Dash's Redemption: A Stuffy's Tale and Diaper Dimension Story (Chapter 15 - Complete)

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone! I took everyone’s comments, private or public into account, and I think I’m going to just stick to Dash’s/Patch’s perspective in this story. As I started thinking about it and reading your all’s comments, it felt most were neutral and my mind started to think that it probably would have been odd if I suddenly switched to Emma’s perspective.

So, keeping that in mind though, I think there is enough to work with that I will be turning Emma’s perspective into its only story. I realized I could include an element in it that should be pretty good for most readers to see, and I think it will likely resonate with most others even more than this story.

Lastly, for those of you reading this one, I’m still trying to determine my next story, so be sure to let me know what you want of the three stories I placed on here to decide from. For those of you who may have missed these options or whatnot, just refer back to chapter 4.

Anyways, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter!

Chapter 12: Operation: Mission Missing Part

By now, I must have seen the dead eyes of at least a hundred toys staring back at me… as if in judgement from beyond their existence. As to what I was being judged for, I wasn’t sure. Was it the rejection of who I used to be? I had Emma now and no matter how I saw it, I just couldn’t find fault in it, so I was pretty confident as I followed Carmen that it wasn’t that. So, then was it this mission, or was it something else I was missing entirely? I wasn’t sure, but as Carmen rounded the corner, my eyes bulged out in terror.

Before me was very similar to the maintenance room that Sam had worked and had helped me and so me others in. This place, on the other hand, was about the complete opposite and seemed to be a veritable torture chamber for us toys. I couldn’t imagine a scarier place for toys like us, and while it may have seemed ordinary to any living being, they would need to look beyond their own perception and see what we saw. It’s not jars full of plastic eyes, supports, and internal machinery… see, for us, it’s more like jars of our eyes, bones, organs, and skin. To say the least, to see all of it all scattered around and so organized like some serial killer of toys, I felt pretty justified in being a little unsettled right then… especially since this is apparently where Pete was.

“Pete’s in… here?” I asked with a noted concern. I was willing my legs forward with each step, a pit forming deep in my stomach.

Carmen sighed and nodded. “Horrifying, isn’t it?” I could only nod back. “Yeah… terrifying and all that, but Tops found him up there.” She then pointed to a large workbench. “Come on.”

She then led me up a series of stacked boxes, books, packages, and then finally to the top of the repairman’s worktable. There, all prepped and ready for tomorrow in a vice-like device, was Pete. “Pete!” I quickly ran over to my mentor.

He saw me and gave a little wave of his sturdier wing. “You made it…” he said weakly. I could tell that Sam’s estimate of a few days was probably a little too optimistic. I knew at that very moment that if we hadn’t intervened, Pete would have likely been gone by tomorrow afternoon.

“We made it, buddy.” I then shuffled off my pack and plucked out the part he needed. “Look. We brought you this. It will help you.”

Pete’s eyes widened at the singular source of his potential salvation. All at once he seemed both thrilled and highly emotional, but then not even a few seconds later, his demeanor turned suspicious and angry. “Where’d you get the part, Dash?” he asked like a disapproving parent seeing a wad of cash suddenly show up in their kid’s hands one day out of the blue.

I knew what he suspected, so I just tried to brush his concerns away at first. “It’s not needed anymore for where it used to be, so don’t sweat it. Point is with this little beauty is that we brought it here to fix…”

“It’s yours, isn’t it?” I wasn’t sure how to respond to his point-blank accusation in his interruption, and I could see Pete’s patience waning as I stalled for time to come up with an answer he wouldn’t be upset over, or at least one that he would accept. “I asked you a question, Dash. It’s yours, isn’t it?” he asked a second time, this time louder and more direct.

I thought about trying to get around his question with some fine word trickery, but with my mentor lying there all helpless in front of the fallen remains of fellow toys… I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. So, instead, I faced the proverbial music, and I nodded. “It is…”

Pete immediately smacked the vice he was in with his still partially functioning wing. “Dang it, Dash! I didn’t ask you to do that. Get out of here now and have Sam put it back in when you get back to the daycare!”

In truth, I almost complied right there. Pete had a right to choose how he would go out on his own terms, but I suppose he should have been a worse mentor to me. If he was, I might have just left him there in lieu of his own request and my own self-interest. As it was though, especially from what I had witnessed with the other Dash models, I knew I was different now, so I firmly shook my head. “No, Pete. We all just went through quite a journey to get here and give this to you. Accept it and come back a new bird tomorrow.”

“I said no,” he said defiantly. The blasted bird even crossed his wings as best he could.

I was at a loss for words, but Carmen stepped forward in my place. “Pete… we all came here to help you. Just take his part and be happy you get to see another day.” Pete, however, remained stubbornly motionless.

Now, it was Tops’ turn. “Pete… I get it… you just want to ‘retire’… go out in your own way and see your old Little from years ago. I can respect that.” To my surprise, it seemed to work, and Pete twitched for a second, before returning to his previously sullen and serious face.

Tops sighed but continued. “She wouldn’t want that for you, Pete. I won’t say her name. You made me swear years ago to never say it again but honor her in a different way. Stay with us… please. Wouldn’t she want that for you?”

Pete remained motionless, but his eyes portrayed a different emotion now other than defiance. I desperately wondered what he was thinking, but before I could ask, Poodee then stepped forward. “Pete… think of the other Littles. Dash is giving you this part of his own accord. No one is forcing him to.”

“That’s right, Pete,” I concurred. “Please take it. No worries about it. None.”

Pete flexed a few of his longer feathers that he often used in place of fingers. Poodee smiled at his movement and likely took it as a good omen as I had. “Please, Pete. Look at all of us. Four barely held together toys trekked across an intersection, two dogs, Bigs, and a whole tangle of branches to get to you. Please don’t go out this way. Take the part, live a while longer and help all the other toys. We need you, Pete.”

“She couldn’t be more right, Pete. I mean… just look at me.” I saw his previously unmoving eyes, glance over at me. “I’m living proof of what you can do for other toys. When you first found me, I wanted to toss myself in with a bunch of dirty diapers, or then next, the incinerator. Now, though, ask yourself that if you weren’t there, where would Emma be now?”

Finally, at the mention of Emma, Pete sighed and turned back towards us. He still seemed to bear the weight of the world on his feathered shoulders, but he seemed more resolute now in some ways. There was, however, a part of him that almost curiously seemed scared though. “What if the part fails though? I don’t know if I could be filled with that kind of hope only for it to be ripped away from me…”

I sighed. “Pete… if that happens, you can at least know you tried. It might not work, and my part might not be enough, but I’m okay still giving it to you. I want you to at least have a chance. Isn’t all that worth something to you?”

For a good bit of time, Pete seemed to ponder my request for him to at least try, but finally, he turned back to me and nodded. “Okay, Dash… I’ll give it a go as best I can. Just set the part by the screwdriver there. The repairman will see it tomorrow and not give it a second thought.”

I smiled at my mentor and set the part down as he requested. It was so tiny and such a simple act for all we had done and gone through, but I felt that the mission was now largely a success. We all hugged the emotional Pete and bid our goodbyes until tomorrow. Just as Tops was about to hop down to the first stacked box after snagging a bag of salted peanuts for Buster, however, Pete cried out to us.

“Wait!” We all turned to him in panic that something had gone terribly wrong or that he forgot to tell us about a trap. I could feel my fear surge through me, especially when Pete looked directly at me. “I know what the lighthouse is!”

My eyes widened, and everyone in the group ran back over to Pete. By now, with most everyone pitching in at least a little bit to save Emma from Nancy, most toys knew a little about what was going on. My friends, though, knew the whole story and how the lighthouse still presented a massive question mark in all this mess with the sadistic caregiver. “You do? How? When?” I shook my head. “No… time is short, but I need to know Pete… what is it?

Pete sighed and gestured with his still strong wing over to a corner on top of the workbench. It was hard to see in the dim lighting that the repairman had left on, I suppose for security purposes, but there was a tall cylindrical object. It didn’t look threatening, but from almost a simplistic or basic structure way, like something a child might draw to represent an object, it definitely seemed like what I imagined a lighthouse would look like.

“Repairman was fixing it right before he left,” Pete explained. “Apparently, they’re really sensitive to loads of things, but when the guidebook was open so he could test all the features after he fixed it… Pete… I saw the warnings…”

My fear levels hadn’t gone down since Pete had shouted, and his new ominous warnings weren’t helping that sensation either. I got closer so that I could hear him better; I didn’t want any miscommunications or mistakes in what I was about to hear with this thing. “What… what are the warnings? Is it bad?”

Pete nodded and my heart sank, but even his closer but broken wing patted me on the back. “Don’t fret so much, Dash. The warnings are pretty severe, but Nancy… she’s close to blowing a fuse. These things can be a bit pricey still and because of their subtle design and powers, they can be a bit temperamental. If you and everyone else keep up your defiance and help Emma out, I don’t think Nancy will last much longer… personally or with the device.”

I nodded, but there was a part of me that longed for more answers. I didn’t want to know, but at the same time, I knew the feeling would forever haunt me that I could have done something different if I had only asked a simple question. It was weighing heavily on my mind. Pete saw.

He sighed and shook his head as if to answer my still unspoken question. “No, Dash, I won’t tell you specifics. You don’t want to know those, but I also know you need a bit of help. Basically, it uses hypnotic messaging to create a suggestibility state in Littles. Makes them vulnerable to almost anything, including other forms of hypnosis and all that can be added later, but the tricky part of it is… it can also just be used as a machine to help with their sleep. Probably would even work on Bigs in the right doses, but this sucker flies under most authority’s radars.”

He stopped and glanced back over at the looming tower and then oddly shook his head. “It’s just one thing Dash. My suggestion? For now, just hold tight. By the time you mess with the one that’s affecting Emma, I suspect that something pretty major will happen and change everything. She’ll either lose patience with the device or with herself. So, I know it’s hard, but just hold fast.”

I nodded and everyone seemed to agree with Pete. The lighthouse was a dangerous and destructive device to most Littles, but Pete’s words of to ‘just hold fast’ stuck with me. Even as we gave Bruno one last treat, exited the building, and headed back along the sidewalk, it was just something that I couldn’t shake from my mind.

If I was an actual living being with a voice in this world, I now had all the evidence I needed to take Nancy to the authorities. They might turn a blind eye to spankings or other corrective punishments like it, but she was stepping over the line in several ways now. Each could be passed off as something separate and even minor, but combined, they painted a pretty clear picture that she was unfit to be caregiver to a Little.

But all of it was nothing… or about as close to nothing as one could get. I was a stuffy, proud and true, but fake and lifeless to all but any passing Little. To them, I was a cop, knight, king, thief, hero, and perfect cuddle buddy, but to the system that I actually needed to affect now, even if Emma presented me to them personally, she would either be laughed out, given a lollipop for ‘protecting the streets as their good little deputy,’ or Nancy would have been called and Emma would be far worse off than she was now. It was a terrible burden but being a stuffy in this world, and lately, I was finding out firsthand that it came with some serious drawbacks.

Regardless, about halfway back, I decided to look up, and to our detriment, I saw that the moon was just setting behind the ridge line we could see ahead. It was large and beautiful at the angle at this time of year, but it now sinking meant that the sun would also be rising soon. Panicked, I stopped and turned to Poodee. “The sun is going to be coming up soon. We need a faster way to get back to the daycare. Any ideas?”

Carmen looked up and saw the exact same thing I did. I could see terror gripping her body. “Shoot. I didn’t think it was that late! We’re screwed!”

“Easy, Carmen, easy… It’s going to be okay,” Tops tried to calm her, going as far as to even stroke her shoulder. “Even with the moon setting, we still have a little time at this point in the year before the sun rises. Need to be a little more careful as some light could start peaking out and the Bigs might start going to work, but we still have time.”

Poodee nodded, seeming to need to hear that as well, and then buried her head in the map. “Right… we need another way…” Her eyes darted back and forth for a bit and while I could see she had found a solution, she also oddly seemed to be trying her hardest to avoid it again and again.

With time running out, I impatiently gestured to the path she kept ignoring. “What about this one? It looks shorter.”

Poodee sighed and I could see panic grip Tops face as well. “Don’t be mad,” she finally said, “but I talked to Hops…”

My mind spun and I did not think that’s where this conversation was heading. “What do you mean you talked to Hops? Did you tell him about me being at the daycare?”

Poodee quickly shook her head. “Of course not! That’s for you to do one day, but he’s always talking about his journey back from the dump. Pretty heroic…” I could see her hesitate, but I let her continue as I knew she had to have some point in talking about him. “Anyways… he took part of this route on his way back.”

“And?” I asked, my sense of timing not allowing me to give Poodee the time to linger about.

“And he said it’s filled with snapping turtles… the snapping turtles,” Tops finished for her.

“Oh…” was about all I could muster to say right then. Every Big, Middle, Little, or even toy had heard about the accidental spill of illegal growth chemicals by the rogue pro-Little movement in this area. Their intentions were noble for their cause, and while most wildlife wasn’t affected, the snapping turtles had been seen recently and were even larger to portal Littles than normal apparently. To a toy though, we all knew them to be just as dangerous.

“So… no to that route then?” Carmen asked hesitantly.

Poodee sighed. “I don’t like it anymore than anyone else, but if we want to make it to the daycare before sunrise… I’m not seeing another option at this point.”

The group sighed and while we decided to debate the decision while we walked in that general direction, we ultimately decided to take the risk. Because of us having to go around, use disguises to use the crosswalk again, and the fresh reminder of black grime on Tops’ back were all pretty valid reasons to use the tunnel under the road instead.

So, finally getting there, we all looked inside and could even see some subtle movements passing about, the snapping turtles. “Well… shoot.”

Everyone saw them and knew they could be a major issue. If Poodee’s and Tops’ recollections were correct, just Hops and that old stuffed racoon he was with almost didn’t make it themselves. Now, there were four of us and the enormous snapping turtles were already moving about.

I suppose being nervous about what was to come, Tops began to fiddle with the bag in his arms along with the flashlight. It was very distracting, but as I looked at the bag of salted peanuts, I wondered something. “Wait, Tops. Give me one of them.”

“But they’re for Buster…” he protested, even going as far as to protect them a little bit away from me.

