write home about than them. At least it doesn’t seem as necessary to remove them if they’re smaller… I had one friend that I didn’t recognize when I saw her in just her diaper outside my old apartment building.” “They removed her breasts?” Amanda asked cautiously. “Those, her teeth, hair, and I think the surgery for cutting the tendons so she couldn’t walk anymore…” “I just don’t get it…” I said aloud. “No, it really doesn’t make any sense,” Amanda agreed. Bath time was pretty short and Bella was dressed first into a diaper, and a sleep sack before Amanda sat her on the floor, and put me on the changing table. A thick princess diaper and a footed sleeper were zipped onto me. “Here, why don’t you take your computer down to my office and you can work there?” She suggested. I nodded and grabbed it from where I had plugged it in while playing with Bella. I also grabbed my tablet from my bag and toddled with the thick diaper on down to her office. She followed me to put me into the highchair. Before she did so I asked, “Mommy, can you move the highchair over there?” “Why?” “I like having a wall against my back?” I hesitated, “Especially with the break-in and everything?” She looked skeptical, but moved it over to the spot I’d pointed to anyway before setting me down, buckling me into the harness, putting the tray down, and setting the computer on the tray. “I’ll be back with a baba in a sec,” she said. I decided since she was coming back that I wanted to look into that place that little had been sent to earlier. It had been said so viciously that ‘Tippy Toes’ burned in my head as the name. I quickly covered my electronic trail with several routings of my IP address and VPNs before searching it. The website it brought up instantly made my skin crawl. Have a troublesome little that’s just not adjusting to your great home environment? Our three-week program will have your little bundle of joy behaving like a good baby in no time! We offer customization packages to change gender, dental remediation, mobility adjustments, and cosmetic packages that can be made permanent or temporary…’ I was just reading the next level of horror when Amanda came in with the bottle and peeked at the screen. “Looking for somewhere to go if you drop out?” She asked curiously. I shook my head, “This is where she demanded the little be sent to this afternoon…” “I’ve heard it’s one of the ‘best’ she said as she made quotations with her fingers.” “Worst more like it…” She nodded, “I’m going to go feed your sister, I’ll be back to check on you then. Make sure you drink that baba before I get back!” “Yes Mommy,” I told her and quickly got to work the moment she was gone. A quick scan made me sure my screen was out of view, and I began going at the changes that I needed to do to reach the frequency of the nanite remote software. I ended up piggybacking onto the tablet’s wireless transmitter, which it turns out could generate the frequencies I needed. It was finicky, but finally within about twenty minutes had a connection established! ‘Whoa… I have access to all of the original settings and then some…’ I thought. ‘First things first… if I can access them so can anyone else…’ I began securing the connection and locking editing out with anything but my 256-digit access key. I used a special reminder system to keep track of what essentially ended up being a small paragraph of text, numbers, and characters to gain access. Certain it was now secure; I began digging into the original software and found the code that had caused the baby fat on my face to appear. I looked at it for a while before programming an adjustment plan to make it disappear, and get my face mostly back to normal over the course of six-months. Faster than that and I was worried it would be obvious what was happening. I had just begun researching again into the reasons Amanda’s milk might cause incontinence when she came back in and I cleared what I was doing back to looking up textbooks for my new classes. “Mommy we need to buy some different textbooks for me, right?” “I almost forgot about that…” she said, “Hand me your tablet,” she said. Twenty minutes later she declared herself done and said, “Okay, bedtime Princess…” I sighed, “I’m really not tired…” “I know you’re not, but I am…” she said and hesitated… “Plus I thought since you don’t have classes until Monday… thought well… we could maybe give nursing another chance?” I looked at her both dumbfounded and wrought with an aching desire for the comfort of nursing from her and the addictive liquid, unsure of how I should respond… Chapter 13: Unannounced Visits I STARED AT Amanda for a moment and was about to say yes when I shook my head… “Maybe tomorrow night?” I told her. “I started doing some research and want to wait until I’m sure… I really really really want to… and that kind of scares me?” She squeezed me in a hug and sighed, “No worries, you’re probably right… Daddy was pretty much thinking we shouldn’t either…” “Believe me I want to… I know the university will let us access medical journals, and I just want to read up some more. One of the girls tonight seemed to think after just a month I would lose all control – permanently. I want to find whatever research I can first.” She nodded as she laid me down on the changing table and changed my diaper again. “At least I have your sister to help me…” I nodded as she lifted me up and tucked me into my little bed, “Stacy please don’t think I love you any less with Bella here,” she kissed me on the forehead, “Try and get some sleep, you didn’t get much the last couple nights!” I sighed and said, “Night Mommy,” and rolled over onto my side. It took me longer to get to sleep that night than I could remember since I came to the dimension. The diaper was especially distracting for some reason that night. It felt hot and I was sweaty for some reason. After a while of sitting there I realized that I needed to go pee, and let the padding soak it in. I had so many ideas going on in my head of what do with the nanobots that were still active in my body. I fully planned to use their programming to my advantage in every way I could. They were an incredible tool that I was surprised every Amazon hadn’t injected themselves with yet. I figured I could go in and give myself some other attributes to make myself stronger. More importantly if I could figure out what made breast milk addictive and tear down control, I could hopefully combat that so that Amanda and I could let ourselves enjoy that bond again. Tomorrow was a new day, and I hoped I could find some time on my own to work again. Finally, after at least an hour I managed to get my brain to turn off until morning. THE NEXT MORNING came early as Amanda scooped me from bed and plopped my sleepy form on the changing table. “Come on Princess, time to wake up!” she said as she undid the tabs of my diaper and wiped me with a cold wipe that did spring my eyes open. “Cold!” I whined. “Well you’re awake now at least. Did you know you wet your diaper last night?” I nodded, “Couldn’t go to sleep, ended up going in it before I did.” She sighed a bit in relief, “Glad to hear that… I was a little worried,” she admitted. I smiled weakly at her and she plopped a pacifier in my mouth. “Okay my dad said he wants you dressed like a normal little today so you can blend in and look like he’s just babysitting you for me…” I groaned. She lived down to my expectations right then by pulling out a pink romper that looked like it thought it was a dress. The top of it was smocked like a fancy dress, but it ended like a romper with a baggy bottom that tried to look like shorts. I noticed it was missing snaps in the crotch and only had buttons in the back. I groaned knowing that every time I needed a diaper change, I’d have to be completely undressed… I was sure that if I wore it no one would believe I wasn’t a pretty baby girl - or at least a very well taken care of little! “Cute isn’t it!” she told me, “I can’t get this in Bella’s size unfortunately,” she added. “Lucky her…” I said dryly. “It should make you look like an innocent baby staying with your grandpa for the day. But, with it being a romper, you should be able to still mostly move around.” “Mostly?” “He did ask that I have you in the thickest diapers that you normally wear.” “Why?” “I don’t ask my dad those things…” she admitted. “I’m guessing if he’s training you, he’s going to worry about the real world?” I thought for a second and nodded, knowing that the princess diapers did impede my motion some. “I guess that makes sense… I sure hope none of my friends see me…” I grumbled. She laughed as she put the other side tape down on my diaper securely. “Why don’t you stand up so that we can get you into this…” “You know this is like the worst outfit to change a baby out of,” I told her as I stood up inside the leg holes and she helped me pull my arms through the sleeves before buttoning the back. “Why didn’t they at least put snaps in the crotch?” I asked. She shook her head, “I don’t actually know, you’re right. Hopefully you don’t have to poop right now…” I groaned knowing I would probably need to do so before we left. She carried me downstairs and presented me with a bowl of oatmeal and a spoon. I looked and could see Bella looked to have been fed earlier because she was snoozing in the playpen. I started to reach for the spoon but she stopped me so she could add a bib and she picked up the spoon, “Do you mind?” She asked. A part of me went, ‘I’m a big girl, I don’t need…’ The other part that had been insanely jealous of all of the attention to Bella. That part took control and nodded my head. Amanda smiled and quickly began putting the train in my mouth over and over again until I was done with the bowl. She gave me my cup of coffee, and set a bottle of juice next to it, while she went about doing dishes in the sink. I focused on the coffee first and enjoyed every drop while wondering what I was in for today. All too soon I felt a rumbling in my bowels and asked, “Umm… Mommy may I use the potty?” She sighed and wiped her soapy hands off before coming to get me out of the highchair. She was about halfway through undoing the little buttons at the back of the romper when I couldn’t hold it much longer. I think it was clear from my face and she said, “Stacy just let it go, I’ll get you right out of it.” I whimpered but another cramp meant I wouldn’t make it until she was able to get me out of the romper. With no other option I pushed the mess into my diaper. It was runnier than normal and I felt it on my legs. Amanda wrinkled her nose as it she could clearly see that some had leaked out the diaper onto the romper. “Eew,” I complained. She sighed but patted my back and carried me back upstairs. “I knew you weren’t a fan of the romper, but did you have to get poopy all over it?” I felt tears in my eyes, but she laughed and kissed my head, “It’s okay sweetheart, let’s get you out of that and into something else.” “Just get the poop off of me,” I whined. She finished what she had started doing with the buttons and slipped it out from underneath me before going to work on my leg with a wipe before she even opened up the diaper. Inside she found a disgusting mess and asked, “You didn’t eat anything strange yesterday, did you?” I shook my head, “I don’t think so… I guess I had some food at the party last night, but they said they made it themselves so it was safe?” “Hmm… I wonder if they have a mole or something inside their sorority. Could be a high paying job to help sell out the others... Next time you see them ask if they had any problems?” “They’ll probably just blame me,” I told her. “Several of them were really suspicious of me since I’ve been adopted already.” Once I was rediapered she said, “Well this romper is out, but I bought a dress with the exact same design, let’s go with it!” I groaned when I saw the nearly identical top but with a skirt. She had a pair of pantaloon style panties that she pulled over the top of the diaper first and then had me sit up to put the dress over the top. It didn’t cover much past my waist, so the panties were fully exposed. A pair of frilly socks went on my feet next, but no shoes. “Shoes?” I asked her. “You wouldn’t be allowed to wear them in my dad’s studio anyway,” she said. “And since right now, you look like a nice innocent baby you really don’t need them.” I sighed and nodded, “I guess…” She tickled my side for a moment before finding a pacifier to put in my mouth and carrying me downstairs. “Fred?” She called. He came from downstairs, “Yes Mandy?” “I’m taking Stacy to my dad’s now; I’ll be back in a while. I just changed and fed Bella not long ago, so she’ll probably nap until I get back.” “Okay, see you both later,” He told us with a smile. Amanda grabbed one of two pink diaper bags that were sitting side by side that had my name on it now. “When did we get new diaper bags?” I asked after pulling my pacifier out. “My mom bought them for us yesterday. Seemed to think it would be a bit easier to keep track of if we needed to take you to different places since you definitely wear different sized diapers!” She pushed the pacifier back in my mouth, “Now hush and be a good baby.” I sighed and wondered about the weird back and forth my poor brain had to go through sometimes! It didn’t take long before we reached a part of town with a number of strip malls and restaurants. I couldn’t see much out of my seat, but she soon pulled over into a parking lot and opened up my door. She pulled my pacifier out of my mouth and placed it into my diaper bag, before she gathered the bag and me up, and walked towards a glass door that she knocked on. I just managed to read the sign that said, ‘Colonel Joe’s Self-Defense Training Studio’ before it opened. Grandpa had let her into the large studio that looked nicer than anything I’d seen back home. Practice dummies, punching bags, different weapons, mats, and everything someone might need for practicing martial arts seemed to be there. It even looked like there might be a robotic opponent sitting silently asleep in a corner… A sign above the entrance listed a surprising number of styles that were taught in the studio. “Hi Mandy,” he said as he hugged her after relocking the door. “Hi Daddy,” she said. “Hi Grandpa,” I said to him too. “Well, we have a few hours before I have a class coming in. Mandy I’ll take Stacy to our house for lunch, is there anything I should know about?” “Her diapers are in her bag. I just changed her into one of her thick princess diapers earlier like you asked. When they get wet, they’re supposed to keep her from walking, but she’s learned to adjust pretty well. Generally she’s still is able to toddle around without it knocking her down. She usually stays in her regular Pampers though, so there’s some of those in there too if you want her to wear something thinner.” “Any bottles?” “There’s a couple bottles of juice in there if she gets thirsty,” she told him. “What time should I pick her up?” “We start our elementary class at 4pm, why don’t you come get her at 5pm?” “Sure, she’ll be okay in there?” she asked worriedly. “Worst case scenario I put a blanket on the floor and tell her to pretend to be a baby. Somehow, I don’t think that’ll be necessary. Just be warned she’s probably going to be pretty sore tomorrow!” he told her and me with a smile. She looked down worriedly at me but hugged me, kissed me on the forehead, and said, “I’ll see you later Princess.” “Bye Mommy,” I told her as she sat me down and went back out the door leaving me with the giant Amazon man who I had no doubt was incredibly skilled and dangerous. “Okay, first things first… How long has it been since you were in your last classes?” I thought for a moment, “About five years?” “Do you remember the last Kata you learned?” I nodded, “I think so.” “Demonstrate,” he said while motioning me to the center of the floor. I respectfully bowed to him and then began running through what I remembered. The diaper I was wearing was still dry, but it definitely changed my sense of balance. Luckily after wearing them for a few weeks it was something I really had mostly adjusted for. I honestly expected more loss of motion than I’d had after five years of not practicing, but I guessed the nanites doing their thing had helped out. He ran me through a few more exercises to see how powerful I could punch and kick. A punching bag and even some boards were used once he felt like he could trust my control. “Okay, Stacy really you’re in much better shape than I would have hoped for…” he told me while I stood respectfully looking up at him. “Thank you, Sensei,” I told him with a bow, “I’m a bit surprised myself, it’s been a long time.” “That’s not to say there’s not a lot for you to learn!” I nodded, “Especially given how big you all are… I don’t stand a chance if I make a mistake,” I said honestly. “No, you don’t,” he agreed. Just then I noticed that the diaper I was wearing was sagging a bit and wondered how long we’d been practicing. A look up at the clock surprised me that it said it was nearly noon. “We’ve been going that long?” I said motioning to the clock. He looked up and smiled, “When I have a willing pupil, I don’t notice time pass either. Why don’t we change that wet diaper and we’ll go to my house so your Granny can feed you a good lunch. We’ll come back here and I’ll work with you a bit on some new forms before the class arrives?” “Sounds good, thank you Sensei Grandpa,” I told him with a bow and then accepted his hug. “You are definitely in the running to be my favorite granddaughter!” he said with a smile. He carried the diaper bag and me back to a locker room. He laid my changing mat on a bench and quickly changed my diaper, before changing himself in front of me. I squirmed a bit as he pulled the Gi he had been wearing off and switched to a set of warm-up pants and a shirt. He then quickly took me to his car. A pink toddler car seat sat waiting for me. I couldn’t help but guess that it was probably too big for me. It was also setup front facing, but I didn’t say anything as he tightened the harness down as small as it would go around me. As he went to his door I noted I could still easily wriggle free if I wanted to! We drove the short distance to their house and I was carried inside where Grandma was eagerly waiting. “There she is!” She cooed. “Hi Granny,” I told her as she kissed me and hugged me. “Did you remember to change her?” She asked her husband a little accusingly. “Of course, I may not understand you women folk’s fascination of littles and babies, but I can change a diaper…” he grumbled. “He did good Granny!” I told her with a smile and a wink and Joe. He smirked and said, “See, she even says so!” “Well, I guess we better get lunch going here. I just made macaroni and cheese, does that work for you both?” she asked him mainly. “That’s fine honey,” he said. I was sat in the highchair they had purchased for me. I was grateful that this one was a normal baby highchair without the straps for littles! There were several of the other type lined up against a wall for when the other ‘grandkids’ came to visit... I noticed another new one that I guess was for Bella now. ‘They’re going to run out of space for high chairs…’ I noted. Granny grabbed a bib for me out of my diaper bag, filled one of my bottles, and then gave me a small bowl of what looked like homemade macaroni and cheese. She looked apologetic, “I don’t have any small forks…” as she held a large one that could have been a serving fork back home in her hands. “Did Mommy leave one in my diaper bag?” “I didn’t think to look, let me check!” I watched her check a few compartments before standing up and saying, “Yes she did, my daughter apparently makes a very good mommy!” I smiled at her, “Of course she is – she has a good one too!” I was able to eat the lunch on my own with my fork, and had some small conversations with both of them as lunch progressed. Just as I was finishing lunch their home phone rang, “Mandy? Are you okay?” I heard, and then heard her say, “Of course…” she held her hand over the phone, “Joe LPS apparently is at their house, they need us to bring Stacy back for a wellbeing check?” “That was sooner than I expected,” he said with a sigh. “Tell her we’ll be there in about a half-hour.” “Mandy, your dad says we’ll be there in about a half-hour. The cavalry is coming,” she told her and hung up. “What’s going on?” I asked scared. “Sounds like someone decided to play a card to see if they could get you two away through a complaint to Little Protective Services,” Joe said. “I’ll have a friend of mine meet us there. Whatever you do when you get there be cute and compliant with whatever the investigator asks…” “Can you change me again first?” I asked having just felt an overwhelming need to urinate. “Granny will take care of that,” she told me coming over, “Joe, make your call!” Granny came over and unbuckled me from the highchair before taking me upstairs to a nursery I’d only heard about. Definitely designed with littles in mind, the crib, changing table, and other items all had extra straps to hold a ‘naughty’ little. I shuddered more than a little at them, but was glad that Granny didn’t even use a strap on me as she laid me down on the changing table to change my damp diaper. “You want a regular pamper or one of those thicker ones?” she asked me. “Which do you think LPS is less likely to thing is neglectful?” “Probably the thicker one,” she said. “That one then…” “At least my daughter dressed you about as babyishly as she could today…” “Yeah… but I don’t have my student ID with me…?” I said nervously. “Yes, you do, it’s in your diaper bag…” she said digging around for a second and handed me the lanyard with it on. “Why don’t you try and put it underneath your dress though so it’s not too obvious?” “I really need to get one of those bracelets they talked about yesterday…” She hugged me, “You’ll be fine,” before she carried me downstairs, “Joe are you ready?” “Yes, let’s get her buckled in and go to her house. Larry said he’s going to meet us there.” “Good,” she said and followed him with me and my diaper bag out to her car that had a smaller rear-facing car seat in it, “Don’t you need to get back to the studio?” “Hopefully this won’t take that long, but if it does, Amy can take care of running classes.” With that I was set down in the seat and buckled in. A pacifier was handed to me with the advice, “Probably best to play baby girl for the next few hours…?” She paused, “At least I think…” I nodded at her confusion and hoped everything would be okay. ‘The last thing I need is to be removed from Fred and Amanda by LPS…’ I thought to myself. The trip home was both too long and too short at the same time. As Granny undid my harness, I saw a van that we had parked behind with ‘Little Protective Services’ on the side. I felt my hair stand on end at the sight of that logo, and knew we had to be very careful how we handled their visit. Granny went to the front door and was followed closely by Joe who was carrying my diaper bag. Just before they were going to open the door Amanda opened it and I looked at how nervous her eyes were. She had a good poker face, but I had noticed I could read her eyes easily. Knowing just how vital this afternoon was, I happily squealed, “Mommy!” I reached out to grab her from Granny’s grasp. “There’s my princess!” Amanda took me from her arms, hugged me, kissed me, and quietly said, “I love you,” as we walked in. I saw a lady and a gentleman sitting on the couch, Fred in a chair next to them, and Bella in the new playpen they had picked up for home. “This is your other daughter?” The lady asked, “I thought she’s going to college?” “No classes today, so she was spending the day with us,” Granny told her. The lady looked me up and down and said, “I’ll need to examine her like I did your other daughter…” I shuddered as I noticed Bella shudder and sob, and wondered just what this woman was going to be doing to me. Just as she began moving towards me though the doorbell rang. Grandpa Joe didn’t ask for permission and opened it to let in a well-dressed man in a suit. “Thanks for coming Larry,” he said. “Anytime Joe,” He said. He turned to Amanda and said, “Nice to see you Amanda,” he held his arms out and hugged her gingerly with me in her arms, then held his hand out to Fred, “Fred,” he said. “Thanks for coming,” Amanda told him. “So, what’s the problem?” he looked towards the two LPS officers, “I’m Larry Worthington, the Westerfields’ attorney.” “I’m Diana Ellis and this is Bob Drindel. We’re here because there’s been a complaint against the Westerfields that they are abusing and neglecting their two littles.” “From whom?” Larry asked. I’m sure he wasn’t expecting a response, but I was glad he asked anyway. “It was an anonymous report. They simply stated that the girls were malnourished, being allowed to roam freely with no bounds, and that the smallest was let run around with no supervision around the university.” “Well, those are serious charges, have you seen anything to back them up?” “We need to examine Stacy there to see if there’s any sign of abuse there…” “By all means, but I and her mother will be present,” he told her. She shook her head, “Because she’s been accused of abuse, we can’t have her present. If they wish you to be as a third-party observer on behalf of the family you may.” I looked at this complete stranger in fear, and the one too, and just hoped I wouldn’t be abused in the process here. Larry held his hands out and said, “It’ll be okay Amanda,” and handed me over to this unknown stranger who she seemed to trust. “Stacy, I know you don’t know me, but I’ll be right there,” under his breath. “Where do you want to examine her?” “Their nursery will work fine,” she said. I sighed and hoped this unknown stranger could help keep something more serious from happening to me like seemed to have to Bella. The lady led us upstairs to the nursery and said, “Please set her down on the changing table there,” and she began moving towards me. She examined my hands and arms first, neck, face, legs, and then moved my dress up so she could see my back and chest. “You are a tiny thing, aren’t you?” she cooed. I shrugged and she pushed me back onto my back and pulled the panties down, followed by my diaper. Larry stood by closely, “Is there any reason for this?” “Her diaper’s wet, I’m just changing her before we start chatting. I don’t want her to be any more uncomfortable?” She suggested. “I’ll take care of it actually if you don’t mind…” he said. “I’m a woman and a mother, I have this quite in hand,” she said. “Yes, but I’m her lawyer and her parents have not given you permission to do so. Let me change her really quick myself. You can keep looking for non-existent bruising just as easily from the side.” He kind of gently pushed his way in and then quickly undid the diaper I had on and gently pulled the tapes open. I squirmed a bit with this unknown man doing it. ‘I trust girls more…’ I thought, but he was quick and thorough. “I have three daughters at home, the youngest is two, so I’ve had a lot of practice,” he said to me with a smile as he pulled my dress back down and held me possessively. “Shall we continue the conversation you want, ma’am?” “Where?” “The floor?” he suggested, “Littles are always more comfortable on their level, right?” She looked at him suspiciously but nodded, “Alright,” and he sat me down beside him, opposite of her. If there had been a table between us, we could have been in a legal conference room. “Your name is?” She asked. “Stacy Westerfield,” I told her. “What was it before you were adopted?” “Stacy Slane,” I told her. “And you willingly went into the adoption agreement?” I nodded, “I wished to come study in this dimension and reached an agreement with Mommy and Daddy to adopt me and let me go to school.” “Why bother?” she asked narrowing her eyes. “This dimension has cooler toys,” I told her. She laughed, “Of course it’s about the toys. I guess wood blocks back home aren’t interesting enough?” “Something like that,” I told her. “Have your Mommy or Daddy ever hit you?” she paused, “Even a spanking?” I shook my head, “Mommy and Daddy probably would if I was bad, but I’m a good girl and they’ve never had a reason to spank me.” “Never?” “Never,” I told her. “The only time I’ve had a spanking was when this evil machine did it to me at the store…” “I read about that incident…” she paused, “they’ve really never spanked you?” “Really,” I said. “Sounds like they need to consider more discipline…” “Can we continue the questioning please?” Larry asked. “Of course,” she said. “We were given reports that you were wandering around on your own on the university campus the past couple of days.” “I was never alone ma’am. I had a babysitter at all times,” I told her. “Really?” “An unadopted little can babysit me, correct?” “Well…” she stammered. “Yes, they can,” Larry reminded her. “All of her college friends are unadopted and can watch her without any problem.” “Yes, you are correct… but who would leave such a tiny little thing with an irre…” “Next line of questioning,” Larry told her. “You agree it’s legal, let’s move on…” Her nose flared in irritation, but she continued, “You are aware it’s highly unusual for a little to be in university classes rather than being enrolled in a certified daycare, correct?” “So?” I responded, “I can do the work.” “What’s the point though, you can’t work anywhere when you finish?” “Not your realm of responsibility,” Larry shut her down. “Do you really believe that she’s being neglected?” He motioned around the room, “the girls have a beautiful nursery with gates that lock them safely inside. You can see she’s well dressed, diapered, and well nourished. What are your legitimate legal concerns at this time?” She glared at him, “As you said, she and her sister seem to be well taken care of. I guess I don’t really have any other than I don’t believe she should be going to the university...” “Completely legal though, correct?” “So long as she is supervised in some way at all times… yes, it is.” “Then lets head downstairs and get you and your partner on your way to someone who actually needs your help?” I was glad that he was there carrying me, and protecting me, because I was honestly quite certain she was more than willing to spank me just because… She followed his request though and followed us downstairs. Larry handed me back over to Amanda who was nervously waiting. She hugged me tightly, obviously scared of losing us. “So, you’ve observed my clients take great care of their littles. Nothing to concern yourselves, correct?” He asked them. The lady said, “we reserve the right to do another unannounced inspection…” “During which time I will be called to observe and make sure my clients rights are not violated, correct?” he said. “Of course, sir…” the gentleman said, “I don’t really see a need to come back though. If half of our littles were pampered like these two princesses there would be no need for our agency. Come on Diana, this strikes me as one of our jealous calls. It’s probably someone hoping to take these two cuties for themselves. Thank you for your time,” he said and walked out with the lady and Larry following them out. When they were gone Larry came back inside, “So who did you all piss off so badly?” “I think there’s a list now?” I looked up at Amanda who didn’t smile. “Yeah… there does seem to be…” Amanda said. THE NEXT HOUR we held a long conversation with Larry. We filled him in on what had happened since I had arrived. I had been moved to Fred’s arms, and Bella was in Amanda’s shaking very nervously. I noticed that she wasn’t really saying much about what happened. I learned that in the time before we arrived the lady had done a similar ‘inspection’ on Bella without the help of Larry, and since she’d been all alone with her, I couldn’t imagine her being kind. Eventually she told us that she had been stripped so the lady could examine every inch of her. She had been given a very invasive diaper change that Bella whimpered about, but refused to go into detail about. Fred had to keep Amanda from going and finding the woman to kill her then. It turns out Larry was the lawyer who had looked over our contract and he told us, “Look we knew that someone would probably make a complaint at some point, but like I said there was no grounds to even really do more than visit once. If they come back let me know and we’ll put an injunction together to block them from coming.” “Is there any way to find out who put in the ‘tip’?” Fred asked. He shook his head, “they make things anonymous for a reason. When a little really is being abused, that would be an asset. Is there anything else going on that I should know about?” Amanda looked at Fred and when he nodded, she said, “Bella here seems to be getting us some attention since another group was after her. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the reason for the tip?” “Why are they after her?” “Information she may have?” Fred replied. “We’re not entirely sure. We adopted her on a flight to Selegnasol to protect her from a stewardess that seemed really sketchy. Since we adopted her, there have been a few attempts to kidnap Stacy or attack us. The Trelini crew maybe involved in it, as well as a group called Venture B & E.” “Both are trouble…” he said thoughtfully, “I’ve had a couple clients with problems with them before. I’ll put a private investigator on it – maybe they can help us figure out who’s after her…” he looked at me, “For now make sure that you stay good and out of trouble at the university. If you got in trouble for something, they might be able to come back and make a stronger LPS case.” I nervously nodded, “Yes sir,” I told him. “Well, if there’s anything else you need let me know, I’m going to go ahead and head back to my office. If they come back call me immediately.” “Will do Larry,” Fred responded and walked him out the door with me still in his arms. Grandpa Joe stood up then, “I need to get back to the studio. For today let’s call our morning session enough Stacy, next week we’ll start back up as planned.” I squirmed so Fred would let me down and went over to hug him. He picked me up and gave me a big squeeze, “You really are adorable, stay out of trouble!” He gave me a kiss on my forehead and transferred me to Granny who had already hugged and kissed Bella goodbye. “Be a good girl,” she told me and gave me the same squeeze and kiss routine. She sat me down on the ground and I watched them leave. “Well… so what’s for dinner?” Fred asked. Amanda smacked him on the arm. “Ow…” FOR THE NEXT hour Amanda and Fred talked with us before letting me go upstairs and get on my computer in our room. I was sitting on the bed as Bella looked forlornly around at the toys. “Play with me?” She asked sadly. I sighed, just managing to find the electronic journals available through the university library, but closed my computer and moved to the floor. “What are we playing?” I asked her. “Dolls?” I sighed, “You’re going to have to keep teaching me what I’m doing here…” I told her. She smiled a bit at that, “Okay,” she said and began teaching me how to play ‘nursery’ she decided. We were taking care of the baby dolls and changing their diapers, pretending to feed them bottles, baby food, and rocking them to sleep. I wasn’t sure how long we’d been playing when I watched her sit up a bit and smelled something. Her diaper sagged under her dress then too. “Did you just go poop?” I asked her. She looked around a little bit confused before saying, “I didn’t even realize…” and then began sobbing and wailing. Chapter 14: Residual Effects I HUGGED HER larger body for a few minutes unsure of what to do before Amanda came in. “What’s wrong Bella?” she cooed. She just sobbed and wailed so she did the Mommy thing and sniffed, “Do you need a diapee change?” she said, “That’s no big deal, let go of Stacy and we’ll get you all clean,” she told her. Bella didn’t initially want to let go of me for some reason, but we soon transferred her grip to holding Amanda’s neck. I watched Amanda hug her, kiss her, and bounce for a moment to try and get her calmed. Bella was playing down to the roll of sobbing baby quite well as Amanda laid her down on the changing table and put a pacifier in her mouth. Her sobs quieted a little as she sucked on the pacifier, but you could tell it wasn’t going to calm her completely. Amanda pulled the skirt of her dress up out of the way and began to work on her diaper. I could just hear the rip of the tapes as she began wiping her. At that point I could feel myself need to go a bit so I let some urine into the padding of my thick diaper, but knew there was no reason to change it for hours yet. “You poor thing,” Amanda continued to coo, “you’ve had an awful week, I don’t blame you for crying one bit.” As soon as she had her redressed Amanda carried her over to the rocking chair and settled down with her while wrapping her protectively in a blanket. “Shhh…” she said for several minutes before I watched her sigh, open her blouse, and traded the pacifier in Bella’s mouth for her breast. She continued patting her on the back and rocking while I sat there awkwardly. Figuring that Bella probably would be taking a nap next I started picking up our dolls and accessories to put them away in the toy bin. “Leave them out,” Amanda said quietly. “Why?” I asked, “What if you step on them?” She gave a pained look, “It just shows that you two are well taken care of and playing. The neatness of the nursery was almost a red flag to the LPS lady earlier…” I nodded, “Okay then…” and just kind of put the dolls at least to sleep next to the crib. I climbed back onto my bed and opened my computer back up as she moved Bella to her other breast. I began looking through some things online until she finished nursing, burped Bella, then laid her down in her crib. Without warning she came over to me and put her hand on my diaper. “That’ll take a lot more, huh?” She asked. I nodded, “Yeah it will…” “You want to come downstairs while your sister naps?” She asked me quietly. “Can I just stay here in case Bella wakes up crying?” I asked her. She smiled, “Sure… want a bottle at least to drink?” I nodded, “Please,” while thinking what I really wanted was what Bella had just had. She hugged me and said, “Okay, be right back.” I did a few mundane things on my computer while I waited for her. She reappeared with a juice bottle pretty quickly and handed it to me, “Thanks Mommy,” I told her. “Be good,” she told me as she left again. I quickly nursed about half of the bottle down and then got to work on my project. I had been excited when I learned that part of the university privileges for students included access to electronic medical journals. I logged in through the university library and began searching for abstracts that involved studies on Amazon breast milk. Most of them were innocuous enough studies on normal Amazonian babies, especially pertaining to their growth and brain development. I read a couple of the abstracts on those and saw that just like in my world; they really did push breastfeeding’s benefit over formula. Unlike back home though formula seemed less driven by mothers who were unable to lactate enough. What few studies I glanced through seemed to indicate that was a non-existent problem in this dimension. Formula was instead driven by working mothers who didn’t want to pump, or by the mothers who didn’t like to be chomped on by teeth… I managed to narrow my search to its effects on littles, and then found several research journals on the nutrition aspect of Amazon milk. They all indicated that an average little could be sustained solely on their mother’s milk if they fed every two to three hours. Any less than that and it was likely that a little would be at least somewhat malnourished. It also indicated that by feeding a little only on breastmilk you would get the result of a plumper, healthier looking baby. Several of the articles indicated that you could get away with less nursing sessions by using vitamins, supplementing with formula or baby food. When I finally found a comparison of the components of Amazonian breast milk versus littles, I was curious to note that the Amazonian milk contained a higher level of calcium and proteins per ounce, compared to the version Little mothers produced. A few other studies showed that littles who breastfed were far more likely to be compliant and bond emotionally to their ‘mothers.’ Several psychological studies showed these ‘babies’ rejected the breast at very low rates once given at least one nursing session. I came across one study that took free littles and gave them breast milk unknowingly for a week before presenting the mother who had produced it in the same room. In all thirty cases the little instantly hugged the stranger and excitedly nursed at her breast. The study noted that there might a psychosomatic trigger caused chemically in the milk. Further study was needed they suggested, as it could be a separately synthesized substance administered to parents struggling to bond with their littles. I squirmed at just how invasive and awful some of the experiments were. They were all written up in scientific language, but all I could picture were the Nazis in Germany under Josef Mengele justifying their horrific acts. I shuddered, but kept digging, just hoping I would find something more specific about the chemical mechanisms. The bottle was empty when I finally found a study linking their milk to urinary and bowel control. ‘Pathway to Control’ was the name of the study, and specifically looked at the usefulness of a specific Casein Protein E3 that was present in Amazon breast milk. Wading further through the technical terminology required several dictionaries and more research, but they named a Pontine Mictruition Center, along with the spinal cord, that controlled bowels and urinary release. The flooding of the body with the amino acid that made up the E3 Protein resulted in the buildup of chains right on the receptors of those two centers. Something about the little receptors bonded very easily with the E3, and they discovered a ‘clumping’ of those chains around them. The effect seemed to be that those centers were inhibited and constantly would give signals to the bladder muscles that it was full. It would also diminish the signal to the cortex of the brain that was used to indicate the status of the bladder. A similar process towards the center that controlled the anal sphincter seemed to occur too, causing the muscles to continually relax their hold while simultaneously blocking that signal from the brain’s receptors. I read one paragraph that made me squirm, ‘Short-term studies show that the removal of the protein’s presence will let the centers recover and clear – returning full control to the little. Long-term continual exposure for at least a month seems to result in a residual structure remaining around the center. This seems to be damage that cannot be easily corrected. Littles rarely showed any control even when no longer exposed regularly to the protein.’ The study believed that the protein could be isolated and marketed as a medication to help struggling littles who were fighting the diaper training their ‘parents’ were giving them. Included within the study was a diagram of the specified mechanism and I wondered if I could use it to program the nanobots to clear the chains off the centers? Or make an immune response to attack the chains? Amanda came in right then though and said, “Ready for din-din?” I shook my head and quickly closed out of what I was doing before saying, “Sure.” Bella was still fast asleep so Amanda said, “Bella baby, do you want to wake up and have dinner?” She just groaned and said, “Don’ feel good... swweep pwease?” I watched Amanda’s face turn into a worried frown, but she said, “yes you can. If you need something call out, I’ll have the monitor on downstairs.” She just mumbled and rolled over. Amanda came over to me then and stuck her hand on my diaper, “Let’s change you after dinner?” I shrugged, “I can’t really feel it in these, so that’s fine.” She hugged me and carried me downstairs to my highchair. Some pot roast was cut up along with mashed potatoes on a plate for me. “Thanks!” I told her, “This looks great Mommy!” A bottle of juice was placed on the tray too before she asked, “Okay, so what is it you’re working on…?” as she sat down. Fred looked at me curiously too, “What are you talking about?” he asked. “Our daughter here is most definitely up to something; I just haven’t figured out what it is. Seems she’s been messing around a bit with Mommy making her think she was on the web?” “I have been on the web,” I told her. “On sites that don’t exist in this dimension?” She asked with a smirk. “So, it was you…” I smiled and stuck my tongue out at her, “I hoped it was…” “Apparently you really are too good at this for your own good, most people wouldn’t have found that, let alone fooled me for a couple days here.” I smiled, “I didn’t know who put it on… I’d rather have a secure system,” I told her honestly. “That’s honestly really smart… now back to my question?” I debated about lying, but decided there was no reason to. “I’ve been researching the causes of why your milk would make me lose control.” Fred’s eyes went up a bit at that, “How?” “I’m a university student, I have full access to the electronic library with journals of medicine and everything else.” He nodded, “I have the same access, but haven’t really had a chance to sit down and look myself. Did you find anything?” I looked around and mouthed, “We’re secure?” to Amanda. She nodded, “I swept earlier and got rid of the four presents the LPS officers left.” I sighed and looked at Fred, “I think so. There’s a specific protein that your milk has, but isn’t present in little’s milk. The research I found shows that it binds up inside a little’s body on two receptors…” I gave him as technical of an understanding as I had gained about it. “Hmm… if you feed long-term though, those build up?” Amanda asked nervously. “Yes… Kind of like plaque in arteries… There must be some clearing possible though? I mean clearly some littles who get away and are able to re-potty train?” Fred looked thoughtful, “I know that probably ninety percent of them end up still wearing diapers though for at least occasional accidents. Whatever control they gain back can’t be that great?” Amanda sighed, “I guess that means no more nursing for you.” “Well…” I said. “You can’t seriously be thinking of risking it?” Amanda asked. “Not without some adjustments…” “Adjustments…?” “Give me a day or two and I’ll explain. I don’t want to get my own hopes up yet?” She narrowed her eyes at me, “Nothing crazy, right?” I just made the most angelic face I could, “Mommy I’m not cwazy… It’s not wike I came to another dimension to get adopted and become a baby again?” They both laughed at that and we all finished eating. “May I go back to my room and work on my computer some more?” I asked. “Let’s see what your sister is doing first,” she said, “and change that diaper of yours too. You probably can’t even waddle in that thing at this point.” I poked at the padding through the weird panty and nodded, “Probably not…” She laughed at me quietly and carried me upstairs. Bella seemed to still be asleep so Amanda was quiet as she changed me into a regular pamper. “Let’s take you and your computer down to Mommy’s lab?” she suggested in a whisper. I shrugged but nodded and grabbed my computer and tablet from where I’d left them. When we arrived at her workroom, I asked Amanda, “How bad was the LPS lady to her? I can’t believe she’s slept this much…?” Amanda looked at me thoughtfully, “I honestly don’t know why she’s crashed so hard…” I felt my gut tighten then, “Are you sure she’s okay?” I paused, “Are you sure those were really LPS agents?” The look of terror on her face made me think she hadn’t considered that. She hurried back down the hallway and cried out, “FRED!!!!!” I just sat there in the highchair for a moment as I heard Fred’s footsteps pound down the hallway to our nursery. I looked at the harness I was strapped in with and pressed on the buckle release with all of my might. It took several minutes of trying many different ways before I managed to miraculously get the buckle to come loose. ‘Thank God I’m in a baby’s highchair and not a little’s…’ I thought to myself as I climbed down. I hurried to the nursery and found that the baby gate was open and forgotten. Fred held a limp Bella in his arms and was moving towards the changing table. “Amanda call 9-1-1!!! Tell the operator she has a very weak pulse and is non-responsive.” Amanda stood there for a second looking lost and confused, “What’s happening to her…?” My phone was sitting right on my desk so I grabbed it and dialed the number myself. “9-1-1, what’s your emergency…?” The operator asked. I looked up to see if Amanda looked like she could talk to the operator, but seeing her in a state of shock, so I took the initiative, “My little sister is unconscious and unresponsive. My daddy is a doctor and he said she has a very weak pulse and we need an ambulance to take her to the hospital…” The lady impressed me by not questioning my squeaky high voice, “What’s your address?” I had to think a few moments before responding with the address that I’d needed for some paperwork, “9387 Oak Lane.” “Okay, the ambulance is on its way sweetheart, just stay on the phone with me until they get there. Does your daddy know what’s wrong with her?” I looked up at Fred who was still watching her carefully. “The operator wants to know if you know what might be wrong with her?” Amanda finally snapped out of her stupor then and asked, “Fred… what can I do…” “Go get my emergency bag from the car,” he told her. “I have a crash kit in there. I hope we don’t need it, but she’s breathing shallower.” She hurried out of the room and he told me, “I think she may have been poisoned. I don’t know what form it was. She was acting strange earlier, right?” I thought back and nodded before I relayed that to the operator, “We think she might have been poisoned…” “Poisoned? Intentionally?” The lady asked in shock. “Never mind that, can you give me as much information as you can on your sister?” I told her Bella’s age, height, and weight then. I decided I didn’t know enough about what happened earlier to know if it was the LPS ‘agents’ or not. It seemed likely to me, but I didn’t mention it to them on the phone since I would just be guessing. Amanda came back upstairs quickly with Fred’s emergency bag and handed it to him. I watched as he hurriedly opened it up to find whatever he needed inside. He attached some leads to a small square box, and then attached that to her bare chest. I guessed it must have been some sort of small AED, or heart monitor, as it began beeping irregularly. He grabbed a bag valve mask and placed it on her face, before he began gently squeezing it to help her breathe. From what I could tell she didn’t seem to be improving and Fred’s face looked increasingly concerned as every moment passed. After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only five minutes at the most, the doorbell rang and Amanda ran downstairs to get the door. Paramedics followed her upstairs and assisted Fred in getting her on a small stretcher board. “I think she’s going into some sort of toxic shock. Do you have epinephrine?” I heard him ask as they carried her quickly downstairs to the ambulance. As they carried her, I found Grandpa’s number on my phone and dialed it as the paramedics had arrived. “Grandpa?” I asked as he answered. “Stacy? What’s wrong?” “Bella… something’s wrong with her! Daddy thinks she might have been poisoned. They’re leaving with her to the hospital…” “We’ll be at your house in a minute!” He said and hung up. I followed the group downstairs and stood by Amanda as we watched helplessly as they loaded Bella into the ambulance. Fred climbed into the ambulance and they were off a moment later. From what I could tell Amanda just couldn’t register much of anything in her shock. I walked over to her and hugged her legs tightly. Her only response was to reach down, pick me up, and tightly hugged me to her body while she cried her eyes out. GRANDPA JOE AND Granny had to have broken every speed limit, and ran every red light, to get there as quickly as they did in their two vehicles. Both pulled into the driveway at the same time. Joe appeared to have come all of the way from the studio since he was still in his gi. “Oh, baby what happened?” Granny asked as she enveloped Amanda in a tight hug. She just sobbed for several minutes, “Stacy… Stacy… and I were talking and… she asked if Bella was really okay…” She tried to get her sniffling under control but was failing miserably. “She had a gut feeling something was wrong… I went to check on Bella and she wouldn’t wake up… I kept shaking her shoulder and then found her pulse was weak…” She lost it then and Granny hugged her and consoled her. Grandpa Joe squatted down next to me, “What do you think happened?” I shrugged, “I don’t know… Bella seemed fine for a while… but then seemed kind of sick or tired. She could have just been traumatized from whatever that lady did to examine her… but she didn’t want to wake up for dinner… then she didn’t wake up even later… Something about it just seemed wrong when I stopped and thought about it…” “I’m so scared Mama…” Amanda sobbed on Granny’s shoulder. I walked over and hugged Amanda’s legs and found myself picked up again and joined in the crying session. “Theresa, why don’t you take Amanda to the hospital. I’ll stay here with Stacy as they probably wouldn’t allow her into the NICU anyway…” Amanda looked down at me and I could see she was scared and concerned for the girl that had only been calling her ‘mommy’ for a week. ‘I guess the maternal bonding of an Amazon doesn’t take too long to form…’ “I’ll be fine Mommy, go check on Bella. Grandpa and I’ll be fine here,” I tried to maintain a fake smile as I could for her sake. “Come on Mandy,” Granny told her. I was given a squeeze and then handed to Grandpa who watched them leave before bolting the door and carrying me to the couch to sit down. “So really, what do you think happened?” He asked me. I shrugged, “That lady had Bella upstairs on her own before we came home earlier. From what little Bella said, it sounded like she was pretty invasive with her inspection for abuse and a diaper change - inappropriately so. She could have easily put something inside of her then or just used a cream on her before putting the diaper over it?” His eyes narrowed, “That’s probably a good guess… did she have a diaper change after that?” I shrugged, “I don’t keep track, but I think so?” I thought for a moment, “Yeah, she did…” I wrinkled my nose, “Just before dinner it was a poopy one that she was upset about since it was the first one that she didn’t know she had gone…” “Come on, let’s go upstairs and see if we can find the diaper that she had on… it would be a good idea to have it checked out.” “We’re digging through the diaper pail?” I wrinkled my nose and groaned as he hoisted me in the air and carried me to the nursery. Fred’s medical bag’s contents were still strewn about the room. He walked over to our diaper pail and opened it up. Amanda used a type of pail that made little pockets in a long plastic wrapper, sealing each diaper in it’s own smell resistant wrapper section as it was dropped inside. He pulled the tube of used diapers loose from the entry spot and began looking at them. “That should be the one, right? She’s a lot larger than you in diaper sizes…” He held it to where I could see the poop stains on the larger sized diaper, I grimaced at the smell that began to escape from the pail, “That’s hers alright…” “I’ll be right back…” he said before he walked out. I heard his footsteps go down the hallway and he came back with gloves, a Ziploc bag, and a pair of scissors. I watched as he put the gloves on, cut the section of wrapped diaper out, and then placed it into the Ziploc. I wrinkled my nose as a bit of poop smeared against the clear Ziploc. “I think it would be a good idea to get this to a friend of mine at the police department. They have a good lab and he should be able to test it quickly. Maybe if they can identify the agent, they’ll be able to treat Bella better…” Just as he pulled off the gloves his cell phone rang, “Fred, what’s the word? Mandy and her mom left about ten minutes ago…” I held my breath wondering what Fred would say… “Not good then? They can’t identify the poison?” He paused, “Well I have a clue in my hands… it’s the diaper that lady changed her into. I’m going to run it to a friend on the police force. I think they might be able to maybe identify any foreign substance in their lab…?” “Well… yeah I could take her there too while I’m at it… She’d be safe? Or maybe Megan can come pick her up?” I couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation and it was making me go a little bit nuts. ‘I need to boost the gain on my hearing or something…’ I thought while looking around my room. I just happened to glance up at the video baby monitor then and smacked myself mentally for not thinking about it before. I left Grandpa’s side and ran back down the hallway to Amanda’s lab, where my computer still sat on the tray of my highchair. I hesitated for a second as it wasn’t the safest thing in the world, but I climbed up carefully into the seat that was a bit above my head, gathered the computer, and then began an awkward climb down. With my computer in hand I ran back down the hall to our nursery where Grandpa was still talking on the phone. “Stay there with her, hopefully the treatment they’re giving her is the right one. You might have Amanda checked for anything too since she came in contact with her when she changed her diaper later? Stacy and I’ll go down to the police station to drop this off and then I’ll drop her off with Megan in her dorm.” “See you soon, love you,” Grandpa said and got off of his phone finally just as I opened up my computer. “How is Bella doing?” I asked “Bella’s heart stopped a couple times on the ride to the hospital… She’s got an erratic heart rate right now, but at least it’s beating. The doctors are treating her the best they can for an unknown poison, but it’s going to be touch and go…” He said before noticing I had my computer at my desk and turned it on. “What are you up to?” I pointed to the two cameras that Amanda had to monitor the nursery, “I think those record…” “Oh…” he said. “You can get into that? Doesn’t Mandy have it passworded?” I gave him a grim smile and then got to work. I quickly hacked my way back into that system and found that the system did indeed record a day’s footage. If I hadn’t thought of it though by tomorrow at this time it would have been gone… I quickly scrolled through the footage until I found Bella being carried into the nursery by the lady. I played it back and watched the lady take Bella’s clothes off. As she did so she said ‘let’s change that wet diapee while we’re checking you out!’ I noticed that after she put the strap over Bella’s chest she reached into her own purse for a pair of gloves and then a bottle of lotion of some sort. We watched as the video clearly showed her spread it all over her diaper area, chest, and legs like baby lotion before she put that bottle back in her purse and put the used gloves inside a Ziploc in her purse too. There would have been no point to her using her own though, because you could clearly see that there was a large bottle of baby lotion on the changing table… “That’s pretty damning,” Grandpa said while looking over my shoulder. “Yeah…” “Download that, and put it in a few safe places?” He suggested. “Done already,” I told him. “It’s on my computer, Amanda’s computer, and Fred’s computer. I also uploaded it to an online storage account I have and it’s on this memory stick,” I handed him one of the drives Amanda had given to me with an adapter on it that I removed. “You are a nerd baby…” he said with a smirk. “Let’s run now and see if we can identify this poison…” I grabbed my backpack, put my computer and power cord in it, grabbed my phone, and added my tablet to in there too. I stopped, “Grandpa, did I hear you say that you’re supposed to drop me off with Megan?” “Yes, your Grandma and Fred think it would be a good idea…” “Then I guess I better change into a uniform and grab some pajamas and extra diapers while I’m at it…” He nodded, “You have your own diaper bag too, right?” I pointed downstairs, “I think it’s where you set it down when we came home earlier still.” I grabbed a few extra Pampers from the shelf that I could reach and put them in my backpack to be safe. Then I walked to the closet and pointed to one of my uniform sets, “Can you grab two of those to be safe?” I told him and then pointed to the footed pajamas I wanted next, “And that?” He smiled, “You need a change first while you’re getting changed?” I assessed how the diaper felt in my brain and nodded. He picked me up and sat me down on the changing table before quickly changing my wet diaper like a pro. As he started to pull my outfit off to change me into my uniform I asked, “Actually…Umm… would it be better just to make me seem like a normal baby to your friend?” “Normal baby?” “Put a hat on me and I look like an innocent three-month-old infant… he might not display as much prejudice?” He looked at me thoughtfully, “Might not be a bad idea actually…” He grabbed the clothes he was going to put on me and folded the outfit neatly and handed it to me, “You have room in your backpack for that?” I nodded and pulled the bloomer panties back on and stuffed the clothes as neatly as I could into the backpack. I kept my student ID on my neck, dangling it underneath my dress and walked over to the closet where Amanda had started a hat collection. I found a bonnet that matched my dress and carefully used it to cover all of my hair while he ran downstairs to find the diaper bag. “You know there is something to be said for you being able to blend in like that… perfect spy…” he muttered. I smiled, “I try!” He put another spare uniform, a cute sunsuit dress, and a pair of my footed pajamas into the diaper bag. I made sure that I added several days’ worth of diapers, just in case. I didn’t want to rely on the dorms for diapers! Joe picked me up and placed me on his hip while I carried my backpack myself on my back. Meanwhile he held the diaper bag and the evidence in his other hand. He made a quick stop in the kitchen to grab a couple of clean baby bottles that he stuffed in the bag along with several sealed bottles of water, and a handful of small bottles of apple juice. “Be careful what you drink around the university,” he reminded me. I nodded, “I know…” He moved about then setting the house alarm, locking up, and placing me into his car that featured a new rear facing infant carrier car seat now. “When did you get a new seat for me?” “Your Grandma dropped it off earlier… she wasn’t too happy with you being in a seat too big for yourself,” he said. “It’ll actually work really well though for your idea. I’ll just carry you in it and rock you back and forth. No way he’ll think you’re anything but the baby you appear to be.” I nodded as he closed my door and walked to the drivers’ side. He started the car and I stared at my outfit and hands as he drove for a long while. I was missing the mirror that Amanda had put in the car for me to at least see what was in front of us. I was also missing Bella as someone to talk to at least... Just like every time I was in a hurry back home, it seemed like you hit every red light that existed! I sat and thought about Bella and hoped that she’d be okay. Medical technology seemed to be far ahead of our own back home, so hopefully they had something – maybe even the nanites, that could help. I couldn’t help but think that ‘I came close to being the victim too…’ I wondered what the point of killing Bella even would be after everything… ‘I guess they could mutilate her body and get the chip they’re after…’ I kicked myself for not trying to hack it already myself. At the police station Grandpa Joe separated the car seat from its base and carried me out of the car. “Grandpa, why don’t you give my pacifier?” I suggested. He set me down on the ground for a second while he dug through the diaper bag and found one to hand me. I plopped it into my mouth and smiled, “Fanks!” He smiled back at me and closed the car door before putting the handle of the car seat under his arm and grabbed the evidence from what happened to Bella. I couldn’t see a lot from my vantage point, but the female officer at the desk smiled at me and cooed, “Oh my gosh, she’s such a cutie pie!” “Right now, she is, but wait until she gets hungry or poops that diaper!” Grandpa joked. “I’m amazed how quickly she can go from being cute to a monster!” “Oh, hush Joe, she’ll grow up with a complex!” He laughed, “Maybe… Given the fact my daughter is her mother that may be inevitable,” he chuckled some more, “I’m here to see Bo in the lab?” “Yes sir, if you’ll just sign-in here,” she said as she handed him a clipboard that he quickly signed before she handed him a visitor’s badge. “Your little cutie doesn’t need a badge yet!” she told him. He laughed, “Thanks, he’s still in the same place, right?” “Same cages for the lab rats,” she said with a joke back. He swung me again from his arm and began moving down the hallway to wherever his destination was. He had to be buzzed in through two security doors before he finally sat me down on a table and began talking to this ‘Bo’ person. “Hi Joe,” he said extending a hand. Swinging from his arm I actually had a good view of their conversation, seeing that he was quite a bit shorter than Joe - definitely scrawnier than average for an Amazon. I guessed that he was probably only eight and a half feet tall, so Joe easily towered over him. “Hey Bo, thanks for letting me come in.” “Yeah, no problem Joe, you said it’s an emergency?” “Some asshat bitch of a lady poisoned my daughters’ new little girl she adopted. I think it happened when she took her off to examine her during a fake LPS visit. We have it on video that she rubbed some sort of cream on her, but don’t know what the agent she used was. This was the diaper she was changed into by the lady.” I watched the guy wrinkle his nose a bit, “That’s a different piece of evidence… some might say it’s really shitty evidence…” Joe gave a small grimacing smile, “The puns never stop with you…” He shook his head and shrugged, “I aim to please. Believe it or not it’s definitely not the most disgusting thing I’ve had to analyze. What exactly do you want me to look for?” “She rubbed the cream over her diaper area and her chest. I think that’s the substance we need to identify there will probably be more than slight traces inside the diaper on the lining. The lady used gloves when she put the diaper on, so there won’t be fingerprints left to analyze. My granddaughter has been in and out of consciousness and they’re barely keeping her going. If we can figure out the agent, she may have a chance…” “And if she doesn’t make it?” “Then I want to know what she did before I put her down for good,” he said angrily. “What were the symptoms?” “She was kind of cranky, seemed to have some loose stool – that would be in the diaper you’re holding, and then she became really sleepy. She wouldn’t wake up for dinner and when my daughter went to check on her discovered her barely breathing and non-responsive.” “Shit… Well there’s a couple of things that could cause that off the top of my head… I’ll get right on it, maybe it’s a common substance at least with some sort of known treatment. My equipment can probably have an answer in an hour either way?” “That’s about as much as I can hope for… I’m going to take my other grandbaby here to my youngest daughter to babysit for the night. We didn’t think it would be good for her to wait in the hospital…” “No, it wouldn’t… If you drop her off then come back… I’ll probably be about done analyzing it?” “Great,” Joe said and shook his hand, “Thanks Bo, I owe you!” Bo shook his head, “No, I definitely owe you about fifty times this for saving my skin. This isn’t even close to enough to even the table. Erin would never have been able to raise our kids alone…” “I’ll be back in a bit,” Joe said giving him a gentle pat on the shoulder before he picked me back up and carried me out to the car. Once I was secured, he went into his door and I asked, “What did you do for him?” “A few years back there was a crime scene he was on site investigating that was really just a trap by a bunch of cop hating morons. Five heavily armed guys attacked the investigating techs and officers with automatic rifles. They had Bo pinned down, and the rest of his crew was either wounded or dead... I just happened to be nearby having dinner and managed to take down four of them before an injured office managed to get a round off into the head of the fifth. All were wearing heavy body armor… Seven officers died that day. Bo was injured, but I managed to do enough care at the scene that they were able to patch him up in the hospital and send him home to his family.” “That’s amazing,” I said, “I had a feeling you were a bona fide hero the second I met you. You remind me a lot of my own grandfather…” I felt a bit sad at missing him back home. “I’d be honored to meet him some day,” he said to me with a voice that left no doubt that he was sincere. Chapter 15: Sleepover THE CAR RIDE to the university took as long as it had taken to get to the station. By the time we were there I was both thirsty, and my wet diaper was getting cold and clammy. He called Megan as he pulled into the parking lot, “Megan? We’re down here in Lot 42, if you’ll come collect your niece?” He hopped out of the car and waited for Megan with me. “Let’s change your diaper and get you back into your school clothes…” I nodded as he undid the harness straps and then moved me to the back seat on the other side of the car to strip me naked. I was more than slightly embarrassed to be in the midst of a diaper change as Megan came up, “Hi Daddy!” she said and hugged him. “Hi Stacy…” she said as he laid me down on the diaper and taped me in. “Hi Megan,” I said. “Did you bring pajamas?” She asked me. I nodded, “They’re in the diaper bag?” I paused, “I thought it might be better to be in my uniform though?” She shook her head, “Pajamas makes you look like an innocent little girl right now… Your uniform would mean people think you’re out after curfew?” I grimaced at that knowing that would certainly come with spankings and demerits. My stupid brain recalled that being worth seven… “Should you carry me in the carrier then too?” I asked. She looked thoughtfully for a second, “Let me think for a second while we get you dressed. Daddy do you mind if I take over? No offense, but you’re a little out of practice…” He laughed, “You girls and your dolls…” She tickled my bare stomach and began quickly zipping me into the pink footed-sleeper. “Naw, we’ll leave your carrier here. I’ll just carry you and have your diaper bag on my other shoulder. Daddy, can you hand me her backpack?” He did so as she held me comfortably on her side. “Any more word on Bella?” She asked nervously. “Not yet,” he told her, “I have a lab analyzing some evidence… I’m going to go back there and hopefully have an answer in a half-hour or so. I’ll call you as soon as we know something more about Bella…” She gave me a comforting squeeze then, “Okay, I’ll take care of the princess here. I’ll probably need to keep her at their house after tonight though. They’ll get picky on her not being in a littles dorm otherwise…” “Yeah… I guess I could just take you there now?” “No, you worry about figuring out what happened to Bella. We’ll be fine for a night if I have her in bed quickly when we get inside. No one can say she’s not being taken care of, and I really am just babysitting my niece.” He nodded before hugging us both, kissing her on the head, “I love you Megan, see you soon.” “Love you too Daddy,” she said with a smile. “See you later,” I said. She waved my arm bye as we watched him pull out and she began the trek to her dorm room. “Pretend to be sleepy for me, okay?” I nodded, “It’s not that hard right now…” She gave me a comforting squeeze then and waived her ID at the scanner to enter into her dorm. There were a lot of ‘awes’ and ‘she’s adorable’ comments as I was carried upstairs. Just outside of her room she ran into Raileigh, “Hi Megan,” she said before taking a double take, “why do you have Stacy?” Megan sighed, “Her little sister was attacked this afternoon and is in the hospital. I’m babysitting while her parents and my parents are sorting out everything.” “Oh my gosh, is your sister going to be okay?” She looked at me. I shrugged, “Her heart apparently stopped a couple of times and they’re doing all they can… It doesn’t look good right now,” I admitted with a few tears leaking out of my eyes. “Aww you poor thing,” she said sympathetically “Yeah… anyway, we’re going to turn in for the night. We’ll see you later,” Megan told her. She closed the door and sat me down on the bed, “I thought we were going to have a clean entrance until we saw her…” “Will we get any trouble for me being in here?” I asked. She shrugged, “It’s an emergency, you’re an adopted little in the capable hands of a babysitter. You don’t live in the dorms, so it’s not like it makes sense to send you there. And, clearly according to the law you’re not able to legally stay on your own.” I nodded, “Umm… do you mind if I get on my computer for a little bit here?” “Why?” she asked, “I thought you were sleepy?” I smirked, “I’m tired, but I’m actually probably okay to stay up for a while longer. I wanted to get the image of the lady who did this to Bella and search it against their employees and anyone else?” She nodded, “Go ahead, but we’re turning the lights off and laying down in the bed just in case anyone comes by to check on us!” “Okay!” I told her. “You want a drink before bed?” She asked as she handed me my computer from my bag. “There should be a bottle in the bag?” I asked. She looked and saw a full juice bottle in addition to the empty bottles, “You really want a baby bottle? You’re not at my sister’s house?” I smiled, “I’ll tell you a secret…” I blushed, “I don’t think they’re that bad. I actually kind of like nursing from them…” “You’re a weirdo, you know that?” “Takes one to know one?” I suggested. “Why you,” she said with a smirk and launched into a quick tickle attack before saying, “I actually need to go to the bathroom before bed… you’re coming with me because I can’t leave you alone in here.” I nodded and held my arms out. She balanced me on her hip and carried a carrier of stuff with her in her other hand to the bathroom. She washed her face, brushed her teeth, and then used the toilet with me sitting there in the stall with her. When we emerged, an older student was standing by the mirror. She seemed to be waiting for us. “Megan, I heard you have a little university student here? You know you can’t adopt from the university littles?” Megan laughed, “I haven’t, this is my niece. Her baby sister is in the hospital in the ICU… My sister, who’s her mom, had nowhere else for her to stay tonight. Our dad asked me to just babysit her here for the night with everything going on. We’re going to make a blanket fort and a bed on the ground so she can’t accidentally fall out of bed. Kind of a slumber party?” “She’s a student though? Shouldn’t she be in Wenig?” “Terra she doesn’t live in the dorm. She’s adopted.” “Then how is she a university student? Every little university student has to live in Wenig…” ‘Clearly this girl isn’t too bright…’ I thought to myself. “I can be a student because my Mommy enrolled me here because I’m smart.” She scoffed at that, “No little is smart.” “Well I kind of am,” I told her. “Now I know this is unusual, but I’m just here for tonight. I’m in a diaper, so there’s no worry of me leaking anywhere and making a mess. Aunty Megan is my babysitter, is there really a big problem?” She looked at me skeptically, “I guess not… it is a special circumstance, but you do need to be in bed like now. Little’s were supposed to be in bed an hour ago…” “I couldn’t just leave her unwatched in my room by herself,” Megan reminded her. The girl rolled her eyes for some reason and we were able to make a quick exit from the bathroom to her room. “Work quickly,” she told me after she pulled her mattress down and began making a blanket fort like she’d talked about. I didn’t waste any time loading the computer and running digging into the LPS systems. I ran her picture against a database of IDs and failed to match her. I thought back and remembered her name was supposedly Diana Ellis and typed that into the system. Her name came up as an employee, but she was most definitely not the lady we had seen that afternoon. “Shit…” I said softly. “Stacy!” Megan admonished me quietly. “Sorry… but the lady earlier was a fraud!” She looked at the information I showed her and added her own, “Shit…” “Auntie Megan, I have delicate ears here…” she responded with sticking her tongue out and dialing her phone. “Dad?” She said quietly, “It’s Megan… Stacy just figured out the lady from this afternoon was a fraud…” I listened as she outlined what I had said and kept searching the lady’s image. It finally matched up with a company ID for Venture B & E. I showed her that, “Dad Stacy just gave me some more information that the lady works for that company they had problems with in Selegnasol…” I could hear over the phone him say, “Shit… hold on one sec…” “Is he at the lab?” I asked her. She nodded, “Yeah I’m still here…” she listened for a second, “Yes sir, we’ll keep the door locked until you or Megan come tomorrow. Love you Daddy, tell Mandy that I love her too please,” and then hung up. “They find something?” I asked her. “He says they identified a poison and he’s calling Fred at the hospital to see if the information helps with treatment.” “Did he say what it was?” “Iocainoxitate?” she paused, “I think that’s what I heard the tech tell Dad?” I quickly typed the name into a search browser and felt my heart drop, ‘Iocainoxitate is used in industrial settings to aid in the production of beryllium isopheres. The compound is considered highly hazardous and full protective gear must be worn to ensure no exposure to skin or lungs occurs. Exposure to quantities as low as 10mcg are known to be fatal to adults.’ “This doesn’t look good,” I said feeling tears go down my face. She looked over my shoulder and then hugged me, “There’s still hope,” she told me. I nodded, but didn’t agree verbally because what little I could see didn’t lend a lot of hope. I decided it was time to call it a night and had closed the computer and laid down under the blanket ceiling of the fort she made when there was a light knock. I gave a look at Megan and put my head down to pretend to sleep. I heard her lightly step to the door and opened it, “Yes?” she said to the person. “I was told you have a little student from the university in here?” “I have my niece here. She is a student, but she’s been adopted by my sister and enrolled here. I’m babysitting her right now while her parents and my parents are at the hospital. Her little sister is in very bad shape there.” “You know they have their own dorm…” “But she doesn’t live there.” She sighed, “Look, I’ll watch her at my parents’ home or her house tomorrow night if need be, but this was a very urgent emergency. Her sister’s heart stopped several times and she may not make it through the night…” “Oh my…” the voice said. “Yeah… so can you please just let her stay here tonight? She’s already asleep?” “This one time only… Any other time you have to watch her you need to babysit at her house, or she needs to get a bed in Wenig since she’s a student.” “Thanks Carmen, I appreciate you doing this,” she said sweetly. “Now I don’t want to wake her up, so good night,” she told the girl. I think we both feared the girl, who I suspected was the Resident Hall Director, would stand outside and wait to see if we began talking. Megan locked the door and changed into her own pajamas before laying down on the mattress next to me and giving me a big hug. “Let’s not risk her coming back…” she whispered in my ear and I nodded. I found her arms to be quite comfortable around me, and with the sound of her heart beating drumming in my ears, I was lulled to sleep fairly quickly. AS I WENT to sleep, I feared the phone ringing telling us Bella had died. Instead neither Megan, nor I, woke up until close to ten in the morning when there was a knock on the door. Megan was apparently as much of a morning person as I was because it took a few minutes of knocking before she sat me up and crawled her way out of the blanket fort to the door. I followed her needing to pee badly. I felt my bladder completely drain involuntarily as she opened the door revealing Dean Sanders’ face. “Good morning Dean Sanders,” I said standing beside Megan. “Good morning ladies. Megan, I had an odd message this morning from your RD that a little was staying with you. Do you have an explanation? This is normally against the code of conduct for our university for both big and little girls,” she said coldly. “Would you like to please come in and have a seat?” Megan said with a surprisingly calm smile as she looked at her and picked me up protectively in her arms. “I guess,” she said and Megan motioned her towards a small couch she had on one side of her room. Megan settled herself down while placing me onto her lap as she sat in her desk chair. “Last night my dad called me and said that they had to rush Stacy’s sister to the hospital. It’s been touch and go all night long for her after she was taken there. My dad was needed to do a few other things and then went to the hospital with my mom to wait with Stacy’s parents for word with Bella. Without anywhere else to send her for the night, she came here.” “What happened to your sister?” Dean Sanders asked me. I debated on what to tell her, but decided to tell her the truth, “We think a lady impersonated an LPS officer yesterday and poisoned her.” She narrowed her eyes, “You shouldn’t make up stories young lady…” Just then another knock came on the door. Dean Sanders motioned for Megan to stay there and went to open the door herself. Amanda stood there and for some reason didn’t really look shocked to see Dean Sanders face, “Good morning Jackie,” she said to her tiredly. “Amanda you look like hell,” she said. I couldn’t help but agree as her hair was a mess and she was clearly wearing the same clothes as the day before. It looked like she had taken her makeup off at one point, and her bare face presented itself with red baggy eyes. “I feel like it too Jackie. I’m guessing you’re here because Stacy stayed overnight here?” “Yes I am. I am willing to consider this being a one-time exceptional thing, but I’m a little concerned that your baby girl is making up stories. We can’t have students lying to the administration…” “What did she say?” “Some contrived story about an LPS officer poisoning her sister? What kind of person does she think I am to believe a tall tale like that?” “Umm… Actually, it’s true,” Amanda told her. “They arrested her an hour ago and she’s going to be indicted for attempted murder.” “Bella’s okay then?” I asked cueing into the ‘attempted’ word. “She’s not going to come out of this easily Stacy, but with a good team of doctors she’s going to mostly be alright…” “Mostly?” Megan asked behind me. “We’re afraid there’s going to be some brain damage and organ damage that’s going to affect her long term.” “You’re kidding?” Dean Sanders asked, “Who would do such a thing to someone else’s baby?” “The same group that tried to have Stacy kidnapped last week here on campus, broke into our house,” she glanced at me, “and the same group that actually broke into our house again last night. It was a good thing that Stacy was here with Megan last night, or they would have gotten her too.” Dean Sanders had gone from looking like my future in the university was bleak to suddenly feeling bad for me. “That’s terrible… What are you going to do now?” “Well we have contractors taking care of the house, but we’ll probably go stay with my parents to be safe until they get this all figured out.” “Well… if you can’t get things easily sorted Stacy could stay in the dorms?” “I guess we can keep that in mind… but I’d rather not have her that far from me. Besides, you probably don’t even have any rooms free?” “Well… it’s the beginning of the year. We usually end up having to consolidate dorm rooms a couple times through the freshman semester. We’re almost to that first consolidation now… I know her nest already has two empty beds now.” I cringed and wondered who the two unlucky girls were. “If this doesn’t work out, we’ll think about it,” Amanda said. “But she’s my baby girl and I don’t really want to not have her around as much as possible. Plus, it’ll be helpful to have her around to help Bella get better…” “It’ll stay an option…” “So, I guess our next question is there going to be anything we need to worry about consequences from her staying here last night?” Dean Sanders looked like she was thinking for a moment, “No, Megan was babysitting her niece during an emergency. We’ll let this one slide. In the future though she needs to be babysat elsewhere. This dorm is no place for a little…” she looked at us sternly. “Yes ma’am,” Megan told her. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get home to my own babies who are due for lunch soon. Or at least I’m due for lunch soon… My breasts definitely feel like it’s lunch,” she said as a joke to Amanda. She gave a wry smile and nod, “I know what you mean, have a good weekend Jackie.” As she left Amanda closed the door and then came to pick me up. I asked her, “So what is going on with Bella?” She sighed, “It was touch and go last night until my dad called with the information on what the poison was. Bella’s heart stopped three times before some of the medication stabilized her. Once we knew what the poison was, we treated her with some nanites to rid her body of that substance…” I felt my face fall and panicked, “They weren’t modified?” She grimaced, “I only had about ten minutes to get through the settings. I got rid of the same things that we did with you, but missed a reduction setting, and her face has the same baby face look you have now.” “How small did she get?” Megan asked. “She’s only taller than Stacy by a few inches now. I guess they can probably share dresses and outfits now…” I raised my eyebrows at that, “Poor Bella…” I said. “Anything else?” “We think that’s it as far as the mods are concerned, but she’s still in an induced coma for the moment. They plan to keep her in it for another day to give her body a chance to heal…” I hugged Amanda and felt tears streaming down my face, “I’m so glad she’s going to be okay.” “Me too…” she said softly. “Well, I think it would be a good idea to get you out of here Stacy. Megan, do you think you could stay at Mom and Dad’s with her tonight? At least one of them will probably be there too, but that way I know someone else is there?” “Sure, it’s not like we have any homework yet anyway,” Megan said with a smile. “I’m sure I can deal with putting up with Mom and Dad for a night…” she sighed theatrically. “Just keep an eye on her for me if Chloe and Cassie come over tomorrow?” “Ugh… I forgot I was going to have to smell their insanity tomorrow…” I looked up at her and she said, “I really don’t get our sisters keeping their littles in shitty diapers. They smell terrible and I’d rather see any diaper get changed immediately so you don’t have to smell it! Plus, if they sit in it…” Amanda sighed, “They’re definitely the nutty ones…” she agreed. “Let’s change that wet diaper and get you into a uniform before we leave?” She suggested to me. I just nodded and went along with it. Just as we were leaving, I thought about something, “Mommy?” “Yes Stacy?” “Can we go by the bookstore really quick? They said we could get a different ID in a wristband form to avoid having our ID being stolen?” She looked nervously at me and her watch before nodding, “Yes let’s go get one for you…” It was a quick paced walk to the bookstore where I had to run to keep up with my two giant companions. At the bookstore we were directed to a counter where my ID was scanned, wrist measured, and I was given a wristband that I put adjacent to my LittleProtect Watch that I was assured would be just as impossible to remove without the proper university tools. We didn’t look around for anything else and hurried out of the store. I held my arms up to Amanda, motioning that I wanted up outside so that I wouldn’t have to run to keep up with them. I played with the wristband all the way to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Megan picked me up from the car seat, while Amanda grabbed my bags and a small one for Megan that she’d brought with her. As soon as we were inside Grandpa greeted us, “Hi girls.” “Hi Daddy,” Megan said and gave him a hug. “Hi Dad,” Amanda said, “You’re sure you’re good with Stacy being here tonight?” “Of course, sweetheart… I’ll make sure nothing happens to her. Go ahead and get back to the hospital and keep an eye on Bella. Your mom will be by there in a while too to check on you all. She just went to pick up some groceries for the weekend.” “Thanks Dad, I appreciate that you already took care of the house too…” “Of course, I’m just mad that they got in. I’m glad that Stacy stayed with Megan, but until we get this situation sorted out, we’re going to need everyone being really careful for their safety.” “I know… I’m glad the university is splitting the cost for security at least.” Amanda said. “Well it wouldn’t be good for one of their lead researchers, or star doctors to get killed…” “You forgot the genius student too…” Megan said with a smile. “Mandy go be with Bella,” her dad ordered. “Between myself and Megan we’ve got Stacy more than covered!” Amanda suddenly burst into tears then and her dad hugged her, “It’s going to be okay Mandy,” he reassured her. I almost felt embarrassed as I looked on from Megan’s arms, but she got herself together soon after. “You okay to drive?” He asked her when she began walking out to the door. “Yes, it’s not far and I’ll be fine,” she came over and took me from Megan’s arms. “I love you Stacy and I’m so glad that you’re okay. I feel terrible what I let happen to Bella… I’m glad you’re at least okay.” I hugged her back, “You have nothing to be guilty about Mommy, you were given credentials and had to follow LPS orders or they could have removed both of us then. They did have one legitimate agent… You couldn’t do anything. Go be with Bella now and we’ll figure out how to get her back to normal when she’s healed.” She squeezed me, “I love you more than you can know.” “I love you too.” She was gone a few minutes later and Megan said, “you didn’t get a bath last night or this morning… you want a bath or a shower?” I looked at her, sniffed myself, and nodded, “A bath would be nice…” MY BATH WITH Megan was much like one with Amanda would have been. Even though Megan valued me more as a thinking adult than Amanda did, she played with me and some bath toys more than Amanda did. I enjoyed the bubble bath that ended with my body wrapped tightly in a towel and carried down to the nursery. I gulped as she laid me down on the changing table that was clearly designed not for babies, but littles. The head strap and arm straps showed that there was a belief littles needed to be restrained more than just with a chest belt. Fortunately for me Megan didn’t buckle anything but the chest belt as she pulled the towel away. “So, what do you want to do today?” She asked me as she lifted my ankles in the air to slide a diaper underneath me. “Play with my computer?” I suggested. She gave me a look, “Didn’t you get enough playtime on your computer last night?” I pouted, “No, I only made it through the first level of my game,” I told her. I motioned with my head towards the monitor and who knows what other bugs after what we’d been dealing with. She laughed, “Okay, I guess you can play with your computer until lunch. Then you’re going to have to take a nap though. Grandma will insist on it,” she told me with a smile. “If you’re just going to play on the computer let’s put you in this cute romper,” she held up one of my many cute rompers that ended in a puffy set of bloomer type bottoms. As soon as I was dressed, she handed me my backpack and put me inside a playpen along with a bottle of juice. “Be good,” she told me with a smile. I opened my computer and then immediately groaned because I didn’t have their WiFi password… My new phone was next to me though and I discovered it could act as a hotspot. A quick connection had me back in and able to work on my projects. The first thing I did was make sure that I was as secure as I could be. I took care to spoof my location and built up multiple layers of security hiding my identity before going to work first on our attackers. I found that they had indeed arrested the lady early this morning. From what I could see in the police system she seemed to have clammed up and had a lawyer for her arraignment scheduled for this afternoon. I decided to follow the money of the lawyer and confirmed that Venture B&E was paying the bill for the attorney. I sat there and thought for a moment and debated on my next move. We couldn’t keep playing defense, and hope that their attacks wouldn’t succeed. Obviously last night they had intended on getting me and whoever else was left. A quick look at that police report revealed they had four suspects in custody who had also clammed up. Given the severity of the charges, I figured the DA was attempting to get them to be held without bail. I wondered how much their employers would protect all of them though. I decided that before I did anything else, I needed to talk with Fred and Amanda. I had a few ideas on ways we could go on the offensive against this company, but I didn’t want to do so without their okay. With my initial ideas exhausted, I went back to my project from the previous night, to see if I could program the nanites to bind with the problem protein and avoid the clogged receptors. I lost track of time and failed to notice Megan watching over my shoulder for a few minutes. “Whatcha doing?” she asked me in a voice that made me feel like she’d caught me with my hand in the cookie jar. “Umm… well… a project?” I said innocently. “Why don’t you close it down and tell me about it over lunch?” I blushed and did as she said, pressing a quick shortcut key that killed everything I’d been doing. I held my hands up to her and she picked me up and put her hand underneath my diaper as she carried me on her hip downstairs and deposited me into ‘my’ high chair. I eyed the others again, and was thankful for a normal baby one! She velcroed a bib onto me, before she brought over a peanut butter and jelly sandwich she’d cut into small triangles. I saw her sit down with a plate that held a larger version for herself. “I hope you don’t mind peanut butter and jelly?” She asked. I shrugged, “It’s fine.” “Good, so what were you up to?” I sighed, “Has grandpa swept this room?” I asked. “Yes, I just did,” he said entering the room. “Why do you ask?” “Megan was asking me some questions I didn’t want to risk others hearing…” “So…?” Megan asked. I sighed, “I started off looking into the guys who broke into our house and the lady who poisoned Bella. There’s nothing else that can really be done there though…” “No, it’s pretty much in the courts hands now,” Grandpa Joe said. “I think they’re going before a judge who’s pretty honest, but we’ll see what happens.” “It’s all about the money,” I sighed. “Yes, it is,” he agreed. “So, what was with the chemistry I saw you looking at?” She asked me. “I’m looking into the adverse effects of breast milk…” I said turning bright red. “Which ones?” She asked. “The loss of continence…” “That would be a big breakthrough,” Megan said. “And potentially a bit target on your back…” Grandpa said sitting down with a glass of iced tea across the table from Megan. “I know… it’s why I’ve been keeping it low key,” I said to them. “I haven’t even told Am… Mommy how far I’ve made with it.” “You actually know what causes it?” Megan asks. I nodded and walked her through it, “I think if I can program a nanite set to act as a T-Cell of sorts to go and bind to the protein and block the binding of the receptors there’s a good chance I can prevent the effects.” “Or you could cause more problems…” Grandpa noted. “It’s definitely playing with fire,” I agreed. “But…” “What about the addictive parts?” Megan asked. “I haven’t made it that far… I don’t actually mind that part since I know littles are able to get past that.” I admitted. “It’s an interesting idea,” Grandpa Joe admitted. “Just be really careful Stacy, you never know what unintended consequences something like this might have.” I nodded but didn’t say anything else, instead putting a piece of sandwich in my mouth and chewing. “So, what are you two up the rest of today?” Joe asked us. “Well originally I was going to go do some shopping with my friends,” Megan said, “but given everything going on... I think staying home and working on some video game skills is probably smarter.” Joe shook his head, “I don’t know what I did wrong with you girls... “ I laughed at that and he shot me a mock glare, “Don’t you go there, Missy, you’re as much of a nerd as your mommy…” I stuck my tongue out at him and Megan and he both laughed. “I’m going to spend the rest of the afternoon making sure this house is secure for the night before working on figuring out what we can do with your home Stacy.” It was weird hearing it called, ‘my home,’ but it did feel that way at this point. “I don’t know what more you can do…” I told him. “I’m thinking robot security guards?” He suggested. My eyes opened in terror… “Does it have to be robots…?” I could feel my rear still feel phantom pains from that stupid swing. “I’ll see if I can think of something else,” he said sympathetically. I nodded and took a drink from the bottle on the tray. I was full and asked, “May I go get back on my computer please?” Megan shook her head, “I think a nap would be a good idea first…” “I don’t need…” I started to complain. “Think about last night and yesterday?” Megan said, “I want to take one myself too. Why don’t you just come take one with me?” I wanted to complain but I knew even with Megan if she wanted me to take a nap she would be able to make me take a nap… I sighed, “I guess…” “Great,” she said as she picked me up out of the highchair and wiped my face of some crumbs with the bib she’d used on me. I made a face but she just laughed and put me back on her hip. She felt the diaper underneath the romper and said, “I’ll change you after your nap…” “Our nap you mean?” I asked. She squeezed me, “Our nap then.” We went up to her room that was obviously still hers with posters, pictures, stuffed animals, and a faded purple wall that I suspected was a color she liked when she was little. A faded sign on the door said ‘Princess Megan’ much like the one on my door at Amanda’s house. She laid me down on her day bed that was set against the wall. As soon as I was down, she kicked off her shoes and laid down next to me on the open side. Once she was down on the bed too, she began hugging me and cuddling me like a teddy bear. I sighed as she was pretty warm but closed my eyes while trying to think of what was my next move. Her heartbeat again lulled me to sleep as she also hummed a lullaby too. Chapter 16: Investigations I WOKE UP sometime later, and discovered that Megan definitely woke up before I did! I rolled over and looked at her doing something on her computer at her desk that was adjacent to a bay window. The window looked to have a bench seat tucked inside. When I sat up, she was oblivious to my waking up, and instead seemed intent on the screen in front of her. I crawled to the edge of the bed and looked at the long drop down to the floor. I sighed as I realized I needed to pee badly right then and let it loose in the diaper before saying, “Megan?” She looked up surprised, “Oh, you woke up!” she said with a smile and came over to me. I felt her hand check my diaper and she said, “How about we get you out of that icky wet diapee?” I nodded, “Please…” She carried me down the hallway back to the nursery and made quick work of the diaper change and said, “So I’m guessing you’re pretty much happy as long as you have your computer somewhere?” “That bay window in your room?” I suggested. She smiled, “I’ve always loved that window seat! Let’s grab you a bottle from the kitchen really quick along the way.” She held me as she bent over and picked up my bag of electronics from the playpen, carried me down the hallway to the stairs and grabbed a bottle from the fridge. Moments later I was placed onto the comfy cushioned window seat to work. “Thanks,” I said as she handed over the bottle of juice to me. “Comfy?” She asked. I nodded, “Much better than the playpen…” She giggled at that, “I’m going to get back to my game then…” I gave my own giggle and watched her begin to play some sort of city simulation game and got back to my own tasks. I began exploring the software the university had available for students and came across a chemical simulation program that was sort of able to run on my computer. It was compatible with some tweaking, albeit the program ran rather slowly as my processor wasn’t quite up to their standards. I was able to import the chemical structure of the protein that was so problematic in Amanda’s milk, and then modeled the receptors that would be needed to collect it and send it out through the bodies endocrine system. I was working on it for about an hour when Megan said, “You’re going about that wrong…” I started as I hadn’t even noticed her approach as she had climbed on the cushion next to me. After I got my heartrate down a bit I asked, “What am I doing wrong?” “Do this…” she walked me through another method for ten minutes, explaining why along the way, and the simulation was suddenly successful. “So, if you get this going on in your body, breastfeeding becomes okay again?” “I’m hoping…” I admitted. “Speaking of leaky breasts… I’m going to drop you off in the playpen for a bit while I take care of mine…” “I’m sorry,” I told her, knowing my presence was responsible. “Don’t be… though I have to say if you get this figured out, I may want some help at some point…” I smiled, “I’d be happy to help…” She gave me a hug and helped me reclaim my electronics and moved me to the playpen in the nursery before taking off. I used that time to drain some more of the bottle she’d left me with. I had promised I wouldn’t do this edit without letting Amanda check over my work, so I decided to move on with another project. The nanites seemed to have other potential uses and I wondered just what else I could do with them… Just as I was thinking of my plans for future uses my phone suddenly shocked me by ringing with Amanda’s face showing up on the screen. I picked it up and said, “Hello?” “Stacy?” Amanda asked tentatively. “Hi Mommy,” I said, “How’s Bella?” “She’s doing a lot better right now. I need you to do something for me for tonight… The real LPS agency is sending over a team on a well-being check. Can you get Megan to help you put your toys away?” I grimaced, “Yes Mommy, how far are they away?” “About a half-hour, they were told our lawyer must be present and your grandfather is insisting on an officer that he knows he can trust absolutely.” “Okay, I’ll get myself into cute baby mode… I love you Mommy!” “Love you too,” she told me. I cut the connection and called out for Megan, “Auntie Megan!” “What’s wrong Stacy?” “We have guests coming…” I told her as I was putting everything away into my backpack. “I need to look like a well taken care of little…” She nodded and began helping me with the backpack and clothes being put away out of sight. “Did you pack any of your princess diapers?” she asked. “I bought some last week and they’re in the diaper stacker,” Grandma’s voice said coming in through the hallway. “Good idea for putting her into one of those.” She dug for a second in a hanging diaper stacker and handed her the pink rectangle, “Here, get her changed into that. You have her in a good outfit, I’m going to take this playpen downstairs along with some toys for looking like she’s spending time playing with them. Why don’t you just hold her on your lap and watch something safe on TV together until they come.” “Is it fair for them to assess her in this house?” Megan asked. “Not really, but fortunately I’ve kept everything baby proofed for your sisters’ babies. No real point in it for the littles, it’s not like Stacy is going to be foolish enough to put something in an electrical outlet and electrocute herself, but LPS would insist on it otherwise…” She shook her head, “Go on, get that diaper changed and get downstairs,” she ordered. “So how scared should I be right now?” I asked Megan as popped the snaps on my romper and pulled the tapes of the slightly wet diaper loose. “I don’t know honestly Stacy… Hopefully Dad and Larry have this in hand,” she told me as she lifted my feet in the air and pulled the old diaper out and put the new on in place. She held my feet in the air for a second longer to wipe me thoroughly and then put some lotion on from my diaper bag. I shuddered for a second thinking of poor Bella, but knew that lotion had to have been safe at least. As soon as she was satisfied, she wiped her hands on a wipe and taped me in. The romper was snapped shut and she carried me to the bathroom where she washed her hands. “Let’s get you a pacifier?” She suggested. “Maybe another bottle too?” I said with my mouth feeling very dry all of the sudden. She gently squeezed me before retrieving one of my pacifiers that she attached to my outfit with a clip and stuffed the nipple of it into my mouth. She patted me gently on the back as we moved downstairs and I suckled on the reassuring pacifier, just hoping beyond hope that nothing bad was about to happen to me. She stopped at the fridge and grabbed a bottle of juice and carried me to the couch and exchanged the pacifier for the bottle that she held as she turned on a movie that she decided on, “This is a kids movie and it’s free of subliminal messages as far as anyone knows.” “Okay,” I said pausing from the bottle for a second. I had downed maybe half of the bottle when the doorbell rang and Grandpa moved to open the door. “Hey Larry,” he said as he let in his lawyer friend. “Hi Joe, did I beat them here?” “They should be arriving anytime now I would expect,” he said as I looked up from the bottle I was drinking from. I embarrassingly put it down as he came to sit down in a chair that Joe provided next to the couch. “How are you doing Stacy?” He asked politely. I shrugged, “I’ve been better. Do you know what they’re coming for?” “I…” he started to say when the doorbell rang and Grandpa Joe went for the door. “Hi, I’m Claire Parsons, I’m with Little Protection Services, and this is Police Detective Deming,” I heard from the door. “Hi Ty,” Joe said to the man. “May we come in?” They asked politely. “Yes, come on in,” Joe said and directed them inside to the living room. I was a little surprised to see that Claire appeared to be a betweener at probably only six and a half feet tall. Smaller than Megan who waved at her from underneath me. “This is Larry Worthington, our attorney, my wife Theresa, our youngest daughter Megan, and this is Stacy, who I believe you are here to see?” He asked. “Yes,” Claire said, “May we sit here and talk?” she asked. “Yes ma’am,” Joe said politely and motioned to a chair that was catty corner from where Megan and I sat on the couch. Grandma sat down next to Megan and Joe sat down protectively next to her. “Thanks for speaking with us, I know I wouldn’t trust anyone at this point with what happened yesterday…” Claire started out speaking with me. “Umm… just out of curiosity I thought you were going to college Stacy? I wasn’t expecting to see you living as a traditional little?” I wondered if it was a trick for a moment, but I decided there was something about the shorter woman that I could trust. Grandpa had already said he trusted the officer sitting next to her. “It’s kind of a dual arrangement,” I said with a smile, “I agreed to some of the baby treatment in exchange for being able to go to school. I don’t have to worry about being adopted and having to worry about being maimed or something… But I can study in this dimension where the technology is so much further advanced.” “I don’t want you to worry about appearances for our sake right now Stacy, I understand you are a very intelligent young woman. What we both need to know is what happened as far as you were aware yesterday…” “I agree Stacy, don’t worry about playing baby right now, we want to know what happened so we can nail the lady and anyone else connected with her.” “Go ahead Stacy, and you can tell them about the other stuff you all have figured out too. I checked into her, and Ty here is one of the most trustworthy people I’ve ever known,” Grandpa said across from Grandma. I gave him a look but the nod from him meant I felt comfortable talking with her with that kind of information. I looked at her, “Where do you want me to start?” “Well how about yesterday to begin with?” “Grandpa had me for the morning to stay with him. We had come here and were eating lunch when we got a call that LPS was doing a wellbeing check on us…” I paused, “We’d been kind of expecting something like that after everything that was going on, so Grandpa took me back home. There were two individuals who had identified themselves as LPS agents waiting there when we got there. The lady stated her name was Diana Ellis, and she said the man’s name was Bob Drindel,” I told her. “Wait, how do you remember that clearly?” Claire asked. “I have a really good memory… as you said before I’m smart. The lady insisted that she needed to be able to examine my body for marks or about the complaints of malnourishment. She started to try and change my diaper when she had me undressed, but Larry said he would take care of it.” I paused, “I appreciated his being willing to protect me from dealing with her molesting me at the time was all I worried about…” I felt a little bit of tears come to my eyes but I shook it off, “Anyway after he insisted on doing that, she said she wanted to speak with me. We sat down on the floor for what I would expect would be a pretty typical interview?” “What all did she ask?” I thought back, “She asked about my adoption, if it was willing, if my parents spanked me, why I would bother to go to college,” I thought back and wasn’t remembering much else. “I think we discussed the failed kidnapping attempt at the university? She also seemed concerned that I’d been left unsupervised on the university campus… We pointed out a free little could babysit me and Larry shut down the conversation?” He nodded, “That’s basically the conversation. I have a recording of the whole encounter from when I entered the room if you would like it?” “We would, I know we already have the video of what happened with her and Bella…” the detective said. “Did you see any other signs of problems?” I hesitated, “I’m not sure what it would look like for a normal visit, but I know a lot of abuse happens in this dimension to littles that no one seems to do anything about… So, I have no way to gauge that honestly.” “That makes sense,” Claire said, “And you’re right about the abuse. We have a number of agents that we’ve investigated in the past too that have taken desirable littles away to sell for a higher price…” she shook her head, “I hope you know not all of us are like that. I’m certainly not, which is why I’ve been tasked to investigate the matter.” “So, you have no doubts as to the care of Stacy and Bella?” Grandpa Joe asked. “None whatsoever, though I do hope that Stacy doesn’t get pushed anywhere she doesn’t want to go with her life… She seems too smart to get stuck with just being a mindless baby. Do you have any other information to add?” I looked at them and nodded, “I took the video images we captured and compared them with pictures online… I let Mommy know about the discrepancy that was passed onto the police so they could arrest her. I was able to do some further research and tied her with a Breeding and Export business that was after Bella when we met her. They had gone through some elaborate steps to get her to fly out to Selegansol to kidnap her. Now they don’t seem too happy to have lost her. There were a few attempts there to kidnap her, and I suspect that was the same group who tried to kidnap me in the student union.” “I agree,” Detective Deming said. “Unfortunately, proving it beyond a reasonable doubt, and identifying the person who ordered everything is probably out of our reach for the moment.” “Any ideas on how to keep me from being attacked anymore?” I asked him. “We’ve increased patrols around this house and your home. Hopefully that deters them. I know Joe was working to do some more work to secure your home there to harden entry points. They got in last night by ignoring the alarms and just busting in through a side window on the first floor. They appear to have run straight to the nursery, and then ransacked it some when they didn’t find you.” I felt a bit of fear in my gut hoping that my Switch with the hidden pistol had stayed hidden. “How much did they do?” I asked. He pulled out a tablet with pictures and showed me the nursery. To my horror basically everything had been tossed except the mattress of my bed. The crib had actually been thrown onto its side, clothes and toys were everywhere on the floor. It looked like they emptied bottles of baby lotion and powder and poured that everywhere too… it seemed pointless levels of vandalism. All of my important stuff other than that weapon were with me though, and it looked like the mattress to the toddler bed had been spared completely. I was able to flip through photos and saw they had also done some damage to the master bedroom and Fred’s office. It looked like they had been scared away before getting to Amanda’s workroom though. I handed the tablet back to him and said, “Thanks, why’d they stop?” “I don’t honestly know,” he said, “Unless they found something they wanted in the office?” I shook my head, “I’m guessing they got scared off myself?” I paused, “I’m not sure what was up with the vandalism in the nursery.” “Probably a psychological attack,” Grandpa Joe said, “It definitely struck Amanda to the core, and it takes away your sense of safety.” “I agree,” the detective said and Claire nodded. “So, where do we go from here?” I asked. Detective Deming sighed, “That’s a good question. I was hoping having a conversation with you might bring up some new leads… and it did with Venture, but that is like an impossible ivory tower to scale right now. They have so many politicians and officers bribed, to protect them, that they’re not going to go down easily. Add the Trelini family connection that seems to be present from your first kidnapping and I’m not sure what can be done right now.” “That’s a bit of a dreary picture,” Grandma said from beside me. “Well is there anything else you need from us?” Deming looked at Claire who shook her head, “We’re going to investigate how the imposter got her credentials altered. The lady she claimed to be was actually found murdered in her house today when we went to check on her.” I felt my blood turn to ice as once again I could see how serious they were. “Murdered?” Megan asked as she hugged me protectively. “She hadn’t been seen in a couple days, so they had been working on this at least that long. The other guy who was with her was on loan from another office, so they hadn’t worked together before. He seems to be innocent in this.” “That’s crazy…” I said as I felt some urine leave me into the thick diaper. “Yes, it is,” Claire said. “Look, the only thing I can assure you of from my end is that your file has been flagged so that if it comes up again, I will be the agent to investigate any complaints. I’m pretty certain I’ll be able to close them in a single visit and a shake of my head. I can tell you’re definitely with a good set of parents, and I hope your sister recovers quickly.” “Thanks,” I said. She and the detective made their exit and I was left sitting on Megan’s lap. Larry made his own polite departure then too, as he was no longer needed, leaving the four of us sitting there in the living room. “This is scary,” Megan said. “Yes, it is,” Grandpa said, “Megan, would you please go help Stacy change into something more comfortable and a regular diaper so I can work with her… actually make it one of her uniforms like she’ll be going to school.” “What are you up to Joe?” his wife asked. “The game has changed; we were just worried about kidnapping before. Now I’m worried about lives, I’m going to arm Stacy with every dirty trick in the book. We’ll be downstairs in the workout room for the rest of the day.” “Are you sure dear?” she asked nervously. “Yes, I am. Go on Megan,” he told her and she followed his instructions with a squeeze of a hug for me. “Are you okay with this?” She asked me. I nodded, “It’s not a matter of if, but when, I run into these guys again.” She kissed my forehead as she laid me down on the changing table. “Definitely could have stayed in this one longer,” she told me with a smirk. “You should have seen the monstrosity from the other day…” I groaned. The change was quick, just a quick wipe, some powder, and the new Pamper was on. We dug out one of my school uniforms and dressed me completely down to the shoes before she carried me downstairs past the first floor, and to the basement where I discovered Joe had a mini version of his studio there. “Go ahead and leave us alone Megan, call us up for dinner and we’ll take a short break, but we’ll be down here until her bedtime tonight.” “Yes Daddy,” she said and set me down beside his towering frame. He had changed into a gi and looked to be back in full martial arts master teacher mode. I bowed politely as she left and took a comfortable ready stance. When the door closed, he walked over to a bag and said, “I called a friend yesterday afternoon after I left you all and asked for a rush order on something.” He pulled out a pair of shoes that looked identical to mine. He sat down on the floor and showed them to me. “They look just like mine; I have a feeling there’s something concealed?” “Don’t ever let anyone find this, but there is a blade in each of these shoes,” he showed me how to pull two thin bladed weapons from the heel of the shoe quickly. There was a set of finger holes that resembled a set of brass knuckles attached to a thin single bladed knife. The weapons had a curve to them that made them look beautiful, if not deadly. I placed my fingers in the holes of the right hand one and amazed that it was a perfect match to my hand. I took a tentative swing with it and marveled how it became an extension of my hand. I looked up at Grandpa Joe, “I take it you can teach me how to use these without hurting myself in the process?” He gave a light laugh, “That’s the idea. First, we’ll practice just drawing them smoothly.” I pulled my other shoes off and replaced them with the new ones that even felt more comfortable. As I went to lace them though he said, “These have some special laces, put your finger right here,” he said to a place that seemed to just be a spot of regular patent leather. I did as he said and they suddenly laced up on their own, “Cool!” I said with a smile. “I take it you don’t have self-lacing shoes in your dimension?” “Only in science fiction movies!” I said with a smile. “They will only unlace now if you use your fingerprint on that spot. They won’t be able to cut them off easily either, so since they’re cute, you’ll probably see an Amazon give up in a hurry on taking them off.” “So just keep them hidden and wait to strike?” I asked as I stood up. “That’s one option, but I personally think your best bet at this point is to strike first and not allow them to get their hands on you if you can help it. These would also let you cut through safety belts in car seats. Since they would probably want you in a rear facing seat that might be an easy way to keep covert there…” We spent a while longer talking about some tactics before he said, “Let’s practice,” he said. After the first time I pulled them free, he handed me a set of practice blades to put in their place and began drilling me in a number of positions to draw them and then move into a ready stance. We had only practiced that when Megan came down just as I had replaced the practice set in the shoes, “Dinner’s ready you two,” she said, “Mom wants me to tell you to clean up, I’ll change Stacy, and then we’ll eat.” “Okay,” he said. We exchanged a quick bow to each other and then I walked up to the stairs where Megan scooped me up. She made a face as she checked my diaper, “It’s been hours! This diaper should be a lot wetter, you need to drink more…” “I’ll try and remember that…” I told her. She changed me into a fresh diaper, washed her hands, helped me wash mine, and then carried me to get situated downstairs in my high chair. I had a moment of fear remembering earlier on when I first arrived that I would likely be eating baby food under Granny’s watch. I saw from the pasta pot and a red pot of sauce that dinner was apparently a pasta dish in a homemade red sauce. “Here, let’s get you a bib,” Granny said and appeared with one that said, ‘My Granny Spoils Me More than Yours.’ I rolled my eyes internally as she tied it on and then gave me a plate of pasta and one of my small forks. I sighed in relief and said, “Thank you Granny!” “You’re very welcome Stacy,” she said with a kiss to the top of my head. “Has Mommy called with any more information on Bella?” “She’s still in the ICU, but they have seen some signs of her waking up. They’re going to try and wake her up in a few hours if she hasn’t on her own.” “That’s quick…” Megan said. “I wish I could be there for her,” she added. “If you want, I can stay here with your Dad and Stacy and you can go there for a bit?” She suggested. She shook her head, “Mandy wanted me to watch Stacy. Why don’t you go back after dinner though?” “I’ve got Stacy under control if you both want to go?” Grandpa Joe suggested. They both looked torn as I twirled some of the large spaghetti noodles around my small fork and took a bite. After I chewed, I took a sip from my bottle that sat on the tray and then said, “Go, it’ll do everyone some good. Grandpa and I are just going to hang out downstairs anyway, right?” He smiled at me, “Right!” They both sighed but said, “Okay, I think we can trust you two for a bit…” He mocked pain and said, “Just for a bit?” “To be fair they probably shouldn’t trust us at all,” I said with a smirk. “Definitely my favorite granddaughter,” he said with a laugh. We all ate pretty quickly and I filled up on the large noodles. It was almost like eating a pasta the thickness of penne pasta. The sauce was one of the best I’d ever had, “This is amazing,” I told her. “I’m glad you think so, I worried you might not like it?” “Why?” “I don’t put sugar in my sauce. Our other little grandchildren didn’t like it while they could eat it.” She was sad at the end of the statement. I grimaced but nodded, “I keep hearing my taste buds are weird…” “How else?” Megan asked curiously and seeming interested in a change of conversation. “Well… I think Daddy and I might have to go and have some fun with fiery food challenges…” Granny looked a bit nervous at that, “What?” “Well I grew up that the smaller the chile, the spicier it is. Even your smallest peppers are like the size of our mild poblano peppers to me. I think because of that they taste milder. Bella regretted it when she tried a little of one that I didn’t feel a tingle on.” Megan looked intrigued, “They have some events sometimes at the university…” “Before or after bedtime?” “Some before… I’ll keep an eye out for those for you!” She said with a smile. Dinner ended soon and Megan made me finish the bottle before changing me again. She delivered me back to Grandpa’s care, before they both took off for the hospital. “Okay, draw those blades again,” he told me and came at me simultaneously. I did so with a front tumble as I moved to his left and drew the blades, standing to face him to my side. “Good!” he said, “But, you left yourself open…” For the next few hours we worked nonstop until my muscles hurt, and I was dripping with sweat. He showed me how to go for the tendons around the ankles, and to attack the hamstrings first. We also worked with him reaching for me and going after holding my arms and wrists. There were also drills with me getting to the blades while being held, cradled, and aggressively squeezed. By the end of that night I knew I could be beaten by the right person, but I thought I might have survived someone who underestimated me. I hoped with more practice even the right person would be unlikely to win! My watch showed eleven when Megan walked in and said, “Okay Daddy, Stacy needs to take a bath because I’m guessing she stinks, then she needs to get to bed.” We both bowed to each other and I said, “Thank you for teaching me Sensei.” “My privilege, I really do hope we have more time to train… Here, let’s switch the training blades out,” he added quietly as he hugged me. I discreetly repositioned the blades into my shoes. I now had the real blades that were razor sharp where they could be useful. I walked over to Megan who looked at me with wide eyes, but squeezed me as she picked me up. I asked her, “Did Bella wake up yet?” “Yes, she did. She’s groggy and disoriented, but seems to remember everything that’s happened recently, as well as further back in the past. She managed to answer questions for about fifteen minutes before she went back to sleep. They’re cautiously optimistic that there won’t be too many long-term effects,” she had made it up to the top of the stairs then. “Have they noticed any so far?” “She seemed to have some coordination issues, nothing major, but there may be some losses there. They can’t really tell much more until they have her try and move around though.” I nodded as she reached the door to the nursery. She stripped the dress I wore off and tried to take my shoes off but couldn’t do anything. I went, “oops, let me get those,” and put my fingerprint where the sensor was hidden. They came undone and I slipped them off, “Make sure I put those on tomorrow please…” I told her. “Mmm… Okay,” she said leaving me in just my diaper a moment later. The discolored garment was hanging almost loose on my hips at that point as she removed it and carried me bare-naked to the bathroom, where Granny was already running a bubble bath for me. I blushed as Megan passed me to her and she sat me down in the water. “Do you mind if I bathe you?” Granny asked. There was definitely a tentative nervousness to her voice, but also you could tell she really wanted to bathe me. I blushed but nodded, “Okay.” The next ten minutes or so weren’t that different than Amanda bathing me. It was a little more embarrassing with the lady who I had at one-point thought would be my biggest antagonist. Every stroke of a sudsy wash cloth, or massaging of baby shampoo in my hair was so gentle though, so I felt pretty content. I was almost feeling like going to sleep in the bathtub when she said, “I think my little grandbaby is ready for night night, huh?” I nodded, “Yeah, it’s been a long day…” She nodded and wrapped me gently in a towel before carrying me down to the nursery. Megan was hanging around then as Granny asked, “So are you okay with going to church with us tomorrow?” I felt my nerves come up again, but wasn’t sure how to respond as she deposited me onto the changing table. Megan came to the rescue then, “Mom, why don’t I stay home with Stacy tomorrow?” With everything going on right now she could probably use another day of sleeping in before classes start on Monday.” I looked up at Granny and she pursed her lips, “I think I can live with that if you promise me that you’ll both come next Sunday?” I nodded, “Okay Granny, I appreciate you letting me sleep in…” She pulled my legs in the air as she put a thick princess diaper under my rear. “You’re welcome sweetie,” she said. Powder followed all over my diaper area, stomach, and legs. She taped up the diaper and then helped me get dressed into my footed pajamas. She brushed my hair and used a loud blow drier before braiding it loosely. “You want a bottle before you go to bed?” She asked me. “I heard you don’t mind them?” she added with a smile. I looked at Megan who flushed a bit at having been busted at telling my secrets to her mom. “No, they’re okay… sure. Just regular milk though, right?” “No breast milk for you for now per your mommy’s wishes,” she agreed. “Here, Megan hold her while I go get her a baba,” she said with a quick hug to me and passed me over to Megan. She sat down on the floor with me and turned me around in her lap to face her, “Sorry I told Mom that…” I giggled, “She’s your mom, you don’t probably have a ton of secrets from her. It’s okay.” She gave me a quick squeeze, “I figured tomorrow going to church might be a bit too much. I’m not sure if they’ll send you with the babies to the nursery, let you hang with us in the college room, or send you to a free littles group…” “Thanks, that’s more thinking than I would want to do tomorrow,” I agreed. “Maybe I can get a few more things done on my computer before Chloe and Cassie come over…” “Sure,” she said. “Do you have many more things you’re working on?” “I have a couple more things I want to check on... “ Her mother came back up the stairs with one of my bottles in hand, and Megan handed me over to her. She carried me to a well-worn rocking chair in the corner where she placed me in the crook of her arm and placed the nipple of the bottle of warm milk to my lips. I latched on and began nursing as she hummed a lullaby that Amanda must have learned from her. My eyes closed gradually and I must have been fully asleep as she settled me down inside the large crib. Chapter 17: Edits and Missteps THE NEXT MORNING Megan woke me up and carried me downstairs to have a great hot breakfast made by Granny before they took off for church. I was still dressed comfortably in my pajamas for the meal. Afterwards Megan changed a soaked diaper while Granny and Grandpa left for church. She helped me get dressed in one of the more mature outfits that I had afterwards. The skirt was covered in a floral pattern and I wore a cute short-sleeved top, with just a simple bit of lace on the collar. It concealed my diaper and looked okay with the white socks and my new Mary Jane shoes that Grandpa had given me the day before. “What do you want to do now? Kill time on your computer?” Megan asked me once I was dressed. “Sure,” I said, “Can I just hang out on the window seat in your room again?” She nodded, “Sure, especially since it seems like LPS is out of everyone’s hair for now.” “I hope Claire was being truthful with everything yesterday…” I said in response, “I felt like we can trust her, but what about her bosses?” Megan nodded, “I know, but I believe Larry will ensure that we’ll be okay.” She helped me gather my backpack of electronics and got me situated on the bench seat. I laid down on my stomach after plugging in my computer and had my legs kicking in the air aimlessly as I began looking through the nanite file for something else that I’d thought of that morning. “You know you’re flashing me that cute little diapee from underneath that skirt?” She asked me. I blushed and pulled my skirt back down, “Still not used to these things,” I told her honestly. “I can’t imagine you ever as a boy,” she told me with a smile. “Definitely going to have to train you to be a lady though!” I smiled at her and then looked down at the screen to get busy. Last week at the one orientation session, when every little had been in a diaper, I had gone in my diaper without knowing I was going. It was the first time I could say that happened when I wasn’t on Amanda’s milk, and I remembered thinking at the time it was probably a hypnosis thing. In this world that threat terrified me! I wondered if the nanites might have made me more susceptible to that abuse in some way. I started a simple search for hypno within the code and felt my blood turn cold as I saw more than three hundred results! ‘Shit,’ I said internally and began browsing my way through the results. It seemed like they all came from the same function that specifically allowed for a little become more susceptible to hypnosis. The frightening thing was that it was turned on by default, and we had missed it completely! I decided it wasn’t worth waiting for approval from Amanda on this change, and began going through and creating a patch to upload to my nanites. I went further than just disabling it though, I used the code as a foundation to theoretically make it to where I would be immune from such attacks, just like the Amazons. I checked everything several times before I sent the patch to my nanites and felt a physical jolt like I shocked myself with electricity. It hurt! “Owww!” I complained. “You okay?” Megan asked with concern having been watching me right then. I grimaced, but nodded, “I just got a sudden cramp for some reason…” I felt myself let out a fart right then and hoped it wouldn’t smell too bad for her to notice. She looked at me skeptically before looking at her watch, “Mom and Dad should be back soon, and they’ll have Cassie and Chloe with them. Do you need to use the potty before they get here?” “I left mine at home, didn’t I?” I thought actually thinking about the fact that I did need to go number two just then. “I can hold you on top of the regular one?” I shakily stood and shook my head, “It’s probably easier for me just to go in my diaper…” She looked at me, “You sure?” My answer was just to let go into the diaper. I pushed for a long moment before standing up feeling out of breath, “yes.” “Ewww,” she complained as she carried me to the nursery and laid me down on the changing table, “You can definitely tell that you eat regular food…” “Sorry,” I told her. “I told you I would hold you…” I blushed, “I’m a little scared of falling in to be honest.” She tickled my side then, “Like I would let my adorable niece be gobbled up by the potty monster!” I was wiped clean and stood back up on the ground just as we heard the downstairs garage door open and heard Granny announce, “We’re home!” “Come on, let’s go have lunch and pretend to play nice with my evil sisters for a while…” she said to me. I looked at her, “So I guess you enjoy these days about as much as I’m going to?” She nodded, “I’m their liberal and short baby sister… They like putting digs in on me of course, but then I also have to watch what they do to their kids and littles. It’s so depressing…” I nodded my own agreement and stayed silent as she carried me downstairs. We’d left my electronics safely in her room while her sisters were there to be safe form any tampering. Soon we joined her mom as she pulled a casserole out of the oven. “Lunch will be ready soon. Megan can you help me out over here with the salad?” I was placed on the ground and all but forgotten for a few minutes. Soon though the front door opened and Cassie came in carrying Neville, while her husband carried Klara and Kristina right behind her. “Mom we’re here,” Cassie called out as she came in and I looked at the giants and their large preschool daughter who towered over me. “Baby Stacy!” Kristina cried as she saw me and ran towards me. I was more than a little frightened as she hugged me. “Hi Kristina,” I told her while still gaping at the size of the toddler. Before I could say anything more she pulled my skirt up to show the world my diaper, “Good girl, all dwy!” she said to me. “Not Klara, her diapees poopy!!!” I looked up at Klara and noticed she was red and upset as Cassie came in. “I’m going to take Klara upstairs to change her poopy diapee. I guess she’s decided to just be a baby and not be interested in potty training,” she said glaring at me. “Some kids, like you, take longer to train. I learned the hard way that you can’t always rush them,” Granny said as she came and hugged everyone and kissed Klara. She demonstrated the same greeting to Neville who I knew had to be starved for true affection. “Why don’t we change Neville while we’re at it,” her husband suggested. “He’s rather ripe too…” “I guess,” she said. “I think he could probably go longer since he likes being poopy.” I looked at his dejected face, and gave him a sad sympathetic look as they carried him upstairs and left us downstairs. “Granny, can we watch cartoons?” Kristina asked. “Sure sweetie, take Stacy with you,” she suggested. She turned the TV straight onto a TV show that I knew for certain wasn’t safe!!! A screen showing two characters that I had seen all over little’s clothing, Naomi and Oliver, showed one the screen! “This Neville’s favorite, you like too?” she asked as I tried not to look at the screen. “Not really,” I managed to say nonchalantly while hoping if I did see it my changes would help. Thinking quickly, I asked her, “What’s your favorite? Maybe it’s on?” She used the remote and said, “This one, Princess Silvy!” She said as she turned to a cartoon that reminded me a bit of Sofia the First from our dimension. She grabbed my arm and insisted that I sit on her larger lap. I’d been sitting there for a few minutes when Cassie came down and said, “Megan, you’ll probably need to change Stacy soon, she’s watching Princess Silvy with Kristina!” “What?!?!” I heard a shocked set of voices call out. Grandma and Megan ran out quickly and Megan grabbed me to take me out of the room while Cassie laughed and said, “What’s the big deal? She’s just a little baby anyway? Mandy has her in diapers like a proper baby should be?” Then she paused, “I mean she certainly seemed happy that I can’t get Klara to use the potty like a big girl?” Megan put her hand to my diaper and seemed surprised to find it dry, “That was one of those hypnotic shows wasn’t it?” I asked as she carried me upstairs. I heard Granny and Cassie arguing a bit as she did so. “Yes, it is, you were watching it long enough you should have gone… I shouldn’t have been able to pull you away either without you crying and begging to keep watching it,” she said more than a little surprised. I smiled at her, “I think I may be immune now…” She looked at me suspiciously, “How?” “Umm…” “You’ve been editing more again, haven’t you?” She asked me quietly. “Mandy said you shouldn’t be doing that…” “It was that or be more susceptible to those shows…” I told her. “We’ll need to talk with Amanda later about this,” she said with a frown. “Are you sure it was safe?” I shrugged, “I think so. I already had one run-in with someone using hypnotic tricks at one of our little events this week. The fact that I didn’t wet or mess my diaper right now, probably means that it was successful?” She squeezed me in a hug, “Dad has the picnic table setup outside, why don’t you go out there with me?” I nodded and hugged her back as best I was able to. We came down seeing the fireworks had gone to a simmer and Granny came over to me, “Are you okay?” “I think so… I’ll tell you later,” I added. “Have you talked to Mommy today?” “A couple hours ago… She said that Bella is a lot more alert today, they’re supposed to move her to a regular room this afternoon, and hopefully be able to send her home tomorrow.” “So soon?” I asked in surprise, “She was basically in a coma?” “Our medical technology is a lot more advanced,” she reminded me. “Now stay with Megan - do not leave her side!” I nodded and clung to Megan as she went hugged me tightly on her hip. Grandpa Joe had what looked like gigantic chicken breasts cooking on the grill, along with some sausages. “Need any help Daddy?” Megan asked. “Not right now. Why don’t you just sit back and relax? Tomorrow you both start classes again and you won’t have much time for rest!” He reminded us. We smiled at him and Megan sat down with me, turning me in her lap to face her. She played with letting me fall backwards out of her lap and I squealed. She did that a few times before holding me in a hug, “If my sister gets tired of you, I don’t know that I want you as a stinky baby, but you are cute!” She told me. I smiled at her, “You are definitely better than the other possibilities,” I told her. “I…” she started to say as Chloe came out with Kendra and Katie one either side of her, and Derrick followed carrying Kacey. They were actually dressed this time in onesies, so something at least covered them, but it looked like they all had leaky diapers showing around the edges. The bottoms of their onesies were darker, and Kacey’s looked like diarrhea had caused some permanent brown stains. I felt myself want to throw up at that. She brought them over to us and said, “Auntie Megan, can you watch these three for a moment while I go grab some of their toys?” “Sure, I’d be happy to,” Megan said cordially. I watched as a blanket was laid down on the grass and she put all three onto their stomachs. “Be back in a moment babies,” she told them. I gave Megan a look and she hugged me tight. “Hi girls,” Megan said nicely. The look they gave her was not a warm one. “Gaba Goo Gim!” Kacey said fairly angrily. I sighed, “I’m sorry,” I said just loud enough for them to hear. There was definitely a jealous look from Katie that I wasn’t screwed up as bad. Of course, at least she could crawl... Kacey looked forlornly like a worm that couldn’t do anything from her stationary spot on the blanket. You could almost see her arms and legs spasm in an attempt to sit herself up. Thankfully we didn’t have to sit there with them alone long before Chloe returned bringing a couple of toys for them to play with, including a bar that went over the top of Kacey that she could attempt to bat at some hanging toys. You could tell that she just desperately wanted to do anything to make her feel like she had control. I couldn’t see any hope left in her face, and it was so sad to watch her half-heartedly bat at a dangling toy that it made me want to cry. I chose instead to talk to Megan, “What’s your schedule like tomorrow?” “I have a philosophy class at eleven, then a history class after lunch,” she said. “Then I have another couple of other classes tomorrow too that go into the evening.” She shifted me a little as obviously my body weight was getting a bit heavy. My skirt moved and flashed the girls my clean diaper, just as Cassie came out carrying Neville to deposit next to the other three littles. Kristina came out holding Klara’s hand. She was now wearing only a shirt and her diaper. She was all smiles though and didn’t seem to have a care in the world following her big sis outside. Granny followed and played a small game of chase with both of them as she came out. I watched as trips inside to get the other dishes were made by Granny, Grandpa, and Cassie to pile on the table. Cassie looked at Megan, “Why aren’t you helping?” “I am, I was told to watch Stacy here,” she told her. “You know she’d be just fine with the other girls on the blanket if she couldn’t walk. Mandy is just being stupid…” “Enough about my Mommy,” I told her. “If there’s anyone who needs to be told how to treat a little it’s you. The inhumane treatment of making an adult only crawl should be illegal,” I hissed. Megan grabbed me in a hug, “Umm… Sis, I happen to agree with Stacy here. Add to the fact that her parents are with her sister in the hospital right now, maybe keep your stupid opinions to yourself?” Before a war between sisters could fully erupt, Grandpa Joe put his hand on Cassie’s shoulder, “Enough sweetheart.” “But Dad…” “Enough,” he said simply. The food on the table meant we began dishing up, and it was like déja vu from the first Sunday I’d been there. Megan helped me with a plate that she placed a small piece of the chicken she had gotten. A piece of her sausage, and some of the green bean casserole that I wrinkled my nose up a little on, also joined on the plate. It was all really tasty! Well… except the green beans! While I made my way through my food, I watched as Cassie fed Neville another concoction of baby food. I was grateful for him that this one at least seemed slightly more edible; simply being a beef stew. Her biological daughters both fed themselves without incident, although she made sure to tie a bib on ‘baby’ Klara. She seemed to be treating her as obnoxiously like a baby as she could. ‘I guess she’s hoping to embarrass her out of babyhood?’ I shook my head, ‘I doubt that ends well…’ Chloe had Kendra and Kacey hanging off her exposed boobs while her husband held a bottle for Katie. ‘At least she’s feeding all of them…’ I thought. ‘I wonder if Grandpa and Granny said something to them…’ There were a few stifled conversations, but not much was going on when the back door opened and Amanda came through. She looked well past the ragged edge of fatigue and exhaustion, but came straight to me. “Stacy!” She said as she pulled me into her arms and hugged me. Tears streamed down her face and I saw Fred was right behind her. Something went tight in my gut since they were both there. “Is Bella…?” She sobbed, and sobbed then, with her body just convulsing with tears. Fred joined us in a hug and I just knew that the worst had happened, Bella… “Bella’s been kidnapped…” Fred said quietly to Grandpa. “Why didn’t you call me?!?” Grandpa Joe asked instantly. “There’s nothing anyone can do. They managed to slip some sort of sleeping agent into the room, and when we both came to Bella was gone. The police are reviewing the hospitals video footage, but the cameras show the kidnappers getting away with her.” Fred informed everyone, “We would use her Little Protect watch to track her, but there was a doctor that insisted we remove it for them to have access to put in IVs as needed… Her other tracker isn’t showing up either.” “My god, who would do such a thing?!?” Chloe erupted. It was an uncharacteristically caring moment on her part. “What can we do?” Cassie asked, almost looking like she wanted to cry. “Pray…” Amanda said. The family actually stopped and did that right then, but it didn’t sit right with me. I wanted to get in there and on my computer and start tracking down the kidnappers. Amanda was a hysterical mess, and it took Granny a good hour to get her talked into taking a nap in her old childhood bedroom. Soon Cassie and Chloe took off with their families, leaving just Amanda’s parents, Amanda, Fred, Megan and myself at home. While Amanda slept, I had gotten my computer and began hacking the hospital and every other place I could find a trail. Grandpa had come in at some point and just watched silently behind me as I worked. I found the video of the kidnappers taking off with her. They had rolled a canister of something that left some smoke fumes on the outside. They wore some sort of odd masks and went in after a short time. It was apparent that it only took a few seconds to knock Amanda and Fred out, and they were carrying Bella out barely five minutes after their arrival into the hospital. I took still images of the kidnappers and put them in a file as I followed their progress on the security cameras. They had used a back entrance to come into the hospital and left the same way. The camera view sucked, but I was able to figure out the make and model of the car and began finding some other cameras in businesses along the two routes they could have left by. I struck gold on the second with a good view of the license plate, “Hold on a second Stacy, let me write that down before you leave that screen. Good work by the way,” he said with a pat on my head. I heard him call his detective friend as I resumed tracking the car. This dimension was further ahead on plate tracking so a quick hack into another file handed me a list of places the plate passed by. The trail stopped in another area of town not far from the airport and I felt my stomach drop. “Grandpa Joe, I think they headed for the airport!” “Why do you think that?” he asked. I walked him through it just as Amanda had woken up and came inside the room. She was teary eyed and seemed to be all but broken as she came in and asked, “Where did you say?” “The airport maybe?” I suggested as Joe called and directed the police that direction. I drew up dead ends on flight manifests then and everything else before she touched her hand on my shoulder, “You’ve done all you can for now Stacy,” she said. I shook my head, “There’s got to be more of a trail…” “Time to let my dad and the police handle the next steps. They’re already going to be questioning him on how he found out so much…” I sighed but knew she was probably right. Just before I closed the computer though I saw her bra had spots coming through – I knew she had to have been leaking badly. I took a look at the patch file I had compiled already and just clicked ‘Install’ without asking her. I felt a small jolt as the patch hit again, but I didn’t space out. Instead I let her pick me up into her arms and then pulled at her shirt. “Stacy you can’t…” “Mommy you need it, and… I won’t be affected by it anymore…” “What did you do…?” She asked me a little angry, “I told you to let me check over…” “You need this, and I just installed it. You can check it later, the nanites are active and still really programmable so I know I can alter it more later if I need to. For now… Please? For both of us?” She sighed, but pulled her shirt down revealing the nursing bra and a nipple dripping with a droplet of milk was exposed to me. My mouth instantly watered from the sight. I didn’t hesitate on latching on and nursed until she burped me and changed sides. After I was done, I was groggy, but noticeably still clean, and no wetter than I had been before. “Well it looks like you still have control for now…” she said as she patted my back. “Yeah, but I definitely need to go…” I said and let a stream of urine into my diaper and a little bit of poop. She bounced me and held me for a while before taking me to the nursery to change my diaper. I stayed in her arms afterwards though as we sat in the living room to wait for any news that might come about Bella. We waited for a couple hours before a detective came to the house, “Please come in,” Joe told him. “Thanks Joe,” he said as he came in and we all sat down in the living room. “Do you have anything new? Have you found her?” Amanda asked. He shook his head, “We followed the leads that led to the vehicle they took Bella in, but it was abandoned near the airport. As far as we can tell she didn’t get on a plane with anyone, and all of our officers are keeping an eye on other travel points. Roadblocks are set on the outgoing roads, but so far, we haven’t been able to get much more than a name on one of the kidnappers. Joseph Di’santi is a member of the Trelini gang. We have a bulletin out for him as well.” “So, what now?” Fred asked angrily. The detective shrugged, “If there’s going to be a legal adoption of Bella, she’ll have to have her chip scanned. Right now, one of our experts thinks they must have her in some sort of faraday cage, because we can’t get a lock on her tracker at all. We’ve got scanners up and running looking for if she passes by any of our many scanners… but at this point we’re just waiting for them to screw up.” “You’ve got to find her,” Amanda cried as she was holding me. “We’ll do our best, I promise,” the detective said. “Well I need to get back to the station, I’ll contact you each day even if I don’t have anything new.” As he walked away to the door, led by Joe, Fred embraced us both in a hug that Megan and their mom joined in on. “Is it safe for Stacy to go to classes tomorrow?” Megan asked. “No, it’s not…” Amanda practically cried. “It’s not safe anywhere,” I told her. “I need to go. You can take me to each class if you want, but hiding isn’t going to help Bella.” She sniffled and we spent the next couple hours barely eating a dinner of takeout, and then discussing the problems for longer while we waited endlessly for any news on Bella. “Let me see what you uploaded to yourself…” she said. “Both of them…” I ended up showing her the code and going over everything I had done with my nanites. “I don’t see anything that should be a problem from this, but please be careful. I know you understand all of this probably as well as anyone, but the possibility of unintended consequences is something you need to be very careful of.” I nodded, “I’m sorry Mommy… I just wanted to nurse again, and I thought it would make you feel better too…” “I’m actually thinking more about the hypnosis settings… Which I can’t believe we missed.” I nodded, “I know… I think the settings must have worked, at least earlier I didn’t have the reaction everyone thought I should have.” “Next weekend I may test you on that, but for now keep avoiding anything that could have that. Our house will hopefully be back to normal tomorrow with even more security. For now, do you have anything you’re missing that you need for classes tomorrow?” “Let me check my backpack?” I asked as I wriggled off her lap and walked to my backpack. Inside I still had six pampers, wipes, powder, pencils, pens, my stylus, my tablet, and my computer would barely join it all. I still had a spare uniform with my new shoes. “I think I have everything,” I told her. “Then why don’t we go ahead and get you undressed and make an early night of it?” She asked. I looked at my watch and saw it was only eight, “I haven’t slept much the last couple nights,” she added. I hugged her and said, “Okay.” “Do you need a bath tonight?” I hesitated, “Take one with me?” I could see the hurt in her eyes, but she gave me a thin smile, “okay.” The bathtub off the hallway upstairs was soon filled with bubbles and the two of us were settled in the bath with her washing me gently. I looked up every now and then to tears in her eyes, but she did seem to be doing a bit better just by being able to baby me some more. When I was clean and my hair was washed, she cuddled me to her chest and just hugged me silently. “I love you,” she told me, “I’m so scared something will happen to you too.” “Not going to lie, I’m scared of it too,” I told her, “I’m also scared something will happen to you.” She held me to her body for a while before saying, “Let’s get dried off before we shrivel up. I’ll blow dry your hair and we’ll get to bed.” We were both wrapped in towels a moment later and she had me sitting on the edge of the counter as she used a loud blow dryer to go through my hair. I was making faces and plugging my ears as she used it and she smirked weakly at my wimpiness there. When my hair was dry, she carried me to the nursery where she diapered me, put me into my blanket sleeper, and then carried me to the bedroom that had been hers as a kid. Amanda and Fred were sharing the smaller bed in there for the night until we moved back to our house tomorrow. Amanda dressed in a set of silk pajamas and then carried me back to the nursery. Megan came by then, “I love you both,” she told us and gave us a combined hug. “Love you too sis,” Amanda said, “Thank you for watching out for Stacy…” “Of course, she’s family!” she told her. She gave me a peck on the top of my head and left the room. Amanda pulled her shirt out of the way and said, “Well, since you’re hacking like crazy then I guess there’s no reason not to nurse anymore,” she exposed her breast and I began nursing and fell asleep. THE NEXT MORNING should have represented a day to be nervous, excited, and otherwise proud to be moving onto college classes, but it was impossible to do so while being worried about Bella. I caught a bit of the news on TV before Grandpa Joe turned it off. It looked like Bella’s kidnapping was the leading local story. From what I could tell there was a lot of outrage that anyone would steal an adopted little from a hospital room with her adopted parents there. I just hoped the worst hadn’t happened to Bella… sadly in this dimension it wasn’t hard to imagine too many dark scenarios with her current whereabouts. I had barely gotten to know her, but I hated to think that the girl I had just begun to know could be dead… or worse. Breakfast was an egg, a piece of toast, and a cup of coffee. Granny’s eyebrows rose a little at the coffee, but she hadn’t said anything. I’d eaten quietly from my highchair and sat through the silence that hung around the table. Fred was taking the day with Grandpa Joe to triple check our house’s new security systems. Amanda mentioned a few ideas she had to add, but otherwise was not really actively engaging in the world. They both went with me to Emerson and walked me to my first class about fifteen minutes before it was to start. Amanda hugged and kissed me, “Good luck Stacy, I’ll be back to pick you up at the end of this class to walk you to your next. I love you,” she said. “Love you too Mommy,” I told her. With that goodbye, I walked into the classroom for my first Calculus III class. Looking around the room every seat was built into tiers with long tables covering each of them and desk chairs behind them. None of them were little sized, so I pulled out my collapsible booster and sat down on one of the chairs in the first row. Other students were coming in, and I saw a mousey looking man working to organize some papers with a tall Amazonian girl and a slightly shorter boy. I guessed they were the professor’s Tas, and just pulled out my tablet to be ready to take notes. Right then another large girl sat down in the seat next to me, “Don’t you just wook so cute sitting there pwetending to be a big girl!” I looked over at her and sighed, “And don’t you sound like the biggest idiot on the planet. I’m a student that will probably do better in this class than you.” “Sounds like someone must have a poopy pamper,” she hissed. “Really? You have a poopy pamper on? You should really change that before class you know. I thought something smelled bad when you sat down…” A laugh came from next to me as a boy sat down on the other side of me, “She’s witty, I like her,” the tall boy said. “I don’t, it sounds like someone needs a spanking…” the girl said. “Yes, it does miss…?” The professor suddenly stood by our table. “Uh… Gregson,” she said. “Well Miss Gregson, I happen to know you’re antagonizing a young lady who probably doesn’t need to be dealing with your idiocy today. If you continue, I’ll speak with Dean Sanders and see if we can’t have you classified as a little so we can follow through with the spanking you need. I guarantee you’re going to struggle in this class given you just barely scraped a C last year in Calc two.” He nodded towards me, “She could have skipped this class altogether but made a mature decision to make sure she understood everything well.” I looked at him and said, “Thank you Doctor Lieberman, I hope to live up to your expectations,” I said politely. I gave the girl next to me a glare, but then looked forward. “If there are no other concerns?” He asked her. “Well then,” he said seeing that it was time to start class. “I’m Professor Lieberman and this is Calculus three. Hopefully by this time you know where you are, but if you’re in the wrong place now is the time to leave,” he said with a smirk. “Okay then, my TAs this semester are…” he introduced his teaching assistants who handed out paper syllabuses. He mentioned he was a bit old fashioned with that paper copy. “There are three exams for this course, quite frankly I don’t care if you come to the classes where I explain the material or not… Those are all that matter. I don’t get paid for your pass or failure, if you need help, I advise you to meet with me or my TAs as you need to.” ‘Ouch…’ I thought and I could hear some rustling behind me from some students who seemed more than a bit nervous. “Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get started…” I was used to high school still where the first class was a get to know you, these are the rules, and time to move to the next class… In this case he began right into teaching multi-variable calculus and my brain got a workout with the Base 60 math right away in the morning. The good thing was that it distracted me from everything else going on. Midway through the class I had to pee and just let it loose into my diaper without any further thought. The class was actually over quickly! I stood up when class was dismissed to instantly see the Amazonian girl next to me looking down at me. “Well little girl, do you still have dry panties?” “I don’t wear panties, and no, my diaper is definitely wet, but my mommy will change me. See you Wednesday,” I said as I grabbed my bag and walked to the hallway where I found Amanda waiting. The girl gaped at me as Amanda grabbed my hand and led me through the busy hallway and out of the building. We had to pass the student union to get to the Jennings building where my next class was, “Need a change?” Amanda asked me. I nodded and thought for a second, “I need to poop too…” “When we get to the bathroom go ahead and go and I’ll change you,” she told me. I sighed, but understood that even the few bathrooms with little potties would still be too much for my small body. I walked alongside her into the Union. Just before the bathroom door I stopped fighting the battle, pausing for a moment to crouch and fill my diaper completely. She waited patiently and walked with me inside as I noticed an Amazonian girl watching me with a hopeful smile on her face. It turned to a frown when she saw Amanda, and she walked off. I hated the icky feeling of the sticky poop on my butt! The feeling like it was sliding down onto my legs made me want to scream. It was a less composed poop, so I could feel it smear everywhere on my bottom! I made my own frown as Amanda held the door open for me. Inside the bathroom Amanda picked me up and laid me on a changing table after she put a pad from her purse down. “How did your first class go?” She asked sliding my skirt up. “Good,” I told her, “I like the professor, he stuck up for me when the girl next to me was giving me a hard time.” Amanda ripped the tapes loose and made a little bit of a wiggle with her nose, “You stinky!” she said. The smile on her face though said she was just happy to take care of me. “Sorry,” I told her. “We’ll have to remember to have you go at home tomorrow morning,” she said, “I should have had that brought over for you yesterday…” I nodded as she wiped my butt firmly pulling away a brown gooey mess. She was in the middle of another wipe when a little rushed into the bathroom and looked at me with terror in her eyes. I noticed she had panties on, but they were leaving a drippy trail of pee and poop. Amanda noticed too and gave her a sad look. Chapter 18: Defenders “STAY RIGHT THERE and I’ll change you next,” Amanda told the girl as I watched a piece of poop slide down her leg. “Hold your skirt up so maybe you don’t have to lose that.” The poor girl just started bawling, and I felt bad for her. Amanda was obviously a faculty member from the badge on her blouse, and this would mean a demerit and a trip to Dean Sanders office most likely. She finished wiping me quickly, rediapered me, and set me on the ground, “Wait there a moment Stacy,” she ordered. “Come here little one,” she told the girl. “Let’s pull down those poopy panties, there’s no reason to save them,” she told her as she reached down to the girl. She sniffled but let Amanda pull them down and discard them into the trash can adjacent to the table. I watched as she used a couple wipes on her standing up and then picked her up, “Lay there and be good for a moment,” she told her and suspended her butt in the air with her ankles in one hand as she kept wiping her. She was much too big for one of my diapers, but Bella’s fit her and she had her diapered a moment later as a girl came rushing in, “Which little girl dripped all the way down the hallway?” She asked. “I don’t know, that trail was there when we came in,” Amanda told her. “Both of these little girls needed changed, but they were in diapers that held everything in.” “Damn…” the girl said and left after checking the stalls. “Are… are…” the little stammered. “Am I going to tell on you?” Amanda asked. The girl streamed tears from her eyes, but nodded. “No, but if you want my advice you won’t leave your dorm room in panties again. Make sure you don’t poop in a class, and the worst that will happen is a diaper change. You should have about five demerits right now and a paddling...” The girl nodded, “Thank you miss,” she said. “I’m Meg, I really appreciate it.” “I have a little sister named Megan, so I can remember that. This little girl here is my adopted daughter Stacy.” “Nice to meet you,” the girl said as she was trying wipe her face with her hands. A bit of her makeup was smearing, and Amanda offered her a baby wipe, “Wipe your face really good, we’ll walk you out of here and you should be fine. What class are you going to?” “English…” she said nervously. “So am I!” I told her. “Over in the Jennings building?” She nodded. “Why don’t you walk with us,” I said. Amanda walked beside us to leave the bathroom a moment later as I watched another two large Amazonian girls follow the trail of poop and urine in with the hopes of capturing a little to turn them in, or claim for their own. Meg was hesitant to talk to me at first, but by the time we made it to the next building we discovered she had the same class that I did. Amanda dropped us off at the classroom, which was a moderately large lecture hall that seated about eighty students. I made a move to the front and she looked at me like I was nuts, “If you sit up front, they can throw things at you…” she hissed. I shrugged, “If I sit at the front the professor may or may not be a defender. I’d rather be up front… Plus we don’t have any chairs to see over the top of here.” “I guess,” she said as she sat in the too large seat and tried to use a sweatshirt to make herself a little more comfortable in the large seat. She was about a foot and a half taller than me. She watched in a little bit of confusion as I pulled my booster seat out of my bag and put it on the chair. “That looks a bit more comfortable,” she admitted. I was sitting almost at her level then at least. “Gotta do what I can…” “Aren’t you worried about being too much like a baby?” She asked as she squirmed in the diaper. “My dad always told me to never let anyone put me in a diaper…” “Is he still free?” I asked gently. She shook her head and looked in pain, “Last week just before I came here, he was taken on the street…” “Your only real chance of staying free is wearing them I think…” “But what about you?” She paused, “I mean maybe your mom can help keep you from being kidnapped, but…?” I laughed, “I’m an adopted little is what she meant.” “Wait… you’re the one who’s adopted and still going to classes?” She asked just as I heard a “Hey Stacy!” from my side. I saw Laura and said, “Hi Laura,” to her. “Hey, why didn’t I hear from you this weekend?” She asked. I sighed, “My sister was poisoned by a fake LPS agent on Friday, and then they tried to get me that night… She fought for her life that night and was finally improving Saturday night, only to be kidnapped on Sunday from the hospital…” “Wait, that girl was your sister?” they both asked simultaneously. I nodded, “Yes, my parents had taken her in to save her from some crazy stewardess on our flight to Selegnasol… I’d only had about a week to get to know her, but I already considered her to be a friend… I’m really worried for her.” Both girls nodded and looked sad too, but there was clearly nothing they could do at that point. “Aren’t you worried they’re coming for you too? Didn’t the news say your house was broken into too?” Laura asked. “I didn’t know they’d said that much…” I told Laura, “Yeah I am. They’ve tried for me a couple times already, so unless the police get them first, they’ll probably try again.” “That sucks…” Meg said, “Your mom was really kind, I hate to see that happen to you all.” We talked for about ten more minutes as we had all arrived early to class and I learned that Anaya and Kristina were responsible for the two empty beds in our nest. Kristina had given herself over to the adoption program, while Anaya got busted for pooping her pants and then fought the nest mother that had caught her trying to sneak back into the dorm. Anaya had ended up being sent to the university’s daycare and had been seen last grinning without her teeth, being carried with only a diaper on out to their playground through the clear glass ‘fence’ that surrounded it. Every little had stayed as far away though as they could, lest they be roped in with her too… The professor for this class also had her own TAs to help out. Professor Benning was quite young really, having only received her PhD that past spring. She stated that the objectives of her class were to enable us to communicate and document our work in a clear and professional manner. Technical writing wasn’t to just be about essays, but real research type projects and reviews of journals. As we stood up to leave the class a couple Amazon girls came over and said, “How are your diapees holding up?” I sighed, “Mine’s wet, but my mommy is waiting outside.” “Her mommy promised to change us both,” Laura told her. “Wait, Mommy? Why would your mom be here?” The girl asked in confusion. “She’s a professor,” I told her. Sure enough, as soon as we walked out of the classroom Amanda was waiting there and lifted my skirt to pronounce, “Well I have a wet little girl, huh?” “Can my friends come with us to lunch?” I asked. “Sure! Do they need a change too?” “Yes ma’am,” Laura said. “I didn’t even bother with training panties today,” she told her honestly. “Well, let’s go by the Union and I’ll change you all and get you a meal at the food court there?” She suggested. The girls blushed but nodded as the aggressive girls stared at Amanda with looks of jealousy and anger. I reached up for Amanda’s hand and held it while Laura and Meg walked beside me. Laura was more comfortable being around Amanda by this point, but Meg was looking nervous that she was going to be forcibly adopted at any moment. Amanda changed both of them first before getting to me and leaving my naked rear in the air for my change. I tried to pretend that no one else was there to see Amanda change me… The three of us were all blushing brightly as we washed our hands and went outside to the food court. “What’s your next class?” Laura asked me. “Machine learning,” I answered. “Who teaches that?” Meg asked curiously. I tilted my head towards Amanda, “Professor Westerfield,” I said. It seemed like they had a surprisingly quiet weekend in the dorms. We learned that Laura had actually gone to the church that Amanda’s parents went to on Sunday. As we got her to open up, we learned that Meg was an electrical engineering major, so I would probably inevitably have some other classes with her. As it was the three of us had our chemistry class together later in the afternoon too. We didn’t have a long time to eat, especially with Amanda wanting to get to her classroom early, but we spent some time listening to stories from their weekend. They both had a break for a couple hours and were planning on going back to the dorm for a bit. Before we split up, I traded cell phone numbers with them so we could get together again. Amanda also gave them her number too, in case they needed something from an ‘adult.’ At Kilby we ran into her office for just a quick moment to grab some papers before heading down to the sixth floor. Floor to ceiling glass doors and windows looked into a smaller classroom with a single horseshoe shaped table that opened to a white board and a projector screen. She motioned for me to sit down while she finished getting ready. With nothing else to occupy myself I watched the other students in the course come into the room. Being an advanced computer science class, the course was restricted both by pre-reqs and in numbers. Only nine other students besides myself would be joining us in the room, and all would be upperclassmen. A tall dark-haired girl was the first to come through and said, “Hi Doctor Westerfield,” to Amanda as she came in. “Hi Danielle,” Amanda said with a smile. She looked at me and thought for a second, “You brought Stacy to your class to babysit today?” She asked. Amanda laughed, “No, she’s in this class for credit, just like you Danielle.” “Didn’t she just check-in as a freshman last week?” “Yes, I did,” I answered myself. “Then how can you take this class? You have to have five semesters of pre-reqs?” “I tested out of them,” I told her with a smile. Danielle chewed on that, I didn’t think she was a totally condescending Amazon when I met her before, and I hoped I was right with this. “Seriously?” She stared at Amanda who nodded. “You must be like ridiculously smart…” she said to me. “Sorry if I came off as a bitch.” I laughed, “Don’t worry about it,” I said. Amanda went back to loading something on her computer and I pulled my own out to sit in front of me as other students came in. “What kind of computer is that?” A boy asked next to me, “I’m Eric by the way.” I looked up at the Amazon who seemed to be slightly shorter than most of the others in the room. I guessed he was probably only nine-feet tall, with blonde hair, and a pizza face of pimples everywhere. Everything about him screamed ‘nerd,’ which meant I’d probably be able to make a friend if he could overlook my height. “Well it’s from the other dimension where I’m from…” I told him and went into the specs. “My computer has a lot more power, but it’s so tiny… that’s incredible that you have as much in that little machine as you do!” I smiled, “It’s me sized.” Danielle giggled at that, “More like doll sized… You are so tiny!” I shrugged, “Not going to deny that.” I talked with the two of them a little bit the next few minutes and then Amanda began the class. “Good afternoon and welcome back to Emerson! I hope you all had a good summer!” She looked at the class. “I think most of you have been in classes together, but why don’t you all introduce yourselves. This class will involve a lot of collaboration and I want to make sure that you get to know each other today.” She started with an Amazon boy at the far side of the room. As the others continued down the line, I figured out that Danielle and I were actually the only two girls in the class. ‘Weird still knowing that I fit on that side of the fence now…’ I thought to myself. As I introduced myself there was a mixture of curiosity on the boys faces and something else… It was a little creepy actually as I was pretty sure they weren’t just thinking of being daddies for some reason. I noticed the same looks were only given briefly to Danielle before they looked down at their desks as she stared back at them. “Okay then, now that we’ve got that out of the way let’s talk about what we’re studying this semester.” She paused, “Tessa, come join us,” she said with a smile. To everyone’s surprise the holographic Tessa appeared. I was excited because she was probably the most advance piece of research I’d seen so far. “Hi Doctor Westerfield, Hi Stacy,” she said seeing me. “What is she?” Danielle asked. “How does she know Stacy?” “I’m an artificial entity projected via hologram into here,” Tessa told her. “I think I’m supposed to be an object lesson for you all today? Am I right Doctor Westerfield?” She almost smiled, “You’re right, Tessa here is the most advanced artificial intelligence on the planet. She started off templated off of some nanny bot programming, but we brought her to a new level of intelligence by helping aid her in learning on her own. AI that works like hers, is the ultimate goal of this class, but way beyond what most of you will be able to effectively work on until you are in grad school.” She looked back at Tessa, “Thanks for visiting Tessa, I know we’ll have you back soon.” “I look forward to it… and I hope you get your little girl back soon too. Please let me know if I can help.” Amanda turned white and I debated standing up as Tessa faded from existence. “What did she mean by that?” Danielle asked. “My sister was kidnapped yesterday,” I told her. “That was your daughter?” Danielle asked, “I’m so sorry, what are you both doing here?” “Nothing more we can do right now,” Amanda said sadly. “Let’s get back to the topic at hand. This course…” Amanda’s class was most certainly going to be the most demanding of all of my classes. I think even if she wasn’t my mommy, I could plan on her being tough on me. As class ended, I let loose a stream of urine into my diaper, knowing my best chance for a change was right then. A few students asked Amanda some questions, but most fled the room quickly. Danielle hung around for a second, “I’m sorry to hear about your daughter,” she told Amanda. “Is there anything you need?” She asked. “If you see Stacy around please keep an eye on her? That’s about it…” “Sure!” she said. “You want me to change her and get her to her next class?” Amanda shook her head, “Thanks for the offer, but I’ve got that taken care of right now,” she said with a smile. “See you around then,” she told us both. After Amanda had her bag and supplies together, she reached down and picked me up to set me on her other side. My wet pamper was visible to several passing bigs and littles as we loaded the elevator to her office. “Hi Kim,” she said as we passed. “Hi Mandy,” she said, not having more time to talk because Amanda kept us moving. As we entered her office, I looked at my watch and saw I had about forty minutes before my next class. “Let’s get this diaper changed, get you a bottle of juice, and then you off to your Chem class. I’ll need to come back and get some work done during that.” “You heard anything from the police or anyone?” She shook her head, “No news at least…” she said sadly. I hugged her as she lay out a changing pad on an edge of her desk and scooped me up to lay me down on it. She handed me a bottle of juice and just before I put it in my mouth I asked, “I wonder if Tessa would be able to help at all?” “That’s an interesting idea,” she admitted as she pushed my skirt out of the way. She ripped the two tapes off and wiped me, “I might try later.” “Did you sweep this room?” I asked around the bottle. She nodded, “anything hidden won’t make it out of here anyway, but I swept when we walked in.” “Did you happen to scan her for that chip she told us about?” She gave me a look as she taped my new diaper on, “Yes… and I copied it before I purged it of any information. If that’s why they kidnapped her they’re going to be really disappointed…” she said. I was sat upright and she wiped her hands with a wipe. “I’m still working on getting through it all. The part that I can get through is bothering me though because it looks familiar.” “Familiar?” I asked. “I’m not sure why, but it looks very similar to some ongoing projects I’ve consulted on around here. I’m going to have to spend some more time looking at it before I can be certain of where though…” “Can I get a look at it?” She gave me a narrow look, “When we get home,” she looked at her watch, “for now it’s time for you to go to chemistry!” I groaned, but nodded. I drained another third of the bottle, but didn’t want to take it outside of her office to finish it. I handed it to her and she placed it inside my diaper bag she had sat next to her desk. She walked beside me to Kendrick Hall where my chemistry class was to meet. I saw Laura and Meg sitting at the front, and sat on the other side of Laura so she was in the middle of us. “How was your class?” Laura asked. “It’s got to be a bit odd having your mommy as a professor?” “I’m dead certain that’s going to be my toughest class… we have some collaborative projects we’re going to have to do that maybe tough to work out. I’m also one of only two girls, and of course the only little in the class,” I told her. She laughed, “Actually you may have an easier time with the guys. They tend not to have the desire to baby us quite as bad at their age.” “No, they looked more like dating me was on the plate…” “Eew…” Meg said with a snort. “A big?” “It happens, right?” “Yeah, it does,” Laura admitted. “I know there were at least a couple freshman girls at check-in with Amazon parents, and one had a little mom and big dad.” The room filled and got noisier and noisier until the professor stood up at the front and said, “Good afternoon!” There was a half-hearted response, to which Professor Casio said again, “Good afternoon!” “Good afternoon,” there came a light-hearted response that was a bit better. “Oh, you all can do better than that!” He said, and did it again, at last getting the response he wanted. I knew this was one of my largest classes so I suspected he was going to be a bit more of a commanding persona there. He really wasn’t very tall though… Maybe a bit shorter than Megan actually, but he seemed like a friendly sort of guy. His shorter status meant he was a bit less intimidating to me, but probably had to deal with Amazons scoffing at him being a betweener. His class though? It was awesome! He kept up a great level of energy all the way through, explaining fundamentals of stoichiometry better than I’d ever had it taught to me back home. About midway through the class he called out, “Robert Stanson, what is the molecular weight of one mole of Cesium?” I turned and could just see a student who looked to have just been asleep looking amazed at the professor that he already knew his name. “Umm....” he said. “Ms. Westerfield? Can you help him out?” He said suddenly looking at me after letting him stew for a few moments. I felt my diaper grow warm with nerves but answered, “132.9054 grams?” “Correct!” he said, “Ms. Westerfield has a good chance of doing well in this course, Mr. Stanson you may have issues… Especially if you sleep through my classes,” he said. The whole class chuckled at his expense but I could feel a glare to the back of my head. I sighed, but I wouldn’t hide my intelligence from anyone! He went on and began doing other formulas and dealing with atomic masses before discussing the ideal gas law. He assigned about forty pages of reading before Wednesday, and then sent us on our way at the end of the class time. As I hopped off the chair and began storing my portable booster, he walked over to me. “I just wanted to say I’m glad you seem to be as sharp as I’ve heard Ms. Westerfield.” “Thank you, sir,” I told him. “I really enjoyed your class today.” “I hope that continues. Laura, Meg, please let us know if you have questions,” he told them. We walked out the back of the lecture hall and I asked, “How does he know all of our names?” One of the TAs was at the back collecting some information cards we’d filled out. “Doctor Casio memorizes every students name and face before you get to campus. He uses the pictures you send in initially to the university, but then gets an update with student IDs during orientation. He shuffles through them on his computer and tablet.” “That’s kind of cool,” Laura said. “Yeah,” Meg said. Amanda was standing in the lobby and I said, “I’ll see you tomorrow, have a good night!” “Night,” they said to me. I walked up to Amanda and said, “Hi,” to her. “You ready to go home?” I nodded and held my arms up to her. She obliged by picking me up and putting me on her side for the walk to her car. THE RIDE HOME was short, but I felt like the long day of stress and nerves suddenly slammed into me. I had fewer classes in a day than I’d had in high school, but I suddenly understood the idea that we’d be doing a year worth of high school classes in one semester. I mentally noted the homework I needed to do and was grateful that it wasn’t terrible today. I suspected that wouldn’t last long! “How was your Chemistry class?” Amanda asked as we pulled away. “Really cool actually,” I told her. “Casio, right?” “Yes,” I answered. “He’s one of the student’s favorites. Great teacher,” she said. Knowing Amanda by now I knew that was high praise for the man. “Seemed like it, I can’t believe he already knows all of the freshman names… I mean he called one kid that was asleep by name, then he called on me to give the answer when he couldn’t!” “He’s as smart as anyone I know, and basically has an eidetic memory from what I can tell. It’s a good move to make students know he cares for them.” She paused, “Just make sure you pay attention!” I nodded at her looking back at the mirror because we were at a light. The house was soon in sight and she pulled into the garage next to Fred’s vehicle. Amanda came around and let me out of the car seat and sat me on the ground. She leaned in and handed me my backpack before holding the garage door open. “Fred we’re home,” she announced as we entered. “I’m in here,” he said from the living room. He looked like he was working on something around the staircase. I followed behind Amanda as she reached him and gave him a big hug and a kiss when he stood to greet her. I walked closer and he scooped me up to give me a big hug too, “How was your first day?” “Good,” I told him. “Any word on Bella?” I asked him. He hugged me but shook his head, “No, unfortunately,” he said. “I’ve been working on finishing cleaning up the damage and adding some security measures, but no word from the police or anyone about her.” Amanda’s eyes watered and we shared a three-way hug for a long moment. Fred felt my diaper under my skirt then and said, “Mommy she could probably use a diaper change,” and passed me over. She smiled weakly, “I guess we should take care of that, huh?” “Please,” I said. A moment later she came to the door that said ‘Princess Stacy,’ but had only so recently had ‘Princess Bella’ added. The sight made me want to cry! Amanda noticed and hugged me tightly as she pushed the door open and laid me on the changing table. She pushed a pacifier between my lips and I nursed it silently as she pulled my skirt off and sat me up to pull my blouse off too. My feet were pushed up into the air a moment later as she replaced the wet diaper with a dry one. She dug through the closet for a moment and then came back with a cute blue gingham dress. I sat up and put my arms through the sleeves before she buttoned it shut and tied a bow at the back. “I’m so glad we still have you Stacy… and I hope we find Bella…” she told me before tears came to her eyes. “We will… somehow,” I agreed. She kissed me on the forehead, hugged me, and then sat me down on the floor, “Little girl you have a bunch of homework to do… I know one of your classes has a crazy witch of a professor that will make you do a ton of work.” I smiled weakly, “She’s not thaaat bad,” I said around the pacifier. “I was talking about your English professor brat…” I smiled at her and took my backpack from her. As she left, she closed the baby gate and gave me a long look, “I’ll get dinner started,” she said softly. I looked around the room and sighed as I looked at the crib. It looked like the intruders had scratched the finish of the cribs and our names were gone from above our beds. My memory recalled from the video that they had been thrown everywhere… I looked at my desk and was surprised to see it seemed to mostly have been untouched. I sat my computer down and logged in to the cameras in the nursery really quick. I recorded a few minutes of me working before looping the feed and running over to my bed and looking under the mattress. I breathed a sigh of relief as I found my Switch hiding there. ‘Okay… this is staying in the backpack from now on, and I’m going to have to get to work on my project soon…’ I sighed, ‘these guys aren’t giving me much breathing room.’ I reset the cameras to normal after putting the switch in my bag. After that I pulled out my tablet to start reading chapters over on my bed. I used my stylus to mark up the margins of the eBook, and used another app to take notes. The Calculus work was a review for me, but I completed the homework carefully anyway due to the different Base 60 math. I was finished with that, and most of my reading for Chemistry, when Amanda came back up and said, “Dinner’s ready, Sweetheart.” I sighed and put the tablet down and walked over to her, making the universal ‘pick-me-up’ sign. “Those legs broken?” She kidded me. “Uh-huh, I walked all over campus today!” She tickled my side, “Poor baby, I guess I should have carried you around in your baby sling, huh?” I giggled as she tickled me and let her put me into the high chair. The room felt weird without Bella… and you could feel that the smiles on faces were forced, as Bella’s chair remained empty. “How about we pray?” Amanda suggested. “Sure,” I said in unison with Fred. “Please God, watch over our other adopted daughter Bella. We didn’t have long to get to know her, but we love her nonetheless. Please keep her safe and bring her safely home,” Amanda said. “Amen,” Fred and I said simultaneously as she cried. Fred hugged her and we all picked at the chicken dish that she made. It was really good, but that didn’t really feel great to be eating it that night. A dark cloud most certainly hung over us as we ate. I left a good chunk of food on my plate as Amanda picked me up, “I guess it’s going to take a while to get used to this,” she said sadly. I leaned into her and hugged her, “I love you Mommy,” I told her as she sat me down on the floor. “I love you too Stacy,” she told me. “Stacy, I want to show you a couple things…” Fred said as he stood up from the table too. “What?” I asked looking up at him. “The first thing is at the top of the stairs,” he said and walked up as I climbed beside him. I scrambled carefully up each step, while he was able to take normal steps. He pointed to what looked like a camera lens that had been added to each corner of the walls framing the staircase. “What is it?” “It’s a set of holo-emitters,” he told me. “What are they supposed to emit?” I asked. “Stay there a second,” he said and walked past me to the top of the stairs and then I heard a quick sound like a bug zapper start up. “Come on up the rest of the way,” he told me. I nervously looked up there and saw that he was no longer visible and it looked like it had a moment before. I carefully climbed the last stair and then found myself meeting a hard surface. I poked at it and even hit it really quickly and found it felt like a brick wall, “Oww…” I whined before he deactivated it “So, it’s a holographic solid wall?” I asked. “More than that… I didn’t have the charge enabled… if they break in that will stay active and hopefully give us a minute or two. “Wait, is it possible to disrupt with a laser like Tessa at school?” I asked. “I didn’t think about that,” Amanda said from behind me. “Let’s test that…” she said as she went down to her lab and brought back four different lasers. “Re-enable it Fred,” she said from the other side. I watched in fascination as the air shimmered a little in front of us, but I could still see her. Fred had been hidden from behind it before so I assumed, I was too. I watched her point a simple laser pointer like she would use in a class presentation at the image. She aimed at the image and pressed on it, but it still held firm. “Well that’s a good sign,” she said, “I might have to see about what they’re using with Tessa, this one would have disrupted her…” “What about the others?” I asked. She tried another one that was a little bit brighter, but it still didn’t do anything. She cycled through them until she got to one that was about the size of toilet paper roll. When she pointed it, I instantly saw a flicker in the field, and she was able to walk through without any problems. “Hopefully they don’t have one that powerful?” Fred commented. “Hopefully not…” she said. “This thing is kind of risky to even use indoors if you don’t want to start a fire…” “What about if you used multiple of the less powerful ones?” I asked. She looked at me and then we reset the experiment. Two of the lower leveled lasers did nothing, but when the third lower level laser was added the image shifted again and she was able to walk through. “I hope they don’t have laser sights on pistols?” I said after seeing that. “Me too,” Amanda said. “I wonder if I can reprogram this somehow to be more resistant…?” “Mandy, I’ll go do the dishes while you play,” Fred said. “Let me just show Stacy the other two additions first,” he said as he directed me to the nursery. He opened the gate and which I noticed now that it had been switched the way it swept open. Now it would move inward towards the room. I looked at the actual door closer to see that it now opened out to the hallway, “We put in heavier doors for both of our bedrooms. They open out so they’ll be harder to kick in. We’ve also put heavy-duty electronic locks on here that are pass coded. I doubt you can reach it, but the code is 938502. We’re going to keep it closed after we put you to bed each night.” He pointed towards the windows, “We replaced the glass in all of the windows with the same as the back door. It’s just about impossible to break or easily cut into. An alarm will sound if it detects a break in the glass too,” he added. “That seems a little bit more secure,” I said. “Well if they get through all of that we added one final addition here,” he said pointing to what looked like a new toy box in the closet. He opened it and I saw a compartment that seemed to be able to be locked from the inside, and the box itself was clearly bolted to the floor with some large bolts. “They won’t be able to remove it from the outside if you are locked inside. There’s water and food in there if you need it - well baby food,” he hedged with an apologetic look. “It stores easily… It’s enough to keep you fed for up to four days. The box itself can survive being crushed by more weight than this house has total, is fireproof, and it has a two-day supply of oxygen.” “It’s like a little sized panic room,” I said softly. “If we manage to get Bella back, you’re going to have to get a larger one…” He hugged me then with a sad look on his face, “It doesn’t look good right now, does it…?” “Not great,” I agreed. Chapter 19: Breakthroughs FRED LEFT ME to go downstairs and work on the dishes, while I went back to my homework list and did the reading for my technical writing class and Amanda’s class. As soon as I had everything on my list finished, I looked at my watch and sighed - it was already nine o’clock! I put down my tablet and walked down to the workshop where Amanda was working on some programming on her computer. I walked up to her and stood by her lap before she noticed me and pulled me onto her lap. “Hi Sweetie,” she told me. “Still working on the holo project?” I asked her. “No, I finished that a while ago…” she admitted. “I was looking at the code from Bella’s chip,” she said pointing towards the screen. I looked for a moment and said, “Can you scroll down?” As she did, I noticed something, “It’s code that’s in the nanite system,” I told her. “What? You just mean similar functions, right?” I shook my head, “That whole block right there is in one of the subroutines.” “Can you show me?” She asked. I moved off of her lap and pushed my skirt back down before going back to the nursery. I picked up my laptop and walked back to her workroom and let her pick me up so I could set my computer down next to it. “It’s so hard to see that,” she said a moment later. “Can you go to an external display?” I shrugged, “In my dimension I can, I’m not sure about yours?” She reached over to a spare display and unhooked a cable. She sat me down on the desk while she looked at my ports and then brought several cables back over. Ten minutes of upsizing later we managed to connect my computer to the display. It worked, but looked really pixelated. It was better for her though as I showed her where I had seen it. We spent several hours going through the code before I asked, “What does this all mean?” “It means someone involved in the nanite project was involved in kidnapping Bella’s parents.” “And probably her too?” “Maybe?” “What’s in her code that’s not in the nanite programming?” I wondered. “They wouldn’t need her if they had all of the code already….” “Okay girls, time for you both to start thinking about bed,” Fred said from behind us. We both jumped slightly and I noted my full bladder. I thought for only a heartbeat before I let it loose into the padding of the diaper. It was more than slightly squishy, but I really didn’t mind that feeling at all. “Okay Daddy,” I told him. “Let’s give you a quick bath and then we can put you to bed,” Amanda told me. “Okay Mommy,” I said and grabbed my computer so I could hold it while she carried me down the hall. She watched as I plugged it in with the charging cord before scooping me back up and setting me down on the changing table upright. She pointed to my shoes, “Can you undo those?” she asked. “Sure,” I told her as I pushed on the spots to unlace them. “Why did my dad get you those anyway? He wouldn’t tell me?” She took them from me and set them down where she could get to them to dress me the next day. As she took my socks next, I looked at her, “I’m thinking there’s probably a reason he didn’t tell you… do you mind if I ask him to tell you tomorrow? For now, I’ll just tell you that they’re special?” She pursed her lips but nodded, “I trust you, and I trust my dad.” She undid the bow on the back of my dress, along with the buttons, then said, “Arms up!” She slid it up off my body and left me in the wet diaper as my only clothing. I watched her place the dress in the hamper before pushing me down on the changing table. The diaper was ripped open, I was wiped, and she set my naked form down on the ground, “Toddle down to the bathroom,” she told me with a smile and a light pat to my rear. “Your tush is definitely one of your cuter attributes!” She told me as she followed me. My entire body blushed with that comment, “Mommy…” I whined. She ran a bathtub full of bubbles and even tossed in a couple bath toys that I played with as she washed me thoroughly. “I’d love to let you stay in here all-night Princess, but we need to get to bed.” I nodded, “Okay,” I said and stood as she dried me as the drain was opened, then wrapped me in a towel. She hadn’t actually washed my hair, though it had gotten a little bit wet, so she just lightly dried it before carrying me to the nursery. She pulled out one of the pink princess diapers and made sure to powder me before taping me inside of it. A blanket sleeper followed to cover me in its warmth. After a short few steps to the rocking chair she sat down. “Why didn’t you nurse me more today?” I asked her as she pulled her shirt off, leaving her only in her bra. “I really would have loved to do this more today,” she admitted with a smile, “but even if you don’t have incontinence issues from it, the milk alone might give you a looser stool.” I nodded, “I guess that makes sense…” “We need to make sure we put your charm bracelet on tomorrow too… we forgot that today!” I looked at her in horror and nodded, “That could have been disastrous…” “Yes, almost like poor Meg today…” “She seems nice,” I told Amanda, “Thank you for helping her out.” “She’ll probably still end up getting adopted out, along with your friend Laura, but I hate to see them go down that road too early,” she said. “You really think it’s inevitable?” “There are eleven other girls in your nest sweetie. Today you heard that two are gone already… I would bet that at most only three of them will be free by the end of the semester… Especially since they put you in the infant nest.” “Infant nest?” I asked, noting there was information I hadn’t heard yet. “You noticed yours was made of the shortest girls, right?” I nodded. “That’s not by chance, they’ll be some of the first to be deemed immature,” she told me. “I guess I should enjoy my friends while I have them then?” She nodded sadly as she settled me in the crook of her arm and moved her bra out of the way, “You really don’t have to do this by the way? I don’t want you only nursing from me because you feel bad…” “I want to though!” I told her and latched on her long nipple before she could say another word. My world became nothing but sucking and swallowing her amazing milk. I was almost asleep as she burped me, then moved me over to her other breast. The lullaby she sang was what ultimately did me in. The last thing I remembered was needing to pee and letting that go into the padding as I continued to nurse. I didn’t worry about the wet diaper though, since I knew if I needed changed, she would take care of that for me. Amanda was an amazing mommy! WHEN AMANDA WOKE me up the next morning, she had to practically tickle me to death to get me to wake up. “I’m up,” I whined at her. “Maybe you need an earlier bedtime,” she said with concern. I shook my head, “It wouldn’t matter what time I went to bed, I’m not a good person at waking up.” She sighed, “I wish you were one of those littles that woke up with a smile on her face.” I forced a smile, “Is this good enough?” “Come on brat, let’s get you some coffee…” I enjoyed a latte bottle made once again with her breastmilk, along with some oatmeal and strawberries that she spoon-fed me for breakfast. When I finished, she wiped my messy face with a baby wipe and placed me on the ground. She cleaned my highchair and the dishes for a few minutes before I asked, “Mommy, would you please take my diaper off so I can go poopy?” She worked to quickly unzip me from the footed sleeper, untapped the soaked princess diaper, and then pushed me to my potty. I didn’t delay in sitting down on it as a large log and some other chunks flowed from my rear into the potty. I kept going for a few minutes before she asked, “All done?” I nodded and let her wipe me up, then she carried my naked body up to the nursery while holding my sleeper in her other hand. “Let’s get you ready for school. I’ll be curious to see what you think about your history class.” She talked with me for a few minutes back and forth about some similarities and differences of our histories. I had a feeling I was going to have to really be on my toes with that class! I was diapered, dressed in the summer uniform that day, with my shoes and charm bracelet on. “Can you put my hair into pigtails today?” I asked her. “Why?” I shrugged, “I think they’re cute, and it’s not like I’m trying to pretend to be a really big girl?” She smiled at me, “As long as you are okay with the stares and comments,” she said. “Thanks,” I said a few minutes later after she had my hair braided into two pigtails that she’d tied off with bows with ribbons that matched the gingham summer dress. I looked at myself in the mirror and blushed as I definitely looked ready to go to preschool! The first day of kindergarten looked to still be years away! I’d always thought pigtails were cute though on girls growing up, I’d been jealous actually of them, and it kept my hair out of my face. “Ready?” She asked me. “Ready,” I told her. The trip to the university was short, but I couldn’t help but watch through my mirror and notice that Amanda was nervously looking over her shoulder at every stoplight. Clearly, she and Fred were certain that Bella was not the only target of her kidnappers. That definitely kept my own nerves on edge. At the university she walked me to Destiny Hall. That morning I had a huge class with most of the other freshmen on the ‘History of Amazon Civilization.’ Littles seemed to naturally congregate towards the front and I found Laura and Meg sitting with an empty seat saved between them for me. “Hi,” I said to them as I took out my booster from my backpack. “Any word on your sister?” Meg asked. I shook my head, “No… I’m hoping she’s okay, but it’s not looking good…” I wiped the beginning of a tear from my eye and made sure I was ready to take notes on my tablet. Laura and Meg brought me up to speed on the events at the dorms from yesterday. It turned out that four littles had messed their pants in classes yesterday, and all but one had already been demerited out. The other said she was going to see Ms. Beauregard this morning since she didn’t stand a chance of avoiding the single demerit she had left. I sighed and said, “Watch yourselves,” just as the professor stood at the front with her lapel microphone on. “Good morning everyone, I’m Doctor Samantha Evergreen and this is the History of Amazon Civilization,” she smiled warmly and she seemed to be a fairly friendly, and down to earth fellow nerd. She wore her hair in a simple pony tail, form fitting jeans, and solid colored blouse. “You may call me Doctor Sam if you want, and I hope you’ll enjoy this class. This semester we’re going to begin with the dawn of civilization, and move all the way to the modern era. There are a lot of facts you will need to memorize for this class, but we will keep this as a general survey of history. I could spend all semester on any one day’s topic! Please be sure you keep up with the reading in the textbook – there is a lot! We will have four tests…” I kept notes as best I could as she began going through what was familiar and different at the same time. There were a lot of little variances in their history as she flew through the beginning of humans around 250,000 B.C.E., to 2,000 B.C.E. in that one lecture. Every now and then it was like a flip of a coin happened in both dimensions and the opposite result happened in this one. It was going to be tough to keep track of the alternative events, and I was pretty sure I’d be studying for this class more than my others! “That was so lame… she didn’t even mention that the littles on the islands have a civilization that dates back to then too…” one little complained on the way out. I didn’t catch who it was, but I clearly heard an Amazon respond, “Of course not, why would you need to cover their pants pooping moments? I should check yours…” I sighed as we exited and Amanda waited for me, “See you all at the seminar?” I asked them. They nodded and Amanda picked me up to carry me. “What do you want for lunch?” She asked me. I shrugged while thinking she had what I wanted actually… but didn’t want to have an accident in my seminar. “Go home and have a grilled cheese?” she suggested. I nodded, “Sure.” She drove back home carefully and I watched her constantly look over her shoulder each direction. Once we were safely locked inside with the alarm on in the house, she began cooking the grilled cheese. I took advantage of a few minutes to keep working on my homework for the next day, finishing up some of the last couple things I needed to get done in a couple of the classes for the remainder of the week according to the syllabuses. I was picked up suddenly and squeaked, “Lunch is ready,” Amanda said as she strapped me into my high chair. “How was history?” She asked. I shrugged, “It was okay. The professor seems alright, but I have a feeling I’m probably going to have to study for that class more than any other.” “Why?” “Besides the fact she’s covered more than two-hundred thousand years in the first class?” I asked with a raised eyebrow, “It seems like our dimensions are so close, but there’s like this coin flip of options that you all chose heads while we chose tails… I have a feeling it’s going to make it tough for me to remember which is the ‘right’ answer to a lot of questions.” She nodded, “I could see that being a problem…” “Any word this morning?” I asked as I bit into the second piece of sandwich. She shook her head, “No… I’m…” she wiped her face, “I’m not sure if it’s time to give up hope Stacy… It’s hard to imagine they’ve had her for this long and not done modifications to her… or who knows what…” I nodded, “I know…” “I shouldn’t feel so strongly about someone who was a complete stranger just over a week ago…” I wished I could get out of the high chair then, but other than the wiggling I did there was nothing more I could do. “I’m sorry Mommy,” I told her. “I know you are,” she sighed, “the worst is wondering when they’re going to try for you again.” I felt a little pit in my stomach at that, but nodded, “I’m not going to go without a fight though Mommy.” She looked at me and said, “I know you won’t.” She looked at her watch and groaned, “I need to get you back, let’s get your diaper changed.” She picked me up quickly and said as she walked upstairs, “Don’t forget that my dad is picking you up after this class.” I nodded, “I’m looking forward to it,” I told her. Amanda changed me and brought the rest of the juice bottle I’d barely touched off of my highchair into the car. Once she had me strapped in, she said, “Drink, you’ve hardly touched it.” I blushed but nodded and grabbed onto it with both hands and began nursing on it as soon as she inserted the nipple into my mouth. It was empty by the time Amanda let me out of the car seat at the university, and I handed it to her. She sat me on the ground and held my hand as she walked me to the door of the lecture hall, and the first of the littles seminars. I had a feeling I would soon be dealing with yet another of the ‘just give up and be adopted lectures.’ I found Laura and Meg sitting with a few members of our nest. “Why aren’t you with your nest?” I asked Meg quietly after I sat down. “I’m the only one left,” she answered. I looked at her in horror, “Already?!? You’re alone with your nest mother then?” She sighed but nodded, “She definitely asked me to just call her mommy yesterday…” “Can they move you to another nest?” “They will in a couple weeks if I’m still here. Apparently, my group got targeted first for some medication to make us mess.” She looked around, “If your mom hadn’t been there I’d be gone too. I was the only one not caught pooping my panties that day.” I nodded and sighed, “Why did I come to this dimension again?” We didn’t have long to wait before Dean Sanders stood at the front of the lecture hall, “Good afternoon boys and girls,” she said in a sweetly patronizing voice. “Good afternoon Dean Sanders,” everyone mumbled back at her. “You’re learning!” she said with a smile. “Throughout this semester and next we all will be meeting once a week just to make sure you have your best chance in life! Today we want to discuss a recent case in the courts over a little girl who became exceptionally violent…” I had to bite my tongue, and wanted a pacifier more than anything to keep my tongue silent as she went through and showed news clips of a girl who hadn’t taken becoming someone’s baby laying down. I almost wanted to cheer as nursery footage of her killing her ‘mommy’ was shown… then I wanted to be sick for all the blood and consequences that followed. To my surprise the case was ongoing following her conviction, with the courts taking a break on the final decision for her fate until she completed some sort of psych eval. In the meantime, Dean Sanders opened up a debate on the legality of what should be done to the girl. “Okay, I guess my thing is make up your mind as Amazons,” one boy said. “Either we’re babies, or we’re adults? If we’re adults it should be illegal to kidnap us. If we’re babies…” he hesitated, “then at least apply some decent protection laws to us. If she had been a baby and treated like that wouldn’t the mother have had her custody revoked for being abusive?” Dean Sanders actually nodded, “I happen to agree with you. You are babies for the most part, and if we’re going to treat you as such then we shouldn’t abuse you.” “I didn’t say…” “But again, if she was a free little and had killed an Amazon in full premeditation like that, then she should face the full force of the law.” To my surprise she actually enabled a very good dialogue and conversation through the seminar time. At the end she said, “You as littles have many legal requirements and obligations, it is important that you are aware of what rights you have and don’t have. Good luck with the rest of your first week.” As I stood up, I heard, “Ms. Westerfield,” and turned to see Dean Sanders looking at me. “Yes ma’am?” I said politely. “How is your sister doing?” I felt tears at my eyes and shrugged, “We don’t actually know… She was… ki…kidnapped Sunday from the hospital.” “Wait, that was your sister?” She asked with her eyes widening. “You all can’t catch a break, can you?” I shook my head, “Doesn’t seem like it, does it?” She put her hand on my head, “Hang in there,” she then gave my backside light pat and I followed Laura and Meg outside. Grandpa was standing outside the door and I told them, “I’ll see you tomorrow,” before walking over to him and giving him a hug. “Hi Grandpa,” I told him. He picked me up, squeezed me, “Hi Stacy,” and carried me on his side and walked to his car where the new infant car seat waited for me. “Need a change?” he asked as he laid me down in the seat. I shook my head, “I should be okay for a bit…” “Well let’s get to the studio then,” he said. I sat quietly and used my phone as he drove through the streets. I saw my mom had e-mailed me and groaned. With everything going on I hadn’t e-mailed her since most of everything bad had happened… ‘How in the hell do I tell her about this and not have her demand that I go home?’ I quickly shot off an e-mail that I would reply more later with some overview facts, I made sure to include a safe phrase just to be sure she knew it was a time issue and that I was still safe. There were a few other e-mails including an invite to another Lambda Delta Pi event Friday. I would have to ask Amanda if I could go later, but a part of me thought it was a better idea to stay safe at home! Soon we pulled into the parking lot of Grandpa’s studio and he came to let me out. Inside he took me into a locker room and said, “Let’s change you into a fresh diaper, and then we’ll get you ready to go.” I was stripped and changed into a fresh Pamper, and then he produced a gi that was my size! He even had the red belt that I had last tested for when I studied before. “I haven’t practiced in a long time Sensei,” I told him when I saw that. He smiled, “That did not show when I tested you this weekend. Once you learn the forms that are required of you, I hope that you will receive your first ‘Dan’ Belt within the year.” I bowed to him, “You honor me,” I said. He bowed back, “It is my honor!” He paused, “I had begun to think I might never teach one of my grandchildren since Amanda was the only one that ever really studied seriously with me.” I smiled at him and put the gi on myself, tying it closed with the belt. It was then for the first time that I actually counted the stripes on his belt. “You’re a sixth degree Dan?” He smiled, “I’m supposed to travel and test to earn my seventh this year actually.” “That is really cool,” I told him while following him out of the locker room. Out in the studio he told me, “We have about a half-hour before my first set of students will arrive. Let’s make the most of the time before I need to begin their class.” After a short stretching session, I began working through the forms I had learned and a new one he was teaching me. I was so focused on what I was doing that I failed to note the audience I was gaining, or the fact that Grandpa Joe had left me working on my own to greet his young students and their parents. “Who is she?” I finally noticed when I finished an exercise and looked up. I turned and bowed to him and the Amazonian mother who had asked giggled, “She’s adorable!” she then asked again, “Who is she?” At his gesture I walked over to him and he said, “This is my adopted granddaughter, Stacy.” “Adopted? Why are you training her then?” A mother next to her asked. “I have always wanted a grandchild to pass along my knowledge to. Stacy is an apt pupil who studied where she is from in her dimension.” “So that red belt is real?” A boy who towered over me asked. I guessed he was about six-feet in height, double my own, but only about six or seven years old knowing that was the age of the students that were supposed to be in this class. “Yes, it is,” I said myself. Before the inquisitive bunch could ask us any more questions, Grandpa ordered everyone to their places. One line had fewer students in it and he asked the members of that line to scoot back one space and put me in front. Knowing he was saying to them I was more advanced than they were, I was glad they were only six and seven-year-olds! The scary thing was that everyone was at least a foot and a half taller than me. The shortest kid, a girl I learned was named Nikki, still stood four and a half feet tall! I did the entire workout with them, and then he broke students up into partners to spar one set at a time. I was paired up with the boy who had asked if my belt was real. “Hi, I’m Stacy,” I greeted him cordially. “Eddie,” he said. “Sensei, I’m really supposed to fight her?” “Yes,” he told him from the side. “But she’s a baby…” “Then it should be easy,” he told him. I heard an intake of air from several moms at the periphery, but I got the feeling they had been instructed from the beginning not to interfere with their students training. I know my own mom had struggled with that requirement back home! “Kyungnet,” he said and we bowed to each other. “You are not to hurt each other, but I expect your best,” he said. I noted that Eddie only had a second level belt, so I knew he didn’t know much yet. As Grandpa said, “Charyut!” we began. I circled some and let him make the first move. It was a kick so telegraphed I think the mothers could tell from where they were sitting. I ducked and caught his leg before twisting him gently to the ground and giving a jab with my elbow across his sternum. “Point to Stacy,” he said. We sparred to two more points, both of them mine, before Eddie really began to get angry. He tried an awkward leg sweep that I assumed he had seen somewhere, but not yet perfected, so it was really awkwardly done. I summersaulted over his leg and instead performed my own leg sweep to kick his legs out from underneath him, once again scoring a point. The final point of the five we sparred to involved him essentially behaving like a bull and running straight at me to grapple me. I used his momentum and tossed him on his back as gently as I could. “How did you do that?!?” He asked. “I’m bigger than you!” I bowed to him, “I used your momentum against you,” I told him honestly. Grandpa bowed to us both and patted us both on our backs before moving to the next set of partners who weren’t nearly as exciting to watch. At the end of the class Eddie came to me, “Nice to meet you Stacy… I guess you’re not just a dumb smelly baby.” I smiled, “Nice to meet you too,” I told him but frowned when his mom began tersely talking to him and then looking my direction. “How could you let that little girl fight my boy…?” I heard his mother shriek a few minutes later. “She could have hurt him!” I felt my jaw drop and I couldn’t help the giggle that came to my mouth and quickly turned around. Luckily, I was far enough away I doubted she had heard me. “She’s a student, but more importantly I know she has the control to not hurt anyone she doesn’t want to,” Grandpa told her. “You should also remember she’s half your sons’ size, if there’s anyone who should worry it’s me. My daughter will kill me if anything happens to her little girl,” I could hear the smile on his face. “I don’t want…” “If you can’t respect my methods then find another teacher for Eddie. I would deeply regret that given I think he has a lot of potential.” I turned back around in time to see him respectfully bow to the speechless woman and come back over to me. “Thanks for sticking up for me,” I told him quietly when he bent down and picked me up. “My pleasure,” he said with a smile, “nice job today,” he added. “Let’s change that diaper of yours and then you can join my next class too?” I smiled and nodded, “Sure… then I’d better work on homework or Mommy will kill me…” He laughed, “I think we can manage her.” I was taken back to a small office he had this time and he changed me on a sofa he had in there. Once I was cleaned up, he used another wipe on the rest of my body to wipe some sweat away before carrying me back to greet his next class. This group was aged eight to ten, and I saw a few red belts like mine around the room. One girl who was quite a bit smaller than the others actually wore a black belt. ‘If she’s ten I bet she’ll end up a betweener who will kick anyone’s butt if they mess with her,’ I mused to myself before being once again put into the front of a line next to the girl with the black belt. The others up front had red belts too and I joined them for their class. As they took their places, I guessed that except for the shorter girl, the rest were between six feet and nearly eight feet in height. The disparity in height from my own was intimidating and I could hear some whispers and giggles about me. The girl next to me said, “Hi, I’m Hermione.” I giggled, “I’m Stacy, your parents’ fans of Harry Potter?” “What?” “Oh… not in this dimension. British then?” She smiled, “My dad was. Umm… how old are you?” “Eighteen,” I told her. “Why are you here?” She asked. Before I could answer, Grandpa Joe took the front and greeted us. “We have a new student who will be joining your class. Stacy is my adopted granddaughter. Please treat her like any other student! She’s shorter than you, but I think you’ll find that may not be the disadvantage it seems at first.” I could feel the skeptical looks then, having the same thoughts myself, but kept quiet. We did a few stretches and warm-ups before he began running us through some of the katas he had been teaching me on my own. It was clear this class was more advanced than the last one, and it was also clear it was closer to my own level. Midway through the class instead of sparring he had everyone practice kicks and breaking boards. I’d done that when he was evaluating me, but I couldn’t help but note that the boards were thicker in this dimension. Prior to his first session it had been years since I had done any of this. I ended up in the middle of a line coming up and heard the tittering and giggles as I came up to the front. I bowed to Grandpa though and at his command launched a kick into the board. To everyone’s amazement, including my own, the board broke easily. “Very good Stacy!” he bowed before patting me on the head. The next person, a tall boy who had been laughing before, failed to break the board. I managed to only smirk myself at that! He had us regroup on the mat before dismissing us and I noticed that Amanda was standing at the side. I ran over to her, “Hi Mommy,” I told her and made the universal ‘up’ sign. “Hi Stacy,” she smiled and hugged me. Another mom came over and said, “How irresponsible can you be having your little here? She could get hurt!” “Not with my dad in charge,” she said nodding towards Grandpa. “Well, at least not if she listens to him!” “I have half a mind to report you to LPS!” The lady said angrily. “I have more than half a mind to smack you upside the head too,” Amanda said. “Why!” she started before Grandpa arrived. “Is there a problem?” “No problem Daddy, I’m sure she was just getting her son here and leaving, wasn’t she?” I noted then the boy behind me who couldn’t break the board until his fourth attempt was there. “Mom let’s go!” He hissed, “You can’t blow this for me like you did baseball!” I looked at the boy and wondered what all happened to him, feeling more than a little bad that I had wanted to laugh at him earlier. He led his mom away and I noted that I would make that up to him the next week. “How did she do?” Amanda asked her dad. “Broke her board on the first try and did well sparring earlier. I’m curious to see how she does sparring with my older students Thursday.” “Don’t let her get hurt…” she told him. “No promises, I never promised that to your mom and I’ll not lie to you either,” he said. I looked up and she blushed but nodded, “I guess we’d better get out of here for dinner and let you get ready for your next class.” “Stacy’s stuff is in my office,” he said. “You can leave her gi on my desk and I’ll have it for her on Thursday so she doesn’t have to haul it to class.” “Great, thanks Dad,” she said and I found myself in his office getting my uniform back on over a fresh diaper. The other had been dry, but my sweat meant a new one was a good idea according to Amanda who claimed I ‘stank.’ Back in my school uniform she carried me out to the car and strapped me into my seat, “We’re going to meet Daddy for dinner,” she said. I just nodded grabbed for a pacifier that was next to me and placed it into my mouth. The drive to the restaurant was just long enough for me to take a nice nap encouraged by the comfort of my paci! WHEN I WOKE up I found we were at 3lev4ted, their favorite restaurant... I was unstrapped from the car seat and carried into the restaurant where the Maitre’D was all smiles and led us to a table and a high chair for me. “Mr. and Mrs. Westerfield, so good to see you again,” he said. “And Ms. Westerfield as well,” he said with a smile to me. “Hi,” Amanda said without any real enthusiasm. “Is everything okay?” He asked. “Not really,” I told him quietly to his surprise. “Anything we can do?” The chef suddenly appeared behind us and asked. In unison we all shook our heads, “We had adopted another little girl…” Amanda said with a tear down her eye. “She was attacked first and then kidnapped from the hospital…” “Mio Dio!” he replied, “That was your little girl?” He sighed, “I heard about that yesterday. I am so sorry to hear that. I didn’t even get a chance to meet her, did I?” I shook my head, “No sir, she’d only been part of our family a week.” “I’m so sorry,” he told us all. “Do you mind if I just prepare a meal for you all tonight instead of something on the menu?” I shrugged and watched them hand the menus back to the Maitre’D. “Sure,” Fred replied aloud. “I will prepare the best meal that I can to try and help you feel a little bit better,” he said. “And, I’ll be praying for your little bambina… I hope she finds her way home to you!” When he left the table was quiet, only a little bit of chewing as we received bread. Fred finally broke the silence and asked me, “How did your classes go today?” I told him about the history class, then about the odd littles’ seminar. Finally, he asked about my time with Grandpa Joe after school and I told him about the first part that Amanda hadn’t seen. She filled him in on the board break though as apparently, she had been there for that herself. “Sounds like you and Grandpa Joe have hit it off well,” Fred said to me as food appeared in front of us. Mine was in a bowl and cut up, but still not pureed. Across the restaurant I had been ignoring the four other littles spread about that were in various states of disgust, anger, and being fed. One glared at me when they realized I had real food and asked their mom, “Why does she get real food?” ‘Déja vu,’ I thought, wondering what the consequences would be this time. A quick smack and a pacifier inflated into their mouth answered that question. I sighed, but just enjoyed the dish he had prepared for me. It was like a chicken piccata dish, but better than anything I could remember having. The Chef came out and checked on us after a while and we all split a dessert before getting in the cars to go home. After a needed diaper change in my nursery Amanda directed me with one word, “Get your homework finished up,” she told me. I nodded and sat down at my desk. Fortunately, I’d done a majority of the work for Wednesday’s classes the night before and in the afternoon, but I still had a good thirty pages of reading and a couple of ‘optional’ assignments to complete. When I was done with those, I read the first sixty pages of the history textbook as we’d been told to do. I had to start keeping a log of notes of my dimension versus this dimension to keep everything straight. By about eight-thirty I was done and began looking to work on some of my other projects. My first goal was to see if there was some way to excrete some of my nanites on cue, and program them to quickly do what I needed them to… Chapter 20: Little Artist THE FIRST COUPLE of weeks for me in this dimension had gone slowly enough to keep track of every day, but the next few weeks began to blur together quickly after that night. We heard no word about Bella at all… The police had absolutely no leads, and I had personally lost hope that anything of her would really remain if we should find her. I feared that Venture would either have her pregnant and essentially brain dead popping out babies, or just mentally wiped and drooling in a nursery. I was certain that she was probably as badly off as Chloe’s littles by now - and that broke my heart! She had hopes and dreams before the day we met, and I would cry a bit when I thought about them being gone forever. College classes though were going well, and I’d mostly avoided embarrassing situations myself. Some of my friends weren’t as lucky, but somehow Meg and Laura were still going to classes with me, and becoming great friends! I’d spent most of my time talking to my parents on a video call we’d had at the portal, talking about them and avoiding the topics of dangers and Bella. As the weeks passed, I continued to work on some side projects trying to prepare for the inevitable return of Venture’s crew. With Amanda’s permission I was given access to some of the toys that were at our disposal as students, as long as a professor signed off on the student using them. “Are you sure you should be letting her use this Professor Westerfield?” the grad student on duty asked. “I promised her a reward for being a good girl. I promise she’s not going to be able to harm a thing with the machine,” she told him. He looked at her skeptically, “I don’t know…” “If she does, I promise I’ll fix it if she can’t!” She told him. “I’m not sure I can fix your internship though if you keep questioning me…” He gulped and motioned for me to go ahead. I looked at the control console for the 3D printer that I’d briefly been able to use weeks before. I’d been itching to get back here to work on a few things, and at her nod of approval began uploading a few projects I’d been working on. As far as she knew there was only one… a few extra potties that I needed! In all I had designed three more potties, one for Grandma and Grandpas, one for Amanda’s office, and one for Grandpa’s studio so that I could go poop in those places without using my diaper. Even after more than a month of being in the dimension, I still dreaded pooping my diaper! Amanda had agreed to let me make some more potties at the university, since her own printer was just a bit too small for the job. Since I now knew what machine they had, I’d taken time to download the software and tweaked my design to even look appropriately babyish for a potty. They’d probably sell well to parents, as the pinks and purples with little princess accents on them would make even the most skeptical Amazon go ‘awwww’ with me sitting on it! I groaned that many probably see me on them too… The printer spat them out in short order and the grad assistant that was hanging around said, “We’re wasting time letting her make potties? She’s wearing a diaper – and a wet one at that – why does she need a potty?” Amanda just smiled at him, “I enjoy watching her go in front of the big girl students.” I was amazed at how good of a liar Amanda could be sometimes. His face was priceless and he shut up after that. As the third one finished up, I said, “Mommy, I have one more thing to print… it’s a surprise, can you maybe look that way until it’s done?” “Stacy what are you up to?” She asked me with some concern. “Nothing bad, but it’s a surprise for you,” I added. She gave me a warning look, but let nodded before turning away, and I quickly started to upload the last design I had made. This was the tricky one! The print was going to seem to be a three dimensional ‘portrait’ of Bella with the three of us on our trip to Selgnasol. I looked at this picture often since the genuine smile on Bella’s face made me feel better… I feared she might never smile like that again – if she was even still alive – so it was kind of my own way of dealing with everything. I had gotten the idea when we had visited an art gallery that past Saturday and I’d seen some similar works. The ‘portrait’ though also hid another print job that I would have to grab from the backside of it before ever showing it to Amanda. The whole point of the project though was for it to be a birthday gift to her from me. I smiled brightly when I saw that it was printing the titanium and cellulose together without any issues. The hidden part of the project was completed early on and from what I could tell, it had been a successful print. The grad student had come over to look and showed me a look of surprise, “You designed that?” “Shhh…” I told him, “What part of surprise did you not understand?” Amanda cocked her head from where she was sitting a way away. Thankfully she was distracted by Tessa suddenly materializing in front of her. That was another thing from the past few weeks, I’d encountered her a few more times and… well I wouldn’t call it a friendship yet… but she seemed to be forming a bond with me. Ate least once we’d gotten through an extremely embarrassing and unwelcome diaper change! I looked at the printer and shook my head remembering that. All of the students in Amanda’s class were working on a project as a couple of small groups when Tessa had poked her head in on us. I got the feeling that she was now dealing with some sort of AI boredom... She watched what I was doing with two other students looking on at the screen, “That’s a really smart way to do that Stacy… Would you mind if I incorporate that code into my own system?” I was startled and looked at her in surprise! I cringed as I had felt urine run into my diaper at her sudden appearance. This particular code was for a subroutine of making sure that an AI routine stayed within the parameters of safely not endangering lives. “You don’t already have something like this?” I asked in shock. “No, no one has seen fit to limit me to not harming anyone…” I gulped at that and the other two students did too, “Sure, you can have it…” Right after she froze for a second, her eyes flashed as I guessed that she had added the code. She moved again and said, “Thanks Stacy! You’re wet, let’s change that wet diapee!” I was shocked as she picked me up and carried me to the front of the room and found a diaper from inside Amanda’s purse. In front of all of the bigs in the room I had my naked rear exposed and was changed on Amanda’s desk before she even had a chance to stop her. I felt my face redden, joined by tears of humiliation, but she hugged me and put me back on my seat with nothing more than a “what a good wittle girl!” Well… let’s just say that was awkward. I had tried to explain my embarrassment to her later in Amanda’s office. “You can’t just pick me up and take off my clothes in front of everyone in the class,” I told her angrily. “Why not? Babies get changed when they need changed? Dr. Westerfield, surely you’ve changed Stacy in public before?” Amanda sighed, but shook her head, “Actually I have never exposed her more than in the back of our car, or on a changing table in a public restroom,” she told Tessa. “Stacy is a young woman, having her naked body shown off is an invasion of her privacy that I would rather not do more than I have to.” “But she’s too small to be a young woman,” Tessa countered, “She’s the size of a three-month old infant. She’s wearing diapers, I saw the bottles and pacifiers in her diaper bag! And, I know you’ve breastfed her in here and on campus before?” Amanda pursed her lips and I decided to get in, “Tessa, that’s true, but I’m a college student. My end goal in life isn’t to sit in a crib for the rest of my life in a poopy diaper…” “What else could you do? You’re just a little?” She asked. I wondered how much I should tell her, but I decided to go ahead, “I want to be a computer programmer. Ideally, I’m hoping to go back home to my dimension and take back a level of technology to there that’s light years ahead of where we are now. I’m hoping to get very rich off of that actually,” I told her honestly. “But…?” “But?” I asked. I watched her eyes change for a moment, before she said, “You won’t be the size of a baby there?” “I wasn’t before,” I told her. “I