Consequences of Denial: A Diaper Dimension Story (Chapter 12 - Complete)

[LostBBoyBear]

Warning

As with my previous stories, this one contains several elements inherent to the pre-established 'Diaper Dimension.' These include, but are not limited to:

• Diapers and their usage for their intended purpose
• Breastfeeding
• Non-consensual mental regression through various means (Including possible drugs, hypnosis, and/or surgery)
• References to surgery to achieve various nefarious goals
• Humiliation
• Giants, aka, Amazons or Bigs
• Predominantly female domination (some male)
• Babying of adults (perceived or otherwise)
• Experimentation on humans
• Kidnapping
• Coerced or manipulated actions through possible means of white lies, gas lighting, or incentives
• Mild language or use of explitives
• Depictions of death, illness, or handicaps
• Graphic imagery associated with any of these warnings

This story has not been labeled as mature, due to a lack of specific references to anything overtly sexual, but this warning serves as a 'turn back' point for any readers who do not wish to read about the previous warnings.

Lastly, this list is subject to change during the course of writing this story. While most of the plot is ironed out, more warnings may be added if needed.

 

Hey everyone! I just want to say welcome back and that I am looking forward to completing this story. Pretty much as soon as I wrote the previous story, How an Elephant Saved Their Little, I came up with most of this plot. I will attempt to explain certain elements, but I expect that some background elements may be rushed or explained later, which could be confusing for some of you newer readers. Also, as it will be following a Big, some elements might be a little different than other DD stories, but if what I’ve seen on here is anything to go by, I think you all should enjoy a lot of the elements involved.

Moving on, I’ve been watching the Olympics lately. Considering all that is happening in Paris right now, with my excitement in watching, there is a part of me that feels I should have at least included my DD Olympic story in the last poll. Still, I am still happy with writing this story and I have yet another idea for a story. As a future note though, I will probably include the original Olympic story in the long future (2026 at the earliest I’m guessing) at this point, but I’ll have plenty of stories until then as long as you all keep reading them.

Next, speaking of the future, I will be trying an online poll for the voting of my next story. If I’ve set it up correctly, there should only be one vote per IP address. I will likely shut down the poll or delete it entirely once I have posted the results in the final chapter of this story as usual, but until then, I’m using this as a bit of a test going forward. It should be completely anonymous, so I think that will help garner more votes than before. Expect this to be included with the second chapter, which should be posted tomorrow or the day after.

Also, as a bit of a side note here, I might be retconning something, but I don’t think I am in saying that the location for this story is in their version of Indianapolis. I have looked through all my notes, and due to my inclusion of ‘Queens Island’ in my previous story, I know it’s at least in that general area (being a few hours car drive away as mentioned in chapter 13), but I can’t seem to find an actual city name. I will fully admit that I wasn’t as organized back then with the locations in Libertalia, so it could be an oversight… like how I don’t mention a location in The CON series and retconned why later. I will investigate this much more thoroughly after my upcoming trip, but I just wanted to at least put that out there in case someone caught something that I haven’t at this point.

Last but not least, I hope everyone enjoys the first chapter of this next story!

Chapter 1: Sheets Bearing Marks of the Past

Mildred and I were helping our precious Littles with their own bags to go to daycare tomorrow. The day would come early and between diaper changes, getting each of them dressed, and then out the door and into our van to take them to daycare, it would be enough of a challenge. At the task’s base, it was like wrestling with twitchy cute puppies. As a carer of the Littles under my charge, I performed my duties and remarked upon their cuteness, but that didn’t make the tasks any easier.

Further, though, I had two other factors that kept my Littles more challenging than was usual in most cities of Libertalia. First, most had been regressed recently and were still coping with their losses from who they used to be. It’s hard to blame a Little for being upset of pooping helplessly in their diapers now when they might have once commanded a fleet of ships or walked down the runway in a gorgeous dress. Second, and more important to Safehouse 81 though, nearly every Little under my charge had been affected by some tragedy or had faced an abuse of some kind in their past. After all, being a safehouse for Littles in this type of society, we had to expect those sorts of residents under our roof. It was tragic, but we made sure each of our Littles were kept safe, were healthy, and knew they were cared for at the end of the day.  