“I just want one for now, Tops. Just one to see if the snapping turtles like them.” I sighed as he continued to hold them like they were the last piece of food on a starving planet. “It might be our only shot…”

Tops hesitated a little more, but then slowly handed them over. I thanked him and then walked over to the entrance. Not wanting to risk my group’s existence any more than I had already done tonight, I walked in slowly. The small puddles of water quickly amplified my steps and the snapping turtles looked at me in an instant. I was petrified, but I knew the peanut was still in my side pouch. ‘If I could just…’

I began to reach behind me with one paw, but the snapping turtles I guess saw it as a threat. They started moaning and snapping at me. Panicked, I dug down deep and threw the peanut at them before they could do anything else.

It hit one in the head and bounced off to another snapping turtle’s shell. It sat there and rocked back and forth for a moment, but each snapping turtle slowly made their way over to it and seemed utterly fascinated.

I could feel the seconds ticking by and I just wanted to charge them using my still active super speed. It wasn’t much, but I also knew they were turtles and likely couldn’t keep up the pace with me. My team though… I knew I would be leaving them in the dust, and they would be goners. So, I stayed put. Fortunately, one of them finally sniffed and then ate the salted peanut.

His face seemed about as twisted and odd as a snapping turtles seemed it could go, but they just kind of seemed to make a squawking noise and each and every one of them suddenly looked back at me. There was a brief pause but then all 12 of them began to charge right for me.

“Tops! Tops! More Peanuts!” I yelled back to the opening where my friends were still standing. I could see the hesitancy in Tops as he looked at the now open bag held in his paws, but visibly sighing, he bounded over to me and handed me the bag. “Thank you.”

Tops grumbled something, and I could swear it was about me and Buster, but right at that moment, I was really just focused on hearing the moaning and the clicking and clacking of the oncoming snapping turtles. I gritted in fear that this wouldn’t work, but I shut my eyes and threw a paw-full of peanuts right at them.

To my relief, as soon as the peanuts hit the ground in front of them, they began to scatter and peck for each of the ones I had thrown.

“Holy…” Tops said completely shocked.

“Yeah… we’ll have to find some others to give to Buster, but for now… hurry!” I shouted as I turned back over to Poodee and Carmen, who were now only slowly moving toward us.

In seconds, I threw more peanuts around and then behind us. We had to squeeze on by and one elderly and heavily wrinkled snapping turtle seemed to almost glare at Carmen as her little pooch of a belly only slightly brushed their head as we did. We all held our breath, worried he was about to attack, but a moment later, the old turtle then just resumed picking peanuts up at his fellow turtles’ feet.

Moments later, I tossed another grouping of peanuts far to the other end of the tunnel, and despite our weariness, we all finally made it past them. A few of the turtles seemed confused right then, but I suppose the salty treats, threatening to get wet below them, were their bigger priority. At some point, to be honest, I stopped caring about why all this was happening and instead just focused on getting out to the other end of the tunnel.

Just as we exited, the overhead light flicked off and we could all see the sun just begin to peak over the mountaintops on the horizon. It would have been a certain disaster, but right before us, was the daycare. Once a place of my failure as one of the Dash series and in my efforts against Hop. Now, it almost seemed like a refuge from the rest of this tough world, and I knew I wasn’t alone in that thought.

The whole group seemed to almost chuckle with relief at the sight of the brick building and the rainbow sign illuminating our way home. With Emma now claiming me as her stuffy, I had probably said the same little hope to the universe a dozen times or so by now that she would one day take me home. Nancy seemed to threaten that dream and it was still a dream rather than my reality, however, so for now, the daycare was my home, and it had never felt better as we entered the front doors.

Almost immediately, we were swarmed by dozens of toys. Mrs. Gillies was apparently a little lax that night and was dealing with matters far away from the front entrance. We all quickly migrated to the Canopy room just in case, but the fervor of those around me was unmatched.  

I found it odd that we were even being praised like this before we had a chance to say if we were successful or not, but then it dawned on me. First, if we were back, we would have likely been successful. Second though, even if we had returned and were failures, we still would have made it back. Looking at our dirty and slightly torn forms, we were definitely the ragtag team that everyone likely thought us to be, however, we were all more than that right now. We were the survivors who went out in the real world and had come back.

“So, did you all make it to Pete?” Nadia finally asked as some of the cheering died down. I could see the hope behind her eyes but the hesitancy that her hope was false.

Therefore, it was my pleasure to nod my head. The cheering tripled in its volume and only Sarge kept the crowd of toys more subdued. “Quiet! Mrs. Gillies is walking the halls!” he shouted from his post where he could see through the high small window in the door.

The room quieted down, but I continued to speak. “We were successful. Pete has some doubts about the part, and he even heroically tried to get us to leave, but the part is there, and the bench was prepped. Now, it’s just a waiting game until the repairman comes back to fix him and then bring Pete back here, fixed or not.” I could see all the toys quickly lose a little of their spark but feeling the power of being the center of attention right then, I decided to use it for some good. “But my money is on that he’ll come back better than ever! What do you all think? Who’s got some faith in our Pete?”

The smiles instantly returned to everyone’s faces and the whole room cheered to the point where Sarge had to silence everyone again. It was almost a comedy routine going back and forth like that, but I felt I had done right in that moment. Even if my hope was potentially false, I felt all the toys here could use it. Even if Carmen, Tops, Poodee, and the others were known as the ‘forgotten toys,’ being in this place meant we all had a journey to get here ourselves and had been forgotten at some point in one way or another. I was just glad that my journey now seemed to be continuing on a positive note.

That being said, with Pete still with the repairman, and while something could always go wrong, I could sense that everyone surrounding me knew that he had a much better shot at coming back to us and staying with us than he ever did before. So, I marked it as a point of triumph, regardless of what happened next. Even through all that success, however, one question remained on my mind that I just couldn’t shake, even as the group had been dodging traffic and bushes the whole way out and back; what was going to happen to Emma now? I wasn’t sure, but I felt sure that I would find out soon.

A quick repair and scrub by Sam and a few others after the cheering died down, and the group all looked better than they had in weeks, if not more, now. Despite Nancy still droning on about conspiracies against her, Emma looking worse for the wear, and a general sense of unease with Mrs. Gillies and Vivian about Pete, the day actually went pretty smoothly. In fact, it only got better.

Right before lunch, just as Mrs. Gillies began to audibly panic to Miss Mindy, her phone rang. She quickly picked it up, took a breath, and spoke. “Hello?” A few pleasantries were exchanged, and at some points, I swore she was even holding her breath, but a few moments later, her eyes lit up. “Really? You found a part for him? Oh, how wonderful! I’ll be sure to swing by in a jiffy to pick him up. Thank you so much!” And with that, she ended the call.

I was so happy, and despite Emma treating me like a cop in her little skit about being a robber caught stealing from the cupcake shop of Anna and Lilly, I smiled as subtly as I could. I just couldn’t help myself, and from a millisecond glance around the room to the other toys, the ones being played with were all doing the exact same thing. For those not being played with right then, voluntary or otherwise, however, each of them wore the biggest smile the rest of us could only feel inside. Still, it was a wonderful moment, but it momentarily seemed to end when Mrs. Gillies came over to me.  

I briefly panicked that something was wrong, but then I remembered the repairman had told Mrs. Gillies to bring me over while she picked up Pete so he could repair me. While his shop was likely to give me nightmares for the next month, the internal dread I felt wasn’t from that.

As I was being played with by Emma, who seemed only vaguely aware of Mrs. Gillies’ nearby presence, I worried about her future with Nancy. This morning, I wish I could say that her bad temper and her yelling was unusual by now, but that would have just been a lie. Even right before Anna and Lilly had asked Emma over to play, she had been sucking her thumb. Not the worst habit mind you, but it was still a sign; Nancy’s vile work was having an affect on Emma.

Emma seemed to squirm for a moment, but then I saw that both Anna and Lilly were looking right behind us at Mrs. Gillies and making her a little uncomfortable. Both her friends waved but only quickly resumed their playing afterwards. While Mrs. Gillies was a valued member of the staff here, she was also in charge. Most of the time she came and interacted with Littles this close when it wasn’t a rush, like at mealtimes or recess, she was here to deliver bad news or dole out a punishment.

Emma, though, finally seemed to get the hint and turned around and smiled widely at Mrs. Gillies. “Mrs. Gee!” she shouted out with enthusiasm. For whatever reason, I never could get her to pronounce Mrs. Gillies name right, and I think the daycare leader even noticed and gave her an easier name to call her by. Neither seemed to mind the gesture.

“Hello, Emma,” she said calmly, but also as if she was contemplating the universe behind her aging eyes. To my panic, she then looked right at me and then back at Emma. “I see you’ve been spending a lot of time with him lately. Is he your favorite?”

There was a momentary pause, but to my utter relief, Emma hugged me tight and nodded. “Uh huh! He’s my bestess fwiend!” Anna and Lilly might have been offended at any other time, but things were different here. A true stuffy would always be there for their Little, and it was just expected that a Little would declare a stuffy like me as their best friend.

Mrs. Gillies chuckled. “I’m very glad to hear that, Emma. We all need a friend here.” She looked at me and then back at Emma. “You pick out a name yet for him?”

Emma enthusiastically nodded. “Patsch!” Her enunciation of my name had gotten better, but it still wasn’t perfect. Nobody here seemed to mind though, and even now, Mrs. Gillies only grinned.

“What a wonderful name, Emma.” Her eyes then darted over my form once more. I remembered before when she had done about the same and even hesitated for some reason when the repairman offered to fix me. “You know… sometimes, we allow toys to be taken out of here if a good home for them can be found. Did you know that?” Emma shook her head, and the pigtails Miss Tully had adorned her hair with this morning as she calmed her down after the whole incident with Nancy, flew back and forth.

Mrs. Gillies smiled. “Yes, that’s right. I have to see a genuine connection, but I think that’s just what you have here. Just the way he is…”

My mind then clicked and I realized that the wizened leader of this place had been more observant than I had given her credit for. Her hesitancy with the repairman, and likely knowing my line, she knew that whatever he did to me, would likely change me. I was a regression model after all, and she probably just assumed that my regression circuits had been damaged by Buster… rather than be voluntarily removed and stored under her building. To her, me going back probably also meant a guarantee of Emma regressing once more. So, while the daycare had overshot, I could see that each staff member harbored their own resentment of Nancy for trying to force Emma to regress that way once more. In a way, I knew right then that if I could, I would have also deeply thanked Mrs. Gillies for not taking me back. In retrospect, it probably saved Emma’s life.

So, now, seemingly satisfied, Mrs. Gillies petted me for a moment, got up, and then walked out of the room with a smile on her face. For a day like today, everything was going well, and now I knew that by the end of it, I would even be able to stay with Emma. And while I knew a day without blowouts or tantrums was a blessing, seeing this morning with Nancy, I knew me staying with Emma was more important.

Still, it was almost funny to me by then, but again, I couldn’t help but think what the old version of myself would have said to all of this. Here I was, in the arms of a Little who I had helped fight her regression and who I was now turning the opportunity down to be fixed to my old self again for. It was almost puzzling in an odd sort of way, but at the same time, I felt that it was just right. I was in the exact spot I was meant to be.

As I thought, this feeling was more compounded, especially with the looming threat I knew Nancy had become. Pete’s words of to ‘just hold fast’ still rang in my ears and while it was so hard to do in this draw of a battle that seemed to be going against Nancy and the rest of this daycare lately, I knew for Emma, I had to. It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, and I just hoped that whatever the outcome, Emma would be okay afterwards. As she sucked her thumb once more and grunted right then though, my trepidations only grew.

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone! Moving right along with this story, I just want to say that after this chapter, there are only two more to go until the end, so buckle up! I was actually able to finish writing this story yesterday, but I just ran out of time to edit it until today, and with that basically being the case for the next two chapters, they should be done by Tuesday or Wednesday this week at the latest.

Next, I just want to put out a little warning here that some scenes in this next chapter could be triggering for some of you. I don’t condone the behavior at all, but sometimes when writing a villain, one needs to get a little dirty with their characters. I’m sure everyone knows who I am talking about in this case, but I’ll just leave my warning there.

Lastly, for those of you reading this one, I’m still trying to determine my next story, so be sure to let me know what you want of the three stories I placed on here to decide from. For those of you who may have missed these options or whatnot, just refer back to chapter 4.

Anyways, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter!

Chapter 13: Abandonment By the Rainbow

Pete returned to us, triumphant, fixed, and eternally grateful for the efforts that my friends and I had expelled in order to save his life. Apparently, the repairman swore he didn’t have the part, but as Pete had guessed, he didn’t second guess its presence for long, and just installed it anyways. Now, Pete seemed years younger. His feathers were still faded, but his vigor seemed to come alive in a way that I had never seen before. To put it mildly, even Vivian noticed and was ecstatic about her fixed parrot. Unfortunately, this proved to be a high point in the next weeks around the daycare.

Nancy was only getting worse. Her threats were becoming more vicious, and I could see Emma slipping and wanting to regress further each time she came in. She was still part of the Meadows room, but I knew another month like this, and we would both be back in the Burrows room for more than just naptime as I knew would probably start up again in the next week or so. So, I vigilantly waited for something to happen, and finally one morning, it did.

I had taken up performing reconnaissance checks from the safety of my previous perch in the above air ducts on Nancy and Emma in the morning as they arrived. It wasn’t comfortable and it did leave me vulnerable to the possibility of being considered ‘lost’ if Emma ever couldn’t find me in time, but it also gave me a valuable insight into what I was dealing with for that day.  

Often, Nancy would just rant about some new ‘problem’ with Emma as my Little was either escorted into the Meadows room or was told for her hands to cover her ears. The staff kept largely ignoring her peacefully, but with each encounter and each time Emma exhibited some ounce of renewed maturity, Nancy got worse. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could ‘just hold fast’ as Pete had instructed, but it turns out, this morning, I didn’t have to wait any longer.

Nancy came in and was practically dragging Emma along with her. She seemed disheveled, unhinged, and at her wits end, but more worrying, Emma almost appeared traumatized for a moment. As soon as Mrs. Gillies greeted the two, a common practice now since most of the daycare staff refused to work with her any longer, Nancy laid into her. “You! You did this to her! Of all the things you could have given her back, you chose this?” Her words spewed forth like hot magma, but Mrs. Gillies just stood her ground.