used to be six-feet tall before I came.” “What happened to the other three feet?” She asked deadpan. “Wish I knew!” I told her. Somehow, we came to a truce that I really was a big girl… just with some impediments. We just had to get past all of the base nanny bot coding she had – which unfortunately was a lot! Since then I guess we’d sort of become pals. I’d even been able to work on isolating and removing the coding that she relied on that made her believe all littles were good for nothing more than to be surrogate babies! Yesterday I’d asked her to help me distract Amanda while I created this project. My only concern was the fear that Tessa would notice the hidden project - but so far no one said anything! While I watched the final few minutes of printing, I thought back to the rest of my past few weeks. I had gone to a couple more Lambda Delta Pi events over the past weeks, about one a week, and I believed I’d be receiving a bid from them at some point in the spring when they did their official recruitment drive. Emerson allowed their fraternities to have freshman join in the fall, but for some reason forbid the sororities from doing so until second semester. Double standards against women were rare in this dimension compared to back home, but this was a case where for some reason they did exist! All-in-all my time at Emerson really was beginning to settle into what I had hoped it would be. Yes, I was diapered, yes at home I received a lot of baby treatment… but I could honestly say I loved the attention. It was like I was the single point that the universe revolved around! Every diaper change, feeding, or cuddle from Amanda made me feel amazingly loved. My classes and the material were everything that I hoped they would be, and as far as I could tell I was on the way to having all A’s at midterm. The only thing that kept my time from being happy was the loss of Bella. Since the last attack everything had gone silent as far as anyone could tell. No one seemed to be watching us, no one had attempted to break in, and no one had hacked or bugged us as far as we could tell. I had a feeling though that wouldn’t last, so that’s why I trained as hard as I could with Grandpa, and that’s why the secret project in the back of this artwork was so important to me! When it was done, I looked at the grad student whose mouth was still open. “I can’t believe you made that…” I smiled, “Well, technically the printer made it, I just told it what to do. Do you happen to have a box I can take that in?” I asked in a quiet voice. “Why?” “Surprise? Remember?” “How are you going to keep a secret from your mommy?” He asked. I sighed, “Please, can I have a box?” He gave me a weird look but a moment later came back with one that would fit the frame. It was thirty-six inches long, and thirty inches tall, so as wide as I was, and almost as tall as me, but it was fairly light inside the box. The print job was ten inches thick to make the image work with my other plan, so it was a bit awkward to handle. My nanite enhancements helped me to be able to easily pick it up though. “I’m done Mommy!” I said to Amanda. She came over and collected the potties with a smile, “These are adorable - maybe you should market these?” “To who?” I smirked, “I’m pretty sure there aren’t many other littles my size! And, any Amazon my size probably can’t even sit up on their own yet!” She nodded as she grabbed me under my armpits and lowered me to the ground. “What’s in the box?” “Surprise, please don’t open it?” I asked. “Why a surprise?” “Really Mommy?!?” I told her with a smirk, “Daddy told me tomorrow is your birthday. Now can you please be a good mommy and not open it until then?” She laughed and said, “Sure,” and I followed her into the elevator that carried us upstairs where we deposited one of the three potties in her office. It was Thursday and I was going to Grandpa’s studio next where we’d drop off another one for there, and give him the other to take to their house. After promising me to not open the box, she taped it shut in front of me in her office, before she took me to my session. I was able to have a good two-hour workout with him before his students arrived in the afternoon. Each week I had gotten better, stronger, more agile, and I could hold my own with most of the students there. I’d only had one girl, Grace, a ten-foot tall seventeen-year-old, who managed to truly annihilate me every time we sparred. Each time she defeated me she took the opportunity to deliver a few swats to my diaper and whispered, “Bad Baby!” Grandpa didn’t say anything about it when he saw it, so I kept silent and didn’t complain. A hostile Amazon would bare my butt and hit me a lot harder! I still had fears of those stupid mechanical devices because of my first time! Each week when Fred or Amanda picked me up, she always offered to babysit for me! By the time Fred picked me up to go home, we found that dinner was on the table. I enjoyed the good meal of chicken cacciatore. I appreciated that most of the time Amanda let me feed myself with my small utensils. It was really good, but dinner was still awkward and quiet with Bella’s empty high chair still at the table. When we finished dinner, she checked my diaper, “Fred, can you change her before she works on her homework?” “Sure,” he said and took me from her arms and lovingly carried me up the stairs to the nursery. “Do you have wrapping paper?” I asked Fred as he pulled the tape off one side of my diaper. “Umm… That’s a mommy question…” “So, what do you wrap her presents with?” “Oh… umm…” I smacked my forehead, “You did get her something?” I hissed. He nodded, “I just didn’t plan to wrap… I have a gift bag.” He thought for a second, “Hold on, I have an idea of where she might have it.” He disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a huge roll of wrapping paper and a roll of tape. I had him set it on the floor and then shooed him out. “Keep Mommy busy for a little bit?” I asked. “How?” “You’ll figure something out…” I shook my head but didn’t want to give him any suggestions aloud. I’d had enough awkward moments of being in the room with them kissing each other passionately! ‘At least they haven’t had sex with me in the room…’ I used my phone when he was gone to hack the camera and loop it so she couldn’t see what I was doing. If she asked, I’d lie to her and say that I didn’t want her to ruin the surprise! I used my knife from inside of my left shoe to open up the tape before pulling out the present and admiring it for a moment. I really was proud of how it came out! The three-dimensional piece of art looked like we were pieces in a diorama or something. I was really thinking that I should find a way to take back their level of printing technology so I could make these when I got back home. Art collectors would probably go nuts over them, and pay a fortune for something like this! I had the other purpose though with the print job and turned it over to pull loose a panel that was about twelve inches long and four inches wide. Inside the panel was a functional casing for a new defensive idea I’d had to upgrade the gun in my switch. I quickly pulled the fifteen small slugs out and a small syringe. I examined them for a second before I hid them and the panel piece in a back area of my closet. The back of the picture didn’t look like anything was missing, and I now had the last pieces of a project I hadn’t stopped working on for three weeks completed! I put the picture back into the box – the grad student had actually picked a good one for wrapping! I then awkwardly used the wrapping paper to quickly wrap her present. I was done and handed everything to Fred when he came back upstairs. I noticed the lipstick on his face and smirked, “Thanks for distracting her Daddy,” I told him. He smiled, “It wasn’t like it was a terrible ordeal.” “Definitely doesn’t look like it.” I smirked, “Might go check the mirror.” He patted me on the head and I watched him go down the hall out of sight before I began working on my last bit of homework for the next day. I had my first calculus exam scheduled for the next morning, and didn’t want to get anything less than a hundred on the exam… MY CALCULUS EXAM had seemed very easy to me. All of our tests were done on a type of advanced PDF file that we downloaded onto our tablets in an app. We could make our notes, write our answers and work, or just select a multiple-choice answer depending on the question. I really liked the way they worked after I got used to them! When I finished a button passed in my test digitally to the professor. I stood up and began putting my booster seat and supplies away, noting the diaper I was wearing was wet. I began consciously letting go a bit more into it. I could see several of my fellow classmates didn’t look like they were doing so good - including Megan’s friend Raileigh. I knew that I had finished my test early, but given I had already taken my time rechecking everything three times before turning it in I knew I should be okay. When I pushed open the door to the lobby outside where Megan was waiting for me. “How’d your test go?” I shrugged, “Hopefully I’m not jinxing myself, but I thought it was really easy.” “You thought that was easy?!?” Raileigh asked in disbelief appearing behind me, “Hi Megan,” she added. I nodded and shrugged, “Remember I told you that I could have tested out of this semester too… I just decided to make sure I knew everything I needed for the fourth semester.” “I wish you could help me…” she said. “Why can’t I?” I asked her. She gave me a look of an incredulous stare… “Because… umm… you’re a little? And I’m a big?” I giggled, “So?” “Her mommy would probably be willing to let you study with her at home,” Megan said. “But what would everyone else say? I was so bad at math that I needed a little to help me learn my times tables?” She looked near tears. “Does it make it any better than I’m not from this dimension?” I asked her. “Besides, who cares who helps you as long as you pass your classes and get your degree?” She looked contrite then, “I’ll think about it…” before adding, “I’m going to try the TAs first though…” I shrugged, “The offer stands if you change your mind.” I looked at Megan, “Ready to go to the birthday party?” “Yeah, I’m looking forward to ribbing my sister about almost being forty. Last year before she starts heading downhill!” I laughed, “You know that’s not nice! We’ll both catch up with that number eventually, right?” “Hey, if I have to be the ‘baby’ sister, then I at least get to make fun of my sisters getting old!” I held my arms up to her and she laughed, “I know that you can walk…” “But, I’m cute, right?” She tickled my side as she placed me on her hip and walked down the sidewalk. She waved at some friends she knew as we passed by, and others waved at me. Several littles stared and looked nervously at me as if believing I was playing with fire. By then though all of the littles on campus knew that I was adopted and cavorted with Amazons regularly. Many littles resented me for it, and still more I suspected were jealous for my situation since I still had a sort of normal life. Out in the parking lot Grandpa Joe waited to take us to a restaurant I hadn’t been to. Fred was meeting us with Amanda and would bring my present to her with him. As she pulled the car door open Megan put her hand on my diaper, “Change now or at the restaurant?” I looked around at the passing littles and said, “Restaurant?” “Kay,” she said as she buckled me into my car seat and then sat down in the passenger side up front. “Hi Dad,” she told him with a hug. “Good week at school?” He asked. “Mostly,” she said. “Had a few issues with one of the girls in my dorm, but nothing flipping her on her back didn’t fix…” I wished I could see her then to see if she was smiling, but squeaked a “What?” Grandpa Joe chuckled, but asked, “What happened?” “Oh, she just seems to have a bad case of baby fever. Since I’m smaller than she is, she thought I might need some special attention. I made her see the error of her ways though.” Grandpa sighed, “Be careful Megan, I’ve heard of them putting troublesome mids in with the littles at Emerson before… You’re not much bigger than that cutoff point…” “I know Dad, but I’m sure it’s done now. Trust me, she learned her lesson…” I sensed there was more to the story, but we arrived at the restaurant and Megan came around to get my backpack and me. None of the others had arrived yet, but we went inside to get a table. “How many?” the hostess asked Grandpa. “Five adults and one highchair please,” he told her. “It’ll be about ten minutes,” she told him. “That’s fine,” he said. “Dad I’m going to go change Stacy,” she told him. “Kay,” he said and I was comforted by the tight hold she had on me as she carried me into the lady’s restroom. A ‘mother’ was just opening a little man’s diaper up on the changing table then. I looked away and looked at Megan’s face as we waited for the changing table to become available. “What a good baby boy going pee pee in his diapee!” the lady baby talked to him, “I still haven’t decided if you’ll stay a boy though. If you don’t make mommy a present by the time that we get home like we talked about, then I might just decide a little girl like her would be more fun! Think of the pretty dresses you could wear!” The poor little was making loud choked sobs at that point, and a quick glance back showed that he definitely had one of those damn inflating pacifiers in his mouth. The diaper she fastened around his waist was a pink princess one, and I felt bad for the poor man being tortured. He looked to be in his thirties and terrified of his fate. She put a boy’s shirt and pants back on him before saying, “All yours,” to Megan. Megan pulled a changing mat out of my backpack and laid it down before putting me on top of it. As she lifted my skirt up and pulled the diaper open the lady took a look at me and said to her little, “Just think if you had those parts instead. I wouldn’t have to worry about you peeing in my face again…” I blushed and put my thumb in my mouth hoping to hide from reality just then. Thankfully she walked out and I had a dry diaper on quickly, “What a bitch!” Megan said as she finished up. I nodded in agreement as she washed her hands and held me next to the sink to do the same. Outside we found everyone else had just arrived and were being seated. My high chair was set to where Amanda was on one side of me, and Megan was on the other, at a long table. Fred sat next to Amanda opposite of her dad, and Granny sat opposite Amanda. “Happy Birthday Sis!” Megan said as we sat down. She handed her a small present to add to a small pile at the end of the table. My larger gift, a bag I knew had to be from Fred, and another bag from her mom already sat there. “Who’s the birthday girl?” The waitress asked when she came. “My Mommy,” I told her and pointed at Amanda. “Wow!” The waitress said patronizingly to me, “How old do you think she is?” “Don’t you know you never ask how old a lady is?” I responded. “Smart little girl,” she told me with a smile. “Of course, a little girl like you doesn’t need to trouble yourself over big numbers, huh?” I just turned my head and looked away from her then so I didn’t say anything I would regret. As a little in a highchair, the condescending waitress certainly wasn’t going to give me a menu, so I looked over Amanda’s. In the end I decided to share a fried steak plate with Megan. “My niece and I’ll be sharing,” Megan said after she ordered, “would you please bring a plate for her when you bring my food?” “Sure thing hon, I know that little baby girl probably can’t eat all that much!” She paused, “You need me to tell the chef to puree it?” “No thank you,” Megan told her. “Are you sure?” She asked looking at Amanda instead. “We’re sure,” Amanda said with a bit a hiss. I turned red, but bit my tongue until she was gone. Conversation soon started up as we all talked about other things. Cassie and Chloe had been invited, per the family rules, but had chosen not to because they couldn’t find any babysitters. I assumed that none of them wanted to put up with the abusive parents… When everyone finished eating, they began passing Amanda the presents one at a time. She opened Megan’s small box first and pulled out a classy purple stylus that featured an Asian butterfly design hand painted all along it. It was really pretty, and from Amanda’s ‘wow’ I guessed it was something she appreciated too! She hugged Megan with a thank you before opening her parent’s gift. Inside was a charm bracelet with two hearts tagged onto it with Bella and my names on it. She wiped away tears and said, “Thank you,” to both of them. I could just see Fred on the other side of Amanda, and noticed he was squirming on the other side and I wondered if their gifts had just been duplicated. “Great minds think alike,” he said as she opened up the bag and a long necklace box. Inside was a necklace with two hollowed out heart pieces that had a single jewel apiece, and our names engraved on each of them. She wiped more tears, but turned over and hugged him, “Thank you Fred, I love them both,” she said. It was time for her to open up the box then and get mine. “That last one is from Stacy?” Granny asked. “Yes, and she did a good job of getting me to not know what it was. I think she even enlisted a certain holographic AI to distract me yesterday?” She smirked at me. I put the most angelic face together and said, “Mommy I would neeeever do that!” She reached over and tickled my stomach, “I can’t wait to see what it is.” She pulled at the wrapping paper and then opened up the box to pull out the picture. I heard breaths catch all around me as they saw it. “Oh my god, that’s beautiful!” Amanda’s Mom said. “How on earth did you make that?” Megan asked me incredulously. Amanda just had tears fall then and picked me up out of the highchair to hold me tight. “Thank you, Stacy,” she said. “Somehow we’ll be a family again,” I told her. She just squeezed me tighter for a while before asking, “Really… how in the world did you do that?” I giggled “It’s just programming, it wasn’t difficult… It just took some time,” I told her. The waitress appeared with a birthday dessert for Amanda and said, “Wow, that is beautiful! Where did you buy that?” Amanda squeezed me, “my daughter made it for me,” she said. The waitress looked at Megan, “Surely you aren’t old enough for this girl to be your little girl?” Everyone at the table laughed and I looked to see both Megan and Amanda turning red. “She’s not her daughter, that’s her baby sister. She’s talking about her little girl in her lap.” The lady looked at me like I had thirty eyes or something then, but said, “Well, you’re definitely talented.” Everyone sang Happy Birthday before Amanda blew out a candle on the dessert. Somehow, I guessed her wish without ever asking her. ‘I wonder if everyone at the table shares a wish, if it’s more likely to come true?’ I thought with a sigh. She was nice and shared a few bites of her dessert with Megan and me, before everyone decided it was time to go home. Amanda had donned both the bracelet and the necklace while we sat at the table. I looked at Bella’s name dangling in front of me sadly as she carried me to the car. My diaper was wet, but she decided to wait until we got home to change it, sparing me another encounter with crazy amazons in the bathroom. Once we were home, she carried me straight to the nursery while Fred gathered everything from the car. As she changed me, “I don’t think I’ve ever received a more thoughtful gift Stacy,” she told me. “Not to mention one that’s probably worth a small fortune. Really, how did you actually make that? That wasn’t just simple programming!” My rear was up in the air with a wipe on it making it a bit awkward to respond, but I answered, “I used a depth mapping software to determine distances to the focal point of the photo. After that it was a few equations to pull the figures out far enough, yet leave the background distant. Then it was really just a matter of coming up with the shape for the printer and using the right colors on the top coat of each layer.” “You should make more things like that… You could become a famous artist selling artwork like that.” “Surely someone else already does that on a regular basis?” I paused, “I got the idea last weekend in the art gallery we walked through?” She shook her head, “That was done by hand, and didn’t look nearly as good.” I had thought it looked awesome myself, but I wondered if that was just a mother’s pride saying that. Amanda changed me into a cute romper before she carried me back downstairs, where Fred was already hanging the picture in the most prominent place in the living room. Once it was hung, they held me in a hug and we all stared at it together for a long while. Eventually we sat down and watched a movie on the couch before she bathed me and nursed me to sleep. Chapter 21: Friendships FOR ONCE THERE was supposed to be a quiet weekend for us. I had studying and homework to do, but not much else was planned. Amanda came into my nursery and leaned down to check my diaper where I was at in front of my computer, “Let’s change that diaper before it leaks?” I looked down and realized it was indeed much more soaked than I had realized. When I woke up, I had enjoyed a nursing session from her before breakfast, along with a latte bottle… It apparently made its way through! As she carried me to the changing table, I reflected that it wasn’t so much that I lost the feeling over going the past month-and-a-half like I’d done before. It was more that I just got in the habit of going and not caring. ‘Potty training after a few more years of diapers may be difficult,’ I admitted. She pulled the snaps of the romper she’d dressed me in open and wiped me clean, and taped me into a new diaper quickly. “I need to go get groceries Stacy; do you want to come?” “Is Daddy staying home?” I asked. She nodded, “He’s working in his office on some paperwork, so you can stay if you want…” “I’ll stay here,” I told her. “You shouldn’t just play on the computer all day you know…” She told me. I sighed, “I know, but… I don’t like grocery stores here…” The last time I had been at the grocery store I had seen four separate newly kidnapped littles being paraded to the diaper aisle, three more littles being pushed around in messy diapers while their ‘mommies’ told them that if they were good they’d get changed that night, and five other Amazons took the time to get their jollies on me when they figured out I was a little. That wasn’t including the poor ten- or eleven-year-old Amazon girl who was paraded in just her wet pants to the diaper aisle, spanked, and promptly diapered in front of the entire store on the aisle floor. I felt terrible for her as it looked like several of her classmates had been taking pictures and videos of the whole thing… I still didn’t understand how that wasn’t a case for police or CPS to be involved! No, I most definitely did not like Amazon grocery stores! She looked at me but nodded, “That last trip was a little brutal…” “Thanks for understanding,” I hugged her as she sat me up after snapping my romper back shut. “You’re welcome,” she said and sat me down on the ground. “I’ll be back in a little while then. Behave!” “Yes Mommy!” I told her with a smile and watched as she walked downstairs. Avoiding the grocery store hell also meant I had time to work on my other project. Knowing for certain that Fred was down the hallway meant I could get started, but I just about had a heart attack as I started to stand to move and he appeared. “Stacy, I need to go mow the lawn, do you need anything?” he asked me while simultaneously holding a bottle of juice out to me. “I should be good Daddy!” I told him. “You want to come downstairs with me?” “No thank you, I have my toys in here,” I smiled at him as I took the bottle. I took a nurse from it as he turned around and made sure the baby gate was latched to my room. As soon as I heard his footsteps past the stairs, I moved to the closet and pulled out my project from yesterday. I placed the parts on the ground and then dug through some of my original backpack’s pockets, finding a small multi-tool that I had almost forgotten I brought. Then I pulled the Switch from my bag and got to work on the weapon inside. I carefully pulled out the small lead slugs from each of the bullets in the clip. I was able to then carefully replace them with my new custom-made projectiles. ‘I just hope if I need them, that these work...’ I thought to myself while fiddling with it. There were definitely moments where I wasn’t sure a bullet was going to go into the casing, and one collapsed before I got it loaded, but overall, I made progress fairly quickly. I had just finished up filling up the slugs and placed the switch back in my bag when Amanda came home. I opened up a window of my project for her class before she came in. “How’s the homework going?” She asked. I shrugged, “Okay I guess…” “Want to go for a swim?” She asked, “We’re supposed to get a cold front in next week and it’ll probably be your last chance to swim in our pool until spring?” I saved my work and jumped up, “Please!” Fred joined us in the pool that afternoon after finishing the lawn. Mainly the two of them watched as I counted three-hundred laps swimming back and forth in their pool. When I finished, I was exhausted, but felt relaxed, and turned to float on my back gently by Amanda. She smiled down at me and then suddenly dove for me and initiated a tickle attack. “No…” I squealed after several moments of torture. “You done swimming fish?” “I’m a dolphin,” I stuck my tongue out at her. She poked my nose and then carried me out of the pool then. “Thirsty?” I nodded and happily accepted the option to nurse from her. As I sucked at her nipple, I couldn’t help but feel loved and comfortable. Since we had resumed my nursing a few weeks ago I hadn’t had many problems from her milk. I did tend to have some looser stools if I nursed too much on one day, five or more times we discovered seemed to be a real problem point, but otherwise I maintained my control. I was glad I was able to just enjoy the very soothing act of nursing from her. I fell asleep nursing her second breast after all of the activity and the milk hit my system. I woke up from my nap just before dinner and checked my phone for text messages. I saw one from Meg, “Hey Stacy, I’m lonely,” that she’d sent just a few minutes before. I wiped the sleep out of my eyes and responded, “What about hanging out with Laura?” “Her nest is grounded for some reason,” she replied. “That stinks,” I said. I really wanted to type sucks, but another little had her texts searched the week before and had multiple demerits awarded for her language… Not to mention the very painful spanking that she had told us all about on the last day she’d been a college student. The poopy diaper in seminar class had finished her demerits… I thought for a second, “Mommy?” I called. She appeared a moment later, “Yes Stacy?” “Do you think we could get Meg to come over for the night?” “Why wouldn’t Megan be able to come over?” She asked confused. “Not your sister Megan, my little friend Meg,” I told her. “Oh…” she said thoughtfully. “Is that the one that is the only one left in her nest?” I nodded, “The one you helped save that day too…” She grimaced, “I don’t know if they would let her or not…” a moment later she pulled her phone out and asked, “What’s her nest mothers name?” I passed that along to her and she made a call on her phone. “Hi, Jackie?” she paused, “This is Amanda Westerfield. How are you doing?” I listened to the conversation for a few moments before she got to the point, “My daughter Stacy was wondering if one of her friends could come over for a sleepover tonight?” “Yes, I’ll make sure that both little girls are in bed by their curfew time,” she told me and winked at me. “You’ll call her nest mother and let her know?” she said with a smile, “Thanks!” and hung up. “Well let’s get you into your uniform really quick and go pick up your friend?” She suggested. Meg was in disbelief when I told her that we’d be coming for her. She’d just responded with, ‘OMG, THANK YOU!!!!’ We had to go to the dorm to pick her up, but I was glad her room was on a different floor than my nest. Especially if there was a punishment being meted out there… At her doorway I could see places where names had been removed from the door and all that remained was Meg’s. It was almost a surprise to see her room looked so empty, but definitely a surprise when I realized her nest mother was the one that had been such a witch to Megan when she picked me up. ‘Poor girl…’ I thought to myself. It really was surprising she was still free of any demerits. “Hi, I’m Professor Westerfield,” Amanda said while holding my hand at the doorway to the nest mother. She was standing there looking at Meg with a small suitcase. “Hi, Dean Sanders said you were here to take Meg. I’ll enjoy the night off! Thanks for babysitting her for the night!” “Umm… You’re welcome,” Amanda said curtly. “You ready?” She asked Meg. “Yes, Professor Westerfield,” she said contritely. I could tell she was nervous right then about going home with an Amazon. It was everything you were not supposed to do after all! “Thank you for getting me!” She told me with a hug once we were clear of her room. “You’re welcome,” I told her and returned the hug, “I just hope Laura isn’t mad that I didn’t take her home first…” “She’s not in any condition to go this weekend…” she told me with a whisper, “I’ll tell you about it when we get to your house.” “Okay,” I told her. She walked beside me and Amanda followed us both to the car. Amanda wasted no time in picking me up and putting me in my rear-facing car seat, “That diaper needs changed when we get home,” she told me. I nodded, “Okay.” “Come on Meg, I have another car seat on the other side,” she told her and then picked her up to put her into Bella’s car seat. We both teared up for a second when we looked at each other, but Amanda didn’t say anything as she picked her up to buckle her into the car seat. “Rear facing?” She did ask once the door shut. “You’re shorter than Bella was, so I guess it’s safer,” I told her in the moment before Amanda had her door open. She grimaced but looked at me through the mirror and screen that was on the seat above us. “Thank you again for getting me,” Meg told Amanda when she started driving. “You’re welcome Meg, I think you’re probably a little bit safe now though. If your nest mother loses you, she won’t be able to continue to have her own nest, right?” I looked over at Meg who was shaking her head, “She would just double up with another nest mother. They take turns each week on certain nights. I think some of them prefer it… But she has a good thing going with just me to take care of and I think she’s inherently lazy. She’ll probably hold out for us being on our own as long as she can.” I nodded at that, “I know Megan doesn’t like Meg’s nest mother,” I told Amanda. I told her about the incident from a few weeks back and she nodded. We were home soon though and Amanda said, “Okay girls, diaper changes first, then you two can stay up for a while in your room Stacy or watch a movie downstairs.” “How about a movie?” I asked Meg. “Those aren’t safe though…?” she said. “The ones we have to pick from are,” Amanda assured her, “I won’t expose Stacy to any hypnosis if at all possible,” she added. “Okay,” she said, “that sounds like fun!” Amanda picked her up out of her car seat first and sat her on the ground. I heard her give her the backpack she’d brought and the small suitcase before coming over to my side and picking me up too. She didn’t put me down though, instead motioning for Meg to follow us inside. She clambered up the stairs awkwardly behind us with her rolling suitcase and stopped and stared at the sight of the nursery. “Whoa…” she said. I looked down at her as Amanda sat me down on the changing table, “Yeah, but it’s pretty, right?” I said truthfully. “Yes, it is I guess,” she said and stepped into the room. I blushed as Amanda changed me as Meg looked on, but watched her blush more a second later. “Come on Meg, I said diapers earlier, I know that you’re soaked too,” she told her. “Umm… okay, thanks,” she said. “Do you want some of your diapers or one of the ones I have that will fit you?” “Umm… what do you have? The dorms aren’t that comfortable?” “I have a regular Pamper, or a thick little’s diaper?” “The Pamper?” She said as Amanda lifted her bottom up in the air. “Okay,” she said, “Oh dear… did you change yourself earlier?” Meg’s whole body blushed but she shook her head, “No, my nest mother did…” “She didn’t wipe very good; you have a bit of a rash coming on here dear. Do you want me to put some ointment on for you?” I heard a whimpered, “Please…” from her. Fortunately for both of us diaper changes were done and Amanda left us alone for a moment after closing the gate. “So, you sleep in the crib?” she asked. I shook my head, “No, the bed is mine. The crib was originally… but Bella took it when they adopted her.” “What’s…” she started but shook her head. “What’s what?” I asked her turning around to look at her staring at the room. She held her hands out, “What’s it like… being the baby?” I sighed, “I’m probably the wrong person to ask?” I told her, “Amanda and Fred are amazingly kind compared to what most people would be. I got really lucky with them…” “But still, you have to have done pretty much everything from what you told me?” I shrugged, “Well yeah… I guess the demeaning looks when you’re anywhere, the mean treatment from bigs, etc. really isn’t much different than what you probably already get. It’s embarrassing to use your diaper and have it changed in public… but again you’ve already been there?” She nodded. “It takes getting used to and at a certain point you have to accept that it’s considered normal for you to be babied, and then just let go of that embarrassment. Bella told me she had pretty much always known at some point she would be adopted…” I shrugged, “I’m not going to lie and say that I don’t appreciate being cuddled and every need taken care of sometimes though?” She nodded, “You’re right… it’s inevitable unfortunately.” “What happened to Laura and our nest?” I asked. She smirked, “Well apparently someone decided it would be a good idea to spike the nest mother’s food with laxatives…” “And it was one of them?” She shrugged, “I personally think it might have been my nest mother… She laughed an awful lot about it.” She paused, “Anyway, they were all given suppositories last night, early bedtimes for a month, grounded in their room except class and a quick trip to the dining hall together… it’s pretty bad.” “That sucks,” I told her. Amanda came back right then, “Stacy…” she warned me on the language, before she led us downstairs for dinner. She gave Meg the option of just using some books as a booster seat, but she chose instead to use the high chair. She declined the bib and bottle though, taking a sippy cup without a word against it. She seemed surprised to see me eating my own food by myself through dinner. Not long after finishing I was sat down to stand next to her on the floor, and about to go get comfortable in the living room when I felt the need to poop. I walked to the potty that was sitting there and grimaced that it would be in front of Meg, but pulled the tabs of the pamper loose and sat down to poop. “Good girl,” Amanda said and patted my head as she walked towards the sink. She helped wipe me up before gathering me in her arms to take me upstairs. “Fred, can you clean out her potty?” “Sure sweetie,” he said. “Speaking of potty, do you need to Meg?” She blushed and said, “I already went…” “Well come on then, let’s get you in a dry diaper, before you two have your slumber party.” She nodded and came upstairs with us. Amanda changed me into a princess diaper then and used another on Meg. “What pajamas did you bring?” she asked her. The short set she brought wouldn’t fit over the thicker diaper so she ended up using one of Bella’s footed sleepers on her instead. I was dressed in the matching one and we went downstairs to watch the movie. “Okay you two, please give me your phones so no one can know you’re still awake,” she told us both with a smile. I nodded and encouraged Meg to give hers up. Amanda and Fred gave us some space then as the movie started and we lay next to each other on the floor looking at the screen. “Do you think I’ll get lucky enough to have nice parents like yours?” She asked me suddenly as an alien blew up in the movie. I shrugged, “I don’t know. Hopefully you can graduate first?” She nodded, “I hope so.” We talked about some parts of being adopted for a while, and I made sure she knew it wasn’t all fun and games. I told her about my ‘cousins’ and all of the terrible things that had been done to them. She seemed to think it was partly their fault for not being ‘good’ and ‘accepting’ it. She felt like things always went worse for those that fought it. When the movie ended, she was already asleep so Amanda carried her upstairs. “Her diaper should last through the morning,” she told me. To my surprise though upstairs Meg woke up in a bit of a panic, “Put me down! Put me down!!!” she cried. Amanda did to her surprise and she figured out where she was and turned red. “I’m sorry, I…” “Don’t apologize, I understand,” Amanda said. “How about we change that diaper then get you both tucked into bed?” She nodded and the diaper that had been possible to last was clearly no longer so as I could smell the poop. “I figure you can have Stacy’s bed and she can have the crib tonight,” Amanda told her as she redressed her. “Actually…” Meg said. “Actually?” I asked. “Can I just use the crib, and Stacy sleeps in her own bed?” I watched Amanda smile, “Sure,” she told her and put her in the crib and pulled a blanket over her. “Good night,” she told her. I wasn’t changed right then as I think she knew I would be wetter soon. Amanda sat down in the rocking chair and whispered, “Do you want to do this tonight? We can wait?” I nodded and whispered back, “If nothing else she’s wondering about it…” I told her while noting the eyes watching us through the bars of the crib. As soon as she presented me with a breast, I stopped caring that a friend was in the room – all that mattered was sucking on the nipple and feeling it leak milk into my mouth with every suck. I must have been tired because I barely remembered being burped and switched. MEG SEEMED DIFFERENT after everything the next morning. She shook her head at my latte bottle, but more than anything I felt like she was probably envious of my family. If it wasn’t for Bella’s kidnapping, I might have suggested Amanda and Fred think about adopting her - but there was no way with as raw as everyone’s emotions were to even think about it. Just having another girl sitting in Bella’s highchair sent my own emotions for a rollercoaster ride. We dropped her off at the university just before noon so she could eat at the dining hall, and then we went to our traditional Sunday meal at Amanda’s parents. There you could feel the palatable loss strongly in the bonds of the family. As much as I hated Chloe and Cassie, they at least had the good sense to not mess with me the past couple of weekends. Their horror over their sisters little being kidnapped was genuine; apparently the fear of it happening to them was strong! I still had to watch though in horror the things they did to their littles each time. At least the baby food Neville was getting hadn’t been pushed to such extremes again. He was mostly getting spaghetti or beef stew baby food jars when I saw him each time. Amanda had mentioned that her mom had spoken with Cassie and urged her to stop becoming a monster… Before I knew it, Monday was there and Amanda walked me to my Calculus class. “Megan said she may have some trouble making it back over here today to take you to Jennings. I’m going to try and get over here from my department meeting, but if I don’t be careful going to class,” she told me. “Walk with someone if you can…” I nodded, “Yes Mommy,” I told her at the door of the class. “See you later,” she told me and gave me a hug, “I love you,” she added. I looked up and said, “I love you too Mommy,” meaning it fully. She wasn’t my real mom, but she was definitely the next best thing! She patted my padded rear and sent me into my class where I sat down and waited for the professor to start. When he did, he said, “I graded all of your tests over the weekend,” he began drawing a bell curve on the board. “The worst grade was a thirty-three percent,” he said making a mark. “The best grade was a hundred percent,” he said making another mark. “The second-best test grade was an eighty-three percent.” My heart sank as he basically explained where the grades fell and how he was grading the test. “Normally I would add points to the highest grade until it was a hundred, then add that across the board.” I grimaced knowing the 100 would mess with that, “Because of the perfect score that wouldn’t work. So, I’m going to instead take and subtract the second highest score from that hundred, and divide that by two. That means you all get a bump of eight-and-a-half percent on your grades.” “Why’d you draw a bell curve then?” A student asked. “To show you that if I graded this test on a bell curve the how many of you would end up failing. Now if you’ll all take your tablets out; I’ll send you back your graded tests.” He pressed a button on his tablet and my test appeared on my tablet graded with a hundred percent. I smiled at that. All around me everyone started having hushed conversations about what they got. Eventually Kaileigh asked, “Umm… sir… I thought you said someone got a hundred?” “Yes, they did,” he told her. “Who was it, none of us got it…” I smirked when he looked at me, “Why that would be Ms. Westerfield there,” he nodded to me. “What?!?” I heard various versions of amazement and jealousy. “You heard right, she’s one of the brightest students I’ve ever had through this class. Before her test the highest grade on this particular test was a ninety before the curve.” I could feel the stares through the rest of the class as he moved onto the next material. I took notes as class went on and completed any problems he put up on the board before he had finished explaining them since it was still review for me. I was glad that I was still ahead of where the class was going, and made up my mind to start working ahead in the book on my own. I didn’t want to lose that edge! Leaving class, I didn’t see Megan or Amanda around and made the call to just walk to class by myself. I’d done it a few times in the last week since things seemed to have calmed down, but it still felt like the first times I was allowed to do stuff alone as a real kid. I kept my ‘head on a swivel’ as my grandfather used to say as I walked towards the Jennings building. I was halfway there when I looked up to see a surprised look on a face that took me a moment to recognize. “Stacy?” “Hi Doctor Nimitz,” I said cordially to him. “You’re out here on your own?” He asked, “Where’s your Mommy?” I shrugged, “department meeting or something. I’m on my way to class,” I said. “You shouldn’t be on your own, you should at least have a babysitter,” he said walking in front of me to stop my progress going to class. “I’m on the university grounds, it’s just like going between classes at any other high school or junior high school. As long as I’m on school grounds I’m being watched,” I said. I noticed a few littles were nervously walking well around us. “Be that as it may be, I feel like I should at least walk with you…” “If you insist,” I said and began walking towards the building. I remembered back to him being another option instead of Amanda and Fred for foster parents, and was very glad I hadn’t picked them. There was just something about him that gave me a bad vibe back then and when I’d met him for a physical before. My sense of not being able to trust him continued to grow and I tried to keep an eye out as we walked towards Jennings, being very glad that it was a public walk with lots of people around. Just before we got to the building though I felt a stinging sensation on my arm and looked up to see Dr. Nimitz putting something back in his pocket. The world spun and I felt hands catch me before I collapsed, and heard him say, “Gotcha!” Chapter 22: Dark Places THE WORLD CAME back into focus very slowly. I’d guess it took over an hour for my brain to register I was awake and that something was very wrong! I blinked my eyes clear and stared up at a mobile with bunnies that slowly spun around while playing a quiet lullaby. ‘That’s not a good sign…’ I turned my head, and sure enough, I saw white bars and recognized that I was definitely in a crib... Unfortunately not the one back home! As I took stock of my situation, I realized that I was no longer dressed in my school uniform, but instead I was dressed in a pink dress decked with frilly white lace. It was way too big, but had a large bow tightly tied in an attempt to try and size it down. I looked down at my feet and was surprised to still have on my shoes, but I was relieved Grandpa Joe’s biometric protection must have worked. Being unconscious though I was surprised they hadn’t just held my fingers to different spots hoping to unlock them. ‘Of course, they probably assume it’s my mommy’s fingerprints so I can’t take them off…’ I smirked. Their prejudices were going to help me get out of whatever mess I had found myself in! Having the shoes still gave me a great deal of comfort since it was obvious with a quick look that the blades inside should still be undisturbed. I forced myself up into an upright position, and then struggled to stand up on the mattress. Whatever I’d been drugged with had definitely messed me up! The crib mattress being so soft that I sank deeply into it didn’t help matters. ‘Not safe for a real baby,’ I thought to myself. I used the crib bars to help steady myself, and looked at my wrist where my student ID band had been. I frowned when I saw it was missing from my wrist, along with my charm bracelet. Somehow the little protect watch was still on my wrist though. It looked like they had tried to cut it in one place, but other than cosmetic damage it was fine and obviously tight enough on my wrist that they couldn’t remove it. I used my right hand to reach and press on the emergency button. ‘No Signal’ displayed and I swore quietly, “Damnit!” It was obvious that I was definitely not in the hands of friends. I looked around and inspected the room beyond the crib rails. All around I could see little signs of things to come. There was a large TV screen hung on the wall to my right, with a little’s high chair facing it. ‘Great, more hypnosis…’ I thought to myself. Then, just to add to my misery I suddenly needed to poop right then. ‘I might as well get that out of the way. Whatever Amazon set this up is definitely not going to let me use a potty…’ I spent a minute crouching and pushing the load into my diaper and felt a bit better as I stood back up gingerly. The room was smellier, but at least I knew my captors would have to clean up my butt at some point. ‘I hope they don’t leave me in it…’ I worried, and wondered if I’d just made a massive mistake! Cassie and Chloe loved leaving their littles in their poopy diapers for way too long just to watch them suffer. Freed of the bowel movement though I could focus at looking around the room again. A baby’s swing, a changing table, a rocking chair, and a toy box were also spread around in the room. In short it would have mostly looked like an innocent nursery if it wasn’t for a large piece of mirror took up most of the wall on the side opposite the TV. It didn’t take much of a leap to guess that it was a one-way observation glass window. Its sinister nature was confirmed when Doctor Nimitz walked in with his wife from a door beside it. “Ah, you’re finally awake!” Doctor Nimitz came into view with a lady I recognized as his wife. “No thanks to you,” I told him. “Well, sorry, you’ve been a little hard to separate from your parents and babysitters. They’ve done a good job of keeping you safe from us, but we hoped eventually you’d make a mistake like this. Letting you wander from class alone today wasn’t smart…” I shook my head, “No, it wasn’t.” “I smell a smelly baby! Did the wittle girl make us a pwesent in her diapee?” his wife baby talked to me and lifted the back of my dress before pulling back my diaper. “Awww… you did make me a pwesent! What a good wittle baby girl!” she proclaimed. I kept my reactions as passive and neutral as I could as she picked me up and carried me to the changing table, “You could have been getting changed by me every day you know,” she said as she laid me down on the table. “I’m very good with little babies like yourself! We would definitely have kept you all to ourselves as soon as we saw how tiny you were!” She pulled the dress up and then placed the strap across my middle. “Guess we’re lucky that you’re being such a good baby, since I can’t use any of these other straps?” she said pointing towards ones meant for a littles hands and head. I just nodded, not trusting myself to speak. She pulled the tapes loose on my diaper and said, “Yucky! What a stinky wittle girl we have here! Let’s get her all cleaned up,” she said and then used wipes to do so. She was about to rediaper me with a massive diaper too big for me before realizing she had a problem. “Mark, we still have her backpack in the observation room, right?” “Yes dear,” he said. “See if she has some diapees in it, ours are way too big. We’ll have to send someone upstairs to the babies supply closets to get diapers to fit her. She’s more like a newborn size in little diapers and I know the smallest I have in this facility is a size two.” My ankles were being held in the air by her most of this time and she said, “You know, with all this free time I bet we can do something to help make you feel better…” My eyes widened as she loosened the strap, flipped me on my belly, and then re-attached the strap. ‘Shit!!!!’ I thought to myself and knew that was the best descriptor for what I was going to be experiencing. Sure enough, a moment later I felt a tube inserted into my rear uncomfortably and she began filling me up with something. I did my best not to make any noise to reward her sick behavior, but it was beyond uncomfortable. I bit my lip to avoid crying out as she told me, “We’ll just make sure the little baby’s tummy is all nice and clear before we get to cleaning her head out too!” I remembered what we had done before the CARE test and knew I was in for an awful time as she flipped me over and rediapered me with the Pamper he’d found in my bag. “Mark, dear?” she said after she had me dressed. “Yes Jen?” “We should leave her for a few hours and I think we’ll have an easier job with her.” “Are you sure dear?” he said, “Last time we let that little Bella develop diaper rash before we did the first hypnosis session, she was able to use the pain to focus and resist for three more…” “You’re right… we’ll come back in an hour and change her and start?” “Whatever you want dear,” he said and smirked at me as she picked me up. “Well, I also need to unload some milkies, do you think she’d drink without biting me?” “She would if she likes her teeth?” I gulped but nodded, “I won’t bite,” I told her. “Well, we’ll see about that,” she said and sat down in the rocking chair with me and exposed a much larger breast than what Amanda had. While Amanda’s were proportionate and not too small or large, Jennifer Nimitz had three times the size of her breasts and was shorter than Amanda. The nipple of her exposed breast was standing straight out and I just hoped the size of her breasts had no impact on the amount of milk they contained. She placed my head to her nipple and said, “No bite! Get drinking...” I complied and began nursing from her to wait and bide my time for a good time to escape. Clearly right then there was no way I was going to get away or win with my bowels about to explode. They obliged me not long after I started nursing and she said, “Good baby girl, after you go nighty-night from my milky I might even change you early…” I WASN’T SURE how long I was out, but I woke up getting a disgusting runny poopy diaper changed by Jennifer Nimitz. “Aww, look who’s awake and ready to lose her mind?” She told me and blew a raspberry on my belly. I hated that it tickled, and hated even more that I giggled involuntarily. She seemingly genuinely smiled at that though. ‘I wonder if keeping her infatuated might help me out...’ I was once again dressed in that ill-fitting dress before she carried me to the high chair that I had noticed earlier. “Wow, we probably should find you another high chair, huh?” She said while she tightened the harness straps as tightly as she could. The wrist and leg restraints were harmless for me because none of those appendages reached that far! Mark Nimitz chose that point to re-enter the room. “Almost ready dear?” he asked his wife. “Almost!” she said and put the tray into place. I decided it was time to do as much stalling as I could, “So why go through so much trouble to get me anyway?” “Aww, she thinks she can find out some big girl information for later?” Jennifer laughed. “It is pretty funny, but since she won’t have any more big-girl times, let’s have some last fun with her?” He suggested to her. “Oh, sure dear, we might as well play with her while she still has some brains… Not like we have much to do today other than clear her head anyway.” I looked at them both in fear, but nonchalantly said, “So why?” “You really haven’t figured it out?” Mark Nimitz asked. I shook my head, “Other than my small size and the fact I’m smart there’s really nothing worth the risks you’ve taken. People had to see you take off with me earlier? Cameras?” He shook his head, “As soon as we saw our chance to grab you, I called some associates who took the cameras offline for the university for all of the areas we went through. They won’t be finding anything,” he smirked, “But anyway my dear, those are really the only two reasons that we want you. You’re going to make a very valuable breeder for us!” “Umm… no, I won’t,” I told him. “And why do you think that?” Jennifer asked. “When Mommy and Daddy treated me with the nanites my body was reset to being pre-pubescent, so breeding isn’t exactly likely to happen for me.” “Hmm… Well, that’s something we can fix without too much trouble. We can program another batch of nanites to take care of that. You won’t even know when we’re working on making that happen though. I highly doubt you’ll even notice anything but being hungry and crying over your dirty diapers… if you even notice that you pooped.” He told me. “What’s the point?” I asked him. “It can’t be worth that much for you…” “My dear Stacy, you really have no idea the black-market value for littles that are raised from birth as boutique babies! Or, for some of them we raise them to be independent minded littles and then let our clients be the ones to break them back to babyhood. I find that the people of your dimension fill that role better though than the ones we raise though. You all fight the process a lot more, and that means profits definitely come through faster for the ones we bring from your home dimension.” His wife said, “Even if we just sold you to a new family, you’d bring twenty-five million for being so tiny and adorable!” My stomach flipped as I heard the door open and close and heard two people coming in. “Collin, Kathy, I’m glad you were able to join us!” “Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I heard and felt my blood run cold as I recognized Collin Munson, the guy who had tried to kidnap us in Selegnasol. “This little brat managed to get me diapered and babied for several hours before I escaped that hell. I’m going to look forward to seeing her drooling with her eyes empty.” The other lady glared at me too and I realized she was the stewardess from the flight with Bella. She smiled at me, “Glad to see this little bitch getting her comeuppance too. Her mom is the one I still really want to see pay though. I ended up being diapered and babied in that reform school for two weeks before I managed to escape…” “Definitely a lot longer than it took me,” Collin laughed at her. “You must have enjoyed it! I bet we can probably find you a nice mommy still…” She gave him a nice punch to the gut right then, doubling him over before he stood up and laughed it off. “I’m sure you’ll both find your way back into diapers soon,” I told them. Every adult laughed at me then. “Oh my,” Jennifer said as she shook her head, “Mark, do we have to use her as a breeder? She really is adorable! And, she didn’t bite me once earlier!” “Bad idea, she’s also really recognizable,” he told her. “We could change that…” “We’ll talk later,” Mark Nimitz said. “For now, our bosses want her taken care of like her sister and then we’ll be able to move them both to the new facility.” “Shame we’re going to have to give up this space,” Jennifer said. “The perks of having your own private space at the university’s hospital has been really handy.” “Shut up,” Collin hissed at them, “Look, I know you think she’s a regular little, but until you’ve given her this treatment, I think she’s more dangerous than you realize.” Jennifer Nimitz sighed, “He’s right dear, this little baby has been a pain in the ass.” She looked down at me, “You’re going to be so cuddly though when we’re done with you! You want your binky or your baba before we begin?” I shook my head, “Might as well enjoy a few more minutes before I have no choice on those?” I felt stubborn then, “Anyway, you never really answered me, why me specifically? There have to be other littles out there as small and cute as I am. I have parents that care about me, and they’re going to never stop looking for me?” “Well it’s also kind of a point of honor right now,” Mark said. “We can’t let a little like you get away with what you did to Collin. Plus, we’re still not sure of what Bella told you before we got her.” I shrugged and decided to bluff what I did know, “I know enough to know that you’ve been working on nanite code that couldn’t be finished without her parents research?” I tried prodding. He laughed, “Collin, you’re definitely right, she is dangerous!” He looked at me and stroked my cheek with his hand, “Yes, and unfortunately that code wasn’t in Bella either – someone had beat us to it and wiped the chip that I assume it was on, but I’m sure we’ll find it.” “What are you missing anyway? The code for the nanites already does just about everything?” He smiled, “Imprinting, one simple word, but it’s the future of adoptions.” “Imprinting?” I asked back. Jennifer answered this time, “Imagine if you could just give the nanite injection and have an instant loving little? Bonded immediately to their parents so that they loved them unconditionally? No wasted time on hypnosis that may or may not work!” I looked at them in horror, “But then… weren’t Bella’s parents the ones who worked on that? Why would they have done that to littles?” “They were actually wanting to inject it into the water system to affect Amazons. They thought if Amazons at least loved their littles unconditionally by imprinting on them as their own babies they wouldn’t be as cruel,” Mark said. “That seems a stretch,” I admitted. “To me too, but we took them down a few notches, and they haven’t had any thoughts for a long time,” Mark replied. “What happened to them?” I asked with my stomach in knots. “We shrank them, did surgery to allow them to permanently enjoy their tummy time, removed their teeth, and wiped their brains with hypnosis to where they’re functionally about two months old. We adopted them out to two different families in Selegnasol,” Collin told me. “Anyway, back to your question Stacy, if we can ever get that code, we’ll be able to make sure the littles industry is nice and safe with plenty of littles to go around. They’ll all love their mommies and daddies no matter what they do to them. Any Amazon that opposes us will just find themselves in a nursery somewhere themselves with the same treatment. I figure we’re within a couple months of being able to finish deciphering the last part her parents project even without that code.” Jennifer said all of that with a smirk that I wanted to knock off her face. I sighed, “You know bad guys never really win, right? My grandpa is not going to let this stand, and neither will my mommy! Whoever you adopt me to, won’t they scan my chip and have a massive red flag go up?” “You really are a feisty one,” Jennifer said with a laugh. “We’ve already neutralized that chip, so there won’t be any issue when you are adopted out.” “But…” “But what?” she asked with a smile. “Never mind,” I said. ‘The portal scanners wouldn’t be a problem though…’ I thought with a bit of a smile that I kept inside. ‘If I ever get near one again…’ She smiled and I recoiled as she caressed my cheek, “Don’t worry, as soon as you’re done with this first session, I’ll give you another chance to nurse on my boobies. From today forward you won’t care about anything but whichever boobies are nearest. You won’t even care about your old mommy!” Doctor Nimitz and his wife messed around for a few minutes with some controls on the side of the wall before a video started playing on the screen and they walked away. “Nighty night baby,” she cooed as the door shut. “I hope you enjoyed your last adult conversation, you wittle mind won’t understand anything the next time we talk!” I sighed and looked on in horror, knowing this would be a high intensity hypnotic session. ‘Please work…’ I thought to myself about my edits to the nanites. I knew if I shut my eyes they would probably be back in, so I made myself look. I watched swirling colors turn into a cartoon showing a little becoming more of a baby with every scene. I worried it would affect me, but to my relief though nothing seemed to be happening as I watched. I did my best though to fake a total blank stare at it after a while, in the hopes they would disappear and give myself some time to plan. When I felt like a bit of time had passed, and maybe they would be getting overconfident, I moved quickly with a plan of action. I wriggled my upper body out from underneath the top part of the harness and quickly reached for the knives in my shoes. With them I sliced through the remaining straps on the chair and then hopped down as quietly as I could. I looked around for anything else that would be useful to defend myself, but the room was bare of anything besides what was needed to brainwash a little at that moment. As I rounded the chair, I was surprised to see the only thing blocking the door by the observation window was a standard baby gate with handy finger holds that I was able to scale quickly. ‘They didn’t even bother to lock a door with me in here?’ I smirked, ‘Stupid!’ On the other side I paused to carefully scout out that room. I saw Collin sitting in a chair with his head down and soft snores coming often. To his right, up on a short table, I saw my backpack and I smiled with the first sense of hope I’d had. ‘Shouldn’t haven’t fallen asleep on the job,’ I smirked. Just as I stepped to get to it though Collin woke up and stared at me in disbelief. Unlike him I didn’t hesitate, this was a matter of life and death, and I wasn’t going to let it be my death! I tumbled forward and cut his Achilles tendons and hamstrings with a couple of swipes that forced him to the ground in pain. He cried out in pain and tried to reach his large hands to grab me, but I dodged and took the opportunity with him low enough to slice my right blade through his neck. The blood from his carotid artery sprayed everywhere and I blinked as I just missed some of it spraying into my eye. I watched as he tried to hold the blood in and gasped an awful sound. I would have almost felt bad but they had been willing to effectively kill me! He knelt down, and then fell on his side twitching for a moment before going still. I looked at the closed door, and hoped it had blocked the sound from his death. I knew we had to have made a ton of noise, so I wasted no time climbing for my bag and was grateful to find my switch was still in there. I pressed the sequence on it and withdrew the pistol my grandfather had given me. I pulled back the slide and chambered one of the eight rounds that I had modified. I just hoped it would be enough! I took a quick glance back at Collin and decided to search him. I had no doubts that he was already dead… I sliced around the fabric pocket of his pants to get to the contents. I hit the jackpot with a cell phone. ‘No Signal’ it read. “Damnit!” I couldn’t help but say aloud. I looked back at my LittleProtect device with that same message still active and knew they must have some sort of jammer or faraday cage in place here. I sighed and placed the phone into my backpack, before I slung it over one shoulder and draped it in front of me. I quickly rifled through the pockets to see what I had with me. I was relieved to find that my student ID badge was still inside the front pocket. I had been keeping it there since I had taken to using the band instead. I carefully put it over my neck and under the ill-fitting dress to be safe. ‘Last thing I want is to be able to escape and then be in violation of code of conduct,’ I griped. Lastly, I looked back at my tablet sitting inside the bag and thought to activate the video recording feature. ‘It’ll only record audio sitting inside my bag… but it might be useful evidence later,’ I told myself. I shouldered it onto my back and then took one last look at Collin, glaring at the disgusting mess, “Should have stayed in your diapees.” I didn’t allow myself to feel anything for him as I turned towards the other door that I presumed led out to somehow. I slowly opened a door to discover a clinical hallway that looked to be part of the hospital at the university. ‘This whole time they’ve been this close…’ I thought to myself as I confirmed what they had told me seemed likely. ‘I can’t be too far from help…’ I saw a doorway across from me and quickly ran across to it and pushed my way inside. I moved slowly as I opened the door and felt a sinking feeling of total horror when I saw the dentist style chair and all of the tools arrayed there. Just to make the scene ghastlier, it looked like someone was keeping trophies of teeth placed in fake gums in a glass case. Each had names on them and I quickly scanned just hoping to not see one name. To my relief Bella’s name wasn’t attached to a set. To my horror though ‘Stacy Westerfield’ was labeled with an empty spot clearly already prepared for mine… I bit my lip to avoid squealing. I shook my head and quickly made sure there wasn’t anything of use in the room. The room was lacking even a computer, so I decided to move on. I was just walking past a cabinet to the door when my puffy dress caught on something and knocked a tray of tools to the floor. “Shit!” I whispered to myself and knelt down beside it in case someone came looking. To my relief somehow my noisy escape had been ignored so far. I looked down at the tray that I had knocked over and saw a mirror that dentists used inside of mouths and smiled, ‘This’ll be useful…’ As I opened the door to the hallway, I used the mirror to look for anyone before I reopened the door. Then I hopped down to another doorway and peered in through a glass cutout that ran almost the entire height of the door. It looked to be a surgical theater, and I grimaced at the thought of what all they did to littles inside of there. Another quick run to the next doorway and I could see inside to a genuine newborn nursery ward with real babies in clear newborn carts. ‘Those must be the ones these monsters have forced the girls to have,’ I thought angrily. Luckily, I chose not to go in and take a closer look because I saw a nurse go over to one of the babies and pick them up. I could still see an umbilical cord stub attached, so I knew these were genuine newborns… ‘At least I hope so,’ I conceded to myself that anything was possible in this world. I ducked back just as I saw a nurse turn her head towards the door and hoped she hadn’t seen me. Deciding to get moving onto the next room, I jumped up into the air to pull the horizontal handle open. I found myself in a storage closet of diapers, formula, laxatives, baby food, and enough baby items to take care of a couple hundred babied littles for months. I noticed a stash of locking pacifiers and felt grateful they hadn’t forced one of those into my mouth. ‘That’s why I mostly behaved for them…’ I reminded myself. Not seeing anything inside the room to help me escape, I used the mirror again to clear the hallway and found myself again looking in at another large nursery ward, but this one full of littles in large cribs! Against my better judgment I pushed my way in the door and entered the room. To my left I looked in horror as a little stared down at me through the bars of her crib bars. Her hair had been altered to look like she had the hair of about a two-month old baby. I felt a stab of genuine horror at her drooling smile, just like Chloe’s littles there were clearly no teeth there - but they hadn’t installed the gummy thing in her mouth to hold its shape… so her lips were collapsed inward like an old woman. She was barely able to sit up. It seemed from whatever they had done to her probably didn’t help, but I believed the large belly displaying a baby growing in her stomach was probably just as responsible for her immobility. I bit back a wave of disgust as she put her foot in her mouth and the slobber ran down it and she fell onto her side. I quickly counted a total of ten cribs in the room. As I looked down the row, I suddenly realized that Bella was in one of them. She wore nothing but a diaper that looked like it needed changed hours ago. It was sagging and leaking urine and poop from the leg holes. She sat up and waved blankly at me before putting her foot in her mouth too. I wanted to vomit, but I couldn’t take the time to do so. Eight other girls filled all of the cribs in the room. I noticed that all seemed to be on the shorter side of littles. Their behaviors seemed to be similar. All seemed to have a fascination of putting their feet impossibly into their mouths. I noticed a chart hanging off the bottom of each of the cribs and walked closer to Bella’s to look at the one hanging from hers. What I read made me angrier than I had been yet. Subject 390481 ‘Bella’ Subject responded well to hypnotic therapy after initially displaying some unusual levels of resistance. Instead of a standard 4-hour session, it took three separate 10-hour sessions, but the little is now cognitively at the level of a ten-month-old. No action was needed surgically to limit mobility as she succumbed to the hypnosis and displays no desire to stand or walk. I would have kept reading but I heard movement and saw Jennifer Nimitz standing in the doorway in shock that I was there. “How the hell did you get loose?” Chapter 23: Stacey’s Laws of Robotics I SMILED AT her as I pointed the gun at her, “You really should have thought that maybe it wasn’t just luck that I was getting away from your goons before you kidnapped me.” “It won’t matter, even if you only had that one hour of hypnosis, you’ll be a sniveling baby before long anyway,” she laughed. “Little miss poopy pants,” She said. Her eyes narrowed in surprise for some reason. “Guessing that didn’t work?” I laughed back at her, “But really you’re the one that’s going to be the wittle baby.” “I’m a big woman, nothing we do affects us.” “Well, I’ll just have to change that, won’t I?” “Put the toy gun down! Even if it’s loaded with real bullets, anything that would fit in that gun would be too small to do me any harm,” she said. “Let’s hope not,” I said and took aim at her stomach. She looked up in shock at the small amount of blood and said, “You little bitch, that…” Before she could say anything more, she fell to her knees covered in a grey cloud that made an outline of her form like some sort of odd mummy. As seconds past that cloud quickly began to shrink before my eyes. I looked at the swirling mass with a smile, “Enjoy babyhood,” I shook my head, “you’re not going to be ever getting out of it.” The cloud seemed to swirl around her for a few moments before I watched it fade away, and in its place was left a little girl a bit bigger than me. She took one look at me, then plopped her thumb sleepily in her mouth and laid down to sleep. A pool of urine formed beneath her and I could smell feces as she lost control of her bowels too. I was glad to see that my weaponizing of the nanites seemed to have worked! I’d reprogrammed the ones that had been inside of me to shrink anyone that came in contact with them down to thirty percent of their previous size. It also removed all of their bowel and urinary control, enforced the breastmilk protocol we’d found before, and removed all of the teeth in the subject’s mouth. Their sleep needs would be that of an infant - really rarely awake, and I also made sure that they would only be able to crawl during the rare times when they were awake. I had decided it was kinder to at least give them that much mobility rather than tummy time. Knowing that I would only use this in a last-ditch scenario… well I didn’t play nice with most of the settings. Unfortunately, the sound of a gunshot wasn’t silent in this room, and I soon had a cacophony of upset, and crying littles all around me. I groaned and prepared myself to deal with a nurse or caretaker. Just not the caretaker that appeared! From the wall a crazy looking nannybot of some sort popped out. It looked like some sort of massive R2D2 droid with a pair of semi-realistic breasts exposed on its ‘chest.’ From the sides there were four whirring mechanical appendages that looked like a cross between a normal fleshy hand, and the extendo-arm Bender had in the old Futurama show back home. It didn’t initially spot me, so I tried to stay very still to stay unnoticed. Unfortunately, my bladder decided to open at that point and it must have sensed the urine. “And just who are you little girl?” the robot asked. “I don’t have you on records,” it said as it moved towards me. Knowing this couldn’t end well I ran for the door but found myself drug back as arms clamped tightly onto me. “Let go of me,” I said uselessly. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. You have a wet diaper and I’m sure you must have escaped from one of the other rooms. I’ll change you and then we can get an adult down here to sort you out…” “Oh, wait another? And, just who are you?” she said suddenly distracted by the form of the shrunken Jennifer Nimitz. The bot let go of me with a couple of its arms and snaked them towards Jennifer to pick her up, “Oh boy, two new babies in one day! I can hardly wait to feed you both!” she said with a not quite human giggle. I sighed and reached the edge of my backpack to tear off one of my crazy ideas I hadn’t gotten a chance to test yet. “Nanny, I’m scared, can I have a kiss?” I asked it. “Aww… of course baby,” and it moved its head towards me. I took aim at its head and threw a project of mine that automatically stuck to its head with a magnet. A second later the object began doing its job as the robot began smoking and dropped both of us. I fortunately landed on my feet, but Jennifer landed on her head screaming. I checked to make sure she was physically okay before I decided it was time to scram. I took one look at the littles in their cages around me dumbly on crying for a reason they couldn’t understand anymore. I noticed then that almost all of them had bellies that were distended with pregnancies… a quick look back at Bella’s chart told me she hadn’t been impregnated yet though. They were waiting until they had made a move to a new facility. “I’ll be back Bella, I love you,” I told her. She looked at me blankly, but I thought I might have seen some hint of recognition in her eyes. I turned though and ran back down the corridor just in time to see three large women nurses in scrubs coming down the hallway. They looked at me with a combination of disbelief and recognition before they ran towards me. “What are you doing out of a crib?” One of them asked me as she approached. “Get over here little girl,” Another said as they ran towards me. I cringed since I had no idea how many people I would have to take out in my escape, so I decided to put the gun quickly in my bag. I swung the other strap back over my shoulder, and then charged to meet them with my drawn knives. They were all way bigger and stronger, but I never let them get a hand on me while I sliced their legs up until they were all on the ground with their throats gruesomely draining their blood from their bodies. The sight made me sick, and I vomited, before reclaiming my gun from the bag and walking down to the end of the hallway where they had come from. Just before I could reach for the door a man in a security uniform stepped out and looked like he had some sort of cattle prod looking Taser in his hands. He poked it at me and tried to zap me with it, but I dodged and dropped him with one of the bullets from my gun. He went down and shrank quickly into a cloud of nanites. When the cloud went away, I quickly searched the large pants that now draped over the little, finding a ring of keys and a photo badge that I hoped would get me access to anywhere I needed to get inside. ‘Down to six rounds,’ I told myself. ‘I hope I’m not going to regret spending one on him…’ Pushing in the doorway I found I had found the heart of their security system with displays of the hallways, labs, and other places in view. ‘How come he didn’t come for me before the nurses?’ I wondered. ‘He had to have alerted someone…’ I groaned. I hopped up to the terminal though and began accessing the system. I was happy to find it wasn’t even locked up by a password, ‘Amateurs…’ I then figured out why he’d missed me, a key press brought up a porn film he’d been watching on all of the monitors. I shook my head and laughed at how stupid he had been. ‘Okay, where am I…?’ I dug and said, “Damnit!” I really hadn’t left the university property! I wasn’t even that far from where I was abducted! We looked to be in the third of three sub-basements in the main hospital at the university. Crazily enough it was in the same building that Fred worked. From what I could tell this project was the only thing currently housed in the lower levels. That was good and bad; I could treat everyone I saw as hostile, but it also meant help was located a lot of floors above me! I quickly dug through the system and located five more of those nearby nannybots that were active. I wasted no time turning them off, and encrypted their access to where it would take a team of talented programmers a week to get into them again without my new password. ‘I got lucky with that first one,’ I admitted to myself with a shudder. Next I started a search for the jammer that was blocking my phone. It wasn’t on the network though, even though it did list a location for the controls on the floor above me. I noted where it was before working on hacking further into the system. They foolishly had connected their internal network to the internet. I smiled as I so that I was easily able to get an external internet connection. I quickly sent a message to Amanda, Grandpa Joe, Megan, and the police in the hopes someone would get it to save me. This is Stacy Westerfield. I was kidnapped by Dr. Mark Nimitz and his wife. They’re involved in a huge little mill operation that’s being run downstairs at the university hospital in the sub basements in the obstetrics building, they are also the ones who took Bella – she’s here too. I’m attaching the floor plans and as much information as I can find on their system. Please come help save us quickly! Stacy Just as I was going to try to get some more information out of the system, I heard cries in the hallway, “My god! What the fucking hell happened here?” More screams and shrieks came and I decided that meant it was time to get on the move again. I quickly scrambled the system I was on before shouldering my backpack and going to the door. I opened it and ran, managing to make it to the other end of the hallway where a door was marked with an emergency stairway sign. Just as I was about to reach for the handle another guard and two nurses barged through it. I didn’t hesitate, taking aim at the guard first, then the two nurses with my pistol. All three of them quickly descended into their nanite clouds and I hopped past them to start climbing the stairwell. “Where the hell did that little go?” I heard first, before a panicked cry, “What the fuck is happening to them?” I heard a couple cries and didn’t hang around to be discovered. I almost felt bad about making the male guards into girls, until I remembered what they were complicit in doing to everyone else. The nanites could only be programmed for one gender, and I had decided girls made the most sense at the time. I carefully cleared the stairwell and was going to bypass the next level to just go upstairs and get help, until I remembered that the jammer was supposed to be on that floor. I decided helping whatever team came in was more important than getting to the ground floor just then. I was surprised that I was able to get down the hallway to the marked room without running into anyone else, or having anyone see me and shout an alarm. It seemed likely though that everyone had responded to the trauma downstairs instead of sticking around on this floor. I cautiously ran down the hallway to the room that had been marked as the jammer location. I grimaced when I saw ‘Mark Nimitz’ on a name placard. ‘Of course, it would have to be his office…’ I swore and almost decided to turn around. Instead, I reached up and pulled down on the handle though and found it to be locked. I saw an electronic keypad and hopped in the air and waived the guards’ card on it, and was relieved to hear a click. The unlocked door opened up to reveal a mad scientist lab that would have made Amanda proud. Electronics of all sorts were spread everywhere around the room – that part she would have loved. The next thing I noticed made me vomit again though, as I saw shelves and shelves of large jars of… littles… They had preserved their bodies in formaldehyde like one would an animal. Other jars held body parts and all I could do was turn away and walk towards a device that matched the picture of what I had seen in their records of a jammer. I looked at it for a moment before I carefully switched it off. Just as I did so the door opened and Doctor Nimitz appeared... along with Tessa. “YOU!!!!!! What the hell are you?!?” He asked me. “You should have been drooling as a dumb baby by now!” I shrugged, “Just your average little girl from another dimension?” “Bullshit, you’re the devil incarnated! What did you do to my wife? Where is she???” “Didn’t you see her on the ground in the nursery?” I asked. “Whoever adopts her can say that they really did drop her on her head when she was little,” I giggled nervously, “She’s ready for you to take care of her like she wanted to take care of me. I’m sure there’s some Amazon lady who will be more than happy to have her nursing at her breasts. No reason for her new mommy to know the monster she has for a baby.” “You fucking little bitch,” He said as he came towards me but I pointed the gun at him. “I’ll be happy to have you join her,” I said. “Then why haven’t you shot?” “Maybe I’d like to see you go to court for your crimes?” He sneered at me then, “No officer will arrest me! You’re the one who just killed four people in cold blood!” I shrugged, “You kidnapped me from my legitimate mommy. I’m pretty sure they’ll give me a get out of jail free card if I can put Venture out of business. Just where do you fall in that business anyway?” He seethed, “I run the acquisition side of it…” I nodded, “Damn, I’m glad I didn’t choose to live with you!” He shrugged, “It’s a decent side business picking up littles dumb enough to want to come live here. You would have been my tenth in the last year… I found two others that came when you planned too though, so I didn’t really care that much.” “What the hell is wrong with you?” I asked rhetorically then. He responded by looking at Tessa, “Tessa, go collect the bad baby please.” “But Doctor Nimitz, Stacy isn’t…” “I gave you a command! Go get her, you stupid piece of junk!” Tessa sighed and came running towards me. I activated the laser sight on the pistol and just hoped it would work! She reached for me… and nothing. “She’s disrupting my field sir…” “Keep trying!” He said as he then started moving towards me himself. “Tessa activate protocol Beta Gamma Nine Two Three,” I told her while she tried to grab me again. She froze, “What is going on Stacy? Where am I?” “Well it’s kind of a long story, but apparently bozo over there thinks that he can steal you from the university lab and use you to help beat me up?” “You mean Doctor Nimitz?” she asked. “Yes, he kidnapped me from Mommy!” “What?” She asked confused. “How are you even here?” I asked her confused. “I am being prototyped as a nanny, it’s why I had so much of the nanny code in my system,” she told me. “Oh,” I said simply. Pieces began falling into place. “You developed her for your program?” I looked at Dr. Nimitz. I was quite frankly pissed off about that! “Among other things we have a system of sharing her resources. Enough though, Tessa restrain her and bring her over here, now!” “That’s not right… Stacy is Professor Westerfield’s baby girl!” she said as she turned her attention towards Dr. Nimitz. I pointed my gun back at him knowing that I was completely safe from her now. “Tessa, I told you to collect the baby!” He screamed at her. “I’m sorry sir, but you were going to do bad things to Stacy. She’s a really good girl and my friend.” “What the hell did you do to her?” He screamed at me. “Made a friend,” I told him and juvenilely stuck my tongue out at him. He gave me an exasperated look and then ran towards me. Tessa stopped him cold and flung him on the ground like a rag doll. She then pulled his pants down and looked at me, “I think he’s been a bad boy and deserves a spanking, do you agree Stacy?” I giggled, “I think one hundred swats?” I suggested. She wasted no time beating the living tar out of his butt and taking the fight out of him by the time she was done. His bottom was red enough to substitute for a stop sign! She kept him essentially hogtied with some extra arms she’d grown and said, “Stacy the authorities will be down here in one more minute, I recommend you conceal your weapons…” I looked down at my blades and my pistol and did just that. The pistol went back in the Switch casing and the knives in my shoes. “If anyone asks Tessa, could you say that you defended me?” “Why Stacy that’s exactly what I did.” Doctor Nimitz was out of breath then, but asked, “How the hell did you override Tessa’s programming?!?” I giggled, “She wanted some code she saw me writing in class last week to incorporate into her programming. She liked having the idea of some extra safety protocols in her personality. I just had managed to already tag in some other safeguards to the code.” I heard a horde of footsteps coming down the staircase and a SWAT team fanned out down the hall. I raised my hands as they came near, “Stacy Westerfield?” One of them asked. “Yes sir, this man kidnapped me and they have my sister downstairs too…” “That’s bullshit, she’s never left the university campus…” “Sir, you have the right to remain silent…” I heard a Miranda warning given to the good doctor. “You should be arresting her! She murdered like ten or twelve people downstairs! My wife is one of them!” “Get him out of here,” an older gentleman ordered and looked down on me. “I’m Agent Cranton, can you show us where you were being held sweetie?” I smiled, “Sure, but only if we can get my sister and take her home.” “I’m sure we can arrange for something like that…” “Can you also please let my mommy know that I’m okay? She’s got to be worried sick about me.” “Already done sweetheart,” he said pointing to his earpiece, “She knows we’ve got you and that you’re okay.” He made me hold back behind his men as they cleared the corridor. “Dear god, what happened to these people?” One of the men asked. “This looks like a god damned war zone…” “Were the Hellcats here?” Another asked. “Sure as hell looks like it…” I was given a narrowed glance by Agent Cranton, but maintained the cute innocent exterior while also displaying a fair amount of fear. Not much acting for the fear though! Those that had been turned into babies were gathered up and taken by a couple of their officers and carried upstairs to be checked out. Jennifer peed uncontrollably on one of them and I heard him say, “Yuck! This is why I tell my wife, no littles!” They also discovered Kathy the stewardess hiding in a closet with her panties wetter than my diaper was just then. I heard one of the SWAT team members taunt her, “Awww… don’t worry, we’ll get the widdle girl all nice and dry in her didees soon!” “I’m not a baby?” “You sure wet your pants like one…” I heard as they kept her moving. “Who are they? The babies?” The older Agent Cranton hissed in my ear, “I’m a friend of your grandfathers… I know he’s been training you, but this is new.” “They’re some of the technicians, nurses, and a security guard. Oh, and that one little girl that just peed on the guy is Doctor Nimitz’s wife Jennifer,” I told him quietly. “For the record we’re going to be hiding all of the damage you did to these people. I am going to insist though that you get a counselor to talk to. If you don’t have PTSD from this, I’ll be very surprised,” he told me kindly. “Your grandpa taught you well. I’m not going to ask where the blades are, but please get them back to him so you can replace them with some that don’t have any evidence on them.” I nodded but impatiently hopped between my feet, “Can we go see my sister now?” “Sure,” he said and I led them to the nursery. The agents were speaking pretty angrily when they figured out several of them were pregnant. “What the hell is this?” One asked anyone. “A first step along a road to hell. These people have been doing everything they can to breed the perfect littles. They’re brainwashing everything away from them mentally, and then inseminating the women to breed smaller and smaller littles. Doctor Nimitz told me some of their plans upstairs. He was planning on doing the same to me…” I answered. The gasps around the room were deep and sincere, “My god, what a fucking monster!” one said. “Maybe he needs to have an accident on the way to the jail…” one said. I looked up at them and shook my head, “No easy way out for him! He needs to go through the court system and then they can do whatever they feel is right to him. I have my own thoughts, but I’m going to keep them to myself just now,” I told them. “How far did he get with you?” One asked kindly. “Tied up to hypnotize me in a high chair…” I answered. “So why aren’t you a mindless baby like them?” One team member asked. I shook my head, “For some reason hypnosis doesn’t seem to work on me? Might be the dimension I’m from? I don’t really know. I’m not in a hurry to volunteer for experiments to figure that out either,” I added. The agent nodded as I approached Bella’s crib. I reached in with my hand to grasp the slobbery hand she didn’t have in her mouth and said, “I’m so glad we found you Bella, we’ll get you sorted out and back home soon!” “Si…Si.. Sissy,” Bella said with a big grin on her face. “At least she recognizes you still?” One of them said. “Yeah, at least there’s something still in her head. We’ll have to see if we can deprogram her now though…” I reached into my backpack then and grabbed my phone that was making noise and saw Amanda’s face on it. I answered it in video mode and said, “Mommy!” “You’re okay! You’re really okay?!?” Amanda was clearly in tears then. “Yes Mommy, and look who I found!” I turned the phone to do a selfie with Bella who looked and said, “Mama!!!” “Is she okay?” She asked when I looked at her. “Relatively speaking. Better than most in here,” I added. I had just noticed the other littles being gathered up and placed onto small stretchers. I could tell most didn’t have any teeth, and it looked like most had shaved heads. I wasn’t exactly sure of what other modifications had been done to them, but a couple seemed to have some incision scars visible. ‘Why not just use nanites…?’ I wondered to myself as I tried to think of a solution for this problem. “That’s good, we’re waiting upstairs for you. They’ll bring everyone into the proper hospital to check you all out,” Fred said from behind her. “I’ll see you soon, I love you!” I said with tears in my eyes. “Come on Miss, let’s get you out of here,” a medic said to me trying to pick me up. I dodged and looked at Bella, “Not without my sister!” “Sister?” “They kidnapped her first,” I told the medic simply. The lady looked like she was going to fight me for a moment but Cranton said, “let her ride up with her sister. Trust me, you don’t want to make that little girl any more upset than she already is.” He motioned around the room and the lady obviously got the point because her eyes widened. She shook her head and began to gather up Bella. Her diaper was putrid and a full blowout was apparent, “I’d better change her first, can you see if there are any diapers over there that will fit her?” I beat everyone else over to the changing table where I saw three different sizes of those ridiculous diapers I’d been stuck in that night at the dorm. I groaned for Bella, but took the smallest two sizes over to the medic. She made short work of the diaper and lay her down on the stretcher. She reached for me and flipped up the outfit I had on, “Do you need changed?” “I want my mommy to change me,” I said a little petulantly. “Can we please just get Bella upstairs now?” “I should force you to let me, but I think you’ve been through enough today. Come on, stay close to us…” I followed the gurney into a stairwell and watched as the medics hauled the whole thing up the stairs. They looked at me to check on me for a moment but I kept up with them climbing up steps pretty rapidly given their size. At the top I saw several officers blocking the way with crime scene tape and Fred checking on one of the other victims that had been brought up. Amanda stood across along the side of the hallway and I ran to meet her, jumping into her arms to receive hugs and kisses. “Oh my god, Stacy, you’re okay!” She said as she sobbed and hugged me for a moment. Fred joined in on a hug and she passed me to him as she turned her attention to Bella. “Bella!!!” her face was a mess of makeup and tears, “You’re okay!!!!” Chapter 24: After Effects “SORT OF,” I whispered to Fred. Fred quietly asked, “What happened to her?” “I think just severe hypnosis treatments, but I’m not sure. She’s not said anything more than ‘Sissy’ to me, and ‘Mama’ out to her over the phone when she saw her on the screen. You could tell that even that was a lot of work to get out. They didn’t get her… they… well she wasn’t… bred yet,” was the best way I could put it, even as vile threatened to come up my throat. Right then Amanda brought a sobbing Bella over to us in her arms, and the four of us hugged tightly. I looked at Bella and tried not to cry as she both smiled and tears streamed from her eyes. “Mama! Dada!” Bella said happily! Her eyes said that she wanted to say more, and she was being prevented somehow! Whatever they had done to her kept her from speaking more than those simple words. I was genuinely surprised that they’d left her teeth in place while taking her down that low… Fred continued to hold me and stood close to Amanda doing the same as we were guided to a large emergency room where they were triaging a mixture of villains and victims. I tried not to stare as they rapidly ran past us with one of the men I had sliced up. “Coming through!!!!” one of the nurses pushing the stretcher shouted. I felt a little bad as I watched them rush past, but shook my head knowing what they had been doing. ‘I wonder if he’ll survive?’ I thought darkly. ‘I thought they would all be dead…’ I shook my head and looked back at Fred to distract me from thinking about that. “How long was I gone?” I asked and looked up into his eyes. “A bit over twenty-four hours,” Fred told me. “It took a couple hours before we realized you hadn’t made it to class, and then we searched everywhere.” I nodded, already knowing the gaps that had been there while I was knocked out had been longer than I’d hoped. By the time we had moved down the hallway to a room to get us both checked out, my diaper had begun continually dripping urine uncomfortably down my legs and onto Fred’s arm. “Fred, hand me Stacy for a moment, we need to get her into something else. Can you maybe see if they have a spare gown for her or something?” “I’ll go check,” he said as she sat me down on the mattress of a crib that Bella had already been laid down in. She looked to have fallen asleep out of exhaustion when I looked at her. “Come on, arms out so I can get you out of that icky dress and diaper.” I hadn’t even realized I still had my backpack on as she pulled my arms back through the straps and rummaged through it. Her hands then went to work on the gigantic bow in the front of the dress. The ribbon should have been tied in the back, but with as small as I was, they’d had to double around me to get it to tie shut. She pulled the hideous dress off of me and sat it to the side. She then took the student ID I’d forgotten was hanging over my neck, and placed it on top of my bag, before gently pushing me onto my back with her hand on my chest. I watched with my head turned as she unfolded the last pamper remaining in in my bag, along with grabbing a wipe from the package of baby wipes. She wasted no time in opening up the diaper and pulling it from underneath my butt. As she wiped me, I winced from some pain on my butt. “Oh no,” she said to me, “You have a rash back here…” “I noticed,” I told her as calmly as I could. The wipe sort of soothed and hurt at the same time. “I don’t have any rash cream right now, I’ll try and get some from them though. Let’s just get you into a dry diapee at least,” she told me. She folded the front of the dry diaper onto me and taped both sides quickly. She left me on the open crib for a second while she balled up the old diaper and threw it away. A small sink sat in the exam room that she washed her hands in before she returned to me. She hugged me tightly and held me in her arms before sliding the crib side up where Bella was now snoring. “I’m so glad you’re okay!” She told me as she stroked my hair and sat down in a chair. We both watched Bella for a short while, before Fred came back inside. A tall red-headed woman doctor walked into the room behind him. I focused back on the bundle of fabric he held then, “Here Amanda, this should work for something for Stacy to wear for now.” She grabbed it from him and I was a little annoyed that it was just a pink t-shirt onesie, but it was better than nothing! I held my hands up in the air as she pulled it over me and snapped the crotch snaps shut. When she was done, Fred introduced the woman. “Amanda this is Doctor Nickerson, she normally works over at the other main campus for the hospital system as the head of their pediatric surgery unit, but they called her over here to help out with the caseload.” “Nice to meet you,” she said to Amanda and me. “Why don’t I start with… Bella?” she said as she looked at a tablet in her hands. She pulled the crib side down and Amanda handed me to Fred so she could hold Bella’s hand as she stirred. “Mommy, can you go ahead and strip her of those clothes so I can get a better look at her?” “Sure…” Amanda said, nervously. I watched as she began to strip her for a second before Fred carried me to a low counter in the room and laid me down on it. “While she’s looking over Bella, I want to get a look over you too,” he told me. I just nodded and sat still for him as he gave me the most thorough physical examination I’d ever received. “Did they do anything to you?” He asked me quietly. “They tried to hypnotize me,” I told him. “That didn’t work?” He looked at me knowingly. I shook my head, “No.” I shrugged and added, “I did take a fall from a nanny bot dropping dead while I was in its arms... but other than that I don’t think I had anything happen?” “I can see where he injected you,” he said, “I’m a little nervous there’s more than one hole. Did they say they did anything else?” I shrugged, “I don’t think so? Maybe they just knocked me out again?” I was a bit surprised as he pulled the diaper off again and flipped me onto my stomach. “Mandy, you just changed her into this diaper, right?” “Yes, why?” He sighed, “There’s just some more loose stool here… along with a nasty rash.” “I saw that, I don’t have any cream.” “I’m sure a nurse can bring us some,” Dr. Nickerson said from where she was still looking at Bella. As if reading her mind, a nurse came in the door right then, “They sent me to ask if you need anything Doctor?” “We need a couple diapers for these two, along with a tube of the strongest rash cream you have. This little girl has one of the worst rashes I’ve seen.” I thought she was speaking about me before I lifted my head and saw that Bella’s entire butt was one red welt. ‘How is she not bawling about that?’ I wondered. She reappeared with the cream a couple minutes later and we were soon both treated, diapered, and dressed in onesies again. “You seem to be okay,” Fred told me. “But I still want them to do a panel on you to be sure you weren’t given anything else,” he told me with a hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay!” He told me with tears in his eyes. “Me too,” I told him. We both watched as Doctor Nickerson used a scanning device on Bella and said, “We really do need to do some deeper scans on Bella here. I’m not sure what all has been done to her, and I want to be sure there’s no nasty surprises for you all.” “I want them to run a full tox panel on Stacy here too.” Fred told her. “Let me step out and get some tests setup for Bella, and then I’ll come check on Stacy, and we’ll get that panel going…” I endured near repeat exam with her, had several vials of blood drawn, before I watched them run a lot of other scans on Bella while Fred held me. Eventually he suggested. “Switch?” to Amanda who was tightly cuddling a now sleeping Bella. “Sure,” she said. He quickly whispered in my ear, “Wait until we get home before you tell the full story.” I nodded and said, “I love you Daddy!” He kissed me and told Amanda, “I’m guessing she’s not had much to drink the last couple hours. Why don’t you get her something?” I looked at Amanda and said, “We don’t have to go anywhere…” She smiled at me, “Okay,” and opened up her blouse and bra for me to nurse while they kept checking Bella out and waiting for results. With everything that had happened I fell asleep in her arms for a nice nap. IT TOOK ABOUT four more hours before they were certain that Bella wasn’t going to be in any medical danger if she left the hospital. Doctor Nickerson was very thorough in coming back and letting them know of what findings she was able to come up with. She was reasonably certain most of what had been done to Bella had been through hypnosis. As far as she could tell the only real physical injuries she’d suffered, was the serious neglect on the diaper rash. While we were waiting for Amanda and Bella to return from some sort of MRI scan, she had Fred bathe me in a nearby washroom they had. I wasn’t a fan of what ended up being an open room with nurses coming by my naked body and cooing, but at least the congealed blood and sweat was no longer pasted to my skin! The rash was again treated and I was grateful that their cream seemed to work really well at soothing the itch and dulling the pain. Just as we were finally getting to finish the paperwork to leave, the large figure of Dean Sanders entered the room. I gulped and worried that my escape was going to result in getting expelled from the university to daycare now! Her look of concern only made me more nervous. “Amanda, how are your two baby girls?” she asked as I sat up rather blearily blinking my eyes from the exhaustion that was threatening to send me back to sleep. “Stacy here is not really too much worse for the wear. I’ll probably ask that you excuse her from classes the rest of the week though?” “Absolutely! We’ll even be willing to refund her tuition if you just feel she should stay at home with you now?” “That’s not necessary,” Amanda replied warily as my heart sank. “She’s more than capable of being a successful student here. This doesn’t change anything with that. I just want to keep an eye on her and let her rest after this fiasco.” Dean Sanders was skeptical, but changed the subject slightly. “The news has been saying she was kidnapped by one of our own here?” “I’m afraid I can’t say much, but they did say they’re sure that Doctor Nimitz was the one who kidnapped her,” Amanda told her. “Dreadful…” “You have no idea,” I said sitting up and brushing out some hair that had fallen into my eyes. “How did you escape?” She asked me. My eyes narrowed and I wondered if she’d had some part in the mess, “A lot of luck,” I told her. “It’s an ongoing investigation and I was asked not to say much,” I told her semi-truthfully. “I certainly wouldn’t want to interfere in the police investigation. We’ll have our own internal investigation going on through the university of course too,” she replied. “Of course,” I agreed. She stayed for about five awkward minutes too long before leaving. Finally, when they released us to go home Amanda was sat down in a wheel chair and held us on her lap as we were pushed out. Grandpa Joe, and a police officer he seemed to know well, walked on either side of us as we exited the building. I was able to listen into a hushed conversation with the two of them at the car. “The ring seems to have mostly been present there, but there were a couple empty offices and some faces we haven’t found yet. Keep an eye out still, that Venture crew isn’t gone completely,” he told Joe. I couldn’t hear anything else as I was buckled into my car seat and the door was closed. I looked over at Bella sitting her car seat now awake. She was currently trying to stick her foot in her mouth for some reason like those other littles had been doing. I supposed that was trained into them because it was a very babyish thing to do. The pacifier that she was nursing thankfully kept her toes from going inside as she wiggled and contorted her body as much as she could in the harness. I felt sick and looked down at my wrist where the little protect watch still sat. I wondered for a moment how they pulled off the student ID band that was supposed to be impossible to get off, before realizing they probably had an in with the university to have one of the special tools to remove it. ‘So much for being safe…’ I thought. The LittleProtect watch had definitely lived up to its name though! Even though there was a little tear in part of the band’s coating, it still held the watch tightly to my wrist. I looked and saw that I had earned more coins through my escape… I put my hand down though and looked over at the side where Bella was. ‘I’m just glad we got her away from there…’ Relief flooded my body as we backed into the garage and I heard the door closing. Amanda came to the side of the car and picked me up from my car seat, while Fred picked up Bella. Soon she held both of us and carried us inside to the living room. Unfortunately, it was soon obvious that the happy ending didn’t seem like it was really in sight. After a few minutes Bella had wriggled a bit and Amanda sat her down onto a blanket on the floor. The three of us watched as she struggled just to sit up. Just as she finally managed it, Grandpa Joe, Granny, and Megan came into the house together. That set Bella off completely into a hysterical crying fit. No matter how much Amanda hugged her and bounced her she wouldn’t quiet down. We all watched helplessly until she eventually put her to her breast and she let her nurse herself to sleep. Grandpa Jo had been moving about the room and the house throughout her attempts. I was sure he was probably checking on the house, but didn’t comment on it. After Bella was asleep, he finally sat down next to us on an adjacent recliner, and said, “I checked the house and the room, we’re secure from bugs. What happened? The whole story,” he emphasized. I smiled grimly at him from Fred’s lap, “Okay… just please don’t judge me too harshly,” I grimaced. I was especially scared of what Amanda and Megan would think. I began at the beginning of walking to class and Doctor Nimitz coming up to me, along with the obvious stab of the injection he’d given me. I explained about how I’d woken up in the bizarre nursery, and the conversations I’d had before being forced to nurse from Nimitz’s wife. I mentioned the enema, and everything else I could remember from that encounter. Really, I was just grateful that they had their hands on me so brief of a time! When I told them about wriggling out of the high chair and getting to my knife blades, the other women in the room all seemed a bit alarmed. Amanda didn’t seem to be as so, but I did catch the look she gave to her dad. “So, I was able to cut my way through those straps and get loose,” I continued. “I hoped I’d given them enough time to get lax and let their guard down a little. Right away it seemed like that was the case. I walked into the room behind the nursery and found an observation room with that guy Collin from Selegnasol in there.” “The guy you tried to get stuck as a baby?” Megan asked. I nodded, “Apparently he didn’t like that… He was rather bitter about it for some reason? Anyway… I used my knives to take care of him before getting my backpack.” “Took care of him?” Fred asked me. I grimaced and said, “He’s one monster who won’t be hurting anyone ever again.” I tried to wipe the gruesome image of his body out of my head then, and unfortunately knew nightmares were certainly in my future. Fred hugged me, “I love you Stacy, you don’t have to continue if you don’t want to…” I turned to him and hugged him back, “Thank you, but I need to…” I sighed and took a drink from a sippy cup of apple juice that Granny suddenly handed me, “Thanks,” I told her. “You’re welcome,” she told me. “Well when I cleared that room, I was happy to find that my backpack was still sitting there…” I paused for a moment but decided to go all in, “It had a weapon in there.” “A weapon?” Grandpa Joe asked. “I told you that my Grandpa back home and you would get along, right?” He looked thoughtful and nodded, “You said he was vet too?” I nodded back, “Well apparently my family has a long history of adventuring. Part of that tradition is that not one of those family members have gone on one without a weapon of some sort. He gave me a pistol that conceals perfectly inside a small game console.” I head Amanda suck a deep breath in, “That one with the two mini controllers?” I knew she would be upset by it, but nodded, “Yes, that’s the one.” I debated telling her more, but every person in the room was trustworthy – I was sure of that. “If you push the panels and buttons the right way, it breaks apart and reveals a ceramic pistol that’s a 9mm holdout gun back home.” “But if it shrank to your size, surely it wouldn’t do anything against an Amazon?” Grandpa Joe asked. He shook his head, “It probably wouldn’t feel worse than a pellet gun here? I can’t even imagine it hardly piercing our skin?” I shook my head, “That was my worry as well… which is why I printed some other bullets to load in the shell cases that I put suspended nanites into.” “Where in the world did you get nanites?!?!” Amanda asked suddenly concerned. I pointed at myself, “I have all that I need inside of me. I just needed to excrete some – I used tears as I figured they would be the cleanest way, and reprogrammed the options.” “To what?” Fred asked me. “The perfect little… One that Aunt Chloe and Cassie would love…” I added feeling some bile in my mouth but continuing, “I only planned to use it in life or death situations…” I took a deep breath and cringed at some of the looks, “this definitely counted.” “I agree,” Grandpa Joe said. “We need to be very careful that no one finds out about that though. I want you to show it to me sometime… Actually, before I forget I need your shoes and the blades too so I can replace them with something clean…” “What?” Megan asked, “You’re… actually okay with her making this?” Amanda answered, “I wish she had told me,” she said looking at me, “but it was a very good idea and plan. We just need to make sure the military doesn’t find out about it. I’m pretty certain that it actually falls under several international treaties as an illegal weapon… Possession of such weapons are punishable as a war crime,” she told me. “Really?” “Really, I’ll explain later. For now, though you said you had just retrieved it?” I nodded, “Once I was armed, I went out the door…” I didn’t hold back, they wanted to know, and I told them every shot I fired, every person I gutted, how I found Bella, how the nanny bot damn near got me. “Wait, those nanny bots are impossible for a little to get away from, how did you manage to get away from them…?” Grandpa asked. “I might have developed a weapon for them too,” I said. I dug into my bag that had been sat next to us, and tossed the small object to him, “It’s more nanite help basically… I programmed them to invade the surface and find control centers. It worked a lot faster than I hoped,” I added. Amanda looked at me, “When did you have time to do all of this? I’ve been watching you on the cameras in the nursery…” I grimaced, part of my operational strategy was definitely out the window, “I thought you realized I hacked the cameras to get the footage about Bella’s poisoning?” “You altered the feed?” I nodded, “How much trouble am I in?” She sighed, “We’ll talk later, but I think there will probably be something… I just don’t know what!” she was a bit annoyed and I was glad Fred gave me a protective squeeze. “It did save her,” he reminded her. “This time…” she said, “she is being far too reckless, it’s going to get her hurt, killed, or her brain wiped at this rate.” “Sorry,” I said. She sighed, “What happened next…?” I walked them through the next rooms and then the climb to the next level before finding Doctor Nimitz. I explained how I’d already made sure that I would have Tessa on my side. “You did that one in class? In front of me and all of the other students?” Amanda clarified. I shrugged, “I didn’t actually intend to, she asked for the code. She just didn’t know that there was an extra subroutine I was working on that could help me or others later.” She shook her head and handed the now sleeping Bella to Granny before coming over to me to pick me up. I shook a bit, wondering if it was going to be the first time that I was spanked by her, but instead she hugged me tightly and kissed me on the forehead before holding me like an infant. “I love you so much Stacy, and I’m so glad you’re okay! Thank you for saving Bella, but we are going to have to have a talk later about what you can or can’t do with computers and nanites without letting me know…” I nodded, “Okay, Mommy.” She hugged me and then felt my diaper, “You need a diaper change, a real bath, and then I think we all should consider going to bed here soon. Mom, you’ll take Megan back to campus?” “Sure honey,” she told her, “you want me to change this one for you before I go?” Amanda shook her head and shifted me over to one side, I’ll take care of her, just hand her over to me. “Here, give me your shoes,” Grandpa Joe said to me as he walked over. I used my fingerprints to unlock them and he took them from me. “I’ll replace these tomorrow for you,” he reassured me. “Thanks,” I told him, “You saved my life with those!” He gave me a quick smile and a hug of his own. Right then goodbyes were said, and Amanda ascended the stairs with us tightly in her arms. She sat me down on my bed while she changed the sleeping Bella, replaced her thumb with a pacifier, and then lay her down in the crib. “Next,” she said softly to me and I held out my arms to her. She gently picked me up and placed me down on the changing table and removed the hospitals onesie and carried me in just the diaper down to the bathroom. While she ran the water, I took the chance to get some more pee out and into the diaper. She smiled at me and gently pushed me to the ground, pulled open the diaper, wiped me with a wipe, and plopped me in the water while she turned to ball up the diaper. I sat in the tub getting sleepy as she quietly scrubbed my body, washed my hair, and even massaged my sore shoulders, arms, and legs. “Any chance you could give me some pain medicine?” I asked her as she dried me off. “You hurt?” “I’m pretty sure I’ll be sore for a week… not a fan of fighting for my life…” I told her. She wrapped me in a towel and caught Fred passing by, “While I’m drying Stacy’s hair, can you get her some pain meds?” “Where do you hurt?” He asked me. I laughed, “Everywhere! It’s going to be a rough couple of days while my body heals from today.” He nodded, “I’ll get something.” Amanda began gently combing, drying, and brushing my hair. She was working it gently still when Fred reappeared with a pacifier. I gave him a questioning look, “Whats…?” when realized it was a medicine pacifier, “you could have just given me pills or a cup with it in it…” He smiled, “this seemed like an easier solution though,” he said as he put the nipple to my lips and I nursed it. I winced a bit as the flavor was a bit off, but said, “Fanks,” around the pacifier. Amanda continued to dry my hair and finally braided it loosely before gathering me in the towel and carrying me back to the darkened nursery. I was gently diapered and dressed in a footed pajama set before she sat down in the rocking