AARDVARK, PLATYPUS, AND TWINKLETOES: ATTORNEYS AT LAW (SCENE 9: DESTINY'S CHILD)

[Babypants]

THE LONELY NIGHTS OF LONG AGO

“Good evening, Chief Mischof.”

As Suzie watched, two more of the girls were brought out of the house, locked into the back of a squad car, and driven downtown.

“What, no need for a SWAT team? How disappointing for you.”

Like so many in the surrounding houses, Suzie had drifted over to find out what was going on.

“Good evening, Miss Marshall,” the Chief calmly replied. “And yes, everything's under control. Just another sorority stunt, although particularly well planned and executed … a gang running around town stealing diapers off of people's front porches. Alas, the diaper service in question is a Mafia operation, and the mobster in charge is a rather nasty piece of work. Thankfully, Professor Grady is confident that he can make Spats Belmondo an offer that he can't refuse, so there are forty-one girls here that hopefully will be living to see another day.”

“Forty-one? Chief, that's virtually the whole sorority!”

“All but eleven, and the fact that five of the girls are pleading guilty to a crime of which they had no knowledge is a testament to the Professor's persuasiveness.”

“This is surreal! How did Ian get involved?”

“His was the last batch of diapers stolen. But there was a tracking device in the bag, and it led us straight here. As the saying goes, we caught them with their hands in the cookie jar.”

“I should speak with Bernice. How's she taking it?”

“All but frothing at the mouth. You know the drill: a meeting with the Dean at eight for the ceremonial dressing down, and then the three of us will be heading downtown for the court hearing.”

“The three … who?” Suzie was more than a little confused.

“Bernice, Professor Grady, and yours truly. I'm looking forward to seeing the Professor in action; this guy's got some serious chops.”

“He's … he's still here? He hasn't gone home?”

“Bernice is offering to put him up for the night. Hope he accepts 'cause at the moment I haven't got anyone who can drive him back to his place.”

“If he needs a ride, I'll take care of it.”

"Thanks, Suzie.”

The Chief looked her over shrewdly. He was good at reading people, and the more the Pi Iota Sigma house mom danced around the subject of Professor Ian Grady, the more obvious her feelings for him became.

“And thanks for helping us fend off the headhunters. Now that Grady has come to an agreement with Marilyn Marsden, I'm hoping that next week things will get back to normal around here.”

“He's hired an agent?” The news took Suzie completely by surprise. “Does … does that mean that we're going to lose him?”

“I hope not, because if he goes, Officer Canon will be going with him.”

“WHAT,” Suzie squealed; “what does the Batgirl have to do with this?”

“The Batgirl?” Walt had a huge grin on his face.

“Sorry. That's … uh … that's her nickname.”

“Pretty good one,” he conceded. “Anyway, Grady had one of the seizures that Professor Lessing warned me about. He was pleading with the girls to come together as a family, not tear each other apart, and he pulled back the curtain and let them see the mistakes that he made in Viet Nam, and how much they've cost him. And in the midst of it all, down he went. Priscilla knew what to do, so he wasn't out for very long-- but long enough for it to be obvious to anyone with half a brain that she's deeply in love.”

“But he's engaged,” Suzie protested, “and the Batgirl knows it! What is she doing?”

“Don't have a clue how it's all going to turn out,” the Chief shrugged. “But for now, why don't you go up to the house, tackle Bernice, and find out where we stand.”

. . . .

Suzie paused in the entrance and scanned the dining room. There were less than two dozen girls sitting around, most with dejected looks on their faces. A few officers were also present to maintain order, but in fact they were simply standing around: there was nothing for them to do.

“Does anyone know where Bernice is?”

“I think she's in the kitchen,” one of the girls replied in a dead voice.

“Thanks,” Suzie said as she turned away. She had been in the house many times over the years because Bernice Miller was Fraternity Row's doyenne. The house moms and dads came to her for advice, and when they had to assemble for a group meeting, it was in her dining room. Suzie had long thought it bitterly ironic that the Row's most seasoned and pragmatic parent presided over a house that was forever on the edge of academic disqualification.

“Knock, knock.”

Bernice looked back over her shoulder, and smiled when she saw Suzie. She well remembered the undergraduate who had so boldly carved a path through the male faculty during her senior year, setting a scalp hunting record that still stood twelve years later. And Bernice admired the passion with which Suzie defended the houses against all comers, her never ending crusade to compel a self-interested administration and faculty to concede that a critical part of the education preparing the child for adulthood occurred outside the classroom.

“I'll give them full marks for creativity,” Suzie giggled. “Running around town stealing diapers ranks right up there with that time the Deltas nabbed a billy goat and smuggled it into the Dean's office.”

“Or that time the Gammas released all those fireflies in the chemistry lab, then set off the fire alarm,” Bernice laughed. “I don't think the fire department has ever forgiven us.”

Bernice removed one of the baby bottles from the pot of boiling water, and tested the temperature on her wrist.

“Is there a baby in the house?” Suzie was wide eyed with curiosity.

“In a manner of speaking,” Bernice coyly replied, as she removed the second bottle.

“Oh, come on! Don't keep me in suspense! Give!”

“Professor Grady. He's staying the night in our guest room, and his girlfriend instructed me in no uncertain terms to change his diaper, feed him his bottles … breast milk, no less … and give him a good, hard spanking if he gives me any lip. Much to my disappointment, he has behaved like an angel.”