“I’m not sure what you’re referring to, Nancy,” she said calmly and resolutely. “Maybe you could elaborate a little further and help me out today? I’m sure we can find some solution to whatever you think is happening with Emma today.”

I could practically hear Nancy’s teeth grinding on themselves as she angrily glared back at Mrs. Gillies, but she finally relented. “We were reading last night. I was showing her the pretty pictures… as usual, and then…” For a moment, Nancy almost seemed to get emotional over what happened. I was insatiably curious, and I leaned over the vent on the ceiling get a better listen.

“Tell me what happened, Nancy,” Mrs. Gillies said in a tone I recognized after a moment of silence between the two. Nancy couldn’t really have known but I was finding it a smidge hilarious that Mrs. Gillies was now using her voice reserved for Littles on Nancy. Bigs were always so proud of their separation and clear maturity above the Littles they subjugated, but seeing moments like these, it was hard not to notice that the gap between them might have been narrower than any of them were willing to admit out loud.

“She read… to herself!” she spat. ‘Oof! No wonder she’s so upset…’ Caregivers often prided themselves and reveled in reading time with their Littles. Of course, the reasons varied, but for many it could bring them closer together. Even if the caregiver wasn’t much of a reader, they would still delight in the fact that their Little may no longer be able to read, or they could have chosen a story that was loaded with Big propaganda. Either way, the Big won in some small fashion. To take that away now… I just stayed behind my vent and waited for the fireworks to begin momentarily.

“Oh…” was about all Mrs. gillies could muster after that short, but hugely impactful bit of insight. She didn’t say it, but I could see she knew the gravity of that one event.

“Oh? Oh? That’s all you have to say?” Nancy’s eyes bulged out with each of her rhetorical questions to Mrs. Gillies and I could practically see the steam coming out of her head by the third. “I don’t want just an ‘oh!’ I want my baby girl back! I want her back right now! I don’t care what it takes! Burn her! Beat her! Electrocute her! I just want my baby back today!”

The straw had finally broken and everyone else who had started to gather around the scene Nancy was making, knew of her dastardly nature as well now. Emma’s future remained uncertain, but I also knew that her future with Nancy was now also uncertain. If we were a little more south, I could expect a light reprimand, but things were different here. Bigs just couldn’t go around and cry out for their Little to be beaten, or electrocuted for that matter, just to get their ‘baby’ back.

Mrs. Gillies was a stern woman at times, but I knew she viewed the Littles under her care as precious gems that needed to be protected when required. Nancy was crossing that line today, and I could see a glare form in Mrs. Gillies eyes as she stared back at the vile Big in front of her. “Nancy… we do not allow that type of thing here. Unless you go breaking the law, in which Emma will be moved to what I can only imagine would be a better home than where she is now, you will not find another place to do what you want as well. Go home and cool off. For your own sake, if not for Emma’s.”

Nancy seemed flabbergasted for a second. I suspected she had read too many pro-Big pamphlets recently in which the same scenario went quite differently. Having Mrs. Gillies scold her there in front of others, I could see the doubt creep into her eyes over her actions and the realization that she was now definitely in the wrong.

One didn’t need to be a mind reader though to see that Nancy was now very upset, bordering on distraught. One could feel bad for her, if not for the threats she essentially had just demanded be heaped upon her own Little. Mrs. Gillies, being the morally bigger woman, just let her cool off in peace. No lecture or threat of police involvement… just peace. Unfortunately, life rarely seems to stay peaceful, and the front door opened.

In walked a kindly woman and Travis, the former Little who had thrown me in the mud. Travis had been doing pretty well, and thanks to his more stable home life, he had received a stuffy of his own. Additionally, while his temper still seemed to flare up, he had grown empathetic towards the sadness of others at least. Always willing to give out a hug or a part of his snack lately, he had become very popular with many of the Littles and staff alike here. Now, today, he seemed positively electrified being that it was his birthday. His caregiver carried a few trays packed as much as they could be from the cupcakes that he was going to share with everyone.  

So, with his new empathetic side, coming in after all the tension before, and seeing the now almost pitiful Nancy, he of course wanted to help her. Mrs. Gillies and the rest almost seemed to be turning blue as they held their breath as Travis quickly retrieved a cupcake from the tray his caregiver was holding and then held it up to Nancy. “Wanna cupcake?” he asked innocently.

Now, I will fully admit to the fact that sometimes, people just want to be left alone. It can be pretty awkward in telling that to someone, but most can do it pretty gently. Nancy, having just been called out by Mrs. Gillies, feeling rejected by Emma, and already thinking that Littles are just mere playthings for Bigs, she almost growled at Travis. “No, I do not.” And she could have left it right there, and then everyone would have moved on with their own individual days… but she didn’t. In one fell swoop, Nancy’s larger hand knocked the blue-frosted cupcake from Travis’ hand. It fell to the floor with a resounding plop.

The whole room stared at that single ruined cupcake now splattered on the floor. Time seemed to stand still practically, and from my view above, I just waited for everything to play out. It seemed to me that Nancy was just digging her own grave now, but like watching a car crash in slow motion, I just couldn’t take my eyes off the scene before me.

Travis at first looked bewildered that someone would ever just knock such a beautiful, blue-frosted cupcake onto the ground like that… the thing even was adorned with rainbow sprinkles. To him, it almost seemed like a person would fly soaring into the air before they would ever commit such a heinous crime, but there it was on the floor before the two of them, ruined and unmoving.

It was already bad, and I could see that his caregiver was already arming and ready to go to war for her own Little, but Nancy was already primed and ready from her previous action only seconds earlier. “Who the heck do you think you are? You think a cupcake is just going to make everything better for me? Huh, is that it? How stupid can you be?”

His caregiver now seemed like she could blow up the entire planet just to avenge her Little and the single fallen cupcake, but Travis beat her to it. In his own tiny, regressed way, I suppose his reaction made sense, but as he picked up the cupcake from the ground and looked at it one more time, I seriously doubted he would know the consequences of his next move.

Armed like a pitcher on the mound of a big game, Travis squinted his eyes, aimed, and lobbed the cupcake right at Nancy.

Now, Nancy was wearing a particularly pressed and expensive-looking pink and yellow dress. Its sunny appearance contrasted heavily with its wearer’s own facial expressions, but it provided a near-neon-sign-like target for Travis to aim at. So, when the cupcake hurdled toward her, of course it hit its mark.

The blue frosting smeared against the pink and yellow fabric and some parts now even looked green or purple from the mixing of it all, but after, the cupcake just landed with another plop on the floor, this time nearly pulverized. Nancy took no time in looking like a fizzy bottle ready to explode, but instead of her cork popping off the top, she marched over the few feet to Travis, and without a single ounce of hesitation, smacked him across the face.

‘Oh, shit…’ I looked around the room, and for a moment, I could see that everyone else was thinking the exact same thing. A Big punishing a Little was just another Tuesday in this society, but a Big smacking one across the face? It was practically tantamount to child abuse in this dimension. In that one slap, Nancy had permanently doomed herself.

To be honest, the next moments were a bit of a blur from up above. Too many people rushed in to quell the fighting that soon broke out. From the little I could see; Travis and his caregiver were defending themselves while also going full force into Nancy. Nancy herself was fighting off about four others and Littles were crying all around… including the petrified Emma who I just realized had stubbornly refused to leave the scene after not getting a goodbye hug from Nancy. Nancy was cruel, but there was a bond, fake or not, between the two. It made me worried about what was going to come next for my Little.

Like any event though, the main event was quickly over, and Nancy was subdued. Seeing Nancy being escorted outside by three volunteers and Miss Mindy leading the pack, I also saw that Emma was now running back to the hallway and presumably the Meadows room to find her one comfort: me.

Fortunately, Emma’s recent regressions made her a little scatterbrained and without a Big helping her along and all the Littles running about in a panic, I saw that she kept searching the same four spots multiple times. With all the chaos, I was easily able to pick up her pattern and plant myself undetected in one of those spots, so the next time she came over, she immediately saw me… none the wiser.  

“Oh, Dash!” she wailed. The next few minutes devolved into mass panic and confusion as police showed up front and the Littles were simply too scared or wound up to properly be controlled by the ten or so workers or volunteers here today. Frightened and scared herself, Emma just curled in tight to me in the forest section of the Meadows room underneath one of the larger fake pines. She wrapped herself up in a blanket and some pillows, and then just started to cry and hug me. It truly twisted up my guts like she had hardly done before and it was terrible, but I also felt a sense of relief.

Not that Emma crying her poor little heart out was a relief, but more so why she was crying. Nancy had completely screwed up in public and had threatened Emma and then had assaulted another Little at the bare minimum. Additionally, I had no doubt that when her house was searched, more evidence would be found. So, I wasn’t happy over Emma’s distress, but I was happy in the knowledge that Nancy had forced herself into an unwinnable scenario today and would most likely never be a threat to Emma again.

Later, when order was finally restored, I was with Emma when Bigs sporting jackets reading ‘LPS’ came in and began questioning the staff and some of the other Littles first. Finally, they came over to Emma and we both went away and sat in Mrs. Gillies’ office while Miss Tully was there as well.

“Do you understand us or why you’re here?” the tall officer asked Emma once she had settled into a chair before the two officers. Emma only nodded. “Good. We just want to know a few details about Nancy… uh, your mommy?” he asked unknowingly. Emma only quickly shook her head with a hilarious but clearly disgusted face.

The room chuckled with a nervous laughter, but I could see the two agents writing something down. The shorter one then spoke up. “So, not your mommy, but your caregiver… did she ever hurt you?”

The agents were direct and to the point, but I suspected they were more used to dealing with Bigs who had broken their codes, rather than the Littles who were affected by them. Emma could sense the tension and gripped me even tighter before while simultaneously shaking her head quickly.

The two officers sighed in seeming resignation, but Miss Tully and Mrs. Gillies were there, and I suspect it was more than for them to just bear witness that nothing sinister happened in the interview. After a moment of Emma just talking, Mrs. Gillies whispered something into Miss Tully’s ear, and she soon left. “Gentlemen… I just sent Miss Tully to get something that might help your investigation.” She then looked over at Emma and crouched down to meet her eye level better.

“Emma, sweetie… these men just want to keep you safe. Nancy is going away for a little bit…” I could see she was lying, but for Emma, her words were just to reassure her that she wasn’t completely alone now … even if she was and they all knew it. “She can’t harm you anymore though. I understand you might not want to talk, and you just keep hugging Patch, sweetie, but can you at least nod or shake your head for me?”

The two agents quickly seemed more interested in this new approach and leaned in to see how Emma would respond. I could see though that Mrs. Gillies’ eyes were full of both hope and sadness. In a place like this, I suspected that while rare, these scenarios had happened before. Knowing her, she was probably hoping beyond anything else in this world that Emma would be okay after whatever happened next to her. Finally, though, after seemingly a great deal of thought into the matter, Emma nodded her head.

Mrs. Gillies smiled just as Miss Tully reentered the room. “I got these as you requested, Patty.”

Mrs. Gillies nodded. “Thank you. Just set them here. I’m hoping they’ll help us out today.” She then gathered the first piece of paper, and from the colorful markings on the others, I recognized them as the drawings that Emma had crafted after most of her naptimes since she began again in the Meadows room. Most had gone home to Nancy, but a few had been given to the staff here. Looking at the papers though, these actually seemed to be the crumpled ones that were supposed to have been thrown away.

Mrs. Gillies then held up the first paper to Emma. “You drew this last week, Emma. You recognize it?” Emma slowly nodded her head. “Good. Now, is this you?” Mrs. Gillies pointed to the smaller of the two figures on the sheet. It was a crude drawing, but it didn’t take an art critic or historian to know that the small figure was being spanked by the larger one and was crying.

Emma took some time, and I could feel my fur getting wet on the top of my head. My poor Little was crying. I so badly wanted to turn on my messaging right then and protect her from all the pain in the world she was experiencing, but I knew that she needed to stick this one out. If she did, Nancy was sure to be gone for good based on what I had seen out in the lobby that would be supplemented by Emma’s personal testimony now. So, to my relief, it took some time, but Emma eventually tearfully nodded.

This continued for a while longer and both Emma’s tears and my growing anger persisted. Drawing after drawing, I could see a new life unfold that I hadn’t seen before this close. Of course, I was always with Emma when she created them, but being hugged tight or held just out of view of her drawings, I was seeing them for the first time myself and I was just as shocked as everyone else.

“Geez…” the shorter agent said mournfully. “Are you seeing these?” he asked his taller partner. For his part, the taller partner just nodded, and I was getting the feeling that images of spankings, yelling’s, various punishments, injections of drugs, and terrible rules might have just been routine to him by now. I didn’t envy his job, but at the same time, we weren’t even halfway through her drawings, when then shorter agent told us to “stop.”

He sighed and saw the dozen or so still left in Miss Tully’s hands. “We’ll look at the rest back at headquarters, but these should definitely be enough.” He then stood up with his partner, gathered the other papers together into his case, and smiled. “This is exactly what we needed to file today. You were very helpful, Emma. We may need to come by and ask some more questions later, so would you be willing to do that for us?” Emma nodded, but I could tell she was still nervous about Nancy as she also hugged me tighter at the same time.

It had been a long day for us, but I knew things were only likely to get worse before they got better. As the agents left and lunch and naptime passed, I began to see some rumblings just outside the open door to the hallway. A few of the volunteers had been tasked to do something by Mrs. Gillies after Emma’s interview and now seemed to be busily hauling things to one end of the building. I wondered what they were doing, but soon, it was the end of the day, and Emma slowly became the last still left in the Meadows room.

After, following a volunteer out to Mrs. Gillies’ office by the hand, Emma hadn’t let go of me the entire day since she had found me after the whole incident with Nancy. It meant that I was privy to basically her whole life in a way that I wasn’t always, and while I was worried about getting in the way of a few of her diaper changes, I was also proud and satisfied that Emma viewed me as her lifeline in all this mess. It was the mark of any true stuffy around here and I knew I was crossing the finish line with her now. At this point, all I had to do was be brought home by her. There was just one big problem with that though and as we entered the office, I could soon see it as plain as day.  