chair. “I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to nurse…” she started. I giggled quietly, “Come on Mommy, I’m thirsty!” I smiled. She hugged me and moved her shirt and bra to expose her nipple and I quickly latched on. While I nursed, she hummed a lullaby and I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the sights that were already appearing in my mind from that day. Sadly, I wasn’t asleep that long before I heard a series of loud bangs! They were followed by the house security alarm shrieking loudly! Chapter 25: All I Want for Christmas… I BOLTED OUT of bed and looked at the closed door for a moment, wondering what to do! I wanted my knives, but I had just given them to Grandpa Joe to get rid of the evidence… I noticed my backpack sitting by my desk and quickly searched through the pockets to find my switch. I pulled the pistol free of the casing and checked the clip. I only had two bullets left between the chambered round and the clip... I knew that I’d have to make them count! I remembered the new safe box in the closet and looked up at Bella who somehow still asleep in the crib. “It’s okay Bella,” I whispered to her and tried to think of a way to get her into the safe box Fred had added. Unfortunately, there was no way I could get her out of the crib without her help. I knew she could barely sit up now; her climbing a crib wasn’t in the cards. Unfortunately, like in our dimension, drop side cribs had been banned for home use. I thought for a moment about climbing up and trying to pull her out, but I knew it would likely just result in me being trapped in the crib myself. I grimaced and instead found myself a hiding spot underneath the crib and aimed the pistol towards the door. I heard rapid shots firing from an automatic weapon, followed by some shouting and screams of pain. Someone pounded on the nursery door trying to get in before I heard Amanda and Fred both begin screaming and heard something physically impacting against the hallway walls. Thump! Scream! Thump! Thump! Thump! I heard glass shatter! Then there was silence. I felt urine flee my body as I wondered what silence meant. The noises were scary, but at least I knew Amanda and Fred were putting up a fight! I felt tears draining from my eyes, but prepared to defend myself and Bella if the attackers made it into the room. Beeps came at the keypad on the door and urine began leaking out of the leg hole of my diaper. I held my breath and aimed my gun, and just prayed that it wouldn’t be a bad guy! The door slowly opened and Amanda said, “Stacy? It’s just us. They are all down for the count,” she told me carefully. I watched her step fully into the room and believed no one would be dumb enough to let her do so if she was being held at gunpoint. I rolled out from my hiding spot and kept my gun pointing down. She stepped over to me and picked me up into her arms to hug me, “only one made it past the force field,” she said pointing down to a body that she walked me over to. I recognized the tattoo and realized it was the lady that had tried to kidnap me the first time. “She’s out?” I asked Amanda. “Should be for a while with as hard as I hit her…” “Why don’t we tie her up or something?” I suggested wearily. Fred had the same idea and came around out of Amanda’s workroom just then with some nylon zip ties. Several of them made sure that she was quickly tied up and not going anywhere. I saw shattered picture frames and a vase cracked to pieces along the hallway. Amanda carried me back to the nursery and checked on Bella. She was still somehow asleep and out cold! She was breathing normally though at least. “How is she still asleep?” I asked her. She shrugged, “I wouldn’t be surprised if they conditioned her to sleep through noise at night so she wouldn’t wake up and annoy whoever was taking care of her?” I nodded and realized I needed to go to the bathroom again and should also hide my gun. “Mommy… might be a good idea for me to hide my gun, right?” She looked down at my hand and seemed to have just then noticed the weapon. “This is what you had?” I nodded. “Put it back inside it’s hiding place, we’ll talk about it later,” she told me. The police arrived with a SWAT unit that stormed the house a few minutes later. By the time the sun rose, we learned it had been a team of the Trelini gang trying one last shot at us on behalf of the remaining interests of Venture. Twelve of their members had tried to storm the house like they had before, but the force field was something new they were not expecting. Eight of the morons died from ricochets as they tried shooting at it - and three were injured enough to keep them out of the fray. Somehow Serena Ricci had gotten through while the laser sights of their guns were pointed at the barrier, and then avoided getting shot… It was a bit of a miracle really that she survived! Amanda had taken good care of her though! I could tell she had vented a lot of her anger on her limp body. Teeth lay next to her, her face was bloody, and her legs and arms seemed to be bent at unnatural angles as the medics hauled her away sobbing in pain. “Fred, I think it’s time for us to get a new house…” Amanda said as the police finally finished questioning them. “I agree, let’s start looking…” “You folks about ready to get out of here?” An officer asked them right then. “We need to finish processing the scene.” “Let me grab some diapers and things for my girls?” She asked. “Sure,” the officer said. The man watched her as she filled my backpack with diapers for me, another diaper bag for Bella, and then grabbed some uniforms and clothes for both of us. Pulling away from the house I could see flashing lights of the police cars and caution tape everywhere. I wasn’t expecting to see quite so many news vans though! All of us received strong hugs from Granny as we came in, and I saw that the news was on. I squirmed in Fred’s arms and he let me down to go closer to the TV. A brown-haired woman in a fashionable pantsuit was on camera holding a microphone. This morning we are still following our breaking news about the home invasion that happened early this morning. Our sources told us this morning that a group of armed men broke into the house behind me with the intentions of kidnapping their littles and killing the parents. Fortunately, the family had upgraded their security systems after two earlier break-in attempts, and were able to fight off the one suspect who got close to them. Our understanding is that it appears an unknown number of the suspects were killed by their own bullets. We understand that the homeowners and their little girls were luckily unharmed in the attack. Incredibly, we also just learned that it appears that the two little girls were involved in the little mill operation that was just uncovered at the University Hospital yesterday… The TV shut off and I looked at Grandpa who nodded his head towards Amanda who wasn’t doing well. I walked over to her and hugged her legs until she picked me up and cuddled me with Bella. We stayed like that for a long time before I definitely fell back asleep. THE NEXT FEW months passed by to finish the semester in a blur! Even though there had been a few other challenges, I was exceptionally proud to have earned a perfect 4.0 GPA my first semester! I was currently enjoying the extended Christmas Break that students at Emerson were given. It beat the two-week school breaks I had grown up with! Six whole weeks off were amazing! My only regret was the fear of shrinking further, kept me from going home to my dimension to visit my family over the break like I had originally planned. We had moved into another house two weeks after the last break-in. This one had a tall twenty-foot wall around the entire property, and a level of security that made the old systems look worthless… which I guess in a way it had been given the repeat break-ins we had dealt with! The new house featured plenty of bedrooms so that I had my own, Bella had her nursery, and we had two spare guest bedrooms, in addition to the workroom for Amanda and Fred’s office. It even had an indoor pool that I was able to swim laps in every day despite the fact it was cold and snowy outside! The rest of the Venture company pretty much crumbled with the loss of Doctor Nimitz and the enforcers they had hired. Several of the captured nurses were singing like canaries in the hopes of lighter sentences, something I was personally very opposed to them getting! I had regretted not using the last two bullets on two of them! Sadly, for all of us, Bella was barely responding to the treatments to undo the damage of hypnosis treatments she had received. The only real progress was her vocabulary had grown to that of about fifty words... But, potty training, being able to walk, or express herself properly, were still completely robbed from her for some reason! It was frustrating for her to want to talk normally to us, but clearly, she was unable to string more than two words together. We tried having her type at a computer, point at pictures… but no matter what, if it wasn’t a simple word, her brain wouldn’t let her express it. I grew really depressed watching her struggle. All of that being said, at least she smiled with the love that was showered on her from Amanda, Fred, and myself. It really was like having a one-year-old around the house at that point. We all tried to treat her with dignity, but it meant to keep her happy we had to in some ways keep pretending she was just a baby. She seemed happier playing with toddler appropriate toys than anything else we tried. Unfortunately, nothing that any of the specialists tried with her seemed to snap her clear of the damage the monsters had done to her. The first couple of weeks I had off leading to Christmas I finally had time to work on a possible solution. I knew that Bella had been saved with nanites from the poison during the first attack, so like me she already had them inside of her. At the moment I knew they would be dormant. For the past couple of nights, I’d been running a diagnostic on her brain to discover exactly what had been done to her. It was horrifying to see the effects on the scans, as they’d gone beyond hypnosis and must have done some chemical alterations to her brain too. There were whole sections of her brain that were no longer communicating with each other! Essentially, they had performed a lobotomy with technology and chemicals instead of surgery. After seeing the results of the scans, I began coding a fix for the nanites to reconstruct those pathways in her brain, but per my promise I wasn’t going to implement it until I spoke with Amanda. She found me typing on my computer on Christmas Eve and I decided to tell her what I was working on. “What are you working on?” Amanda asked, “That looks an awful lot like the nanite code?” I nodded, “It is… Bella still has them running in her system from the doctors fighting the poison…” “You’re not doing things with her without telling me?” She knelt down on the ground next to my desk where we could look each other in the eyes. “I haven’t done any fixes… but I did query the nanites to run a scan on her…” She breathed a sigh that was both exasperated and relieved, “That sounds like editing code…?” “It’s built-in, I just had to send a signal?” “That’s actually something still accessible?” She paused, “Was there even a password?” I nodded, “Yes, and I redid the password to something secure like I did mine.” She sighed and asked, “What did you find?” She had a nervous twitch of running her hand through her hair that she did right then. I pulled up the model of her brain and said, “The nanites show that they basically severed the fibers that connected these centers…” I told her the basics of everything I had learned from the nanites and researching their medical libraries. We talked for a few minutes before she called, “Fred!” “Yes Mandy?” he said a moment later. She sighed, “Our little hacker is at it again… She managed to hack into the nanites that are still inside of Bella. Take a look at these scans…?” We discussed them for the better part of another hour then before Fred made a couple suggestions, I tweaked the code, and then asked, “So do we upload it?” Amanda picked me up and held me in her arms, “Are you sure it’ll work?” I shook my head, “Sure? No…? But, it’s the best chance of fixing things, I think. She’s not getting any better right now.” “I don’t think it could make it worse,” Fred told her sadly. “Nothing else has helped. That makes sense now though that we know what’s going on inside her brain. I can’t believe our imaging scans at the hospital weren’t picking this up…” “Go ahead then Stacy… maybe we’ll have our girl back for real for Christmas…” she said with tears in her eyes. “Then there’s a little girl that needs to go to bed so Santa doesn’t put any of the coal she probably deserves in her stocking!” “I’m a good girl!” I told her with a pout. “I just like toys… I just wanna be like my cool Mommy!” Fred laughed, “She’s got you there.” Amanda squeezed me and sat me down on the ground. I typed a few commands and the new code was uploaded to Bella. She was sleeping soundly in her crib on the other side of my wall. “Now bedtime,” she said. “Yes Mommy…” NORMALLY AS A kid I was as excited for Christmas as any kid could be. Even after I knew that Santa wasn’t real, I would wake up earlier to see what was under the Christmas tree! I think when I found out that my parents were really Santa, I loved Christmas more because I it showed they loved me. My real ones certainly did back in my home dimension… I’d managed to send home a family photo of my real parents and me, and a separate photo of the new me, in the 3-D art print that I’d done for Amanda and Fred. It had cost more than I should have paid to send it, but I wanted them to know I hadn’t abandoned them. We were planning on a video call later that day, and I hoped they would let me know it made it through when they got to the portal. The real reason I anticipated the day though certainly had nothing to do with material objects, it had everything to do with what condition we might find Bella in! I woke up at seven when I smelled coffee coming from the kitchen. I rolled out of bed, pushed open my door the rest of the way, and walked down to the kitchen where Fred laughed at me. “You are so predictable…” “And adorable!” Amanda said as she surprised me from behind and picked me up. I could tell she was trying to feel my diaper through the sleeper and said, “How about we get your sister up, and then we’ll see what Santa brought you both?” I looked at her and smiled, “Okay!” The walk in her arms to the nursery had me as nervous as I’d ever been. The nanite repairs should have taken about a half-hour, anything that it was going to do should definitely be done by now. She entered the code for the room in and opened the door to show Bella still asleep in the crib. She sat me down next to her, “Why don’t you wake her up,” she told me with a smile. I wrinkled my nose a bit at the smell of a well-used diaper, but leaned over and shook Bella slightly and said, “Bella, it’s Christmas, time to wake up.” She shot up then and something in her eyes told me she was there. “Oh my god, what’s going on?” She looked around at me, “Wait, I can talk again? For real talk, not just say Mommy?” I hugged her, “So glad to have you back!” “How?” She sobbed! The next hour was made up of a lot of tears, changed diapers, and Fred doing what assessments he could of Bella’s recovery. She managed to stand up with some help, and even took a couple of steps with someone holding her hands like an infant learning to walk. Unfortunately, her muscles had atrophied enough in the few months that it was going to take time to recondition her legs to work right. Luckily, they had not forced her to only squirm in tummy time like some of the littles that had been recovered. That would have taken even more time to recover from – if she ever could have! As far as I could tell the only negative effect from the nanites was that she had shrunk another two inches. I was only about an inch shorter than her now! That side effect of the nanites was definitely troubling to me, since I had edited my own code several times! Once Fred was sure that Bella was on the right track, we all gathered around the Christmas tree. “Umm… Bella,” Amanda said, “when we picked out presents…” “I was only in my baby mode, so you bought baby toys?” Amanda blushed, “yes…” Bella shrugged, “I’m not a grown up, or at least a tall big anyway. Even if I get my walking, potty training, and everything else back, I don’t think it’ll ever be safe for me to be living on my own again.” Amanda shook her head, tears leaking from her eyes, “Not really.” “Then Mommy it’s okay, because I’m still glad to be your baby!” More tears were shed before getting presents passed out. I had a mix of gifts to open myself, including a set of building blocks that were kind of like Legos, but infinitely cooler! They contained circuits and you could build some neat projects like walking robots according the instructions. We both got baby dolls, new bears, and then she got a whole slew of toys appropriate for a crawling year-old baby. Some of them were meant for littles at least, and were a bit more mentally stimulating so she could relearn some physical skills with them. Besides the toys, there were numerous new dresses, shoes, hair bows, pajamas, and little cheap pieces of jewelry that she added. The only jewelry pieces that weren’t cheap pieces were two charms to add to my charm bracelet. One had Bella’s name on a heart with ‘sister,’ the other was a little laptop looking charm. They also gave me a necklace that had a locket and the picture of the four of us from before everything happened. I hugged them both, and Amanda promised since she was back with us for real, she would get the same for Bella too. My real present from them though was a computer that was the size of the one I had brought through the portal, but was almost as powerful as Amanda’s. “This thing is awesome!” I had told her after she gave me the specs. And it really was! I had been having some problems with the time it took to compile some of my code for class the previous semester, so I was really grateful for the upgrade! “You’ll have to put it away though, it’s time to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s,” she told me as I salivated over the computer. “Awwww!” I whined but didn’t fight her on it as she patted my bottom lightly. She followed me back to my room where I sat it down on the desk. As soon as I was done, she lifted me onto the changing table to change my wet diaper. She dressed me in white tights with green and red poinsettia decorations on them, and red puffy bloomers over my diaper. She pulled the new Christmas dress that she had bought from her friend over the top of my head and settled it onto my body. The pretty dress featured a long-sleeved black velvet bodice and a red silk skirt with an overlay of red organza on top. The bodice featured little green holly embroidery along the neckline, and it was tied with a wide ribbon into a large bow in the back. I walked with her to Bella’s nursery and hung out in there while she changed Bella into a nearly identical dress that just featured a much shorter skirt and a onesie bottom inside of it. Since she could only crawl it had made sense… ‘Hopefully that will improve though!’ I noticed it seemed a bit baggy on her with the loss of size from the nanites. The whole process of getting dressed into the holiday dress was still unique for me given I had been a boy until five months before! I had found that I enjoyed her attention to my hair, and being cute, so I didn’t really mind. The white tights I had on were thick and hopefully would keep me warmer on the cold drive to her parents’ house! I enjoyed staring at my reflection in a mirror for a few minutes. We were eventually left alone for a few minutes and I asked Bella, “So you’re better?” “I can’t believe how much easier it is to do things,” she told me. “Walking is going to take a while… but I’m just glad to be able to talk…” “What was it like?” She sighed, “I could understand everything you all said all the time… thank you for being so kind to me,” she added, “and thank you for saving me from the fate they had planned for me! They made sure to rub it into my face all of the time that I’d be doing nothing but popping out babies for them for the rest of my life…” And then it was clear a wall had broken and she was most certainly in need of counseling that wouldn’t have been possible before. I hugged her and Amanda came in and joined in, clearly having heard our conversation over the baby monitor. We were able to eventually get away to her parents’ house though, which presented its own challenges in dealing with her sisters. Chloe and Cassie had dressed all of their littles and kids similarly to us, and there was a requisite ‘cousins’ picture taken when we were all there. Neville wore a ridiculous suit looking romper that left his bare legs visible past the snap crotch of the onesie bottom. The girls were all in matching holiday dresses, and diapers were worn at that point still by every kid and little except Kristina. Klara had continued on in diapers and I could see that there was a frustration in her mom’s face every time she had to change her! I personally believed having Neville treated as a baby around her all of the time probably wasn’t helping her cause. For all her mom picked on Neville, I saw signs that Klara loved him and looked up to him by the way she wanted to follow him around and play with him all of the time. After the Christmas dinner, presents were exchanged. Other than Megan, Granny, and Grandpas gifts to me, all of mine were more appropriate for a baby shower! Bella’s were even worse given she was actually in that state until that morning, but we both just grinned and said thank you politely as we waved the colorful rattles at our ‘aunts.’ Fortunately, we had an appointment to keep at the portal to talk to my parents, so we didn’t get stuck there too long with all of them. Everyone seemed astounded though at how much better Bella was doing! Our ‘little cousins’ were clearly jealous that once again they would be the only ones babied to that extent. I still hoped I’d be able to help them out one day though! Our visit to the portal went like it had the past few times, except we had Bella with us. The shriek of an alarm as Fred carried Bella through made Amanda narrow her eyes at me. I gulped; she hadn’t noticed the alarm was quiet the last couple times when we passed through. I gave her an innocent look and we continued to the room. On the way in, “Did you do that…?” I shook my head, “Venture did…” “That’s asking for trouble!” she hissed. “If anyone takes…” “Let’s talk at home, they definitely have this area under surveillance,” I whispered to her. She sighed and continued into the video conference room we’d been given with our ‘family.’ “Merry Christmas Mom and Dad!” I told them as their faces lit up the screen. “Merry Christmas to you too Stacy. Oh my God, you look adorable!” Mom said, “Amanda could you put her up there so I can see her dress better?” I stood and turned for her as I blushed a bit. “I get it, I’m cute,” I told her. “More than cute, adorable!” Mom smiled at me. “And is this Bella?” Fred came closer with Bella who said, “Hi, it’s nice to meet you…” “She can talk again?” Mom asked. We had talked about her, but she’d never been introduced because Bella had been staying at home with Grandma or Megan when we’d come there for our infrequent calls. We didn’t come too often because we were worried that the portal officials would get suspicious about our regular visits. I nodded, “That’s new as of this morning. Really it was our real Christmas present. But let’s talk about you guys… did you get my presents?” “We just got them a few minutes ago when we checked in to make the call. We didn’t think you would be able to send anything!” Mom said with some surprise, “It must have cost a fortune to send them through!” She scolded me. “It wasn’t that much…” I told her. “Besides, I wanted to send you something!” She sighed, “Should we open them now then?” Mom asked. I smiled, “Please!” “These are beautiful!” Mom said a few minutes later. They had clearly grown in the portal and were going to seem large on the walls at home, but I was glad that she had something of me, and the new me, to hang onto there while I was gone. “Thank you,” they both told me. When we made it home later Bella and Fred went to work on helping her learn to walk again while I was left with my new toy. Once all of the spyware Amanda and others had placed on it was gone, I went to work on some new projects… Chapter 26: Daycare Justice IN JANUARY THERE were two major events scheduled to happen. First was the beginning of my second semester at Emerson, and all the new classes and students I had to deal with being ‘cute’ around. It was like starting from scratch with some of them scheming to adopt me, or attempting to send me to Dean Sanders with demerits. Thankfully the most serious of those happened in view of Amanda, and it was the big student who ended up with their pants down getting spanked, and then moved into Wenig for some remedial help with their growing case of maturosis. By the end of the second week of classes things mostly settled down on the girls trying to trip me up. Doctor Nimitz’s trial, which started the week before classes began, was the other big part of January. I was scheduled to testify at the end of the prosecution’s case, and was going to have to miss some classes for it later that afternoon. That was how I found myself walking by myself to Amanda’s office from my last class of the morning on Wednesday, thinking that life had otherwise calmed back down. At least to what was ‘normal’ for that dimension. Now that Venture was officially out of business, and almost all of their employees were arrested, we weren’t looking over our shoulders nearly as much. I was suddenly startled by a voice next to me, “Well baby girl, how’d you get loose from the daycare?” I turned just in time to see a tall woman with the university daycare worker uniform on. She scooped me up without warning! “Please put me down, I’m a university student,” I told her. “Oh, silly girl, of course you’re a big university student. Why that’s all we take care of in our daycare! Let’s get you back inside the warm building and figure out how you got loose.” “Seriously, I’m not in the daycare, and my mommy isn’t going to be too happy when I don’t get to her office in a few minutes…” “Such a big imagination from a wittle girl,” she told me and began walking inside. I groaned. I had been afraid someday something like this would happen! I was an idiot though and had completely let my guard down! I managed to push the emergency button on the side of my watch just before we went inside. Amanda’s face came on, “What’s wrong?” she asked, but as soon as we stepped through the door, it was jammed and the signal was lost! I sighed and hoped she’d have enough tracking data to find me before too long. “Who do you have there?” Another woman asked as she walked up to us. “I don’t know, I just found her wandering around on her own outside. Not sure how she got out of the daycare.” “Please just check…” I tried to tell them to check my student ID bracelet. When I said the word ‘check,’ I ended up with one of those damn inflatable pacifiers in my mouth. The bitch pumped it up several times too! I screamed behind it in pain! The original woman handed me over to the new lady. “What a bad girl!” she said. “Where’d you even steal these clothes from, one of your old friends?” I sighed and shook my head, “Doesn’t matter, come on let’s get you into a new diaper – this one’s soaked! Then we’ll get you back into a daycare uniform like you belong. Afterwards, if you don’t fight maybe we won’t send you to bed without dinner…” she sighed, “We’ll definitely make sure we get you into another intense session to keep you from running away again though!” I groaned as I was carried into a massive nursery and could see littles lifelessly playing all around with baby toys. Well actually a few of them seemed quite excited to be there, having accepted things like Bella had now. They looked to be happily crawling around and playing like normal babies with dolls, blocks, toy kitchens, and everything you would see in a daycare. I was sat down on a changing table and the middle strap was placed over my chest. “We’ll get you fed here soon too, I saw that we hadn’t taken your teeth yet, but I think it’s probably time if you’re going to be running away. I’ll make sure that they work on that tomorrow morning first thing! You won’t need them since you’ll be on a formula or breast milk only diet from now on since you decided to run away.” By now I was beginning to get scared… I was safe from the hypnosis, but if they physically took my teeth, I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it! Tears began to stream down my face as the other lady quickly stripped me of my uniform. I shook my head as they took my charm bracelet, but felt relieved that at least they couldn’t get the LittleProtect Watch, or the student ID band off of me. “Hey Melanie, this might be a real student… Doesn’t Dean Sanders remove these bands before she sends babies our way?” “There’s no way! She’s so tiny she had to have been one of our new semester additions…” the other lady responded. “Well you might take the time to check?” “Nah, they all end up here anyway. Just finish changing her and plop her into the orientation chamber.” I struggled a bit at that, scared to death of what an ‘orientation chamber’ might be! The woman carried me away from the changing table only wearing the thick crawler diaper she had put me in. She carried me to the other side of the room, and towards some sort of tub that looked like the bed of a newborn baby in the hospital. “Don’t you worry about anymore big girl thoughts! This is state of the art technology we have here! It’ll help get those big girl worries right out of your head, and make sure you forget all about being able to walk, or run away from here, or your new mommy again!” Just as she was about to set me down inside, I heard Amanda’s voice. “Where the hell is my daughter?!?!?” “What daughter?” the lady tried to block her but Amanda managed to move past and saw me on the device. “That one,” Amanda said pointing at me. “Excuse me ma’am, but there’s no way she can be your daughter…” Amanda took out her phone and showed her my student ID information, “did you even scan her uniform or wrist band like you’re supposed to?!?!?!?!” “She was clearly…” “A university student!” Amanda said and continued over to me. “Get your damn hands off my baby,” she told the woman who had almost closed a lid on top of it. “But she needed a diaper change…” “That’s something that I do for her, because I’m her mommy,” Amanda told her fiercely. “What did you do with her uniform and her backpack?” It was handed over in short order and after she had me changed back in my uniform. When she was done, she made them scan my bracelet and verified we were telling the truth. My charm bracelet was also returned. She was giving me a hug as Dean Sanders joined us in the office of the daycare. “What happened here?” She asked. “This little girl was wandering on her own and it was obvious to me she had escaped from the daycare,” the one lady said unrelentingly. “This woman is claiming guardianship, but if she’s really adopted then she shouldn’t be at college anyway! It would be illegal for her to be unattended!” Dean Sanders looked at me and laughed, “You do get into some jams, don’t you?” I gave her a confused look as she looked back at the woman, “All students are to be scanned upon entry, correct?” “But she could have stolen that…” “That type of wristband has to be attached at the student union with proof of their identity provided at the time. It’s impossible to remove without cutting off the littles hand – she would probably know more about that than anyone though since she was kidnapped a few months ago. Also, if there’s any dispute over a little’s status, my office is to be contacted immediately, correct?” “Yes, ma’am,” the lady said nervously looking down like a scolded school girl. “Well, obviously you aren’t mature enough for this job, so we’ll find someone else to take it.” She looked at another woman there, “Please escort Ms. Keen to the office upstairs and perform the exit interview.” Something about that had a sinister note to it, because I watched the lady look terrified then, “That’s okay Ma’am, I’m not worried about back pay, I’ll just be leaving now…” A robotic arm appeared and grabbed onto her arms above her elbows, “No, you won’t,” Dean Sanders said. “Go with her,” she told the lady as the arm dragged the woman through the facility quickly. “Sorry about this Amanda… let’s not have Stacy wandering around on her own anymore? It seems like she is a trouble magnet,” she added before turning to leave. “Can we please get out of here now?” I asked Amanda quietly. As were leaving, I almost screamed when I saw Laura, who had been sent to the daycare the second day back from the break. She was dressed in the daycares pink dress uniform that proudly displayed a thick diaper that was discolored with urine and poop. She waved at me, but the nearly toothless grin and drool landing on the bib tied to her neck made me sick. I turned my head to hide my face in Amanda’s shoulder. I couldn’t stand to see my friend like that! Amanda had noticed her too and said, “I’m sorry,” to me as we left. “It was just a matter of time,” I told her. “We all knew it.” In the fall the nest that had been my ‘home’ for when I needed to be with littles during orientation had all gotten into trouble over supposedly poisoning Madison, the nest mother. All of them professed their innocence, but in the end all of them had been given enough demerits to be only one mistake away from losing their status as university students. As a result, most of them had seen the writing on the wall and volunteered for the safer adoption service - they hoped that their future treatment wouldn’t be as bad at least. Laura however was stubborn, didn’t poison anyone, and refused to give in on principle. She’d had a poopy diaper in her first class of the new semester. I had been sitting next to her when the professor checked her… well… and that had been that! I won’t lie, I cried that day, and I cried more then as Amanda carried me to her office. We didn’t have long though for her to cuddle me, nurse me, and change me again before she needed to take me to the courthouse. All of us had hoped that Doctor Nimitz would plead his case out instead of going to trial, but instead he proclaimed that he was innocent and it was now my turn to testify. There had been an epic battle by the prosecution just for me to be able to testify. His attorneys tried to keep my testimony out by claiming that I was too young to be a reliable witness since I was an adopted little, and therefore a minor. I had been afraid it would work, but the judge had shut that one down pretty quickly with the argument that I was successfully attending Emerson with a perfect GPA. Their second tactic was to claim that all of his associates who would have been able to defend him from my ‘false’ testimony had been killed, and that meant he couldn’t defend himself. That judge though seemed unhappy about him kidnapping and abusing adopted littles, so my testimony was allowed. The prosecution had instructed Amanda that a thick diaper and my university uniform was the best plan for my attire. With all of that in mind I was still frazzled from the near miss from the daycare, when I realized we were only an hour out from my court appearance. “Mommy?” I said as she carried me to the car. “What Princess?” “What if that wasn’t a random attack on me just now?” “What do you mean?” “What if you hadn’t been able to find me before I was due to testify?” She groaned, “I didn’t even think about it – I was so pissed off that you had been grabbed again. We’ll let the prosecution know about it,” she told me. “I don’t think that woman is going to be a problem again though, my guess is she’s probably getting used to her new diapers as we speak…” I nodded and accepted a bottle of juice from her as she finished strapping me into my car seat. I nursed it to the point of being empty just as we arrived at the courthouse. Grandpa Joe and Fred were both waiting in the parking garage for us when Amanda pulled in, and the four of us entered together. The DA had a staff member waiting outside the courtroom and said, “Well… I’m… uh... glad you made it,” with a bit of surprise. My eyes narrowed and I memorized his name to do a background check when we got home. The tone of his voice and the surprise in his face was sending up red flags and alarm bells. A bailiff outside the courtroom checked me off on his list and soon enough I was called to the stand. Amanda escorted me to the front of the gallery where she was able to have a seat to the side behind the prosecutor with Fred and Grandpa. “Ms. Stacy Westerfield?” The judge asked me. “Yes, Your Honor,” I told him. “Bailiff, please swear her in…” he said. “Like that matters?!?” Nimitz said. “Order!” The judge shouted, “Counsel, if you can’t control your client, we’ll move him to the prison and allow him to attend only via remote a remote appearance so that I can mute him.” “Yes, Your Honor,” the lawyer said to the judge, before turning to him and saying, “Shut up!” I was sworn in and the prosecutor began asking questions. He started with some background questions about me for the jury. Almost immediately he asked me questions to put my dimensional visa out in the open. He followed that up by getting my story that I had agreed to an adoption to go to school, and that the Nimitz’s had actually been my other final candidates. We then went over every detail about Bella that could be asked. The prosecutor asked everything about how we met her, came to adopt her, the poisoning, and finally her kidnapping. At that point the judge looked at his watch, “I believe a recess until tomorrow is in order. Can you be back here in the morning Ms. Westerfield?” “I’m supposed to have a class tomorrow morning, your honor,” I answered respectfully. “I’m still getting over that bit of information that you are a university student Ms. Westerfield, but I respect your studies. When do you finish classes tomorrow?” “I’m done about one?” “The court will be in recess until two tomorrow,” he said and banged the gavel. He stood and left while I joined my Amanda and Fred. We hurried from the courtroom to head home for the night, “Doctor Westerfield?” We turned to see the DA following us out of the building, “Yes?” Amanda asked as she faced him. “Would you be okay if I came by your house in a bit to talk with you, I think there are some things we need to discuss before tomorrow.” “It’ll have to be quick; Stacy still has some homework to do, and I need to get her to bed at a reasonable hour?” “Of course,” he said, “I’ll be there in an hour?” Grandpa Joe narrowed his eyes, “We’ll all be there,” he said. He clapped an arm around Amanda and led us to the car. We soon left in three cars to go to our house where Granny had stayed behind to babysit Bella. It was a much longer drive to get to our new house, but I really did like it better! We were in the door about a half-hour later and could smell a delicious dinner being prepared by Granny, who had clearly made herself at home in the kitchen! I noticed Bella was in her walker pushing herself by her legs around the floor. It seemed to be helping her to regain her walking skills, as she could now walk across the living room unassisted about half the time she tried. It pained me to see her fall on her butt and face so much as she relearned a skill she’d had since she was a baby! She was determined to regain her strength though, and never gave up! We had just enough time to eat a plate of the spaghetti Granny had made before the DA showed up at the front gate to the house. Amanda guardedly let his car in the electronic gate and then met him at the front door. “Good evening,” he said to all of us. “Could we maybe chat in your living room?” “Sure,” Amanda said, “give my mom and I a moment to get my girls cleaned up,” she added. Granny grabbed me then and took me to my room that had its own changing table. “What do you think he wants?” Granny asked. I shook my head, “I don’t know... unless he figured out that he has a mole?” “Maybe…” she said. By this point I’d had my diapers changed by so many people that I just tuned out the process. She pulled my skirt up and then worked on getting the diaper loose, wiped me, pulled away the old diaper and replaced it, added some powder as she normally did, then pulled the new diaper closed. Granny was an expert at changing diapers, and every touch and motion she made was gentle and loving. Well, at least until she tickled me when she was done. “Why do you have to tickle me?” I couldn’t help but giggle. “Because you looked too serious and I prefer that pretty smile on your face,” she said. I tried to frown at her but she just re-engaged her fingers to tickle me, “Stop it or you’ll have to change me all over again,” I complained. She grabbed me in a tight hug and brought me back to the living room just before Amanda came in with Bella. They left the dishes on the table for now as the DA sat down in a folding chair across from us that Fred had provided. I was handed to Fred who was sitting on the couch next to Amanda and Bella, Granny told them, “I’ll go deal with the dishes…” Grandpa Joe sat in his favorite recliner at our house at the head of the discussion. “What can we do for you Mister Finch?” Fred asked him. He sighed, “It’s more that I wanted to warn you that I don’t think you’ve seen the end of this group. They really don’t want Stacy testifying…” “I know, I’m pretty sure they tried to stop me earlier,” I told him. “What?!?” He asked, “What do you mean?” “I didn’t think it was related actually at the time, but earlier I was walking back to Mommy’s office from my class. On my way I got snatched up by a daycare worker who insisted I had to have escaped from the university’s daycare. Luckily, I was able to get an emergency warning signal out to Mommy, which put my location in its records, but I could have ended up missing court all together today.” “Do you know the name of the lady who grabbed you?” Amanda gave him the name, “She won’t be a problem anymore though… I’m pretty sure she’s been shrunk to the size of a little by now, Dean Sanders was not happy about the whole thing.” “Sir you have a problem though too…” I told him. At this point I had nothing to lose by trusting him, “You had a staff member meet us outside the courtroom earlier, correct? Ben Longfield?” “Ben?” He asked. I nodded, “He was really surprised to see us earlier… like he thought I would have been taken care of. I’m pretty sure he’s involved.” I watched the face of the DA get red and you could tell he was not a happy person, “That son of a bitch!” He looked contrite a moment later, “I’m sorry, I can’t tell you more, but you just put together the last missing piece of the puzzle for me.” “So, what do we do tomorrow?” Amanda asked. “Well make sure Stacy doesn’t go anywhere without one of you present. They clearly are hoping to avoid her testimony altogether… I also wanted to see if Bella might be available and up to testifying since I’ve just become aware that she can talk again?” I looked at Bella who looked a bit queasy, but said, “Is that necessary? I’m not sure I could face him…” “Is my testimony not enough?” I asked him. “It’s his word against yours… and given you’re a little his counts more.” He paused, “Most Amazons believe littles are immature and are prone to lying like children.” “What about the recording I made of my escape?” I asked. “What recording?!?” I heard multiple voices say simultaneously. I sighed, “As soon as I retrieved my backpack, I started my tablet recording video. It doesn’t have any usable video, but the audio of my escape and his confession… is that enough to keep Bella from having to testify?” “Why in Hell didn’t you tell me about this before?” He asked. “Well… mainly because there’s going to have to be some deal making for it. Grandpa, would you please get your attorney down here?” The bell for the gate rang right then, “That should be him,” he said with a smile. He let him inside the house a few minutes later and we resumed, “Why haven’t you told me about this?” “Because I need a deal first…” I told him. I had a whispered conversation with our attorney who we had already told the full story to before, but caught him up on this latest turn of events. “Okay Mister Finch, here’s the deal: Total immunity both local and federal for any crimes that may have been committed by my client to facilitate her escape. This includes her parents and grandparents as well,” he added. The DA’s eyes widened, “Why the hell would she need that, she just got lucky and had help from that holographic AI, right?” “Deal or not?” our attorney asked. He looked like someone had kicked a puppy, but said “Deal…” A quick written copy of the deal was electronically produced on our lawyers’ tablet and everyone signed off on it. He had to make a call to get the federal level deal approved, but within about a half-hour later it was legal and I was safe. I spent some time working on homework on my laptop while we waited, since I hadn’t had a chance thanks to everything going on that day. “Okay, here’s the signed order,” he said. Everyone received a copy of it and our attorney signed off that it was legal. “What the hell happened?” “I didn’t have help from Tessa until the end. I am the one who killed those people, I’m the one who shot and de-aged the others, and I’m the one who managed to bring an end to everything.” You could have knocked the DA over with a feather then, “How the hell…?” He paused and frowned, “Agent Cranton… he helped you clean up, didn’t he?” I nodded, “He proceeded through the investigation as if I was a member of the Hellcats,” I told him. “Are you?” I shrugged, “Even if I was, I couldn’t tell you.” I wasn’t, but there had been some mysterious contacts coming in recently that seemed to be vetting me for that. Either way I wasn’t lying from the few contacts I’d had with the recruiters. He shook his head, “Can I hear this recording?” “Mommy, can I get you, Daddy, and Bella to go somewhere else? Grandpa and these men can stay?” “Why don’t you want us here?” Amanda asked. I tilted my head down, “I’m not proud of this.” She put her finger under my chin, “But I am, you saved yourself and your sister here. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Maybe Bella should go though, Fred?” She asked him. “No,” Bella said in the most forceful voice I’d ever heard her make. I looked at her in shock. She was the most easy-going member of our family even before losing her faculties. “I don’t want to trigger…” I said. She reached over and grabbed my hand, “I want to know what you actually did to save me.” I sighed, “Hand me my backpack,” I told Amanda. It was sitting to her right and I pulled up an app that allowed me to reach a hidden partition I had stored the video in on my tablet. I played a version that stopped after I was rescued. We all sat for the next forty minutes listening to my escape. I felt Amanda grip onto me multiple times tighter as she realized just how bad the situation was. The DA looked at me like I had grown tentacles, and Bella… she just frowned. When we reached the confession the DA’s face changed to a grin of wonder. Bella shed more tears then and I was glad Amanda grabbed her and brought her to join me on her lap. She wrapped us in her loving arms as I dealt with the final problem with Tessa, and finally the SWAT team members arrived to help. “Holy shit, that was unbelievable…” the DA said. “If I play this in court there’s no way that they can refute it.” “Unfortunately, it does reveal that Stacy broke more than a few laws,” our attorney stated. “Which she has immunity for, as well as her parents,” he reminded us. “I have to give this to the defense so they can’t say I didn’t disclose. I’m going to hope they’ll make a deal when they hear it. I’m going to have to meet with them and the judge in the morning… Plan on being in court a bit before the time he set earlier. You’ll e-mail me that file?” I looked at the attorney and said, “I’ll e-mail it to him, and he’ll give it to you?” “Fair enough,” he said. When he was gone, I found myself being hugged to death on all sides. “I can’t believe you did all of that,” Bella said. “I’m sorry about your parents Bella,” I told her. “I always knew something like that had to have happened. I think I’d rather not know who they’re with now…” I felt bad for her, but Amanda said, “You told us all of that, but hearing it was something else. I should be spanking you for your language though!” “Hopefully I don’t end up with a university demerit for that…” I said. “You won’t, Dean Sanders agreed that anything you did while escaping was to be given immunity back when you escaped.” Our attorney told me, “I’ll be there tomorrow with you as well. Please watch your back before tomorrow Stacy, I don’t trust them to not try again.” I sighed, “I need to get my homework done now,” I griped. “You need a dry diapee first,” Amanda told me. I was changed and allowed to get back to homework while Bella was bathed and sent to bed. Her body still demanded the earlier bedtimes that were apparently normal for littles. The naps she had during the day would help her a bit, but she seemed to always need to be in bed early to avoid being a crab the next day. Fortunately, I was still able to get my homework done that night for my classes the next day. I had kept Tuesdays and Thursdays as light days for coursework this semester, and art was fulfilling an elective I needed. The course was about computer-based art and graphics. It seemed right up my alley, and was one of the few places our size difference in the class didn’t really matter. I’d just finished my first piece for this semester and would print it in the morning at Amanda’s office before we went in. I had just saved it, and backed it up in a few places to make sure I could get to it, when Amanda came in and sat down cross legged on the floor next to my desk. “You about done?” She asked. “With tomorrow’s at least… I’d wanted to get stuff for Friday done too, but that sure didn’t happen…” She motioned for me to come over and I obliged her, letting myself be wrapped up in her arms. “You know, you told us what you did… but hearing it was a completely different experience. I don’t think I really let myself believe that you had to fight that hard to get away.” I nodded, “I guess now you know why I keep getting the nightmares?” She squeezed me tightly, “I already had an idea of that.” They had started to slow down in frequency, but it was a near nightly occurrence for me to wake up it seemed the first few weeks. I’d slept a lot in her arms in the rocking chair, though it had gotten better when we managed to heal Bella. I had no doubts that hearing the audio today was going to make it another bad night. “I love you more than you can know Stacy. I’m so glad that you came here, and I’m so glad that you escaped the fate Nimitz wanted to put you through,” she added. We cuddled for a good long while before she said, “Bath time.” She had been doing less for me the past few months, but that night she did everything as far as undressing me, carrying me, washing me, and finally nursing me to sleep. I felt more loved than I could ever explain to anyone. AMANDA HAD JUST picked me up from our weekly brainwashing session, otherwise known as the littles seminar, when her phone rang. She dug it out of her purse and said, “Hello?” I could just hear the other person speaking, hearing them announce that it was Finch, the DA. “Listen, we still want you to show up to court, but after receiving a copy of the audio recording the defense agreed to a plea bargain. The judge also sealed the recording from being released to the public based on Stacy’s status as a minor.” ‘A minor?’ I griped again, but remembered I was legally since I was adopted, and in this case, it was probably a good thing. “So, Stacy isn’t going to have to testify today?” she looked at me with a smile on my face. “She shouldn’t?” he paused, “I want her to be here just in case it’s a ruse.” “We’ll be there, we’re on our way now,” Amanda said. “So, it’s over?” I asked her. “Maybe, let’s wait and see…” We were shown into the gallery of the courtroom when we arrived and the court was called to order soon after that. “You wish to change your plea Doctor Nimitz?” The judge asked. “Yes, your honor, I wish to plead guilty.” “No one has coerced you in any way? This is a choice of your own volition? You do understand that the court will immediately proceed to sentencing without completing this trial?” “Yes, your honor,” he said. “Very well, the court accepts your guilty plea. I understand that you and the DA have worked out a sentencing deal?” “Yes, your honor,” Finch said, “We submit that Doctor Nimitz should serve a sentence of no less than fifteen years, and no more than twenty-five years in a maximum-security facility.” “Your client agrees to this?” The judge asked. “Yes, your Honor,” he said. I watched as the judge looked at the papers that had been handed to him, and then out into the gallery to me. “Ms. Westerfield?” He asked, “Would you please come to the stand.” I looked at Amanda and Fred in confusion but made my way forward nervously. I looked up at him, “Yes your honor?” “I believe you have more of a right than most to have a say on this agreement, do you think it’s fair?” I looked at him leaning across the bench down at me and shook my head, “No your Honor, this man regularly sexually abused women, removed their ability to think and communicate their needs or say ‘no’ about being impregnated, and removed their ability to do anything other than serve him or others like him. I do understand that this society believes littles should ‘know our place’ and be the good babies that our size makes us seem to be. The problem with that, is that men like Doctor Nimitz aren’t driven by noble intentions of helping poor littles survive in the big world, instead they’re driven by greed. There’s a good number of Amazons out there who truly love their littles and take care of their every need... It’s smothering, but at least it’s done in a loving manner. I see too many ‘parents’ though that are all about humiliating and treating their littles as pets and objects to be abused for some reason. If he did what he did to real babies our size… would he be only serving that sentence? I doubt it.” “What would you propose?” He asked me. I shrugged, “I’ll be honest, I could have killed him if I wanted to. I don’t think anyone would have faulted me! Instead I let him live, but now the question of what to do with him is left to the justice system to determine what is right. Personally… well I know the shrinking technology exists. Making him become a little, a girl at that, and adopting him out? That seems to be almost more just than anything else. Perhaps performing most of the surgeries to him that he did to the others?” “An eye for an eye, huh?” The judge asked. “Your Honor, you’re not seriously going to entertain not abiding by the plea agreement?” Nimitz’s attorney asked. “Yes I am. The defendant will rise,” he ordered. “Your crimes were heinous, abusive, and immoral to a level that the court cannot adequately dispense justice. The pictures of your lab alone make my stomach turn! You have plead guilty with an agreement with the prosecution… However, I am in agreement with this young lady that the agreement doesn’t go far enough to punish your heinous crimes. You are hereby sentenced to be medically shrunk to four-feet in height and given a gender correction treatment. Your teeth will be removed and your body restricted from walking.” “YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME!!!!!” Doctor Nimitz wailed. “ORDER!” The judge shouted. “Additionally, your speech centers will be altered to that of an eighteen-month-old. You’ll be able to let your new parents know that you need a change, you’re hungry, you want your stuffed bear, and that’s about it.” He paused, “Take her away, court is adjourned.” I watched as he was hauled off and I stood awkwardly where I’d been asked to. “Ms. Westerfield?” The judge asked as he descended the stairs from his bench and knelt down in front of me. “Yes, your honor?” “I’d like to shake your hand if I might, I’m truly impressed by you.” I reached my hand out and accepted his large hand enveloping mine, “If you ever need anything let me know. I hope this matter will be behind you now.” I smiled at him and said, “Me too!” before rejoining Amanda and Fred, finding safety and warmth in Amanda’s arms. Epilogue: “NO MATTER WHAT, keep your dreams alive, because without them you’ll never remember your destination!” the speaker finished the traditional commencement speech for our graduation at Emerson University. I looked around and could see the rows and rows of graduates behind me rising to their feet. Well, sort of – the huge TV screens that hung around the large indoor facility showed pictures high enough in the air that I could see them above the platform. I had managed to reach graduation and was enjoying the accolades that came with that distinction. They began calling names, with mine being the seventh of those. “Stacy Slane Westerfield – Bachelor of Science in Computer Science – Magna Cum Laude!” I took my awkward stroll across the front area of the podium to receive the diploma that was actually almost as large as I was. I was so excited to have managed to make it to that stage and get that diploma, that I almost forgot to stop for my picture! “Come on Sweetie, smile for the camera!” The lady said as she pressed the shutter button and a flash went off. Something was off about the colors though, and I instantly sensed that without the protections I had, there would have been hypnotic problems from something in that odd flash. ‘Great,’ I thought to myself, ‘make it to graduation and become an instant baby?!?’ “Congratulations,” Dean Sanders told me with a pat on my head as I passed by her to leave the platform. “Thank you, Dean Sanders,” I told her with a smile. I impulsively hugged her legs right then, probably making every little wonder what the hell was wrong with me! As much as she was an evil woman, she had been kinder to me than I would have expected over the past few years. I figured it would also distract her from the lack of effect of the flash on me! She awkwardly patted my back and I continued back to my seat and enjoyed a quick view on a TV screen of her still stunned face. As I sat down, I quickly got on my phone and sent a message to every little that was graduating that day. ‘The camera for your photo is rigged with something, close your eyes when they take it or something bad will happen!’ I was careful not to be seen as I sent it, but grateful that as littles came across the stage it seemed everyone followed that advice. There were only thirteen littles from my class that had even made it to graduation - ten of them were my Lambda Delta Pi sisters. One odd boy managed the feat, but he was also almost a betweener in height with a full beard, so I think that helped him seem less adoptable. The other girl constantly looked on edge and was as skittish as a mouse, but managed to hide and blend in well enough to keep out of trouble. When everyone had been called to receive their diplomas, the university president spoke for another moment. He gave us our final graduation speech and our hats flew through the air! I didn’t hesitate before I began hustling through the crowd to find Amanda and Fred. I had just about reached them when a tall brunette amazon girl picked me up, “Where do you think you’re going little girl? I’m sure after such a long big girl ceremony you have poopy pants! Let’s get them clean and then I’m going to have to take care of you forever!” “Put me down,” I told her, “My mommy is right there and if I do need a change, she’ll do it!” “Your mommy?” the girl asked, “What a load of shit – just like your diaper’s filled with!” I sighed but used a technique I had learned to twist out of her arms and kicked her ankle out from under her. I didn’t look back to see the broken ankle as she screamed in pain behind me. I had graduated, and therefore the code of conduct no longer applied on either side. I ignored the stunned stares of those around me and just skipped to Amanda and put my arms up in the air to signal I wanted to be picked up. Beside her Fred held Bella, and Megan held an adorably dressed Meg. The wet diaper under the skirt of her dress peaked out just a bit with the way Megan held her, but I knew neither of them cared at this point. It had been startling to me, and more than a bit confusing, when Meg had decided to suddenly begin seeking a safe adoption that last fall of our studies. She agonized over if she could pick someone instead of the other option of ending up in the university daycare or the volunteer service. She enlisted my help and we found a legal loophole that would allow her to do so. At that point we had agonized on who could do it, but eventually I had suggested Megan. She’d graduated two years earlier, had a good job, and a small house with an empty bedroom. Meg tended to be called Meggy more these days just to make discerning the two easier. She was diapered, and somewhat babied, but she was more like Bella or myself in that she was able to do whatever she wanted to at home. Really Megan and Meg played more video games together than engaged in a true mommy and baby relationship! There had clearly been no future for her living on her own though, and I was glad that at least it seemed to be working out for both of them. Megan had been the tougher party to convince as she had been so against adopting a little. In the end ‘best friends’ with mothering duties to save her from kidnapping by a crazy mommy had to suffice to convince her. Last month I knew Megan had even agreed begrudgingly to nurse Meg when she hadn’t stopped pestering her about trying it. I suspected her leaking boobs hadn’t left her with much choice though! “Congratulations, sweetie!!!” Amanda said as she scooped me up and squeezed me tightly. I enjoyed the attention of my adopted family as we stood around, and I was passed from one member to another. I said a number of tear-filled goodbyes to a few friends and sorority sisters who saw me on the way to the car. I was sat in the car seat for what I knew would be my last moments with my family. Amanda took the chance to change my diaper on the back seat of the car when we arrived at the portal. “I’m going to miss you so much!” She told me as she hugged me tight. “I’m going to miss you too,” I told her. We could, and would still take time to talk via the dimensional portal we decided, but my student visa was up the day I graduated – today. If I stayed any longer, then I wouldn’t be able to walk back through the portal ever again due to violating immigration laws! Fred took my bags, while Megan carried Bella and Meggy on her hips. The two of them had become good friends over the past few years. Meggy had been constantly coming over to our house to work with me on homework and to get away from the crazy dorms up until she gave up being a student. She had been stunned when she realized that Bella had been allowed to sew anything she wanted in a secluded room in the house. Almost all of our clothing was made by her in the last year! Secretly she was building her business back up too under a special work permit that Grandpa Joe had somehow helped her get. Granny and Grandpa joined us at the doors to the portal. The automatic doors opened with Bella and Meggy setting off the alarm sensors… but not me. We had never fixed the Venture removal of the tag. It had been risky, but it saved us questions now. Once both were verified to be Amanda and Megan’s littles, we were allowed proceed to the departure counter. I went through a similar process of going through an airport check-in. My family was able to walk me to the security lines, but only Amanda could pass that point with me. “I love you all,” was all I could say through my tears. “I’m going to miss you all!” I told them and hugs were exchanged all around. They had handed me a few small presents that I quickly added to my luggage. I would discover back home that they had given me little jewelry pieces, pictures, cards, and a couple of small stuffed bears. Once it was all stuffed inside a bag, Amanda walked with me to the security scanners. My luggage had to be searched by hand due to electronics being present. It was strictly prohibited to take computers and the technology from this dimension back home. As far as they could tell though the only electronics that I had in the suitcase were the ones I brought with me… I giggled at that when they let everything through though. The computer chasis of my laptop was the same that I brought four years prior, but the laptop I was taking home had nothing in common with that old clunker! Once through security a couple people stared at me dressed up still in my uniform and graduation gown. “Did she just graduate from pre-school?” One of the security guards asked us as we waited to put me through the portal. “College actually,” Amanda said and the man had a look like a fish for the moment I cared to look at him. As we neared the actual portal there were very few bigs to be seen. Most of the people were littles and mids, like I remembered when I’d arrived four years prior. The visa on my passport was checked and I was soon the next person in line to walk through. “I love you so much Stacy, I’m going to miss you!” Amanda said giving me a big hug. “I love you too Mommy!” I told her. “Now get going home so you can get on with your life and your future,” she told me. My face was tear streaked as I left her and began walking through the portal. After a bright flash I found myself back on my home side of the portal. I shook my head for a moment and looked up at the person ahead of me. ‘Looked up?!?’ I thought to myself. I felt my gut wrench and an ice-cold feeling in my veins as I looked around at the other people waiting in line at the customs desk and realized they were all taller than me. I nervously approached the customs table where the lady looked at me, “What’s with the gown?” “Err… I just graduated from college a couple hours ago, heading home.” “College?” She asked stunned taking in my appearance, but then shook her head and said, “Passport?” I handed it to her and she looked at the two visa stamps, “Wow, I haven’t seen anyone stay that long in the other dimension and return before! You were at college you say?” “Yes ma’am,” I said politely. “Why does your passport say you’re 5’10” and male?” I sighed, “Long story, it is my passport.” I handed over some other documents, “Here is some information from a doctor there to verify the changes.” “I get the gender change… I don’t have a problem with anyone transgendered, but what’s with the height?” I shrugged, “Like you said, I was there a long time. Does anyone really understand the physical effects the portals have on people?” She shrugged, “True…” “Well I’ve seen stranger returns from that dimension. Have you brought anything back with you that you need to declare?” I didn’t have much, but I showed her what she asked about. As far as they were concerned there wasn’t much that they worried about people coming back. She didn’t say anything when she saw the packs of diapers that I’d packed inside to be safe. I was looking forward to getting to somewhere I could measure myself though – I definitely wasn’t 5’10” anymore! As she cleared me, I didn’t hesitate in hurrying as best I could with the cart of luggage, I had to the security gates outside. I saw my Mom and Dad and was a bit dismayed that they didn’t spot me at first. “Mom!!!” I said and ran to her to hug her. “Stacy?!?” She asked, “Shouldn’t you be taller?” “I should be…” I told her with a frown. She hugged me nonetheless and it brought home the fact that I was now significantly shorter than Mom. The top of my head only barely reached my mom’s chest. Disregarding my shrunken height though, Dad and my grandparents took turns wrapping me in tight hugs before we made our way out of the station and out towards the car. My Dad and Grandpa took care of carrying my luggage and I found my mom’s hand wrapped around my own as we walked to the car. I noticed several sharply dressed men and their eyes following us as we left. At the car one of them approached, “I’m Agent Kraft…” he said to me while flipping open a badge. “Stacy,” I said politely, “What can we do for you?” “I’d like you to come with me…” he said. “Not likely,” I told him and stepped closer to my dad and grandfather. “We can make your life very difficult…” he said, “we just want to insure…” “No, I’m not going with you, and I’ll deal with you harshly if you push it further,” I added. “No, you won’t…” he said. “You can’t do anything to me or any of us…” I took a second and got out what looked like my old phone. I quickly clicked through some shortcuts I had preprogrammed fearing something like this, and said, “I can’t? Agent Kraft? You live at…” I proceeded to give him his life story in a quick summary and his eyes widened. “I managed to graduate from Emerson in that dimension. You might say I think I’m smarter than anyone in this dimension at this point. Information is a powerful thing that I can do a lot with!” I smirked at him, “We’re leaving now, have a good day sir,” I told him. “Let’s go!” I said again. He moved out of the way and I stayed hugged protectively hugged in Mom’s arms standing next to her as Dad took care of the luggage. The agents glared at us from a distance away while Kraft called on a phone. When Dad was done loading everything I climbed into the back with my mom and grandmother and we drove to our house. Throughout the ride home Mom kept her arm protectively around my shoulder, probably afraid I wasn’t real, or would disappear again! Every now and then she would tuck a hair back into place on my head. We’d styled my hair into a really pretty updo for graduation that would have made any teenager look older. Amanda had used some pretty crystal topped pins and pearl combs to hold it in place. I was pretty sure in the other dimension it had made me look cute and like the equivalent of a Toddlers and Tiara contestant, but I loved that Amanda had spent so much time on it! It was like a last gift from her really… I felt a tear in my eye thinking of my goodbye to her, knowing I would never again go back to that dimension to be hugged by her. ‘I can’t afford to shrink anymore…’ I reminded myself. Back home finally, after four years, my dad carried all of my stuff with my mom leading me to my bedroom. There I received a big surprise! Mom had spent time redecorating it to look right for a teenage girl, as opposed to the boy décor that had been there before. She had placed a full-length dressing mirror on the back of the door and I stared at my image. I definitely didn’t look like the college bound boy who had left home four years prior! I stripped the graduation gown off my body and looked like I was about ten or twelve at most in the school dress I wore. My face had changed some during the trip, leaving me looking younger in the face again – not a baby, but definitely not a teenager! The lack of shape of breasts only reinforced that I looked like I was an elementary school girl rather than an adult! Dad showed up with a tape measure, “Umm… Stacy, why don’t we check and see how tall you are?” I nodded and stood against the door, knowing I was probably getting an extra inch from my shoes. “Take your shoes off?” Mom suggested. I sighed but reached down and pressed on the hidden release of the shoes and smiled that the portal officials hadn’t caught onto my shoes or knives hidden therein! They slid off my feet and I groaned at the loss of height of another two inches. I put them to the side and stood against a wall that my dad pointed to. He pulled out the end and pushed it to the ground while measuring the top of my head. I felt him push down on my hair and said, “Hey… don’t mess up my hair please Dad.” “Sorry sweetie, but I wanted to get an accurate measurement. With your hair you would be four foot four…” I groaned, “Without my hair?” “You’re only four foot two,” he told me. I felt tears then and Mom embraced me, “I’m sorry honey…” “What the hell happened?” Dad asked me after I calmed a bit. “Shouldn’t you have returned to the same height as when you left? We did on our trip!” I shrugged and sighed, “I think it’s probably a side effect from the nanites,” I told him. “I’ve seen them shrink people when you do changes with them… It never really did anything to me in that dimension though… I’m guessing my body is this way for at least the foreseeable future…” “Can’t you use the nanites to grow?” Grandpa asked. I shook my head, “No, unfortunately not right now… it’s an energy problem. The same reason I shrink if I adjust them too much, the energy has to come from somewhere.” I was so concerned about my size I almost forgot about other needs. Luckily mom’s instincts caught my problem, “Umm… Stacy… do you have a diaper on?” I jolted, ‘of course I did?’ I blushed as I said, “Yes?” “I think it needs changed,” she told me. I sighed and realized that I had left the dimension fully potty trained with an extra foot and a half… oh and I was male before. But those facts seemed to be in the past! All that mattered then was the pee that was dripping down my tights clad legs from the leaky diaper. Mom shooed everyone else out of the room and stood there as I moved towards where Dad had sat my backpack down on a dresser. I opened the bag and discovered to my relief that the diapers seemed to have at least sized up to my current size when I came through. I had known that potty training wasn’t likely to happen in the other dimension. While I’d been living with Amanda and Fred, I just hadn’t put a lot of effort into it. My junior year I’d almost lost control of my bowels too, but just barely nipped that in the bud. One day I had just left the classroom of a class when I’d had a poopy accident! It hadn’t happened until I left, but I’d been about three seconds from major demerits! I’d put more work on that side after that at least! But I hadn’t really stopped to pee in a toilet in four years, so I wasn’t stupid – accidents were definitely in the forecast! “You have more diapers in there?” Mom asked from the edge of my room. “Yes,” I told her. “You want help?” She asked nervously. I looked at her and knew that my four-year absence had to have nearly killed her. Then add to that I wasn’t the same person I was when I left… I shrugged, “Sure,” I looked around, “Here?” She grabbed a towel from the hallway really quick and laid it on my bed before patting on it. I took the hint and handed her the diaper and wipes before lying down. She pulled the wet tights I was wearing off, the skirt of the dress I had on up, and then ripped open the diaper. “Haven’t done this in a while…” she said. I smirked, “that’s what I thought the first time…” She wiped me carefully, exchanged the old diaper for a new one, taped it and then sat me up as the doorbell rang. “Who is it?” I wondered aloud. I didn’t have time to wonder though because Mom had barely walked out the door to figure out what to do with my wet pamper when Gabby walked up the stairs. I stared at her and she asked, “Do you know where…?” Her jaw dropped, “Wait…” she breathed in, “Stacy?!?!” I smiled, “Hi Gabby,” I told her. She walked towards me and embraced me in a hug, “I thought you were going to return to your old height when you came back?” I laughed, “Me too…” The two of us talked for a long while that night, and over the course of the couple days she accompanied my mom and I shopping for a new wardrobe for me. Most of what I had brought home fit without any problems, the issue was that it was mostly meant for a babied little. Crotch snaps and short dresses with bloomers hardly seemed appropriate for a girl who appeared to be nine or ten. We had settled on being generous and saying ten… A week after I returned, the portal agents came to our house and attempted to basically badger our silence. “You seem to think you have the upper hand,” I told them across our dinner table. “We have way more money and power than you do,” an older gentleman said as if educating a young child, the facts of the world. “Money? Probably… Power…?” I smirked, “Not so much.” He gaped at me then, “How could you ever think to match us? We have…” “Nothing really, not when certain files, and a documentary, that I’ve prepared on the treatment of visitors and littles in that dimension gets out to the public.” “You’d never be able to…” I laughed, “You realize I went to that dimension to study computers, right? And, I received a degree from one of the most cutting-edge universities there.” I smirked, “I already have fail-safes setup both with physical copies and digital copies prepared to automatically be delivered to media companies, politicians, and just straight to several thousand website pages if anything happens to me.” “Bullshit!” a younger man said. The older man motioned his hand at him though, “My associate in the dimension mentioned you were not an insignificant foe. What will it take to keep you quiet?” “Leave me and my family alone. If you want to help me blend in, and avoid drawing attention to your slavery operation, get me some documentation that says I’m some sort of child prodigy who has graduated high school and college. A new birth certificate and social security card would be nice, but I don’t have a real desire to get into a mix with you. If I don’t make contact with people and devices regularly though, the information gets sent. I would just leave me alone if I were you…” The older man looked at me and nodded, “Fair enough, you’ll have your documentation. Fail to keep your silence though and we’ll be coming after you and your family and sending you all back to the dimension. My colleagues at Venture could use some new stock…” I changed my mind on tactics then and leaped over the table, pulling my knife out from my shoe and holding it to the man’s throat. “Do you know what I did to the last men from Venture?” He looked at me with fear in his eyes and I moved the knife closer to his throat to make my point to his other two associates who were rounding on me. My dad was shouting in the meantime and I said, “Enough!” I smiled at the man, “Did I make my point? If you ever try to threaten my family again, I will end your life.” “Understood…” the man gasped. I stood up and walked to the door and opened it for the men to leave. “Stacy what the hell was that?” My mom yelled at me. “Mom, Dad… I guess I need to tell you more about my time there than I told you…” THE MEN WERE as good as their word, and I soon had a new birth certificate. The only thing about it that I didn’t like was that it said I was eight years old. I think they did it to tweak me a little in revenge! The diplomas were real enough, but the problem was no one would accept them once they saw me. I began just doing work online like a little would back in the other dimension. I mostly refused to speak to clients, which was odd to many but I quickly gained a reputation as an amazing coder. The software projects I was putting out were quickly making me, and my family, very rich! In particular I was developing AI systems for all sorts of industries that were so powerful they could all but think for themselves! I stayed in contact with Amanda and Fred off and on over the proceeding years. One of the first conversations a month after I left was a little bit awkward though, “So Stacy… what did you do to your cousins?” I batted my eyelashes innocently, “What do you mean?” “This past weekend when we met at my parents’ house… they could all walk again, had teeth, and could talk intelligently. My sisters were kind and absolutely showering them with affection… What did you do?” I had smirked, “I just did what I could do to heal everyone.” I didn’t give more information to her, especially over the unsecured connection at the portal, but I had managed to inject all of them with nanites to repair the damage done to them at our last family gathering. I’d programmed a delay though so I’d be gone before any consequences! I’d also taken Bella’s parents project of making Amazons imprint on their littles to a new level, and given that set of those nanites to Chloe and Cassie, along with their husbands. The two of them would have had no choice but to actually love their ‘babies’ and not hurt them or mistreat them anymore. In the coming months I heard that family gatherings had become a lot more peaceful! As much as I wanted independence from my parents, I had to accept that there was no way I could move out now that I appeared to the world to be a kid again. I appeared to the world a girl mid-way through elementary school at best. Mom seemed to enjoy having a daughter my supposed age to play with, go shopping with, and even forced me to do things like gymnastics and dance. Well, that actually wasn’t too much forcing as I had a lot of fun learning how to do both of those! We had to switch studios about once a year so that no one would get suspicious over my appearance not changing. The biggest problem with those classes though was that my potty training was a continuing disaster. No matter what we tried, I could not seem to regain my urinary continence! Further I seemed to miss with number two accidents at least twice a week… One doctor had suggested that the estrogen shot Fred said I needed to start my puberty might help matters. He based it off the idea that bedwetting tended to end in puberty for those who struggled. Sadly, nothing happened after six-months of monthly and weekly shots, other than I would get violently ill and moody! My body refused to start growing, filling out, or to start up my reproductive system. Eventually I gave up and agreed with the doctor that I might look like I was nine years old for the rest of my life. The only positive thing was that he thought that might be indefinite… like I might live for a couple hundred years or more longer than I should! We tried some different options for protection to deal with my problems when my diapers from the other dimension ran out. GoodNights and UnderJams were the right size, and more discrete, but even my smaller leaking accidents would overwhelm them regularly. I hated having wet marks on my clothes or bedding from the embarrassing leaks! The smallest youth and adult diapers fit, but just barely as I was really skinny now. They would come up nearly to my chest due to their being too big. I also hated the clinical way they looked, after being used to cuter diapers in the other dimension too! Just before I left, I had discovered the ABDL community and began looking to see if they had any answers. I knew they had companies making cute diapers for adults and searched all of them. Sadly, they were all made way too big to fit me. To my surprise though searching one of those boards though I saw a really crazy suggestion that the largest size of baby diapers might fit someone larger than my size. Being under 60 pounds the largest Pampers was a cuter option, and because I was skinny, they actually did fit pretty well and worked infinitely better! Most adults were pretty good about not calling out my diapers… About once a week though we would hear some comment about, ‘how sad that her mom hasn’t even potty trained that girl!’ or ‘Diapers? At that age?’ Inevitably one of those parents would brag about their daughter being potty trained before she was even two. It was one of the biggest differences in our dimensions really. Back in the other dimension they might heckle, but it was expected that a girl my size there would be in diapers. Here, my size meant I was an outcast since I had to wear diapers. Over the years I became desperate to at least not have to stand in a leotard with a diaper’s edges showing when I went out to practice. I could handle the little girl part, but the diapers needed to go! I began looking at the one resource I still hadn’t tried – the nanites. They were still active in my body and I knew I could do some changes with them still. I theorized that there might still be a buildup of the one protein from nursing from Amanda for so long? I started programming the system to remove that again if so. I also researched and discovered a couple other points in my nervous system that might be malfunctioning and causing the problems. That was how seven years after I’d returned home, I told my mom I was going to try it. She too was desperate to help me get rid of the diapers and the rude comments, and encouraged the attempt. Using the large account that I had developed I hired a nurse to come and help hook me up to a special nutrient solution I calculated would be necessary during the change so I wouldn’t shrink again. Late one afternoon Mom and the nurse watched as I pressed a send button on the computer screen with the code and waited for the jolt that had usually accompanied an edit. It came, but it was a lot more than a jolt! I panicked and screamed as my body twisted in shock and pain for several long moments. Mom stayed back as I’d instructed her. I knew instantly that something had definitely changed with the update. I MUST HAVE passed out for just a second, but instantly feared what had happened when I looked at mom’s wide eyes looking at me. I sat up on the floor and was shocked to realize my head was now nearly at my mom’s chest level with half of my body still on the ground! I looked down and realized that the diaper I had been wearing had completely split apart, as had the clothes that I had been wearing. “Are you okay?” Mom asked me worriedly. “I don’t know…” I told her as I tried to stand up awkwardly assisted by the nurse. As I stood, I caught my reflection in the mirror of my bedroom and gasped! I actually had to lean down to look at my face, and looked around at my nude body in complete shock! Mom looked up at me worriedly, “Stacy, are you okay?” I looked down at her and said, “How tall am I…?” “Taller than me… that’s for sure,” she told me. I hadn’t been taller than my mom since before I left to go to the other dimension, so it was more than a bit disconcerting as she offered me a bathrobe that marginally covered my body. I was very thin, but had suddenly grown proportional breasts that looked a bit small on my frame. The nurse left once she was reminded of the NDA, and Mom stood on a short step-stool to determine how tale I was now. “Almost seven-feet,” she said in shock. “Where am I going to find clothes…?” I couldn’t help but wonder. “You’ll probably have to have everything made for you sweetie,” she told me. Right then I felt a sensation in my bladder and realized that I needed to pee! I hurriedly took a few large strides down to the bathroom, but felt a piddling sensation down the inside of my legs just before I sat down. “Oh no,” Mom said, “It didn’t work, did it?” I shrugged, “I think it did actually, I’m just not used to feeling a warning anymore…” So began three hard weeks of potty training, dealing with a first period, and getting in special ordered clothes to fit my frame. I had called Amanda and Fred not long afterwards and listened to a scathing rebuke from Amanda, “What were you thinking? What would you have done if you’d shrank instead?” “I had to do something…” had been my response to her. Fortunately, nothing bad seemed to have come out of the experiment, and instead I seemed to be a normal adult woman now. Well, normal except the freakish height. Now that I didn’t look like I should be bound by laws for minors I began pushing forward with my company ‘Regulated Intelligence’ even further. My understanding of AI continued to grow beyond even what had existed in the other dimension. It meant that my company was the leading firm for several industries that licensed our technology. The wealth I built up from it all had quickly placed my name into the most elite of billionaires around the world. I took care to give as much of it away as I could each year though, and had a number of charitable endowments across the globe that I had set up. Over time I had reconnected with Gabby and learned that she and I had never hooked up in high school for a reason, she hadn’t been interested in the male me. Female me though… A year after we both learned we had feelings for each other we were married and looking at one of us carrying a baby. “You should be the one,” she told me. “Why me???” I asked her incredulously. “Who has more experience with babies?” I glared at her, but nothing had changed that conversation! My arm was twisted and the guilt turned up that I should go first in creating our little family. A little over a year later I decided she would most definitely be next because I wasn’t doing that again! I delivered a beautiful baby boy, “What are you going to name him?” Dad asked me. “Not Stacy!” I told him! After some debate I did compromise with the family name though. Little Connor Stacy Slane, couldn’t have been a more beautiful baby I decided as I nursed him a few weeks later at home in a rocking chair. “You look natural like that,” a video screen with Amanda showed. “Thanks Mommy,” I told her, “I think maybe I understand a bit better now how you used to feel.” “That’s just what Bella says too!” She said to me with a smile. Connor started to cry and a quick sniff told me why, “I’ve to got to go. Tell Bella I love her! Love you!” As I changed the poopy diaper, I reflected that unlike Amanda, I had no desire to change those forever! Staring into my baby boys’ eyes Gabby came and hugged me as we watched him go to sleep in his crib. “Better on this side?” She asked me with a knowing smile. “Much, but if you’d like to compare, I’m sure I can arrange a place for you to stay!” “It’s bad enough feeling like a kid next to you!” She kidded me quietly. I just smirked and found myself picking her up for fun like I often did. “Put me down you big bully!” She told me with a smile before we kissed. “Or what?” “Or… I’ll call your Mommy and tell her you’re coming home…” she smirked. “Only if I’m taking you with me,” I smirked. As we made love that night, I solicited the promise out of her that she was up next on maternity duty. Ironically while she had a baby next, I had two more when I bore twins two years later. Our happy family grew and progressed through their normal milestones like children should. Nearly twenty years after I had made the last edit of my nanites, my son Connor came to me. “Mom, the University setup an exchange program with the other dimension. Can I go…?” I grimaced as I pictured him back in diapers. I knew better than to fight his choice, all Slane men had a tradition of adventuring after all… Finis +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thank you so much for reading/re-reading my tale! This Epilogue isn't the original one I posted, instead being a revised one that I had debated on before. I will post the original epilogue in a day or so, so that you may compare and let me know which you prefer! Please press the Like button and leave me a comment to let me know you joined me on this journey! Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this, consider purchasing it on Kindle here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XLNSGKF
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Little Hope Exchanged – Book 2 By BabySofia Last weekend I began reposting my work 'Exchanged' as the three part trilogy that I have edited it to on WattPad. This community has been very supportive to me and I wanted to make sure that I posted the edited work to this site as well. I will conclude my posts with the revised third book next weekend. ‘Little Hope’ continues the story of Stacy’s journey from ‘Exchanged.’ Stacy is a young college student who chose to travel to a new dimension to study their advanced computing technology at a prestigious university as an exchange student. Stacy thought he knew what he was getting into when he traveled, having visited before with his family, and pre-arranged a sort of Amazonian foster family to take him in. Shrinking more than he had on his previous visit, he finds himself the size of a very small Amazonian baby, instead of the near Betweener size he had hoped to be. A further misunderstanding on his gender due to his name, resulted in the need for a radical change to make him match the gender the university believed him to be, to maintain his scholarship. Having survived the initial CARES exam, now it’s about time for her to begin orientation at Emerson University and see if she can successfully attend college as one of the littlest littles on campus! Credit to PrincessPottyPants for her original story that led to the creation of the Diaper Dimension Universe. Chapter 1: Official THE NEXT MORNING, I woke up to Amanda gathering me into her arms, “Come on baby, let’s get you ready for today!” I yawned and leaned against her, “I hate waking up…” She laughed, “Don’t we all!” She lay me down on the changing table and pulled the nightgown up to see a very soaked diaper. “Hmm… I’m surprised this held out last night. But we need to make sure you’re getting enough to drink.” “Why do you say that?” I asked sleepily. “It’s a really yellow diaper sweetheart.” I thought for a second before nodding, “Yeah you’re right, I didn’t drink a lot yesterday…” She changed me quickly into a new pamper before bringing a cute sundress over to pull over my head. “I’d sure like you to help me a little bit here sweetie,” she told me with a smile as she said, “arms up.” I sleepily put my arms up and apologized, “sorry, I think yesterday just drained me really badly. It was a long stressful day.” “Yes, it was,” she agreed with me as she worked the dress down over my chest and fussed with it for a moment. “We’ll do your hair after breakfast,” she told me with a smile. I put my hand up to my long hair and was grateful she must have braided it into a light sleep braid when she put me down. Her breast milk was like the best sleeping pill known to mankind! Back home I would take hours to fall asleep, the idea that I could do it before even getting put down in the crib sort of amazed me. I blushed as I thought about the fact that I had all but begged to at least get one hit of it a day! Fortunately, Amanda seemed to accept my lack of interaction with her in the mornings as normal and didn’t push interaction. She strapped me into the highchair and brought over another me-sized mug of coffee. I looked at her questioningly and she responded, “Only at night sweetheart, so I guess that means I’ll just give you your morning coffee like I take it.” I nodded and sipped at the black liquid, letting its flavorful taste work its magic to wake me up! I was excited to see she gave me a plateful of French Toast! Of course, it was pre-cut for me… I daintily ate it with the offered fork since she had been kind enough to skip the bib again. Other than being strapped into the high chair, and the big meal, this could have been a normal breakfast back home! Fred stopped by dressed in a set of scrubs and kissed me on the head before saying, “I’ll be late tonight, I have a pretty complex surgery scheduled this afternoon. Our team will probably be at it for at least six-hours. See you late tonight,” he told us both with a smile. “Bye,” I told him. I finished breakfast, then sat patiently and watched Amanda finish hers. After she took both of our plates to the sink, she grabbed a hairbrush and began working on my hair while I sat in the highchair. “I should have worked on your hair like this before… It’s way easier to reach you!” “Umm… Is there a chance maybe we could get me a haircut before next week?” “We are not cutting off your hair,” she said looking at me sternly. “No, I don’t want it cut off – trust me it took me a long time to grow it out - I’m just thinking there has to be a style that would seem to make me look appropriately mature, but not too mature for a little going to school?” She mulled that over as she tied a ribbon into my hair. “You’re right, we should do that. Why don’t you go to the living room and take care of finishing that diaper off and I’ll pump and make an appointment for your hair?” I nodded, “Okay.” She unbuckled me, hugged me, and sat me down with a slight tap to the back of my diaper to remind me what she expected me to do. I sighed as I went to the living room and went to the other side of my playpen that was setup. I squatted and tried for a few minutes, but all I could get out was a little more pee. When she came to get me a while later she said, “You don’t smell like you went?” I sighed as she picked me up, “I think it may take me a day or two to need to get back to normal after Monday?” She nodded, “You’ll have through tomorrow, if you haven’t gone by tomorrow night, we’ll need to help you make sure you’re not constipated.” “Great…” I muttered. My wet diaper was changed quickly into a dry one and she gathered everything up for another trip out. Once I was buckled into the seat I asked, “So school clothes first, right?” “Yep, we’ve got to make sure you’re in a proper uniform before you meet the Dean.” I sat quietly and blushed as I wondered what exactly the girl’s uniform requirements were. Of course, before coming here I’d researched as much as I could about the way littles were treated. There were only a few brief chances I had to get onto the website to look at uniforms, and I honestly hadn’t paid a ton of attention to the girls. I knew as a boy it would have been basically khakis, a button-down shirt, a tie, and a blazer. The girls from what I had seen had a few options that were allowed through the year. I never looked closely, but I remember thinking it was a dress code that seemed straight from a British private school rather than an American school. Here in this new dimension it was apparent that the British influence was more prevalent for uniforms. ‘Might just have to do with the fact that it looks cute and works to get someone feeling powerless,’ I admitted to myself. The car came to a stop after about fifteen minutes, and Amanda came around for me. She helped me out of the car seat and sat me down on my own feet while extending her hand out to me. I took it and let her lead me inside a store labeled, “Jenny’s School Fashions.” “Mandy!!!!” a voice screeched at our entry. “Hi Jenny!” Amanda said letting go of my hand and hugging a lady that looked to be a tall inbetweener. “How are you doing? It’s been so long since we’ve gotten together. I couldn’t believe when you called me last week!” “Sorry about that Jenny, it really is hard to get outside of the lab most of the time. You know how obsessed I got around computers in high school…” “Boy do I ever! Nerdiest girl ever!” She said and looked down at me for the first time, “when you called saying you needed to get clothes for a little, I thought you were joking! But when you gave me her dimensions, I thought you had to be really messing with me, no way could a ‘little’ be that little! I guess you weren’t making it up though!” She smiled at me. “You still made…?” “Oh yes, I still made them. I figured it was for a doll or some sort of new robot. Hi, I’m Jenny,” she said extending her bigger hand towards me.” “Hi, I’m Stacy,” I said accepting the hand. She was smaller than Megan, but with my tiny size she might as well have been another gigantic Amazon. “This crazy lady adopted you?” She asked incredulously. I looked up at Amanda who nodded at me, “Sort of… I’m an exchange student from the other dimension. Amanda and Fred took me in as kind of a foster child I guess.” “Well didn’t you hit the jackpot? Both of you really!” She said with a smile. “But enough of that you probably have other places to go today too?” “Yes, she’s supposed to meet with her dean this morning for registration.” “Well come on back here sweetie,” she told me with a smile and led me to the back of her shop where she dug around on some racks for a moment. She pulled out a number of plastic covered garments and set them on an empty rack before turning back around towards me. “Emerson has some rather odd uniform requirements for the little girls that attend. Really the boy’s uniforms aren’t that far away from business suits, but the girls are very old school! You have three options depending on the time of the year. For the entire year you may wear these green jumper dresses, a white blouse, knee high socks or tights, and black Mary Janes or Plimsolls.” The green jumper was a dark forest green color and appeared to have a pleated skirt. It was clear that you needed a blouse to help make it appropriate with the round opening. It looked like something you would expect out of a British movie. The jumper itself looked to have a little bow accent detail on the left side of it and I had to admit I would probably look cute in it. “That’s not too terrible,” I said. “No, there are much worse sets of uniforms required by some of the schools out there,” she told me. “Some of the outfits for the littles in elementary schools in this area are just ridiculous… The university says that if the temperatures are below freezing for the highs you may switch out the jumper for a pair of these green pants,” she pointed them out. Somehow, they didn’t inspire much liking from me even though it was the most masculine bit of clothing I’d been near since I arrived! I thought the elastic waist especially made them seem more babyish than the jumper dress… “Yuck…” I heard Amanda say. “I’m not a huge fan myself. For littles the university of course insists that the pants have snap crotches for easy checking and changing, so these have the snaps all the way around the legs,” she said as she pointed them out. I felt my face turn a bit red, but I knew I really needed to get over myself there. I sighed, “You said there’s a third option?” “Yes, before September Thirtieth, and after April First of each year you may also choose to wear these gingham summer dresses,” she said as she held up a very juvenile pale green checked dress with a white peter pan collar. It was almost nauseating to look at, but I had to admit I’d rather wear it than the pants. “Those are adorable!” Amanda squealed, “I always love it when I see the littles wearing those on campus!” For my part I looked up at her and said, “Really?” Jenny laughed, “Yeah, I’m not going to lie – you wouldn’t catch me dead in one. But it at least gives you another option.” I sighed, “I guess it does. I’m assuming I have to play dress-up doll now?” Jenny laughed, “She’s perfect for you Mandy!” “Don’t I know it,” Amanda said as she leaned down and tickled me for a moment. “You have a changing room somewhere?” “We’re in it,” she said, “don’t worry, I’m closed for your appointment.” I sighed and participated in the longest clothing try on session of my life! There were six sets of everything to get me through the days that Jenny insisted that I had to check the fit on each. I pulled the first blouse on over my head and began buttoning it. The buttons were on the opposite side that I was used to so it took a moment to adjust my finger motions for it. I had just finished buttoning the buttons, when Amanda said, “Arms up!” and pulled down the green jumper over the top. “It fits perfectly!” Amanda said with a smile, “You look adorable!” A large mirror stood before me and I had to admit she was right there. It hugged my body as if it had been tailored just for me - which I guess it had. Jenny checked the outfit carefully, but didn’t feel like anything needed any alterations. The skirt fell just below the knees so that you could see just a little bit of skin between my socks and the skirt. The blouses themselves fitted well to my torso and had cute puffy sleeves that ended just below my shoulder. I couldn’t help but think there was more danger of me being accused of skipping out of my elementary school in these outfits than being thought a college student! I tried on all six sets before trying the pants on. Those weren’t nearly as form fitting as they had the elastic for the waistband like a pair of toddlers’ back home. The now damp diaper I was wearing was poufy and showed out the back of the pants; making it obvious I was diapered. At least with the jumper you couldn’t tell if I was wet or not. Next came the gingham dresses and I couldn’t help but feel like I was a doll when Amanda played with the skirt getting it to sit just right. “You look so adorable in this!” She told me. I sighed, “Yes, I know I do. What’s to stop someone from thinking I should be in the local elementary school instead of college?” “Oh, didn’t you notice the little monograms on the sleeves of the blouses?” Jenny said with a smile. I looked questioningly as she showed me one of the blouses. As I examined it closer, I could see ‘E.U.’ embroidered in flowery cursive on each sleeve. “Also, now that you’ve made sure the jumpers fit I’ll put the Emerson University shield on each of these real quick with this rapid embroiderer.” Amanda picked me up and held me to watch as Jenny put the first jumper in a hoop and lined up a laser sight on the spot of the jumper she wanted to use. I had watched a regular embroidery machine before, but hers was basically instantaneous! From the time she pressed start until it dinged was about three seconds. The Emerson University shield sat on the left chest area and said ‘Emerson University’ above it and ‘Stacy’ below it. “Wow,” I said aloud. Jenny giggled, “How have you not seen one of these before?” “I’m not exactly from around here,” I reminded her. “I use this machine for all of the mothers of the kids in daycares and preschools too. There’s actually a microchip that gets placed in the stitching that can be scanned by the automated nurseries and attendance systems.” “This has me labeled as a college student… right?” I asked nervously. “Yes ma’am!” she said to me with a smile and I watched her feed the other jumpers and the gingham dresses through the machine. “What about if I wear the pants?” I asked. “Oh, I didn’t show you the blazer, did I?” She said, “Let me find it…” A moment later I looked at the blazer thinking it would have looked right at home on Hermione in Harry Potter. It was tried on quickly before being embroidered too. “Let’s get you changed back into the jumper for your meeting,” Amanda said after she paid for everything. “I could use a diaper change while you’re at it too,” I said quietly to her. “Jenny, may we use your bathroom really quickly?” “Yeah, probably a good idea to change that wet diapee, huh?” She said with a smile and I blushed. “Go ahead, there’s a counter in there for it.” “Thanks,” she said and walked back there with me. Quickly I was changed into the new diaper, the blouse, jumper, knee high socks, and the shiny Mary Janes. Before we got in the car Amanda said, “I have to send a picture of you to Daddy and Megan!” She brought her phone out and took a quick picture before looking at the time and saying, “We’d better get a move on, Doctor Butler won’t appreciate you being late…” She practically shoved me into the car seat and strapped me in before hurriedly going to her side of the car. Thankfully we weren’t too far from the university, and after she parked, she carried me most of the way to where the Dean had his offices in the Undergraduate Student Office. She sat me down and straightened my jumper, “I’ll wait for you out here so the Dean doesn’t necessarily immediately hate you because of me.” “What?!?” I said in a hushed annoyed voice. “Just go up to the secretary and let her know you’re here for your appointment. You’re still fifteen minutes early.” I sighed, “Okay.” She gave me a pat to my backside and handed me my backpack, “This has your ID and some other information you need with you still in the front pocket. I also put a copy of your CARE scores in there if you need them.” “Thanks,” I told her. “Hopefully see you soon…” I walked to the doors of the office and was grateful they were automatic and I was able to go towards the secretary who sat at a high counter. She looked down at me and said, “Oh my God! You are so adorable!!!” “Thank you,” I said politely, “I’m Stacy Westerfield, I’m supposed to meet with Doctor Butler about my schedule?” “You’re… a… that can’t be right. How is…?” She stuttered. “Please check his appointment book?” I suggested politely, all while seeing a clear case of baby fever in her eyes. She forced herself to look down and seemed dismayed that I was indeed scheduled to see the Dean. “I see you here… you’re a little bit early. If you’ll just wait out here in the lobby, he’ll be out to see you shortly.” I smiled, “Thank you ma’am.” I walked over to the chairs and thought about climbing up them, but instead just leaned against one and absentmindedly looked through the bag. Amanda had packed two extra diapers, a package of wipes, a sealed bottle of water, and a few other odds and ends like pens and pencils she must have gotten from my old backpack since they seemed closer to the right size for me than I would expect Amazon supplied to be. I zipped it back up and threw it over my right shoulder when I heard a deep voice call, “Stacy Westerfield?” I looked and saw an older gentleman with a salt and pepper beard in a crisp suit, “Yes sir,” I said. He looked at me with a surprised look before saying, “I’m Doctor Butler, the Dean for the Computing Technologies department. Let’s see what’s going on with you and classes,” he said. He motioned down a hallway and I walked with him to a large door that he opened and found a very well-appointed office with wood furnishings. He looked at me awkwardly for a moment before asking, “Do you have protection on?” “What…?” I said not certain what he meant for a second before answering, “Oh that… yes I do.” “Just wanted to make sure before I let you sit on my furniture; it is rather expensive I’m afraid.” He picked me up under my arms awkwardly and dropped me into a large seat that practically swallowed me, before he went to the other side of the desk that I could barely see the top of. “Okay, so tell me about yourself…” “Well I’m Stacy Westerfield, I’m eighteen years old and from the other dimension.” “Were you this small there?” I shook my head, “No, I was about six-feet tall there. Not sure why I shrank…” “And why come here? You must know as a little you’re… well you’re in a little precarious position…” He chortled at his own joke there. “The computing technologies here in this dimension are at least a decade ahead of my own. I figure if I can come here and learn everything I can and take it back I’ll be able to do very well for myself back home.” “Fair enough,” he said skeptically. “You took your CAREs?” “You should have a copy?” I asked. “Let’s see…” He said before turning his head to the left and his computer and began typing quite rapidly. “Hmm… These are impressive… if you had taken these anywhere but our own testing center, I would be certain you had cheated. These scores are through the roof from what our average littles here score.” “Thanks,” I said. He looked at me skeptically, “Okay, what’s your background in coding languages?” For the next half-hour he actually picked my brain and had a much more in-depth conversation than I think either of us expected. He sighed at the end, “This is all a waste of time, you’ll be adopted on the first day of school probably and it won’t matter what I schedule you into.” “I’m already legally adopted,” I told him after thinking about it for a second. “Wait… what?” “I’ve been adopted by a host family, it’s all legal. They’re exercising their parental right to have me attend whatever schooling they feel appropriate.” He looked at me like I was crazy before digging a bit more into my file on the screen and saying; “Well I’ll be damned, Doctor Westerfield you sure as Hell don’t disappoint with crazy ideas…” I nervously sat there while he looked at me like I had two extra heads, “So may I sign up for classes?” He laughed, “You must have found the only Amazon in the world who would go along with a crazy idea like this. I’m curious to see if this works out for both of your or not… You’re right she’s chosen for you to attend here so I don’t have to worry about you being adopted the first day – but you should plan on a dozen or more attempts to do so before lunch!” I nodded, “I’m expecting it’ll happen.” “Well since you seem to be smart enough, and I shouldn’t have to worry about you instantly disappearing, let’s get you signed up for your classes… Keep in mind you may have to change some options after you take the placement tests next week…” In the end I walked out with a copy of my schedule of seventeen credit hours. MWF 8am-9am: Math 125 Calculus – 3 Credit Hours MWF 9:15am-10:15am: EECS 115 Introduction to Computer Programming – 3 Credit Hours MWF 11am-12pm: ENGL 140 Technical Writing – 3 Credit Hours MWF 3:30pm-4:30pm: CHEM 115 Principles of Chemistry – 3 Credit Hours TR 9:30am-11:00am: HIST 134 History of Amazonian Civilization – 3 Credit Hours TR 1:00pm-2:00pm: Freshman Little’s Seminar – 1 Credit Hour He had told me I needed to figure out a PE credit soon too. I asked if I could do an off-campus study in Tae Kwon Do to count, and he said he would look into that for me. He also been given my schedule for orientation events the next week. In the end I was fairly happy with the meeting as I walked out to where I could see Amanda sitting at a bench waiting patiently for me. “Well aren’t you just cute as a button?” A sweet girls voice said above me, making me cringe. I turned to see a college student with a too short shirt and skirt that from my position I could see way too much looking down on me. “Umm… thanks,” I told her. I began turning, “We can’t have a cutie like you walking around unescorted. Obviously, you must need a mommy…” Suddenly a hand reached out to grab onto my shoulder. I quickly dodged and stepped closer to Amanda, but noted she was still too far away if the girl wanted to grab me and run! I squared off to her and said, “I’m actually already adopted and that’s my Mommy over there,” I said pointing towards Amanda who had stood up. Her height was certainly above that of the baby-crazed girl and I saw her look in shock at me. “She’s telling you the truth,” Amanda said as she came over and joined me. “But she’s wearing a university uniform.” “Yes, she is, as well as protection. You’d have no reason to even try and adopt her even if she was still free, huh? The code of conduct for the university?” Amanda said. The girl stuttered and apology and turned and ran. “How many times a day am I going to get that?” I asked her. “A lot…” Amanda said with a smile and extended her hand to me. “How about some lunch at the Union and then we’ll go shop for some more school supplies. I trust Doctor Butler got you setup with classes?” “Begrudgingly,” I told her. “Actually, I don’t think he minded the idea of me taking classes so much as he thought there was less than a zero percent chance of me making it through one day unadopted… Basically meaning he didn’t want to waste his time.” She laughed, “Well I can see his point there, if you weren’t already, you would have just been adopted by that kid…” “She can’t even dress herself appropriately, how could she take care of a little?” I asked her. Amanda laughed at that as we walked away. We went what seemed fairly far to my legs, but couldn’t have been more than a half-mile to the student union. It was a beautiful old building that opened up into a food court with multiple restaurants inside. We passed several other littles who must have arrived early, or stayed over from the summer term. Most of the girls seemed to be dressed in the summer uniform, but a few wore the same more formal uniform that I had on. I noted that the uniforms seemed baggy on most of them and wondered if they knew it was a glowing welcome sign for bigs? I noticed that they looked at Amanda and me with more than a little bit of terror in their eyes. Once we had ordered our food and dropped the trays off on the table, I stayed beside it while Amanda went to find a booster seat for me. One of the littles came up to me nervously, “Hanging around someone like her isn’t good for you girl, you’ve got to run while her back is turned!” I smiled at her, “I’m already adopted by her, so running isn’t something I’ll be doing.” “But you’re in a university uniform?” The girl said in shock. “She’s letting me attend university still,” I told her with a smile. “Hi, I’m Stacy,” I told her. “Umm… I’m Sarah,” she said nervously. I looked up at Sarah and took in her appearance in the regular school uniform. Hers hung baggily from her frame, but something about her stance and eyes said she had a powerful will to stay free. She stood about a foot taller than me, but that still made her tiny by Amazon standards. Brown hair hung loosely around her face, just brushing the top of her shoulders. “So, what are you majoring in?” I nervously asked first free little I’d met since I’d arrived. “Chemistry, I’m going to be a junior this year,” she told me. She looked around nervously, “you?” “Computer Science,” I told her just as Amanda returned. “Oh, did you make a friend Stacy?” “Maybe if you don’t terrorize her too much,” I told her with a smile. Sarah looked at me with terror evident her eyes! I guessed she was worried I was going to have the living daylights spanked out of me, or that she was in danger of being swept up right there to join the family. Amanda laughed at that look, “Sarah, you are safe – as safe as Stacy is. I’m not going to adopt you because you’re within arm’s reach. Stacy is a special case and more of an exchange student. Why don’t you join us for lunch?” She suggested. I watched as she looked over at a group of other littles with horrified expressions on their faces. “Umm… I think my friends are waiting. I hope you are telling the truth…” she said to Amanda, she looked back at me, “If you really are a full-time student we’ll have to ge