“Unbelievable!”

“Believe it. And believe this, too: inside that diaper lurks a beautifully firm, shapely ass that just cries out for a spanking. You have no idea how badly I want to put him over my knee, but for now I'll have to settle for cradling him in my arms and giving him his ba bas.”

“Unless … Suzie, would you like to nurse him? There's no one holding down the fort in the dining room, and at the very least the girls deserve my moral support.”

“I'd love to! But I don't want to surprise him; you should ask.”

“I will. But if he agrees … Suzie, I was getting him ready for bed, so right now all he's wearing is an undershirt to go with the diaper, baby pants and canvas cover. I have to warn you … there's a lot of scarring, and some of it is pretty bad. But in some ways it's the scarring you can't see that's much worse … the emotional scarring. He's had a very rough night, so he needs to be comforted.”

“Walt said that he had a seizure … that he was begging the girls to stick together, not turn on one another. It looks like he really got to them.”

“He did.”

“And yet you want to spank him?”

“Very much so.”

“I don't get it, Bernice. You say that you want to spank him, and in the next breath, that he needs comforting.”

“It looks like his girlfriend took a paddle to him last night. Bad move, that, because it instills fear. But a spanking, properly administered, absolves guilt-- and this poor guy is awash in it. He'll sleep better tonight if we can take some of it away from him.”

“Ah … so that's why you have handed out so many spankings over the years! A girl does something bad, gets caught, and you spank her not just to punish her but also to get the guilt out of her system before it takes root. That's clever!”

“It doesn't work on every girl, but it works often enough to make it worth doing. Now, stay here, and I'll check on the Professor, and see how he feels about all this.”

. . . .

“Check out the hunk,” Cindy whistled as she nudged Melanie in the ribs. “Man o' man, gimme some of that!”

The hunk was striding purposefully down the corridor, a tall, well tanned specimen with chiseled features and incredible hair. His suit was tailored, both his tie and his shoes imported.

“Forget it,” Melanie warned; “that's Hamilton Burger in disguise.”

“Oh,” Cindy groaned, her enthusiasm already deflated.

The hunk walked up to their cell, and curled his lip in a well practiced sneer. “I'm District Attorney Ballstrom; which one of you is Bjornsen?”

Tippi wearily raised her hand.

“Miss Bjornsen, we're still processing your cellmates, but the consensus of opinion is that you're the brains of this outfit. Tomorrow morning, I have the unenviable task of parading the forty-one of you before a judge, but I need one of you to speak for the others. You've been nominated, and considering that you're the only one with a rap sheet, you'd be my choice as well. You staying off the booze, or do I need to report you to your parole officer?”

The others stared openly at Tippi. Even Ruby was paying attention.

“A DWI,” she confessed. “And yes, I was well and truly smashed. I learned my lesson.”

“And you're about to learn another one. Here's the deal; it's got the standard elements: community service, which Professor Grady will set up for you at local hospitals. A fine large enough to make your parents pay attention; twenty-five hundred each has a nice ring to it. Probation until you graduate, with an interesting twist. Professor Grady is big on the idea of family, so he wants me to make all of you jointly responsible for getting the house GPA up to three point one, or you'll all be going before the judge a second time.”

Melanie audibly gasped, and Cindy turned pale. The District Attorney glared at them.

“You good with that, Bjornsen,” he barked.

Tippi nodded her head. “We can't salvage this term, but I'll commit the house to a three one starting next term”

“Works for me. Now, we get to the bit that could break this whole deal unless we work together and sell it to the judge, because he ain't gonna like it. All of you are going to become good, paying customers of Lullaby Diaper Service. You'll wear 'em, and you'll use 'em, until you graduate. The Professor and your house mom will work out the details, like who's going to wipe your fannies, where and when. Not my problem, nor the judge's. The Professor's confident that he can keep Spats Belmondo out of your hair if you agree, so are you in or out?”

“In,” Tippi acknowledged.

“Good. You will note that I am not at all curious about what motivated you to pull this cockamamie stunt, but the judge may have a question or two. I suggest that you ladies put your heads together and come up with something plausible. See you in court.”

“Shit,” Tippi muttered when the DA took his leave, “diapers.”

“A three one GPA,” Cindy moaned. “A three point one! The Titanic had better odds after it hit the iceberg!”

. . . .

Ian looked up when Bernice returned, her hands empty.

“Suzie's here, Ian. She's in the kitchen, tending to your baby bottles.”

“Well, I guess that cat's out of the bag.”

Ian could only shake his head in disbelief: how could all the women in his life treat his bottle feedings so casually?

“Look, I can't be two places at once, and the girls need me. I asked Suzie to feed you, and she's willing, but not if it will make you uncomfortable.”

“Seriously, Bernice? Seriously? I like Suzie, but I doubt if she knows one end of a baby bottle from the other. Maybe I should just go to bed.”

“After you've had your ba bas, not before. The question remains: Suzie wants to help, but will you be gracious enough to accept her offer?”

“Why not?” Ian was already resigned to his fate; if Suzie was going to tell the whole campus that he was dining on bottle fed breast milk, there was nothing that he could do about it.

“Sure. By all means. Show her in.”