Mrs. Gillies was chatting with Miss Tully and Miss Dee-Dee intently but then stopped as we entered the room. We then had to doge some bags on the way in… ‘Hold on… I’ve been in here before… what’s with the bags? They weren’t here the last time…’

Mrs. Gillies sighed as she looked down at us as the volunteer then left. “Emma… we brought you in here this afternoon because we want you to choose some items that we brought here for you…” My heart skipped a beat and as I stealthily looked down at the bags, I read the luggage tab labeled ‘Emma’ on them. After what had happened today, it could only mean one thing.

“Buh why awe my bags hewe? Am I stayin’ hewe for ni-ni?” she asked in her still-regressed speech from her time with Nancy.

Mrs. Gillies seemed to hesitate, but Miss Tully seemed to be the stronger of the three workers before us, and immediately came over and crouched down to look Emma in the eyes. “Emma… Nancy… she’s… there’s no easy way to say this, but she’s gone. She’s not at your house anymore and you can’t stay there by yourself…”

“Gone?” Emma asked, still not catching on to what was happening now.

Miss Tully nodded. “Yes, Emma. Nancy is gone and you probably won’t ever see her again. You’re going to be staying here tonight with Miss Dee-Dee. Kind of like a sleepover… won’t that be fun?” I could see Miss Tully was trying, but to Emma, I could tell that she was just hearing that Nancy was now gone.

“Dih I do somefin wong?” she asked, a little crack in her voice coming through loud and clear. ‘Hold on, Emma. Just hold on a little longer and better times will be here soon… I promise.’ But I knew she couldn’t hear my thoughts, so I just prayed Miss Tully would assuage her in my stead.

Miss Tully almost violently shook her head. “Absolutely not, Emma. You are a wonderful, beautiful, good girl. Nancy… she…” I could tell that a daycare worker talking to a Little about their former caregiver being a psychotic Big who was likely going to jail now was a little difficult. Miss Tully sighed. “She did something bad herself, and like any naughty person, she’s going to get punished. So, you’re going to be staying here for a little bit.”

I could see the rusted and weary gears working overtime and about as hard as they could behind Emma’s eyes. Her mind had regressed a little bit again in recent weeks, so mentally, things were very black and white for her. If Nancy was like any other Big who wanted control, she had probably instilled a sense of guilt in Emma if they were ever apart. It was usually to ensure the Little would never run away, but now to Emma, being apart was the only thing she could process. So, no Nancy here, meant that Emma should feel bad, and further, she would likely only feel this bad if she had been naughty.

Emma’s eyes welled up. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry! Please don’t punish Nancy because of me,” she then mournfully wailed. ‘Drats! I hate being right about these things…’

Miss Tully shook her head but now seemed at a loss for words herself. Mrs. Gillies looked like she had seen this scene play out too many times, so being the person she was, Miss Dee-Dee stepped up instead. “No, Emma. You were a very good girl. In fact, you are so good that we need to find you a new caregiver. We already put out some feelers, and they are so impressed with you that they want to meet you as soon as possible.”

“Me?” Emma asked, likely picking more up on the flattery side of what Miss Dee-Dee had said instead of her now being put up for adoption. Hearing that first part more myself, I knew that we still had some unfortunate rough days ahead of us.

For her part though, Miss Dee-Dee chuckled. “Yes, you. You are a wonderful Little Emma. I’m going to tell you this, even if others don’t think I should… Nancy wasn’t a good person, Emma. She hurt you, honey. I know she probably said it was love or discipline, but she was wrong. She did things that were good before, but with you, not so much.” Emma stared back as she had just been told that the sky was actually green all along and I think Miss Dee-Dee saw that. “Do you understand, sweetie?”

Emma tilted her head, but I wasn’t sure if anything that was being said was truly getting through to her. Even when she said “yeah…” half-heartedly, I partially doubted its validity.

“Good,” Miss Dee-Dee still said with enthusiasm. “As soon as you feel up to it, we can find you a new and even better caregiver! Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

Unfortunately, while Miss Dee-Dee still spoke with the same sugary sweet tone that she used for Littles, she hadn’t used any flattery this time to note that Emma would be finding a new caregiver. That, on top of the revelation of Nancy’s evil nature, soon caused Emma’s smile to disappear.

“Oops,” Miss Tully noted, now jumping back into the fray and seemingly having had missed what had just transpired. “What happened to our happy girl, huh?”

Emma didn’t speak for a moment, and when she did, it wasn’t much louder than a whisper. “New cawegivuh… ado… add… adopp…” Emma tried to make out a single word and I knew what it was, but I couldn’t help her out any more than I could hug her right then and let her know that everything was going to be okay. So, still determined to ask her pressing and dreaded question, Emma tried it a different way. “I gettin’ a new cawegivuh?”

All three workers grimaced as they now understood that Emma in fact knew she was going up for adoption. They may have been Bigs, but they also worked at a daycare where some Littles loved to gossip as if it was their own private religion here now. Most of the time it was about childish things, like the consistency of the new milosauce or a new diaper they were trying out, but they knew the Littles knew about adoption. To them, unfortunately, it was always talked about as if it was a near death sentence. Having seen Littles be adopted like Fiona, it was hard to argue with their logic.

Fortunately, Mrs. Gillies finally seemed to find it within herself to speak back up. “Yes, Emma. You are going to be adopted. You’ll find someone, or even a couple, who want you, just the way you are. Then, they’ll take you home with them.”

All the words were right that the three workers had been using, and each used their same sing-song tones to convey their messages in a way that helped someone like Emma with her somewhat regressed mind. Still, she had gone through a lot today. She had witnessed her tormentor assault one of her friends over a cupcake, endured the chaos that followed, been questioned and was forced to relive her past trauma via crayon drawings, and was now being told that she was both homeless and without a caregiver to watch over her. Personally, I just don’t think her mind, or her emotional state, could take the addition of being told that another stranger would be taking her home with them.

“I… they… no, I…” she started to sputter out in half-coherent, half-babbled random strings of words. There was probably meaning behind what she was saying, but it would take someone far greater than anyone in this room to figure it out. Her breathing started to get heavier, and I could tell she was also beginning to panic. “No cawegivuh… no home… no wove… no one… I… I… I…” Then, as if someone had just pinched her side or scraped her knee, Emma burst into tears.

At first, the three workers seemed satisfied with Emma trying to self-soothe herself. It was a brutal but effective technique that helped most Littles regain their independence a bit after being regressed, but everything Emma tried, like thumb sucking, holding me tighter, crying louder, cradling herself… all ended in complete failure and more heaving tears.

After a little more of that, above Emma’s cries of loss and pain, I could see and hear Miss Dee-Dee look over to Mrs. Gillies and start talking. “Plan B, Patty? Or should we let her tire herself out?”

Mrs. Gillies looked at the wailing near-broken Little on the floor before her and sighed. “Go ahead. I don’t necessarily like plan B, but she needs her rest, and I don’t want her going past the point of no return.” Miss Dee-Dee nodded and retrieved something and then handed a few brightly colored small objects to both Miss Tully and Mrs. Gillies.

Each then placed their fingers with the objects into their ears and then each gave a thumbs up. Around here, earplugs could only mean one thing. ‘Oh no… please not that… not now…’ But to my sadness, Miss Dee-Dee then hit a button and a large pulse began, instantly making Mrs. Gillies’ office sound like we were inside a heart as it beat. It was steady and I swore I could hear whispers in between the thumps and thuds.  

At first, I thought that maybe their plan wasn’t working, but soon, Emma’s cries began to weaken. She curled around me on the soft, carpeted floor and quickly shot her thumb back into her mouth. In less than a minute, she went from practically ripping everyone’s heart out with her wails of sadness and self-loathing to bursting them instead with her level of cuteness right then. Even when she wetly farted in her slumber, I could almost picture a cartoon image of someone blushing or flowers coming from her rear now. It was so odd, but then I realized one horrible but inescapable truth: they had used something like my regression pulses on her.

Miss Dee-Dee then hit the button once more and the pulses stopped. Each worker removed their earplugs and sighed as they viewed the now-sleeping Emma. “Shame it came to that…” Miss Tully said sadly.

The others nodded. “Yes, but she’s had a long day. I don’t think any Little could have been expected not to have a breakdown at some point and then suck their thumb… I know I would have if I were her…” Mrs. Gillies noted.

Miss Dee-Dee then gave her a strange look, but then shook her head and looked back down at the now-sleeping form of Emma. “Sure… but at least she’s at peace now. I’ll watch over her tonight and will proceed with the planned feedings of Taber milk as discussed. I can lessen the formula over tonight or the next few days, depending on how she reacts, to get her mind more acclimated to everything going on.”

“Isn’t that bad in the long-term?” Miss Tully questioned hesitantly after a moment. “Shouldn’t she embrace all the feelings now and just deal with them?”

Miss Dee-Dee rocked her hand back and forth. “Eh. Hard to say with Littles like Emma. Her mind is a bit messy right now, but if I wean her off the Tabers slowly, her mind can get used to the idea that she is still loved, while also accepting that Nancy is no longer her caregiver. Still processing everything inside, but her mind won’t break from the stress of it all either.” Miss Tully still seemed hesitant but just nodded at Miss Dee-Dee’s rationalization of her plan.

Miss Dee-Dee then sniffed the air and spotted the bulging garment now attached to Emma, her denim skirtalls today likely leaving very little to the imagination. “Speaking of messy… I need to get this one changed pronto. You two go home. I’ve got Emma and the others staying here for the night. I’ll be sure to call if there’s any further problems.”

The others nodded and after a brief rundown and check of the place, left the daycare. Satisfied, Miss Dee-Dee slowly picked Emma up and hauled her off to the Burrows room. “I’m so sorry, Emma, that this happened to you. You don’t deserve any of this, and I wish I could take you home with me, but I’m already at my allotment with Littles at home. Don’t worry though… I’m sure we’ll find the perfect Big for you soon.”  

Miss Dee-Dee proceeded to then change her diaper, feed her a bottle of creamy liquid, and then lay her back into her old crib. In truth, I thought this moment would have been almost mortifying to come back to. After all, this is where Emma and I had first met, so in a way, I felt like we were both truly regressing and almost starting all over. That being said, once I thought about it for even a second, I could only marvel at how things had changed. Instead of the crib in the Burrows room being a mark of failure now, to me at least, it felt more like a repeated holiday where one can contrast the time to what it was before.

In this case, Emma seemed very much her traumatized self and was content to just lay still and coo up at Miss Dee-Dee while she changed her diaper. While it was a bit nerve-wracking that Emma wouldn’t want to leave that state given all that was going on, I knew deep down that it was likely only a temporary state. While as before, she had been regressed and was being forced to try and come back to that point later, Nancy was no more. I knew it had disturbed and upset Emma on a scale that would only break my heart if I actually thought about it, but now, I just hoped that we would be able to find a new home with a caregiver that truly cared about her.  

Even personally, I was back to the same crib I had started off with and Emma was likely going to be sitting in a messy diaper about as soon as she finished her bottle. All status quo, but only for who I used to be. The Dash that had come here initially with Charley was very different than who I am now. Today, I felt no joy in seeing Emma crumple up like a lifeless doll when the pulses hit her. Instead, I took satisfaction in the notion that all I wanted to do now was to help her and get her back to her previously happy self.

I sighed in personal contentment, and as soon as Emma was laid down and I began to drift with my thoughts, I then started to panic over just what came next in all this. I had been embroiled in the fight to keep Emma as she was and safe from Nancy for so long that now the Big was gone, the next steps only seemed murky. I of course knew the next step for Emma would be to find a new caregiver to adopt her, but I had no clue what that would mean for me. So, as soon as I knew that Emma was fast asleep and that Miss Dee-Dee stopped her hawk-like watch of her, I made my way back over to the Meadows room temporarily. As soon as I got my answer, I would be back to snuggle in with Emma.

There, as soon as I stepped into the Meadows room, nearly every toy it seemed like rushed up to greet me. “Oh my gosh! How’s Emma?” “Is she okay?” “Did they wipe her mind?” “Are you no longer her stuffy?” “Is it true that you saw Nancy stab a Little?” The questions were as numerous as they were ridiculous after as the time progressed, but right then, Poodee, Carmen, and Tops entered the fray and barricaded the way to get to me.

“Okay, okay!” Carmen shouted. “Back it up, you lot!”

“Yeah, move it hedgehog!” Tops shoved. “This isn’t some mosh pit you know!”

“Geesh!” Poodee exclaimed. “Can’t you all tell that Dash is here to get some advice and not play twenty questions with you all? Just get back and I’m sure we’ll find out everything we need to know… later. Now, beat it!”

I smiled back at my friends and now free and clear, made my way up to the top of one of the cubbies where most of the toy council staying in this room were always bunked for the night. Originally, only Sarge came up here, but after Cassie got him to ease up a bit, he let Victor and Pete come up here as well when their Littles entered the room. They all quickly turned to me when I finally managed to traverse the last cubby hole.

“Holy…! Hey, it’s Dash!” Victor shouted out to the others.

“We can see that, Victor,” Sarge said, rolling his eyes a little bit at the announcement as I approached.

“You doing okay, Dash?” Cassie asked in her usual sweet way.  

I could hardly believe the difference my time here had upon all these toys. I still felt that it was some sort of ruse and that I was about to be tossed off the ledge one of the nights I had come up here, but a month later, and they just seemed even more happy to see me.

Getting closer to them, I sighed. “She’s fine. I’m fine. Miss Dee-Dee popped on some pulses and Emma went out like a light. She didn’t take too well to the news she was up for adoption, but she’s sleeping soundly now. Miss Dee-Dee will wean her off the Tabers milk over the next few days and she’ll meet with the adoption candidates right after.”

“That’s good at least…” Victor noted, now settling back onto his banana.

“It will help her in the long run, Dash,” Cassie said with a bit of sadness in her voice. “You’ll see. She’ll be happier this way once she finds her true caregiver.”

“Cassie’s right… as usual,” Sarge said under his breath a bit.

“But you didn’t come up to hear us give you support for Emma, did you?” Pete asked, emerging from his own resting spot, now looking better than ever with my old and his new actuator. I shook my head. “I’m guessing you want to know your role in adoption, right?” I nodded my head, always amazed at his near prescient state with these types of things.

“Right. Just be there for her,” Victor said, sighing. “Be there as her friend and her stuffy.”

“Support her, Dash,” Cassie added. “Just love her to bits.”

To my surprise though, Sarge shook his head. “That’s all fine, but that’s not your true role here, Dash.”