Mildred and Penelope helped me out with them about as much as they could. Admittedly, of the two full-time employees here, Mildred helped to a lesser degree due to her Middle size, but Penelope more than made up for that and was essentially my second in command around here. She had already lightened my burdens recently by forming an attachment with Willy, a recently arrived Little who was escaping troubles of his own. Traumatized from his past and with only a stuffed animal, Tusk, to help ease his mind, I was glad he was feeling that relief here now at least.

“Mildred,” I addressed to my shorter assistant currently stuffing Gina’s backpack, “make sure that she gets the ham sandwich without the crusts. She’s still particular about those kinds of things and the last thing we need to put on the daycare now is another tantrum from her if she... changes again like she did last week.”

“Right, right. Definitely don’t want that,” she nodded back to me. “And the veggie chips instead of the nacho cheese ones, right?”

I nodded and smiled over her increased awareness over the individual needs of the Littles under our care. She was still a prospective member of the staff, but her instincts were strong, and she had a good heart. Gina was spacing out again, experiencing one of her changes, a sad reminder of her own regression process, so now it was mostly up to Mildred to finish packing her bag and I was glad that she was taking to her tasks so well now.

For the multiple backpacks I was packing, I finally looked down at Harry, continually perched and curious at the edge of the table where I was working. “Okay, champ… carrots or cucumbers tomorrow?” I wanted to give my Littles as many options in life as I could. Daily items or events like diapers and naptimes were non-negotiable under my roof if I deemed them necessary, but where was possible, I tried to give where I could.

“Ummm… cawwots, pwease.” I smiled down at him and ruffled his hair. I was trying to instill manners in him after he came here over a month ago now. It had taken a lot of my patience, but coming from a Little smuggling operation, I couldn’t blame him for being a little blunt and rough around the edges. Still, he was making quick progress lately and I made a mental note to give him an extra cracker tomorrow when he got home from daycare if he wanted it.

“Very good, Harry.” I turned over to Gina and wondered how the other Littles were doing upstairs. They were more regressed, but I still wanted to give them their options for tomorrow at daycare while they were likely still awake and playing with their babyish toys. Still, it was getting late, so I tapped Gina on the shoulder to try and get her out of her mental fog. “Gina? You in there, sweetie?”

Gina turned around and grinned at me, her curly blonde hair twirling about as she did so, and her few missing teeth becoming rapidly apparent. She had been pulled out of the regression facility before they could truly deform her like her abusive original caregivers wanted, but the facility’s marks and effects on her mentality were still painfully obvious, especially when she was in this state.

“Gina… do you wanna pick out the story tonight before bed?” I questioned further, now that I had her attention as best I could.

Gina rapidly nodded her head up and down. “Uh huh! Maybe da pwincess one?”

Her enthusiasm was near electric and contagious, but it still burdened my heart to see her like this. Working with her here and at the daycare, her incidents like these had dropped significantly, but it still hurt to witness when they did pop up. When she wasn’t in this regressed near-fugue state, her speech was unaffected and she held herself in an almost dignified way… or at least as dignified one could get while always holding her stuffed Octopus, Mindy. I had learned long ago to never try and remove Mindy from her arms. In a way, it just added to the tragedy of her story, a sadly familiar one that I had grown accustomed to over the years.

Regardless, I was glad she had at least made a choice tonight. It would make her happy and that was my job here. Keep my Littles safe and happy. “Very good. I’ll make sure we read the one with Princess Lavendar tonight. I think she’s going to meet the gnome king and become the best of friends with him. Doesn’t that sound fu…?”

The windows burst inward as two small black and shimmery objects were launched through them. Glass shattered and covered the floor. I immediately tried to grab Harry, Gina, and Mildred, but I was too late. The two blasts rocketed the whole house.

More glass fell and I became dazed as men in black soon breached the house with a tremendous smash of my front door. The filed in one at a time and surrounded everyone as they knocked over furniture to clear their path. A single cabinet had fallen and partially blocked their way to the back kitchen though.