Bernice turned to walk away, but then paused. “Ian, she doesn't know. Walt and I are dancing around what happened to your wife and daughter, and I'll do my best to have the girls respect your privacy, but there are no guarantees. 'Minnesota nice' is not an empty slogan, so be prepared. If the word gets out, an awful lot of women are going to offer you a shoulder to cry on.”

Bernice quietly exited the room.

“Some Secret Agent Man,” Ian said to himself, thinking about the nickname that Pris had given him. “There's not an intelligence agency on the planet that doesn't have a file on me about as thick as the Manhattan Yellow Pages, so why should the people I care about be kept out of the loop? Who am I fooling, anyway?”

Ian slammed his fist into a throw pillow, but it refused to fight back. He ached to find out who had slaughtered Nguyen, and taken Linh and Thu. All the talk about wood chippers was giving him ideas.

“Hi.” Suzie's voice was soft and tentative. She was standing in the doorway, oddly unsure of herself, clutching a baby bottle in each hand. The room was in semi-darkness.

“If you want me to leave ...”

“No.” Ian stood up, and crossed the room to give her a brief hug. “Thank you for coming. It's been one of those nights.” He led her back to the couch.

Fully dressed, Suzie was acutely aware that Ian was only wearing his t shirt and diaper. She had fantasized about this moment, but reality and fantasy were two very different things.

Setting one of the bottles aside, Suzie hesitated, then lowered her hand to Ian's thigh. Bernice was right about the scarring.

“Oddly enough, I never felt it. Oh, the round knocked me down, but I never felt it.”

Ian gently pressed his hand on top of Suzie's, and patted it with his fingers.

“Somehow, I managed to get back on my feet. One of my men was down, and I had to get to him. It seemed like a good day to die.”

In that moment, like spun glass dropped from on high, Suzie's heart shattered. Never again would she think of him as Diaper Butt, and the idea of scalping him suddenly nauseated her.

“I want you to lay with your head in my lap,” she whispered. “I'm going to feed you, then put you to bed. The Chief says that you're going to have a long day tomorrow.”

“Yeah, a long day and a long night.”

Ian stretched out on the couch as best he could, waiting for Suzie to cradle him in her arms. She slipped the nipple into his mouth, and he began instantly to nurse. The breast milk was still too sweet, but the taste no longer disgusted him. He closed his eyes, the tension beginning to drain from his limbs.

Suzie watched him, and felt his body go limp in her arms. Cradling him felt incredibly similar to cradling an infant. She wanted to ask him what it was all about, wanted him to explain how he could allow himself to be treated this way, but she didn't want to spoil the moment.

Ian fell into a light sleep, the warm milk working its magic, but he continued to nurse, gradually finishing first one bottle and then the other. Suzie knew that she should burp him, but she didn't know how to go about it, so instead she chose quietly to sit there, occasionally running her fingers through his hair.

When she spotted the pacifier, she touched it to his lips. He opened his mouth, and welcomed it as if he was embracing a long, lost friend.

Suzie did not know how much time had passed when Bernice finally returned. Together, the two women managed to get him up from the couch, and taking his weight between them, put him to bed. He was still suckling on his pacifier when Bernice turned out the lamp, and quietly shut the door to allow him to rest.

. . . .

One by one, the girls gave up the fight, and dropped to the filthy floors of their various cells. Kimberly fell asleep with her back against the wall, her head drooping. Janis Marsden fell asleep with her head cradled in Kimberly's lap, her arm lightly clutching her legs. For her part, Kimberly's arm rested lightly on Janis' back. As she slept, and without any awareness of her actions, Kimberly occasionally patted her younger sister, calming troubled dreams, and offering a measure of comfort.

[littlebopeeper]

Love this chapter.  It's funny in parts, but it is also warm and caring.  The more I see of Suzie, the more I like her.

[Babypants]

On 4/6/2024 at 1:54 PM, littlebopeeper said:

The more I see of Suzie, the more I like her

Thanks for the like.  Like Vickie in Homage, Suzie is more complex than she seemed when first you met her.  Bernice is also worth keeping an eye on.  Her relationship with Ian will prove special for them both.  

[littlebopeeper]

On 4/7/2024 at 10:14 PM, Babypants said:

Bernice is also worth keeping an eye on.  Her relationship with Ian will prove special for them both. 

Bernice is a neat character, in a really interesting profession.  It would make a great story line-- dealing with girls who are still wetting the bed at 18 and above.  A sorority that actively recruited bed wetters, maybe a fraternity house doing the same.  The possibilities are endless.  Are you planning on writing something like this?

[Babypants]

On 4/10/2024 at 12:53 PM, littlebopeeper said:

It would make a great story line-- dealing with girls who are still wetting the bed at 18 and above.  A sorority that actively recruited bed wetters, maybe a fraternity house doing the same.  The possibilities are endless.  Are you planning on writing something like this?

You're right, this would make for a great story.  I have been searching for a plot to link Ian to Bernice, Julia or Sofia in a way that would connect the two generations without settling for the usual mommy/baby boy motif.  With Ian soon to be acknowledged as a surrogate dad for the sorority, your suggestion raises some interesting possibilities.  I'll play around with this, and perhaps use Homage and Aardvark as a sounding board up ahead.  Bene grazie!