“It’s not?” I questioned, his response nearly flying in the face of everything I had come to learn here so far.

Sarge shook his head again. “No. Take my advice and use your messaging on her.” I almost objected to him right then, but he held up his hand to stop me. “Just listen for one second. Object after if you want but hear me out first.” Sensing the seriousness in his tone, I nodded.

Sarge then took a breath. “See, her mind is darn near like spaghetti at this point. When you meet with her prospects whenever, Mrs. Gillies and the others will narrow them down a bit, but you should only have to see the top three based on a few bits of criteria, so, keep all that in mind. It’s a bit of an outdated way to do things I feel, but you just focus on the three you’ll meet.”

“Then what?” I asked, leaning in closer. I could already tell that everyone else was just as shocked as I was that Sarge was giving me advice, and even more, seemingly good advice.

“Well, what everyone else said is great for the aftercare once you two have met with all of them, but during your meetings, you’re going to act as the little voice inside her head,” he explained. “Because of her mind, for example, she might choose a clown to be her next caregiver, but behind closed doors, he could be a serial killer. Doubtful around here and in this society, but that’s what you’re looking for. Look beyond their resumes or what they’re saying. Look beyond that extra fluff and see who they really are inside. Sadist or saint. Crusher or carer.”

“He’s exactly right, Dash,” Pete said, stepping closer to the rest of us. “Be there for her and make sure she can hold you close but guide her. Guide her like the rudder of a ship away from the jagged rocks ahead. And with any luck, you should steer her right towards smooth waters.”

I nodded and just sat back with a huff. I had gotten better at using my messaging on her, and between my better skills and her suggestibility, I almost felt like a surgeon with my level of precision in messaging over her now. It made me feel a little guilty still using it occasionally, but I always felt justified when Nancy was threatening to send her back to practically a newborn state.

Now, based on the advice from my friends, I was going to be using my messaging to find her a new caregiver, and if I was reading everything correctly, a new home for the two of us in the future. It was a lot and I just hoped more than ever, just as Miss Dee-Dee had predicted, that she would be ready in a few days to meet the various adoption prospects. From what I had seen today, she might truly never be, but I just hoped beyond measure that I could help her out. To me, right then, all the work I had done with her since we had met and the prevention of Nancy’s vile plans, all now seemed to be converging on this one decision she would have to make soon. Regardless of whom she chose, though, I knew our lives would never be the same after.  

[Guilend]

14 hours ago, LostBBoyBear said:

Yes, but she’s had a long day. I don’t think any Little could have been expected not to have a breakdown at some point and then suck their thumb… I know I would have if I were her…” Mrs. Gillies noted.

😂 Miss Dee-Dee is now picturing her sucking her thumb, probably while wearing a diaper.

 

14 hours ago, LostBBoyBear said:

Each then placed their fingers with the objects into their ears and then each gave a thumbs up. Around here, earplugs could only mean one thing.

I can picture a new caregiver not putting them in correctly, while it wouldn't put her to sleep, she probably either suck her thumb or poop her panties, probably both lol.

 

14 hours ago, LostBBoyBear said:

Nancy had permanently doomed herself.

Obviously she lost control of her emotions. I'm surprised she wasn't spanked good and hard for that. She definitely needs time spent with a new mommy to help her with her control problem.

I can't wait to see what happens next. Especially with Emma, but I do hope we get to find out what happens to Nancy, maybe Patches will overhear something from one of the caregivers, or one of his friends does and tells him about it.

[LostBBoyBear]

6 minutes ago, Guilend said:

😂 Miss Dee-Dee is now picturing her sucking her thumb, probably while wearing a diaper.

 

I can picture a new caregiver not putting them in correctly, while it wouldn't put her to sleep, she probably either suck her thumb or poop her panties, probably both lol.

 

Obviously she lost control of her emotions. I'm surprised she wasn't spanked good and hard for that. She definitely needs time spent with a new mommy to help her with her control problem.

I can't wait to see what happens next. Especially with Emma, but I do hope we get to find out what happens to Nancy, maybe Patches will overhear something from one of the caregivers, or one of his friends does and tells him about it.

I figured you might like some of the possibilties I laced in this chapter. Next chapter should be out soon, but with my decision to write a separate story about Emma, Nancy's conclusion will be far more focused there. From what I have planned, I think you'll enjoy it more in that story.

[Guilend]

1 hour ago, LostBBoyBear said:

Next chapter should be out soon, but with my decision to write a separate story about Emma, Nancy's conclusion will be far more focused there. From what I have planned, I think you'll enjoy it more in that story.

Lol I had already forgot you had planned that story. 

I do have a question, do you still plan on writing Miss G's story, from the elephant stuffy story? I'm trying to keep track of the million stories you've talked about writing lol. 

I don't remember if I said this before, but I really enjoy how you're doing your stories. Like with the timeline and the order you're writing them in. I find it exciting that you're moving back and forth in time. The way the technology changes and well everything changes, and are the same all at the same time. It's an amazing piece of art.

[LostBBoyBear]

46 minutes ago, Guilend said:

Lol I had already forgot you had planned that story. 

I do have a question, do you still plan on writing Miss G's story, from the elephant stuffy story? I'm trying to keep track of the million stories you've talked about writing lol. 

I don't remember if I said this before, but I really enjoy how you're doing your stories. Like with the timeline and the order you're writing them in. I find it exciting that you're moving back and forth in time. The way the technology changes and well everything changes, and are the same all at the same time. It's an amazing piece of art.

I am still planning on writing that story. I was actually just adding some details I thought would be nice to it the other day. As I wrote the elephant stuffy's tale a little later in the year, I will probably not get to it before July at this point, but I might include it in the next poll I post on here. I just want to give an opportunity to the other stories I wrote first or that I saw others interested in that wouldn't hurt other storylines (like the sequel to Walk into the Unknown).

Thank you. I've been writing everything down and really trying to remember to keep the timeline intact when I'm going back and forth. I might add some dates to the reference guide I have to make some of that job a little easier. Plus, I'm also cooking up something new to add to the guide as well that should help with a few things...

[Operational Systems]

I like the idea of the Tell Me More Sequel as it seems more unique, and an opportunity for people to positively change and grow or face a difficult adversary.  The AR virus idea is fine, but it's been done a lot.

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone! This is now the second to last chapter. Originally, I was going to add Emma’s perspective right after this before the very last chapter, but as I mentioned previously, all that will now become a separate story.

Further, I’ve already written most of the last chapter, so finishing it should be pretty straightforward. I will still need to edit it, but unless something massively problematic or time-consuming comes up tomorrow, the final chapter should be out by tomorrow some time.

Lastly, for those of you reading this one, I’m still trying to determine my next story, so be sure to let me know what you want of the three stories I placed on here to decide from. For those of you who may have missed these options or whatnot, just refer back to chapter 4. As this will be announced during the next chapter, this is your last chance to make a comment.

Anyways, I hope everyone enjoys this next to last chapter!

Chapter 14: Judgement of the Futures

What a week’s time difference makes in one’s life. I know it’s less than 2% of a year, but at the same time, I couldn’t even begin to fathom all the changes that had happened since the staff here first administered their pulses to Emma to calm her down.

Emma’s recovery was slow and painful, and every toy, worker, and volunteer just wanted to wrap her up and make her feel better. Fortunately, though, Miss Dee-Dee had been using the diluted Tabers milk with Emma and she had finally weaned her off it two days ago. It took until last night for Emma to finally come out of the fog, and though her potty control was practically non-existent still, she was no longer the same perpetually distraught Little who had heard the news about Nancy leaving her.

Next, the daycare went on a field trip yesterday, and oddly enough, she seemed to improve dramatically over the course of that one outing. I wasn’t really sure what to make of it, but I was just happy now that she was recovering from her ordeal. I knew she was still sad, and the deep-laced trauma that Nancy had caused would take time to truly recover from, if at all, but Emma was at least no longer feeling the connection between Nancy’s absence and her thinking of herself as being a ‘bad’ girl.

Speaking of bad girls, while Emma had still mostly been her daze, I was able to listen around the daycare and found out that Nancy had already been scheduled for an expedient trial. Rumors swirled around that some wanted to make an example of her, while others persisted that the pro-Big movement was going to bat for her amidst charges of bribery and corruption to do so. Inside the daycare, it was hard to know which to believe, but as the week had progressed, I just felt further confident that she would no longer threaten Emma’s well-being. The more time she spent away from Emma by now, the better.

So, with things clearing up around Emma and her acceptance of going up for adoption and now at least the concept not causing her to burst into tears every five minutes, the staff had discussed it two nights ago on whether she was ready or not. I guess they believed she was as Mrs. Gillies broke the news yesterday, seeing how Emma seemed more ready than ever, that she would begin the adoption interviews tomorrow morning. Emma only calmly nodded, but now, it was my turn to panic.

As such, this morning, I went to stretch my legs before Emma woke up and to clear my mind in preparation for the big day. As it turned out, Nadia was doing the same, being leader of us toys and all, and quickly joined me. We talked about daycare in general and my potential future, but finally, she asked the question I had been dreading myself. “You think you’re ready for today?”

I sighed. “To be honest, I’m just not sure. I feel that so much is riding on today. Unless I’m mistaken, I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that it could change everything.”

Nadia nodded. “I hate to tell you this Dash, but of course it will change everything.” If I had blood, it would have frozen right then at her confirmation of my worst fears. Nadia smiled, clearly seeing my discomfort. “Relax, Dash. You’ll be okay. I’ve seen this before with other Littles and you have a leg up on almost every single one of them.”

“I do?” I could feel a sliver of hope rising in my chest.

“You do. Of course you do. Just think about the other Littles that have been adopted here since you came.” I pondered them all for a moment, but the odds felt heavily stacked against Littles from my point of view. “Not too pretty, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, Nadia, and that’s exactly why I’m nervous. I mean, Zack went off to a good place apparently, but Fiona? For all I know, she’s either close to braindead by now or growing a third arm from all the chemicals they’ve probably tested on her. And then Tyler…” I trailed off and thought of the most recent adoption case here.

Tyler had recovered more than most could have ever guessed, but reflecting back now, I felt that he was likely just being prepped for his new caregiver. His new daddy had come in all joyous and strong and the two seemed to hit it off right away. I was glad that Tyler’s toddler to preschool level mentality would finally be able to rest and enjoy life. As it turned out though, his daddy had other plans.

Probably one of the most frustrating things about Big society were the subtleties of what was considered good or bad with Littles. Hitting was bad but spanking was almost expected. Surgical alterations to the brain were illegal now but permanent hypnotic states that achieved the same effects were still widely practiced. Even now, I had to be very careful about the stuff that Emma was watching around here. So, as it turned out, Tyler’s daddy seemed to revel in where exactly this line was for Little care.  

At first, Tyler seemed positively thrilled at his new life. New toys and playdates all filled his future, but soon enough, his daddy began to place him in scenarios that seemed designed to humiliate him. Petticoat punishments, outfits designed to show his often-leaky diapers, and planted hypnotic triggers that made nearly every humiliating scene ten times worse were just a few of the things he endured. For someone like the already fragile Tyler, it didn’t take long for him to break. His once miraculously obtained maturity now seemed to all be locked away.  

He would still come to daycare in some sailor suit that left little to the imagination over the state of his infantile bulky diapers, but Tyler would just play by himself and babble incoherently out loud as if he now had some invisible friend. And if that wasn’t enough to feel bad for him, his daddy also seemed to revel in his punishments.

The slightest infraction of his daddy’s rules and Tyler would find himself over his lap for a massive enema or a merciless spanking. Either one would end in pain for hours, but his daddy always just chalked it up to ‘improving his Little’s behavior.’ The staff always tried to help Tyler when he came in, but they knew this road only lead to one of two destinations. Tyler’s new daddy would either tire of him and hire a nanny to take care of him as a newborn, or he would pawn him off to the nearest research lab for a quick cash payment so that he could buy a new Little for his barbaric schemes once again. I now shuddered at the thought.

“Don’t think about them, Dash. I know it’s hard, but they’ll only cloud the task ahead of you. Due to various reasons, none of them had a toy like you. Tyler was blackballed from having a toy here by us and Fiona and Zack’s toys were old and didn’t have the technology to really influence them during the day. One positive scenario out of three is about what you would expect, but you, Dash… you make the difference, and your odds are so much better at finding success for Emma today.”

I was finding it infinitely ironic that the subliminal messaging that had first got me into trouble with everyone here had now become my secret weapon against all the evil around here as well. I knew that the difference in perception was largely due to what the messages were being used for, but I still found it interesting over the shift in the perception of my ability. Regardless, though, I knew Nadia was correct and that my messaging would be critical and one of the biggest factors in whom Emma chose today if she encountered any of the more terrible Bigs. ‘No pressure, right?’

With that, we talked a little more about what to maybe look out for and what I thought might be a good caregiver for Emma, but soon, the sun streamed in, and we both went our separate ways. Just as I snuggled back with Emma, Miss Tully came in to wake her up for the day ahead.

“Rise and shine, sweetie!” Emma only smiled back and proceeded to just lay back as Miss Tully went about the usual morning routine. Just as she finished retaping the last tab of her diaper, she smiled back down to her. “Today’s the day you get to find someone to take care of you. Isn’t that exciting?”

I could sense the hesitancy in Emma still, but she just nodded her head and held me closer. Ever since Nancy had left, not counting bathtimes in the backroom for just such situations or my own wandering when she was asleep, I had yet to leave her side. Even when she was being fed, I was always squashed right in the seat along with her. For Emma, I had become her safety net in approaching the world, and while the reasons why nearly wanted to tear my heart in two, I was proud to provide the service for my Little.

So, after a round of breakfast, Emma was bathed and dressed in a mostly white dress decorated with patterns of pink and green floral patterns. A large pink band wrapped around her and tied in the back and was adorable, but also caused the billowing material below it to poof out right over her diapers. Emma didn’t mind and just giggled as the little white shoes were placed on her feet and a dainty pink headband slipped into place over her hair. A pink carnation crooked right off the middle on the headband completed the outfit perfectly. Finally, she was ready to meet her future caregiver.