[littlebopeeper]

Thank you!  What an honor it would be to contribute something to either of these two great stories.

[CDfm]

Great chapter. 
I was actually surprised that Susie fed him the two bottles and didn’t make any attempt to scalp him. If fact it was just the opposite for her. Learning someone’s weaknesses can have a profound effect on them. 
Court the next day should be an interesting day.  I will be looking forward to seeing how it all works out. 

[Babypants]

On 4/15/2024 at 5:38 PM, CDfm said:

I was actually surprised that Susie fed him the two bottles and didn’t make any attempt to scalp him. If fact it was just the opposite for her. Learning someone’s weaknesses can have a profound effect on them. 

Thanks again.  I'm glad that you were surprised, because you were supposed to be!  The Suzie in Homage is the scalp hunter, and you see her in competition with Vickie.  But the Suzie here in Aardvark does not have a rival, and so we see a softer side of her personality-- the compassionate side.  Such is human nature. 

[Babypants]

DESTINY'S CHILD

Janis felt like the proverbial fish out of water. Since she was already a volunteer with regular hours at the hospital, there was no need for her to sit down and fill out an application form. This left her standing alone while her sisters scribbled away, many of them desperately trying to recall the courses that they had signed up for in the winter term, and the hours to which they were already committed.

The morning's events had also left her dazed. Incredibly, her “day in court” had gone just the way Professor Grady had promised it would go. Forty of her sisters would now be volunteering as candy stripers for six hours a week until they graduated. The house had to get its grade point average up and keep it up, and if they could do so over the long haul, their records would be expunged when their probation ended. And after having a private chat with the gangster who owned the diaper service, Professor Grady had assured them that they were no longer in any danger of being fed into a wood chipper.

A bus had magically materialized at the back of the courthouse, and having kept them away from the press, the Professor had brought them to the hospital to put in their applications-- and to be locked into their diapers.

Janis grimaced. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that she had lost her toilet privileges, and would be peeing and pooping into a diaper until she graduated years in the future. A diaper service truck would be pulling into the sorority's driveway every week, a humiliation that would only stop when Tippi Bjornsen, their first year Legacy, earned her diploma.

Will I lose my bladder and bowel control before this is all over? Am I going to end up in diapers for the rest of my life? And how am I going to pay for the diaper service? I don't have near enough in the bank, so the money will have to come from my parents …

Will they disown me? And what about dating? Will anyone be desperate enough to date a girl who's locked into a diaper? Seriously? I'm not like Kimberly … our very own “Fraulein D Cup!”

Looking around the vast cafeteria, Janis was thankful that there were so few visitors at mid-morning, and doubly thankful that she didn't recognize any of the doctors and nurses enjoying their coffee breaks. Her shift didn't start until three, and when she could manage a break and come down in search of a Tab, it was always closer to five.

She watched quietly as the Professor left the room in the company of Officer Canon and two more members of the staff, whom she did not recognize. It seemed likely, however, that they were all headed for the Psych ward up on Seven-- notoriously, the Professor's home away from home.

“Janis?”

Snapping out of her reverie, Janis looked at Marcia Mason, who was holding a folded slip of paper in her outstretched hand.

“I want you to go up to Seven,” the first shift charge nurse ordered, “and ask to speak with Doctor Stevenson in the Psych ward. When they admit you, give her this note, and Rita will take it from there.”

“Do you think that I'm crazy,” Janis whimpered. “Just because I stole some diapers ...”

“Well, you did put one on, complete with a pair of baby pants. But no, I most certainly do not think that you're crazy! A little too curious for your own good, perhaps, but in the broad scheme of things, about as sane as the rest of us. Still, if you're having problems … emotional difficulties … Rita is an old hand. She's not judgmental, and she's a good listener. If you talk freely with her, she can help you put things in perspective.”

Note in hand, head bowed, Janis shuffled slowly out of the cafeteria. In her imagination, there was little to choose between the walk to the elevator, and a walk to the gallows.

Her unease increased tenfold when she stole a peek at the note's contents.

Rita, this is to introduce Janis Marsden, who is a second shift candy striper in my department. Janis is one of the sorority girls with a thing for stealing diapers, and part of her sentence includes wearing and using them until she graduates. Please outfit her, including baby pants and locking canvas cover. Give three keys to Professor Grady, and give the fourth to Janis, with instructions to leave it on the desk in my office. I am hoping that she will open up to you, and that you have the time to work with her if she does. She is well liked down here, and I want to help her get through this as best I can. Marcia Mason

. . . .

“And you are?”

“Tippi Anne ...”

“Bjornsen. Yes, I see … just turned nineteen … first year student ... from New Ulm.”

Gayle Soderberg looked up from the application form in surprise. The Patient Relations administrator had put in more than five years running the hospital's candy striper program, and she took pride in selecting quality candidates-- young women with a spring in their step and a smile on their faces … young women whose boundless optimism and cheerful demeanor would brighten, if only for a moment, the lives of patients and their families in the surgical wards.

Tippi Anne Bjornsen was the first applicant in her tenure to have been convicted of a criminal offense. She had pleaded guilty to a DWI a few months earlier, and the terms of her probation required her to remain alcohol and drug free until her twenty-first birthday.

“Looking at the date,” Gayle commented with a reasonably straight face, “I'm guessing that you attended one too many high school graduation parties. The drinking got out of hand, you got behind the wheel, and you got pulled over for speeding or driving on the wrong side of the road. Does that about sum it up?”

Tippi nodded in agreement. “I was smashed. I started with vodka, then progressed to gin, tequila, scotch, and rum. I spent the next forty eight hours mostly throwing up. Before they let me go, the police gave me a bucket and a mop, and stood over me while I scrubbed the floor of my cell. Lesson learned. I haven't touched alcohol since.”

“This was late on a Friday night. Didn't your parents bail you out?”

“No. They raised me to take responsibility for my actions. I didn't get out of jail until Monday morning, when I went to court.”

“Where you pled guilty. And this morning you pled guilty again, this time for theft. Diapers, no less!”

Gayle leaned back in her chair, and studied the young woman opposite her. Tippi Bjornsen was tall and predictably blonde, but unnaturally thin. She looks like a light breeze would lift her off her feet!

Well, the one thing she won't have to contend with inside these walls is a stiff headwind …

“Janis tells me that you're the brains behind this bizarre stunt. Well, I have to give you credit: this is the most creative Fraternity Row has been in many a year. But is the notoriety worth the price that you're paying? You'll have to explain this to your parents, and you're going to spend the next three and a half years wearing diapers-- wearing them and using them. No toilet privileges whatsoever. And Tippi, our diapers are thick and impossible to conceal. Even a flared skirt won't hide the bulge. On campus, you are going to be the butt of a lot of sick jokes. Was it worth it?”

“I think so, but only because of Professor Grady … because of what he did last night, and again in court this morning, and now here. There's the family you're born into, and the family you choose. He's taught us all the meaning of family, got us to understand that we're more than a bunch of girls living under the same roof. We care for one another, and going forward we'll be there for one another. How do you put a price tag on something like that?”

“You don't,” Gayle agreed. “And it says a great deal about you … about all of you … that you have found a way to turn a bad experience into a rewarding one. Now, I see that you have not entered the hours at which you would be available; how flexible are you?”

“I want to work with one person on the staff here … Professor Grady's fiancee. I'll arrange my class schedule to fit her needs.”

“You want to work with Sarah Haikonnen? In post-surgical care?” Gayle was floored. Even for full-time staff, the oncology and post-surgical wards were the most emotionally taxing in the building. Death and its imminence hung over the hallways like a darkened shroud.

“Good Lord! Why?”

“Because I missed it.” Tippi was resolute, and it showed in the jut of her jaw and the determination in her eyes.

“Missed what?” Gayle was absolutely mystified. To say that she had never met a late adolescent like Tippi Bjornsen was to put it very mildly indeed.

“When I spoke with him during his office hours, all I saw was the diapers. I never saw the man, and I couldn't understand how any woman would want to share her life with a cripple unless she was a loser herself. But Officer Canon isn't a loser, and she's so much in love that the word doesn't even begin to describe her. And then there are the doctors here who also love him. 'What's wrong with me'? That's what I keep asking myself. How can I be so completely blind to what others see almost instantly?”

“Don't beat yourself up, Tippi.” Gayle was shaking her head, remembering the heady days of her late teens, the highs and the lows, the triumphs and the setbacks. “When you put the last vestiges of childhood in your rear view mirror, you will begin to weigh your choices differently. It's all just a part of growing up.”

“Which is painful, and scary. I'm not ambitious. I don't want to set the world on fire. All I want is to find Mister Right, fall in love, get married, and have children. I'm a small town girl who wants to have a family. I want a good man to look at me the way Professor Grady looks at Officer Canon. I want a husband whose eyes melt when he looks at our children the way the Professor's eyes become so soft when he looks at us. And I'm greedy-- I want to find Mister Right without wading through an ocean of Mister Wrongs.”

“And you think that Sarah can help you to realize your dreams?”

Tippi nodded emphatically. “She knew that Professor Grady was Mister Right when she first met him … and yes, I know that love at first sight is supposed to be a myth. How? How did she see the man when all I saw was the diapers? I want her to teach me what to look for because I need help, and I'm not going to find the answers to my questions in a classroom.”

“No … no, you won't,” Gayle conceded. She didn't know Suzie Marshall, didn't know that the two of them were on the same crusade. Both were convinced that there came a point when a human could only learn from experience. Life was the ultimate teacher.

“Is she going to be all right,” Tippi asked, abruptly changing the subject.

Note in hand, Janis Marsden was leaving the cafeteria with her head bowed, broadcasting her guilt and shame to the world.

“Janis is so fragile ...”

“She'll be fine,” Gayle answered, and she meant it. “Oh, don't get me wrong; her coworkers are going to tease her, but it will be good-natured, not malicious. Tippi, since you're going to be working here, you need to think of this place as a village. We have our friendships and our rivalries, our likes and our dislikes, and I swear that gossip flows up and down the corridors like the tides. But when one of us needs help, we come together, in the way that families so often do.”

Coming to a decision, Gayle flipped Tippi's application form over, and began writing in the empty space at the bottom reserved for her comments.

Sarah, this young lady has expressed an interest in working with you, and I believe that it would be mutually beneficial for you to mentor her. She is one of the sorority girls involved in the diaper scandal, and will be with us until her graduation. Her plea agreement includes wearing and using diapers for the duration. Put her under lock and key; keep one key for yourself, and forward the other three to Professor Grady, who will share responsibility for her with Bernice Miller, the sorority house mother. With forty- one surrogate daughters, your fiance is going to be a very busy man! Gayle Soderberg.