Once again, Emma was escorted into Mrs. Gillies’ office and placed in a highchair. I didn’t like the whole notion of us being potentially trapped if a Big decided to get nasty, but I was at least partially relieved when Mrs. Gillies spoke up next. “Okay, Emma. We’ve basically narrowed down our selection to three different caregivers and all should be good fits in their own ways. You just hug Dash however, if you get at all scared, or call out for me if anything get’s too uncomfortable, okay?” Emma immediately hugged me tighter and nodded.

“Good. Now, I’m going to let the first one in. Just see what you think of her and then we’ll move onto the next one.” Again, Emma just nodded. Mrs. Gillies seemed like she wanted to hear something more and say something more herself, but with a sigh she walked out. “You can go in now…” A woman said a few things back but then began to walk in. ‘Okay… this is it…’

The gigantic woman walked in with an air about her that I couldn’t tell if it was more dignified or snobbish. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun and her narrow-framed glasses hugged her face and almost seemed to bounce about slightly against her taut face as she walked in the room. Her clothing was well-pressed and selected, giving her a put-together but intimidating, domineering presence. “Hello, Emma,” she said, her body barely moving as she nearly floated over to the chair in front of us and then sat down. “I’m Dolores Abernathy. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Hi…” Emma said shyly, squeezing me once again. I could quickly tell she was uncomfortable around her, and my yellow flags were going up already.  

Dolores’ face contorted for a moment. “Emma, please sit up straight and project your voice. A proper lady does not slouch and always makes herself heard clearly to whomever she is speaking to.”

Emma did as she was told, but I currently wasn’t feeling any love so far from the strict lady now before us. Still, I let their interview continue, hoping that things would improve quickly. They didn’t…

“Emma, sit up.” “Emma, clear your throat.” “Emma, stop playing with your hair.” “Emma, stop hugging that unsightly dog so close.” More warning flags were popping up around the woman, but I supposed one could tolerate it if it helped Emma mature a little. It definitely wasn’t the way I would go about it, but I could see the upside of her dominance. Then, she went from acceptable to me wanting to escort her out of that room myself, willing or not.

“I’m told you haven’t taken any ballet classes yet. We’ll soon have to change that,” Dolores noted stiffly, looking over a single file in her hands that she had popped out of the bag she had brought with her.

“My old cawegivuh nevuh bwought me to a wehesuhl…” Emma sadly reported back.

Dolores’ eyes narrowed. “Emma, we do not badmouth those who take care of us before. I’m sure she did her best, but I want to talk about something different. Your speech… I think we need to fix some things. Repeat after me.” It wasn’t a suggestion.

Dolores perked up more, popped out her lips one and then began. “Something simple to start… Sally sells seashells by the seashore. Now, you try.”

I could see her sincerity in making Emma a better Little was there, but I wasn’t sure if she would make her happy, but still, I let Emma try at least. “Sawy… sewls seaschewls by da schee… scheeschowe.” I knew it was her best effort and I was so proud of her for even attempting such a task, but Dolores’ eyes just seemed to want to twitch out of their sockets right then.

“That was… a good… first try… I guess.” She sighed heavily behind her gritted teeth in a way that conveyed her clear disappointment. “I suppose we’ll need to work on that, but one more thing I think I need to address…” Her eyes then horrifically narrowed in on me. “About… him.”

Her words cut through me like a knife. The way she said ‘him’ made me feel like some bug that needed to be squashed immediately. While I was at least willing to entertain the notion of discipline with a purpose to help Emma out, I felt that Dolores was bordering on being too strict now. I just hoped I was wrong.

“Wah abou’ him?” Emma asked pitifully as her grip around me only tightened. I didn’t like Dolores right now, but I was at least feeling a little safe that Emma was cradling me so close. Instead of jumping to do whatever Dolores had said to do, Emma was now questioning her orders.

Dolores glared back at both Emma and me now. “He’s filthy and obviously an impediment to you growing up. Proper Littles should have age-appropriate toys, but one’s in proper working order… or at least ones that don’t look like they just came out of the garbage.”

There was silence in the room for a little bit after that. Her words struck me deeply and I was tempted to steer Emma away from this uptight disciplinarian, but I wanted to know what she had to say first. After all, I didn’t want to control my Little, only protect her, and I was admittedly a bit of a mess as of late. Being with a distraught Little at all times of the day, including diaper changes, playtimes outside, and meals, one tended to get a bit messy bit by bit.

Finally, Emma glared back and gripped me even closer. “No, Dowowes… I’a nah givin’ up Patsch! He’s my fwiend…”

Her rejection now was the final nail in Dolores’ proverbial coffin. Almost immediately, I made sure from my messaging that Emma would never choose Dolores if ever asked in the future. From her body language, I don’t think that would have been a problem, but I just wanted to make sure.

After, Dolores tried to reason with Emma as best she could in her proper way, but I could see the tension between the two had already set in and Emma might have had the body of a woman back in her own dimension, but she had a stubborn streak like any other toddler would once they had made their mind up. So, Dolores left in a huff yet still determined to obtain the Little she had just met. For her, I suspected she was looking for a challenge.

After, I was now figuring out why I was needed here. I felt that Emma could have handled Dolores on her own, but I added both a source of safety and a second opinion… just in case. Then, after a diaper check, with Miss Tully declaring that Emma should be set for at least a little while longer, the next Big strolled in.

Immediately, I could smell his aftershave and as he sat down in front of us, I could feel the waves of masculinity ripple off his shoulders. His stubble, dark peacoat, and tousled hair could portray someone who was a, as Dolores might have said, ‘ruffian.’ Underneath all that though, I could see an intelligence burning behind his eyes… a desire for something. If nothing else, he at least intrigued me.   

“Vincent Carlos,” he said casually with almost a twinkle in his eye. “You must be Emma.”

Emma quickly nodded and hugged me closely, but I couldn’t tell if it was from discomfort or that in another life, she might have actually found him attractive. But this being the society it was, at most, the two could only ever be daddy and daughter, so I watched on for any signs of issues.   

He smiled warmly. “Awww. No need to be shy around me, Emma. I just wanted to meet the Little I’ve heard so much about. I just loved all the bits of defiance against another Big and your bounce back from a near catatonic state. Just brilliant!” Emma’s head popped up from its previously stationary stare at the floor.

“You dih?” she asked innocently, her eyes widening like her favorite movie star had just complimented and had read all about her.

Vincent chuckled. “Of course, sweetie. Why do you think I’m here?” His words flowed into Emma effortlessly and I could see she was already taken by the stranger. I readied myself more, just in case, but the two then began a pleasant chat of question and answer.

Each question, like “where did you originally grow up?” was always followed by a quick answer to the best of her ability, like “Vehmon’?” I could tell those memories of her past life remained hazy from the treatment that she had been subjected to, but her answers always only ever seemed to intrigue Vincent further.

At first, I didn’t think anything of his questions, but the further he asked them, the more I became concerned with what was actually happening between the two. If I didn’t know better, I swore he was conducting a job interview rather than getting to know her.

Finally, though, as he paused and looked over some of the notes he had brought with him, Emma asked a question back. “Whas youwe jahb?”

Vincent for once seemed thrown off a little, almost as if he was trying to make something up, but he just sighed and smiled piercingly back at Emma. “It’s a company called Diamond Technologies. It’s pretty big, but I’m actually part of their research group out west.”

“I nevuh been ou’ wess before!” she exclaimed excitedly. “Duh you have a hosee?”

Vincent laughed but shook his head. “No, unfortunately I don’t. I can ride one, but Peirama is a bit greener than the wild west. It’s actually a very beautiful town and there’s tons of other Littles just like you there.”

“Weawy?” she asked enthusiastically. I could tell his hooks were deepening into her by the minute and while I felt hesitant, I wasn’t sensing anything bad… about… him…

My mind whirled and reared on its axel. It was hard to remember so long ago now, but Fiona… ‘Didn’t she? Oh shit!’ I finally remembered that Fiona had been adopted out by a research company… Diamond Technologies. I wasn’t sure where she was at now, but Vincent said he was in research. Alarms bells were quickly going off in my head. Still, I wasn’t sure what I should do.

On one hand, Emma seemed absolutely enchanted by the prospect of going out west, but on the other, based on Fiona’s fate and his job as a researcher, I felt obligated to ring all the panic sirens I could. Once again, though, I felt indebted to Emma for her to see all this out. I needed a hint of her hesitancy, or something like that, so I could intervene before she made a terrible mistake and not feel that I was controlling her. Seeing his sway with her though, I had a few creeping doubts that was going to be easy.

Now, everyone has a fatal flaw of some kind. They may try to overcome it and succeed, but its presence will always be there waiting to bring them down. For me, it was my past and the fact that I once wanted to regress Littles. I had moved beyond that phase, but even now, I was holding back in trying to help Emma out for fear of performing those same actions against her, for her betterment or not.

For Vincent, though, I realized his fatal flaw was arrogance. Emma had been so thoroughly enchanted by his seeming spell that he was now pushing the boundaries of their conversation. Seeing that she hadn’t made any terrible connection to Diamond Technologies, he began an entirely new set of questions. These felt far more sinister than a simple background check. His unlikely chance at slipping up had actually happened.

“What’s your biggest fear?” “Could you deal with small, enclosed spaces for long periods of time?” “Have you ever had a bad reaction to hypnosis, voluntary or forced?” “Any objections to being spun very quickly, bees, or being submerged in darkness for more than 24 hours at a time?” “How are you with needles?” With each question, I could feel Emma once again begin tightening her grip around me. I could tell she was still very much enthralled with Vincent still, but her answers became more strained… harder to articulate even.

“Why you askin’ me aw dese quessions?” she finally asked, the fear in her voice now very evident.

Vincent smiled. “Well, sweet pea, I just need to know these types of things to figure out your limits. Maybe I think you would like… amusement parks, and I just want you to be able to go on all the rides. Make sense?”

He said the whole bit with such confidence and vigor that one might have been forgiven for thinking that he was telling the truth, but his brief hesitation before amusement parks were setting off more sirens in my head. It was one thing to ask strange questions, this was a strange land after all, but making things up like that on the spot showed me he was either a good liar or had already planned for contingencies like these and was just remembering how to respond non conspicuously. Either way, I didn’t like it.

Emma seemed more convinced than I was, and therefore still wasn’t absolutely rejecting him on the spot. It made me nervous, and I thought it couldn’t get any worse right then with my nerves… until Vincent pushed a thick stack of paper, likely around 20 sheets, in front of Emma along with a neon-colored and glittery pen beside it. “Can you read, Emma? I didn’t see that if you could in your file.”

Emma looked down at the numerous pages and the smaller text on each of them as she flipped through a few. She started to try and read the first page, but after a minute or so of trying to sound out the first word, she looked up at Vincent with defeat in her eyes. I knew her reading skills had taken a major hit before when she was first regressed, but as Nancy had fumed at everyone, Emma still had the ability. Likely, it was probably just all the legalese in front of her right then and more about sounding the words out than anything. It could have been a hypnotic block for all I knew, but her defeated stare back up at Vincent spoke volumes.

“Awww. That’s okay.” He then reached over and pointed to the bottom of the page. “This is a contract, Emma. If you sign right at the bottom, I can have you out of here real soon. It will be kind of like an adventure. Does that sound fun?”

To my surprise though, Emma hesitated, and now, I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, she was showing signs of her distrust of Vincent. There still seemed to be a part of her that wanted to sign the contract and go with him out west, but I could feel her pulse quicken, her breathing began to labor, and her grip around my midsection begin to tighten. I didn’t like seeing her in such a distressed state, but for my own conscience, it was the little hint of her denial of Vincent that I had been looking for.

So, I quickly switched on my messaging and slowly tried to get Emma to steer clear of this man. Given his appearance and his suave yet underhanded and sinister intentions most likely however, I was worried about any outright rejection Emma could show him like she had with Dolores. Bearing that in mind, I made sure that my messaging was more subtle… precise and safe with what I wanted her to do.

The first step was for her not to sign the contract. “I wanna dink abou’ ih fiwst. Iss dah okay?” to which of course he replied, ‘yes.’ Secondly, I wanted the time between the two to be over as soon as possible. My mind ran over the dozens of possibilities that I could achieve without hurting Emma or angering Vincent.

She could always cry, but Vincent might not react well to that and in a game where seconds counted, I felt I should avoid scenarios like those as much as I could. This also led to the elimination of her throwing something, having a tantrum, yelling at him, swearing, and several other scenarios I concocted. Also, not wanting to hurt her eliminated even more possibilities. I felt stumped… until her stomach rumbled.

I knew that Emma’s breakfast was making its way through her system. She was always a little slow and if my time estimation was anything to go by, it was right around the time she would usually go. Seeing Vincent and his suave persona, I felt that a dirty diaper might just be enough to give him enough of an excuse to leave, especially in an enclosed room like this.

So, out of options, I began to message Emma. “Push, Emma. Your stomach is feeling a little full and maybe even uncomfortable. Push and let all that go. I’m sure Miss Tully or Mrs. Gillies will praise you like the good girl you are afterward.” Then, even more unconsciously than usual with her lack of control and under my sway now, Emma began to push.

“So, would you be willing to move out west with me, Emma?” Vincent asked calmly, almost now even toying with the papers in front of her as if he was pushing a sweet treat toward her.

“I…” She grunted briefly. “I don’ know… iss so faw an’ aww my fwiens awe hewe. I nee’…” Emma grunted again, but this time my messaging held, and her bowels didn’t. Soon, a low wet fart could be heard punctuating the stillness of the room.

I could see Vincent quickly realize what had happened and before Emma had a chance to even finish, I could see the panic set in his eyes. Likely, he knew if he ran out now or reacted how he wanted to what he just witnessed, Emma could later reject him. He probably did want a Little deep down, but I also suspected he wanted a test subject far more rather than a being to love and care for.

Finally, though, Emma relaxed. “I jus’ don’ know… wai… whewe you goin’?” she asked a little panicky over Vincent’s quick rise from the table.

“I, uh, I need to go, Emma.” He then headed for the door in about the most panicked and yet still straightlaced fashion I had ever seen before. “Just look over the contract and let me know soon.” It was a little hilarious if not also a complete confirmation of my suspicions regarding his true purpose here. I suspected Emma would be a little upset over this one at some point, but I knew I had just saved her from a lifetime of pain and misery at some testing facility out west.