Gayle folded the application, and slipped it into an envelope, which she addressed to Sarah. Directing Tippi to the bank of elevators that would usher her to Sarah's third floor domain, Gayle slipped her the envelope, wished her good luck, and sent her on her way. As another of the girls slid into the chair to take Tippi's place, Gayle watched the young woman walk away. Destiny's child, she thought; truly, this one is Destiny's child.

. . . .

Approaching the door to the Psych ward, Janis looked up at the camera, and with hand shaking reached out to ring the buzzer. In a matter of moments, the door buzzed to admit her. Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, Janis entered the Psych ward, but she almost jumped out of her skin when the door loudly shut behind her. She was now locked inside the one part of the hospital she had hoped never to visit, and she was acutely aware that she could not leave without permission.

. . . .

Standing quietly in the doorway, Tippi took a moment to examine the woman seated at the desk, head down, engrossed in some report or other. One of the few things that she knew about hospitals was how heavy the administrative workload was for the charge nurses. Sarah Haikonnen, she judged, was another natural blond, but with hair a somewhat darker shade than her own radiant crown. The Finnish blood line, she knew, was far more complex than her own purely Swedish roots.

Then she looked down at Sarah's chest, and what she saw took her breath away. Even with the crown jewels safely hidden away inside her bra and nurse's smock, it was obvious that the woman had been blessed by nature. Tippi's first thought was that the Professor had struck gold, and that their lovemaking must be off the charts if Sarah's tits were sensitive to the touch of his fingers and lips, to nibbling teeth and a questing tongue.

Involuntarily, Tippi's hand drifted up to her own chest, and not for the first time, she cursed her ill fortune. She was tall and thin, neither her breasts nor her hips what she wanted them to be. She wore a 32A, and knew that a training bra would have still got the job done even as she approached the end of adolescence. But training bras didn't turn the boys on, not that she had ever been able to compete with the cheerleader types anyway. She had mastered oral sex early and practiced it often, but on her eighteenth birthday, in the one way that mattered, she was still a virgin.

The first professor she had scalped was shocked to discover her hymen still intact. Only moments before, as his knowing fingers had unclasped the hooks on her bra … feeling the straps slide down her arms-- for the first time she had felt like a woman in the fullest sense of the term. But he had paused, and she had read the doubt in his eyes when he gently asked her if she was sure … really sure.

The question had hurled her back into little girlhood: yes, she was sure. He had been gentle and caring, and he had nibbled on her breasts, not at all discouraged by the smallness of her buds. And it had felt so good!! A wave of molten pleasure had flowed from her tits to her vagina, her clit gorging with blood, and he had made love to her, the giving and receiving of pleasure. Eric had ushered her into womanhood, but she was indebted to him above all for teaching her so clearly the difference between a boy and a man. Tippi was done with boys. She wanted a man, and she wanted Sarah to teach her how to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Who am I kidding, she mused. I want the Professor, but that means standing in line behind at least four other women, maybe more. So how do I cut the queue, as our British cousins would put it? Being diapered for umpteen years will put us in the same boat … can I use that? Get him to change my diapers?

No, wait! What if I can persuade his girlfriends to let me change HIS diapers when we're on campus? Surely the Batgirl will have to go back to doing whatever it is she normally does sometime soon. There's the opening! And since I'll be locked up, kept chaste, I won't pose a threat. I'm the logical choice!!

“Can I help you?”

Tippi snapped out of it, and looking up, saw that Sarah was steadily staring at her. Wow!! Sarah's eyes were large and luminous, an unusual shade somewhere between blue and green, but when she looked at you? Tippi felt like a deer trapped in the headlights. This was not a woman to be trifled with.

And there's something exotic about her features. Eskimo, maybe? Somewhere in her blood line …

“Um … hi,” Tippi stuttered. “Gayle Soderberg … uh … down in Patient Relations? She spent me up here. Here … she, uh, she wrote a note to explain what's going on.” Tippi held out the envelope, still unopened.

Without shifting her gaze, Sarah took the envelope and slit it open with a fingernail. Pausing only long enough to scan the contents, she went back to staring at Tippi while she thought about it.

“So, you're one of the diaper thieves who have been tormenting my fiance. What is this about Ian now having forty-one surrogate daughters?”

“He's … uh … kind of taken all of us who took part in this stunt under his wing. I mean, he's protecting us from the gangster, taking charge of our probation, and maybe the biggest thing of all … he's helping us to create a sense of family at the house. We have a house mom, and now I guess that we have a house dad, though no one knows quite how that's supposed to work.”

“It says here that I'm supposed to diaper you, and take away your toilet privileges. That's easily done; when you leave this office, you will be wearing one of our hospital diapers, which are very thick ...”

“Like the Professor's,” Tippi interrupted.

“One and the same,” Sarah agreed. You'll also be wearing vinyl baby pants, and a heavy canvas diaper cover with a lock that cannot be defeated. It looks like I'm personally to take charge of diapering you here at the hospital, but pass three of the four keys to your locking cover to Professor Grady and your house mom. Are you comfortable with having my fiance change your diapers when you're on campus?”