Miss Tully soon entered and seemed a little perplexed. “I just saw Vincent leaving. He seemed so nice and…” I could see her nostrils flare up. “Oh, I see. Did someone make a mess? Does someone have a mushy tushy in here?” Emma just giggled back as Miss Tully came over, checked, and then lifted us both out and over to the Burrows room to get changed.

It was peaceful there and I guessed that the Meadows room was likely crowded and may have been viewed as too big of a risk of overstimulating Emma today. I knew that the whole staff was pulling for her to find a caregiver today, and I guessed that none of them wanted to be responsible for even the possibility of upsetting her and throwing the last interview off.

As Miss Tully proceeded to change the destroyed diaper about Emma’s lower half, I was right there with her as she held me close to her chest and played with my ears as she usually did lately. I didn’t mind, and I was too engrossed in my own thoughts to care even if I usually did mind. See, I realized with some degree of panic, that the next interview was our last. If it failed as well, Emma was likely going to have to choose between three bad options or possibly be seen by the community as a problem Little. Not only could it hurt her future adoption options, but the case against Nancy could be in jeopardy as well as the pro-Big movement supporting her could use it as evidence that Emma was the problem… not Nancy.

Changed and still happy, to my relief, Emma toddled and was escorted back into Mrs. Gillies’ office where she was waiting. “Hello, Emma. I just wanted to stop in to say good luck with the next adoptee, but also that it isn’t just one. They’re a couple. Is that okay?” Emma just nodded her head and allowed herself to be placed back in the highchair. For me though, a couple could spell potential disaster.

Now, I had nothing against couples in general, but I always hesitated with them a little bit whenever a Little was with them. Due to a number of wars and viruses in the last 80 years or so, much of Big society had been reduced down to single women. Fertility issues and a lack of men were hard obstacles to navigate around, so couples were rare. Unfortunately, because of their rarity, while it did make them a strong pairing more often than not, it could be dangerous for a Little.

While a Little had no say technically with a Big, there was at least something to be said of when arguments were between just one Big and their Little. A few sympathies for the poor dears and an argument could swing in their favor, but with couples, the Little would almost always be outnumbered. This wasn’t a dealbreaker, but I had seen a couple hurt Littles often when the Big’s ideologies were always thrust on them. So, with a great deal of hesitancy on my part, I braced as the couple walked in.  

To be honest, both seemed a little nervous and sat down opposite of both of us. The woman had large frizzy red hair, wore glasses and a purple cardigan, and seemed to look like she was actually dreading today. The man seemed clean-cut with his stylized haircut and casual but professional clothes but almost shy as well. They seemed perfectly normal and almost a little underwhelming, but at the same time I saw something on their faces, lingering behind the masked expressions they currently wore, hope. Not hope of a power trip or a new lab rat, but the hope that Emma wouldn’t tell them ‘no.’

The man spoke first. “Hello, Emma. I’m, uh, oh gosh darn it. I’m already bumbling this up. I’m sorry Emma,” he stumbled along. He then took a breath and recollected himself. “Sorry, I’m Jimmy,” he finally made out with a large infectious grin.

“And I’m Lilly,” his wife piped up. “Sorry about how we’re acting. Just a little nervous is all.”

At first, I thought Emma was just going to outright reject them, but instead I gratefully saw her empathetic side come to the front. “Dass okay… I’m ner… nervuss too.”

Lilly smiled in a way I had seen so many other times before on other Bigs who seemed to see beyond just the cute Little before her. Her smile almost seemed to say, ‘finally… a Little who seems unbroken but that also looks like who could use my help.’ She leaned in and smiled even wider. “There’s no need to be, Emma. We just wanted to meet you today.”

“That’s right,” Jimmy agreed. I could see both were recognizing the barrier that Emma had been putting up around the most recent Bigs she met lately. I’d imagine it was probably still the aftermath from Nancy, but then I saw James look right at me, still cradled in her arms. “So, who’s your friend there?”

Emma seemed to glow a little at his question and held me up a bit so they could see me better. “His name’s Patsch,” she said proudly.

“What a wonderful name,” Lilly beamed. “He seems like he must be a good friend to you.”

Emma quickly nodded but then seemed a little sad. “He is… he’s been dere fo’ me fo’ a wong time. He doesn’ wet me down…”

Both Lilly and Jimmy looked at each other with concern and I worried that Emma had just shown her cards too early to this already nervous couple. There were other Littles out there who had gone through less and I could feel our chances slipping away. To my surprise though, both then clasped their hands together and looked back at Emma with only sympathy.

“Emma… we know about Nancy,” Jimmy began. “We’re very sorry for what she did to you.”

Lilly quickly nodded in agreement. “We just want to assure you that would never happen with us. We just want to find a Little we can adopt, and then we came across you and just had to meet you in person.”

Emma hugged me once more and rocked back and forth a little bit like she was figuring out a massive, complex equation in her head. I knew that was practically impossible, but after a moment, I really wasn’t sure she was going to say. She then looked at both across the table, still nervous and yet hopeful, and asked a single question. “Why you wan’ to adop’ me?”

The question was straightforward, but it was by no means simple. I hadn’t produced a single influencing message to her since Vincent left, so this question was all her own. I guessed that with Nancy being brought up, I shouldn’t have been surprised though that Emma would now want to judge her own caregiver to be better. I couldn’t blame her.

Both Jimmy and Lilly seemed hesitant to speak, and even conferred with each other for a moment, but Jimmy then spoke up first. “We’ve been trying to have kids for a while now, Emma. Always wanted them, but…” He then trailed off.

“But I was told I could never have them,” Lilly burst out, Jimmy holding her hand tightly and stroking her back in support. I could see the pain and knew it was a still too often occurrence in Big society. Besides their technology, I felt it was one of their overall few redeeming qualities in why I didn’t just write them off as a stain on the universe with how they treated Littles.

After that, I could see Jimmy see that Lilly needed a minute. I was guessing that the news was likely still fresh. “See, Emma, we feel we just have so much to give someone who needs a little help and maybe a little love. We saw your ad in the news the other day and we just had to meet you in person.”

Emma’s mind was still a little fragile and sluggish from her emotional breakdown last week and her subsequent dosages of Tabers milk. While it was technically out of her system now, I knew its effects could linger for much longer. As such, Emma just sat in her highchair and took in all that they were saying.

Now, to me, so far, they were just showing all green flags in my book. They seemed like a nice couple who just wanted to give out their love to someone who needed it. While other societies may have opted for a dog or some other pet, this society almost always went the way of adoption. Unlike the other two caregivers we had met today though, I felt no malice in or greed with their actions.

After a moment, Lilly seemed to be able to compose herself and spoke back up. “I know all this is probably a lot for you to take in right now, Emma. We don’t expect an answer from you today even… in fact, I’m not sure we would take you out of here even if we wanted to.”

Jimmy nodded. “I know it may sound strange as compared to other Bigs you might have met, but we want you to be comfortable and make a decision based solely on what you want. We want you to have all the facts and don’t want to force you into any of this.”

Emma seemed almost overwhelmed, but then she suddenly gripped me even tighter. “You don’ wan’ me… I’m bwoken…” she said mournfully.

Her words shattered my heart, and from their expressions, I could tell Jimmy’s and Lilly’s as well. I feared this might happen after the whole incident with Nancy and her manipulative ways. Littles often had to process so much and at one point, if they ever recalled all that they went through since their old life and had now subsequently lost, these types of sentiments often bubbled to the surface. For anyone listening, it was devastating to hear it said aloud and in person.

“No, Emma,” Jimmy then said defiantly. “You are not broken. You’ve been through a lot, but that’s okay. It doesn’t mean you’re damaged either. It just means you have a past… a story. We all have those.”

Lilly nodded. “He’s right, Emma. We don’t think you’re broken at all. In fact, everything we keep hearing about you is just nothing but praise.” Lilly paused for a moment. “Actually, I’ll say this right now just so you know our stance on this. If you’re willing to give this whole thing a try with us as your potential caregivers, then so are we. No worries, judgements, or anything like that, okay?”

Emma seemed completely overwhelmed by all that was being told to her, but just nodded. It was a lot to take in for a normal well-adjusted person, but for Emma… I would imagine it was like living in darkness and finally finding that single ray of bright light after so long before.

A few seconds later, all fully primed and emotional from the day, I saw Jimmy lean over to Lilly and whisper something in her ear. I couldn’t hear what it was, but Lilly only nodded back enthusiastically. With a smile and some hesitancy, Jimmy looked back at Emma. “Emma? We want to leave this up to you, and it could be too much, too fast, which in that case tell us, but… do you want a hug?”

There was a moment of silence and Lilly quickly added, “But it’s totally okay if you don’t! We just want you to be happy and I know a hug usually makes me feel better. So, what do you think? Are you up for a hug maybe from us?”

I could see Emma contemplate the offer for a moment, but she ultimately nodded. Jimmy and Lilly started to approach her, but Emma then held out her hand to stop them. “Buh’ onwy if you incwude Patsch in da hug as well. He’s my fwiend…”

Jimmy and Lilly seemed shocked, but then just chuckled and nodded. “Of course, Patch will be included in the hug,” Lilly said, coming closer to Emma’s left side.

“After all,” Jimmy continued as he approached from her right side, “we wouldn’t want someone so important to be left out of our hug together, would we?”

Emma seemed to swell with emotions as the two closed in on both sides, not out of some evil plan to attack her from two sides, but to hug her. It wasn’t even some power trip or some such nonsense but instead born out of a genuine caring over Emma’s well-being. She was sad and the two Bigs just wanted to make her feel better. To say the least, with everything I saw, it was quite refreshing.

As the four of us all tangled ourselves into a massive hug, Lilly even leaning down a little further to ensure I was included as well, I felt a shift in something within me. As Emma said my new name, Patch, out loud to Jimmy and Lilly, it felt so permanent and just… right.

I had been feeling inclined toward the name for some time now, but I still felt like a Dash. As I left the repair shop and encountered my other models in the Dash series though, the feeling of a stronger attachment to the name ‘Patch’ only became stronger. I was still who I was body wise as I began this journey, but Dash felt like the hallmark of an old life. It was a reminder of better times at first, but now, it was just a name of shame for me in what I used to do to helpless Littles like Emma.

Additionally, I felt that both Jimmy and Lilly were just who Emma needed to move beyond what had happened with Nancy. Nervous, awkward, and just ordinary people, but good as well. Of course, I would leave it up to Emma to be the final decider, but I knew that I at least wouldn’t have to influence her away from them. Even then though, Emma seemed like she didn’t want to let go of the hug, so I felt I could almost see the possibilities of what lay in store for the future now.

My point being though, if Emma chose them, I would be taken with her to her new home. I wasn’t sure Jimmy or Lilly were local or not, but I felt perfectly fine with whatever future as long as Emma was in it with me. If that was to come to pass though, I would have passed the final marker in truly becoming her stuffy, and as her stuffy, I felt she had the right to name me whatever she pleased.

I thought I would feel more of a loss when this moment came, but as we all embraced with the possibility of a better life together on our minds, I felt confident that I had done my job in all this. Emma would find the life she always deserved, and I knew I had found my Little that I was always meant for. And so, from that moment on, I knew two things; I was Emma’s stuffy, and my name was Patch.

[Baby Billy]

I haven't posted on this so far, but I have read all the stories you wrote like this.  I find it interesting seeing the dimension and the life of a little told through their stuffy.  I seems you have transformed one of the most hated characters into someone everyone is rooting for. 

[AlexTheAlex]

I love how this story developed. Great stuff and I can't wait to read more!

[Guilend]

I absolutely love this.

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone! Well, this is the final chapter. It’s a bit shorter, but with what I have planned next, I think it ends on a pretty good note for these characters. Besides, nothing is written in stone that I can’t write another stuffy’s tale with these characters in the future as well.

Now, I know some wanted one of the daycare workers to adopt Emma, but I think each of them was too engrained in their own ways and I hadn’t established their connection well enough by the end to even think of them as an alternative to take her in as their own. I also wanted to place more of an emphasis with this story on both Dash/Patch and Emma. Adding these more random characters of Jimmy and Lilly at the end I think allows for that. They are still part of the story, but because you don’t know them as well, you get the same trepidation about them as Emma and Dash/Patch might, while also being able to almost forget them in a sense yet know Emma is now in a good place. Of course they are important, but I don’t want anyone’s focus to come off them, and I think the way I did it, achieves that goal.

Now, moving forward, I also did this, because like I said before, I am going to turn Emma’s perspective into a story itself. Rather than waiting though, I want to announce her that I am actually just going to write it next. I’ve already loosely plotted most of it out like I usually do, and I think it will serve as a nice side piece to this story, or another story in this original ‘trilogy’ of characters. Due to some time considerations, this story should be coming to you soon and quickly with each of the following chapters.

Keeping that in mind, I know I’ve asked continually in this series for what you all want to read next, and I will acknowledge here and now that Emma’s perspective wasn’t on the list. So, I’ve decided that I won’t put up a poll of three in my next story and will do a new poll just for the stories of Tell Me More and the Bethany story. By the end, both were nearly tied for what you all seemed to want next. Along the same note, I also believe that I will ‘retire’ the age regression story for now in the next poll I do and will be sure to include another story that I think you all may enjoy as well.  

Next, I just want to say that I will also be updating the reference guide once again, but I think I’m going to do it in stages this go around. There wasn’t a lot to be added from this story, but I’ve been doing a little world building for the other stories I have been fleshing out in between these chapters and more definitely needs to be added now.

Along the same note, thinking about some of my stories and that just listing out cities and states could be confusing, I have also created a map. For now, it’s just Libertalia and I’ve only made a few modifications to it, though many things may be subject to change as my stories progress. I’m trying to create a map of the entire world as a few of my future stories will definitely be more international, but it’s a smidge difficult when I want some of the land masses to change to fit my established narrative. Libertalia though is named differently, but the land mass is practically the same. The same can’t be said for a place like Catalon (our Spain) due to the earthquake that wiped out Atlantis being shifted more to the east. It’s a bit of a deeper dive, but all that will be explored in a future story.

Finally, I just want to give a shoutout to anyone who supported and read this story. It’s definitely one of my least popular stories ever, but that’s okay. I had fun writing it, and at the end of the day, that’s why I do all this. All of your all’s comments are wonderful, but if the writer can’t have a little fun as well, I believe the stories would soon fail regardless. I hope my next story will prove to be more popular, but for those of you that read this one, I thank you very sincerely.