“No!!!” Tippi found it easy to feign shock. Somewhere in the future, she was looking forward to having Ian change her diapers, but not now! This would sink all of her plans, vague as they were.

“I mean … think of the damage to his reputation! That poor man … I don't want to do anything that would hurt him!”

“What year are you in?”

“First year.”

“So, you are going to be wearing diapers for the next three plus years, peeing and pooping … you do realize that your bladder and bowel control are going to slip badly, don't you? In fact, they may vanish altogether, leaving you incontinent and diaper dependent for the rest of your life. Are you mentally prepared for this?”

“I think so,” Tippi shrugged. “I mean, realistically, what choice do I have?”

“None whatsoever. Now, what's this about me mentoring you, and the arrangement being mutually beneficial?”

“When I visited your fiance during office hours, I was blind to everything except the diapers. I never even thought about him as a man, never gave him a chance. But you were totally different. You saw the man, not the diapers, and you saw his worth. It's the same with the Batgirl … er … Officer Canon. She changes him, cleans his messy bottom, but she's never lost sight of the man, and I think it's fair to say that she worships him. What was it that the two of you saw, and that I missed? I want to meet a guy like the Professor … fall in love … get married … have a family. I want you to teach me what to look for, so that I don't make this mistake again.”

“I see.” Sarah was absent mindedly drumming the desktop with her fingernails as she considered what Tippi was saying. “And how does taking you on as a candy striper benefit me?”

“When Officer Canon returns to her duties, you will need someone to change his diapers on campus. Who can you trust not to seduce him? Any one of us could do it because we'll all be wearing these diapers and locking covers-- just don't let Professor Grady anywhere near the keys! But I want to do it, and I'll be on hand for the next three and a half years. That's a long time in which you won't have to worry about him being unfaithful.”

“True … although there are other ways to insure his fidelity.” Sarah opened a desk drawer, and removed the chastity cage. She held it up for Tippi to inspect.

“Do you know what this is,” she asked.

Tippi shook her head. She had no idea what Sarah was holding in her hand.

“It's a male chastity cage,” Sarah declared; “the male version of the medieval chastity belt for women. This ring locks behind his testicles ... his flaccid penis is secured inside this very tiny sheath … you marry the two together and insert the lock … turn the key … and voila. Just like that, you have a forever faithful boyfriend or husband.”

“Wow!” Wide-eyed, Tippi held out her hand, and Sarah obligingly passed the steel cage over for her to examine.

“This is so neat,” she excitedly proclaimed before returning the cage to Sarah. “But are you sure that he'll wear it? Have you asked him?”

“Not yet, but I'm confident that he'll agree. Ian has a problem with self-control, and he admits it, so he'll see the wisdom of wearing this in order to make the problem go away. Still, you're right that I'll need someone on campus to change his diapers. I'll take you on in this department, but you will have to adjust your class schedule to give me three hours of your time, twice a week, between seven and three. Can you do that?”

“Yes. It won't be a problem.”

“Good, then let's get you diapered, and I'll inform Gayle that I'm taking you on. She'll set up orientation for all of you, give you a tutorial on the do's and don'ts, and with the preliminaries out of the way. I'll put you to work. Welcome aboard.”

Sarah held out her hand, and the two women shook. Then, without further ado, Sarah ordered Tippi to close the door and take off her clothes. She spread a changing mat on the floor, and silently directed the girl to lie down.

Tippi obeyed without a moment's hesitation.

Sarah paused to examine her new charge. Tall and slender, with boyish hips and childlike breasts, with a bit of work Tippi could easily pass for a boy in his mid to late teens.

Or add a pair of shortalls to her bulging diapers, put her hair up in pigtails, and she'd make an adorable toddler! Now, there's something to think about down the road!

Setting her fantasies aside for the moment, Sarah got down on the floor and went to work. Tippi raised her hips to welcome her diaper, and with it a heavy application of baby powder-- heavy enough, in fact, to make her smell like a newborn. Sarah efficiently pinned the diaper tightly in place; the vinyl pants came next, and then the diaper cover.

As it happened, she had collected it from stores at the start of her shift, her plan being to lock Ian up in a new cover to which she alone would have the keys. She wanted to deal Priscilla Canon out of the equation, and this was the fastest way to do it. And as an added bonus, she reasoned that long hours in a wet and messy and possibly leaky diaper would serve to remind her baby husband to be that she ruled the roost in their relationship, and that she was not above punishing him with a nasty diaper rash.

And if I pitch it as a way for him to get back to regular diaper changes, he's much more likely to welcome the cage. And how will he like having a barely nineteen year old babysitter? A babysitter he can't screw because she'll be trapped in a locking diaper of her own? Wonder if she'd like to babysit Vickie as well … now, that would be a sight!

Sarah left Tippi to finish getting dressed, knowing that it would be almost impossible for her to squeeze the mountain of cloth, vinyl and canvas that she was now wearing into her jeans. As the girl struggled, Sarah also knew that it would quickly occur to her that she would need to buy a new wardrobe to cover her bulging rear end.

The humiliation that Tippi would soon begin to suffer every time she went out in public sent a shiver down Sarah's spine.

Tippi was still struggling with her jeans when the telephone rang. Watching the girl, a triumphant smile on her lips, Sarah was in a very good mood when she picked up the receiver.