And last but certainly not least, I hope everyone enjoys this next and final chapter of this story!

Chapter 15: An Adoption and Some Sunshine Makes an Opening

The feeling of Spring was in the air and as the gentle breeze floated past, white and pink cheery blossom petals reigned down on the car as Jimmy and Lilly got out to retrieve Emma and I from the rear. It had become routine, but today, we had been invited to another Little’s official adoption party. As the car door of the van opened and the beautiful day’s weather wafted in, I couldn’t believe that Emma’s own was already over six months ago.

Today, however, her friend Jenny was being adopted to a wonderful new daddy that I had met on several occasions by now, after the two had met during recess one day at daycare. Of course, her stuffy, Victor, and I were pretty great friends by now and he just adored her, so all seemed nearly perfect with this new journey they were about to partake on.

For us though, since Emma had been adopted by Lilly and Jimmy, life had spun about so quickly, and while it was a sad day when I left the daycare as a permanent resident, I was beyond thrilled to finally have a home of my own where I finally felt welcome. It was almost strange to be walking into someone else’s house as if you had lived here all your life the way they were treating us, but neither of us minded. Her bold new pink and purple nursery and a fresh batch of oatmeal cookies easily settled us both in pretty quickly to this new lifestyle.

As the newly dubbed ‘Patch,’ I was also the talk of the daycare for months after my adventures in trying to save Emma and Pete. New toys could scarcely believe the tales Pete, Carmen, Tops, and Poodee would share about me when I wasn’t there. It was a little annoying at times when I walked around during naptimes and met a new toy to the daycare, but I was just happy I wasn’t the talk of everyone anymore due to my negative qualities.

That old ‘Dash’ was now long gone, and my new persona only reveled in making Emma happy beyond her wildest dreams. I still used my messaging on her occasionally, but it was usually only to write some wrong that occurred in this complicated and messy world. Most of the time these days, that came in the form of some secretively hypnotic object or tv show. For example, last week, Emma was watching Lyle the Giraffe, which seemed innocent enough until she started drooling on herself and bouncing up and down on her heavily used diaper. It took three hours that night just to erase the twenty minutes that she had watched of that one show. Since then, though, Jimmy and Lilly had blocked the Pennycade Jr. channel, quite well-known for its heavily laced hypnotic programs that appealed to most Littles.

Regardless though, things were pretty great, even on the Nancy front. Despite what had happened a few months ago, where Jimmy and Lilly really showed their commitment to Emma that night, she had long been put away. Emma still had an occasional nightmare about her, but they had largely ceased after we saw an… interesting update about her in the news. Somehow, after seeing that, I guessed that Emma was no longer truly scared of her anymore.

Still, as Lilly helped her out of her car seat and realized she needed a quick change in the back seat, I knew the damage had already been done to Emma. Her vocabulary and enunciation of words had improved, but there were still several stumbling blocks with anything that seemed even slightly mature. Books like Mommy Does or The Little and His Friends Find Some Treasure were perfectly fine if she wasn’t stressed, but anything more and she just got Lilly to read it for her. Coordination, memory, and critical thinking skills also showed their own signs of issues but considering that most days Emma was just content to giggle and play with her friends, I just resigned to the fact that some things were okay being less complicated than they used to be.

Then, once changed, Lilly popped Emma back on the ground and as she cleaned up, Jimmy took the Little’s free hand, my form being hugged tightly by her other. “Ready for the party, honey?” he asked in his usual sweet way. Small sayings and actions like that and considering all that had happened in the past six months, I was very happy with whom Emma ended up with.

Emma nodded. “Yes! I can’t wait to pawty wiff my fwiends.” Okay… so maybe she still struggled with her ‘r’ and ‘th’ sounds, but she was definitely able to make her points better now without a translator.

“Don’t forget your present, dear,” Lilly called out from the back, wrapping the final tape on the used diaper with the wipes tucked neatly inside.

“I’ll get it,” Jimmy noted. Lilly nodded and went to dispose of the heavily used diaper nearby in the designated receptacle that all parks now possessed. It was all just routine for the two loving caregivers by now.

Jimmy then went in the back seat and retrieved the purple package with dark lace ribbon entwined all around it. Of course, Lilly had wrapped the gift herself, but Emma was still there to lend a spare finger when she needed something held and had insisted on the color design herself. After all, it was for Jenny, and she was a little different than most Littles.

Her daddy was also a little strange compared to other Bigs and ran the local theater, but Jenny took the cake for being different with other Littles. While Emma always chose playtimes involving tea parties or princesses, part of her conditioning or not I’ll never know, but Jenny always chose things like playing a mad doctor or everyone going on a monster hunt. I thought it was hilarious and Victor had finally found a Little that loved him for who he was, so she was alright in my book.

As we all strolled into the park to find the other guests, I was feeling nervous in a way that I hadn’t felt in months. Life was pretty simple between playtimes and events at the daycare lately. It was all so simplistic but living in the same town that she had before, Emma was bound to meet other Littles… including Charley… and Hop.

At first, I couldn’t believe it when I found out the two Littles, my past and current Little, were friends. Apparently, when Emma was feeling bad after her progression and Nancy had laid into her one day, the two had met at this very park. It was a popular spot for Littles, so it just made sense. Still, I was a little shocked when she had told me one day that she had met another really interesting stuffy that Charley had named Hop. Of course, she had no way of knowing about our past connection, but I still dreaded the day that one day, we might meet. Seeing Monica, Charley, Hop, and Leo, his newest stuffy, all over there offloading their own gift for Jenny, I knew that day had finally arrived. I braced for the worst.  

Still, that potentially climactic moment was able to be put on hold as the Littles all opened up the presents first and then ate a whole bunch of chicken nuggets and mac n’ cheese, as per tradition it felt like at events like these… I mean, heavens above help a Little who was lactose intolerant around here.  

Regardless though, after a barrage of fun and excitement, the Littles now had energy to burn and as Jenny’s new daddy had suggested, a game of tag might just be what everyone needed before most everyone had their traditional afternoon nap. So, all us toys were left on the picnic table while the Littles went off to play. Almost immediately, once everyone was off and distracted by the Littles playing, Hop turned to me with a glare.

“Well, well, well… if it isn’t my old pal, Dash…” he said, clearly remembering our negative times together almost a year ago now.

“It’s Patch actually,” I corrected. I wasn’t sure if Hop just didn’t know or was calling me my old name to remind me of my old mistakes.

“Oh, really?” he asked, almost mockingly.

“Hey,” Pete intervened, Vivian having brought him as well today. In fact, many of us daycare stuffy’s were here today, and I could see them tense up as Hop and I faced each other once again. “Ease up, Hop. This here is Patch now. He’s a changed toy.”

Hop eye’s focused in on me as he began to get closer. I felt like a specimen under a microscope, and I could see everyone holding their breath practically as he stopped in front of me. The last time we had been this close was in our fateful duel back at daycare. I felt so superior and smug back then, but with his extra height with his raised ears and my patchwork body now, that feeling was long gone.

“Hmmm…” he muttered, seemingly contemplating the new stuffy that he now saw before him. “I thought I heard some rumors about you in the Oasis room with Charley, but I thought they were just that. Did you really rescue Pete at the repair shop and pull a Little out of a catatonic state?”

I let out a little breath, feeling like I wasn’t going to get pummeled anymore for my past misdeeds by my former crib mate. “I did. In fact,” I then subtly referenced to Emma over by the others, “that’s her.” Hop looked over at Emma in her yellow and white springtime dress that did little to hide the diapers she was wearing underneath as she bent over and tried to hide behind a bush. It was almost cute, if not a little sad thinking that she was once a fully functioning adult in a past life. As stuffy’s, we just had to ignore those types of thoughts, but they still popped in on occasion.

“Cute. Emma, right?” he then asked, his more damaged ear slightly twitching as he swung back to face me.

I nodded. “Yep. That’s her. I think it’s actually Emily, but I haven’t heard her be called that since her adoption papers were signed. I honestly don’t even know if she would respond to it anymore.”

Curiously, the tension seemed to leave Hop’s body and he even smiled. “Yeah… Charley’s kind of like that as well,” Hop mused about our former Little. “Someone called him Charles the other day in the Oasis room, and he just kept right on playing with me. Took a tap on his shoulder for him to finally turn around.”

I really wasn’t sure how to respond right then to what Hop had just told me, but I did recognize the feeling bubbling up in my gut: guilt. When I met Charley, he was regressing for sure, Hop was at least partially responsible for that, but I pushed him even further to the brink of what was possible for a Little to withstand. I still felt the guilt over what I did to Charley, and the fact that he still couldn’t recognize his own full name after almost a year ate at me from my very core. I think Hop noticed.

“It’s okay… Patch…” Hop sighed. “I know it was a long time ago, and if any of the dozen or so rumors about you I’ve heard are true, you’ve truly changed. I might not fully forgive what you did to him, but I recognize a change when I see one. I have to at least respect that, especially given what I’ve heard you’ve gone through.”

“All true, Hop. Every one of the rumors,” Carmen chimed in with her note of support. I smiled back over at my friend.

“Right. Exactly,” Hop said with almost a hint of relief. “So, don’t sweat what you did back then any more than you have to. I mean, besides, half of your conditioning at the end kind of wore off there. The other half… to be honest, I think he would be like he is right now whether you were in life or not.”

I looked at him questioningly. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well,” Hop began, “with all those darn hypnotic shows and drug-laced food out now, I don’t think he would have been much better off anyway. Like, just as an example, Monica wanted to get him this favorite treat the other day at the mall. It was all fine and tasty, but Charley could barely speak much above drooling on himself before she realized the cinnamon bites were spiked with something. Stupid pro-Big small business or something like that apparently…”

“Oh yikes,” I grimaced. “I’ll have to keep that in mind with Emma. She’s always wanting something sweet and the last thing that Jimmy or Lilly need right now is another setback with her.”

Hop nodded. “Yeah… heard about Nancy… sorry about that…”

I sighed, remembering back to a few months ago. “Thanks. Not a fun time, but from what we’ve seen, she’s well taken care of now.” Several of the nearby stuffy’s chuckled at that. It wasn’t hard for most to see her current life right now and most reveled in what they saw if they could.

“You know… it’s kind of weird now that I think about it…” Hop mused.

“What?” Hop might have been my old enemy, but I always did respect his ability to plan things out. Even without my faster core processes, he was able to eventually outwit me during our duel and keep Charley above the level of regression I wanted him to be at. In an odd sort of way, I was kind of grateful for that at this stage. If he hadn’t been so successful, Charley would have likely just ended up as another permanent resident of the Burrows room. Seeing it from the inside now myself and with Emma, I wouldn’t wish that fate on my worst enemy.  

Hop sighed. “I don’t know… just that most Littles’ products all seem to take them down to roughly about the same base age.” Several of the other stuffy’s nodded. “Just weird and all…”

“It’s a conspiracy,” Sarge added gruffly from nearby, most just rolling their eyes over his comment.

“Right… next, you’re going to say that the portal Littles government made some secret bargain with the government here to get fresh Littles every year,” Pete joked. We all laughed at the notion, but quietly, I wasn’t so sure myself just how much we should all be laughing. I mean, it was a conspiracy theory that had been passed around the daycare for a long time now, but it still wasn’t like the whole ‘mole men living under New Eboracum City’ theory. Besides, knowing this society, I really wouldn’t have put it past them to ensure something like that did in fact happen to Littles.

Regardless, we all continued to talk for a while as Hop and I caught up on various events of our lives since we had parted. In the distance though, I could see a few Littles were starting to nod off, right on cue for their naptime, but the other more energetic Littles also just spurned them on further. Still, I knew our stuffy alone time was going to be limited now. Pretty soon, Emma was going to need a change, a snack, and then a nap on the ride home.

“Just out of curiosity,” Hop began again, “what made you change your ways? Are you telling me it was just one Little that did all… this?” His own paw gestured to my whole being.

I sighed. “Well, kind of, but also… you were basically the start of it all…”

“Me?” Hop asked surprisedly.

“Yeah…” I nodded. “I mean, you forced me to flee the daycare, or face punishment, so I ran right into the teeth of Buster.”

“Oh… right…” Hop even began to sport a smile at the reminder.

“Yeah, well, all this,” I said gesturing to all my stitches and patches, “kind of hurt, but it hurt my electronics more. Almost caught on fire a few times after, and then, Pete found me. Really low time and all, but I eventually took a chance in treating Littles his way instead.”

Hop chuckled. “Yeah. That’s about when I found out about you. Admittedly, I almost came over to get you and then toss you in the garbage myself, but I just kept hearing about all your little misadventures as well. Is it true you were almost completely lost in the mud pits outside after a Little threw you in them?”

I nodded. “Yep, and his name was Travis. He ended up okay, but then, my next Little was Emma…”

“And the rest is history, huh?” he asked without a hint of sarcasm, a smile even forming over his face as he viewed Charley and Emma, who now both seemed to be playing with each other.

“Definitely, and it’s all just been a journey after my run in with Buster. I’m sorry for what I did to Charley… probably will every day for the rest of my existence, but in the end, it all led me to Emma…”

Hop smiled at me and patted me on the shoulder. “I’m happy for you, Patch. And, no regrets, right?”

I thought about it for a moment through all my pain and the suffering of others. It was a long road to get here, but finally, Nancy was taken care of, I had a real home, and Emma was safe and happy in her new life with her new caregivers. I hoped one day they would even be referred to as ‘mommy’ or ‘daddy’ in more than just Emma’s mumblings while she dreamt, but for now, all felt right and just as it should be. So, I shook my head. “Nope. Not a single one.” We both smiled at each other and looked out over to our Littles playing in a sandbox together now. Naptime and likely cranky Littles would be just around the corner, but in that moment, yes, I regretted nothing and everything was about as right as it should be.

[Guilend]

That was amazing. I'm actually happy you'll be doing her POV next. I give this one a 9 out of 10 diapers. 

[Operational Systems]

18 hours ago, LostBBoyBear said:

Along the same note, I also believe that I will ‘retire’ the age regression story for now in the next poll I do and will be sure to include another story that I think you all may enjoy as well.  

 

Oh don't say that.  It was my second favorite option.

[dmavn]

This has got to be one of the most awesomest stories ever. I don’t know how i missed most of it. Think i cried through most of the last 2 chapters. Please don’t ever stop writing!