“Sarah, it's Rita. You need to get up here right now!”

[Bluebird67]

Wow! I didn’t think I’d start to sympathise more with Tippi than Sarah! You have assembled a fascinating cast here: maybe someone should compile and post a dramatis personae.

[kerry]

13 hours ago, Bluebird67 said:

I didn’t think I’d start to sympathise more with Tippi than Sarah!

Honestly, I think that's easy. Sarah is a very unsympathetic person, IMHO. And she proves it once again here: not only does she seem to revel in revealing her sexual dominance over Ian to one of the girls in his charge (and a potential student) but she is once again—as usual—thinking only about herself. I really hope that we are getting close to the chapter (of either story) in which she gets her comeuppance and Ian realizes what a monster she is. I think that, with the sincere love between him and "the batgirl," he is thisclose to real happiness.

[CCApril]

I find it interesting that no one has asked why they stole the diapers.  There are a bunch of diapered fellows who would be happy to help with the diaper changes!

I also liked how Spats volunteered to let Ian use his wood chipper!  The wood chipper would be too good for them.

I think I will hold out on anymore judgments on Sarah until after the big reveal. Way too many assumptions right now by everyone.

Great stuff as always!

[littlebopeeper]

5 hours ago, CCApril said:

There are a bunch of diapered fellows who would be happy to help with the diaper changes!

Now that we have a diapered sorority, we need a diapered fraternity!

[Babypants]

On 5/3/2024 at 2:24 AM, Bluebird67 said:

Wow! I didn’t think I’d start to sympathise more with Tippi than Sarah!

Thank you for this comment.  I always look forward to your comments, along with CDfm, Kerry, and CC April.  You are the trip wires for my stories.  Robert Towne, who is little known outside of the film industry but deeply respected within, has a line near the beginning of Mission Impossible 2: "every search for a hero must begin with something which every hero requires-- a villain."  Viewed within the sorority setting, Tippi is the proverbial piece of work.  But how different she appears when we sit her down opposite Sarah.  Later, in a scene with Candy, we shall see that Tippi is altogether human.  I use this trick a lot; in this part of the story with Vickie and Suzie, and throughout the story, with Ian.  It addresses the structural hurdle that very little fiction ever tackles, which leads to a second of Robert's observations.  See below. 

[Babypants]

On 5/4/2024 at 3:01 PM, CCApril said:

I think I will hold out on anymore judgments on Sarah until after the big reveal. Way too many assumptions right now by everyone.

Robert also wrote the following: "in dramatic writing, the very essence is character change.  The character at the end is not the same as he was at the beginning." Ouch!  This is easy to do in a generational epic like Coleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds, but how the heck was Ian Fleming supposed to pull this off in Doctor No, which has a time in story of only four days?  

My answer?  You have to cheat.  You can't do it in a story with a single narrative point of view, nor in a binary setting (protagonist/antagonist) unless you lengthen the time line.  A conspicuous example of how this can work is John Fowles' The Collector.  But for those of us who write in a compressed time frame (only 13 days separate scenes 2 and 54 in Homage), a good tactic is having lots of characters, and giving many of them narrative point of view.  You pitch characters against one another in different settings not to show character change, but to reveal different features of human complexity.  So, right now Sarah looks like she would outclass Blofeld in the villainy department, but what drives her?  Perhaps she truly is the Nightmare Nurse, but then again, she may have demons eating at her in the same way that we now see how they have eaten at Vickie since childhood.  Time will tell-- and the big reveal lies but a few scenes ahead.

[CCApril]

On 5/2/2024 at 4:03 PM, Babypants said:

Sarah Haikonnen

or should it be Sarah Harkonnen?! 

[CDfm]

Good addition.  Reading this I am beginning to get a different view of Sarah.  At first I saw her as a careing medical professional who fell in love with a disabled man.  I am now seeing her as a much more sadistic and controlling person.  I think her mom really got her into the BDSM thing.  If I were in Ian’s shoes I believe I could barely tolerate the locking diaper cover.  That cage would be out of the question. 
I will be looking forward to reading more. 

[Babypants]

18 hours ago, CCApril said:

or should it be Sarah Harkonnen?!

I want to put this rumor to rest right now.  Sarah and Sofia are not related to Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, although I will concede that House Harkonnen on Giedi Prime has Finnish ancestry!  And it is most definitely not the case that they altered their name to dissociate themselves from these galactic scum.  Guilend, did you catch this?

[Babypants]

12 hours ago, CDfm said:

Reading this I am beginning to get a different view of Sarah.  At first I saw her as a careing medical professional who fell in love with a disabled man.  I am now seeing her as a much more sadistic and controlling person.  I think her mom really got her into the BDSM thing.

At the conclusion of season 1 (scene 41, The Searchers), we discussed the difference between Ego Love (controlling) and Authentic Love (generous and without expectation of return).  Sarah is definitely controlling, but it is her mind set as she deals with Tippi that suggests a closet sadist.  In contrast, Priscilla and Vickie are models of true love, not only in their dealings with Ian but also in their dealings with one another.  We have yet to see where Rita falls on this scale-- and what about Ian?  How can he protect his loved ones unless he controls their day to day lives?  This is the price that Priscilla is willing to pay.  How will the others respond when they learn the truth?