Still, they then wasted no time and began hauling everyone together, upstairs and down. Even through my daze, I could see that one of them, likely the leader from the directions he issued out, had a very distinct snake tattoo crawling up one of their arms. I wanted to fight back, but I just felt nauseous, and my head felt like it was about to pop. Then, before I knew what hit me, that same tattooed man was pulling me to my feet.

“You. We’re looking for this Little.” He shoved a picture in my face. It was a little blurry, but I quickly recognized it as snapshot of Willy with his stuffy.

When I didn’t answer immediately, he shook the picture harder in front of my face and snarled at me. “We know he’s here from your database registration. Where is he?”

Willy was new here, but he was now one of mine. I had made an oath to every one of my Littles and to the state that no matter what, I would protect these innocent smaller beings with my life. Being the leader of a safehouse often meant staring down the long barrel of threats from those who wished to do the residents here any harm. Such was the prejudice and malice of our world. Today however, was the first time a safehouse had been smashed into. Considering the high number of penalties against these men if they were ever caught, that wasn’t surprising, but regardless, my task remained the same. Keep my Littles safe.

So, taking a deep breath and easing my nerves and getting ready for what was likely to come against me consequently, I straightened up, and looked at the man with the snake tattoo with about as much defiance as I could.

“Those records are sealed. Only an admin or cop can access those, but anyway, the Little doesn’t look familiar.” My head lashed out at me, and the lights all seemed about 80% too bright from some reason, but I knew I had to keep up my defiance. Smashing the safehouse’s front window like that had set off a silent alarm. Help was on its way, but I still needed to play for more time now. “Hard to recall with the pounding in my head. You wouldn’t have done something naughty like that to a bunch of innocent Littles, would you?” I couldn’t help but taunt these men. If caught, I knew their punishments would be far worse than anything they could do to me. I had a few friends in the justice department, and I heard the rumors like everyone else. Dark Cliff Prison was a hole that every lost cause Little and every substantial criminal Big feared and never wanted to go to. For criminals like these, breaking into a safehouse was a one-way ticket right to their front door.  

Instead of pure rage as I had suspected though, the tattooed man gritted his teeth, groaned ever so slightly, and defiantly forced the picture in front of my face again. “I won’t ask you again. Where is he?”

Before I could deny him again, I thought I heard a small groan coming from the kitchen. Not seeing either in the lineup of the resto f the safehouse in front of me, Willy and Penelope were in there still, and considering this tattooed man wanted him, likely dead or alive, I knew I only had one choice.

So, hoping to press for more time and just hating the man on general principle, I looked back defiantly at the intruder to my house. “Screw you.” My words were direct and uncompromising. I had no intention of telling him where Willy was. With any luck, Willy would flee out the back. He was a Little, and that could be problematic, but he seemed to have some sort of strange luck or guardian angel on his side whenever trouble seemed to find him. Whatever the case truly was though, I just hoped they were with him tonight.

The tattooed man didn’t take kindly to my blunt refusal of his question though and my insult of him after either. All at once, with one strike, his fist slammed into the side of my face. I fell to the ground.

As I collapsed, Harry, Gina, and a few of the other Littles they were now gathering around me downstairs shrieked in terror. “Get the brats upstairs now!” the tattooed man commanded his men. “Lock ‘em in and hit ‘em with the smoke.”

Four of his six goons nodded and at gunpoint, forced all my terrified Littles upstairs along with Mildred. They still weren’t looking in the kitchen, so I at least knew that Penelope or Willy was okay and moving around to escape. While the main tattooed man watched over me, his gun pointed right at my head as I managed to perch myself back on my knees, I began to try and figure a way out of this.

Moments later though, even after thinking of a half dozen or so escape plans, my mind just couldn’t think straight, as I could hear the bang of a door and then a faint hiss coming from upstairs. A few tiny screams were soon muffled silent. Soon after, the men came back downstairs, alone. “Is it done?” the tattooed man asked insistently.

“Yes, sir!” one of them answered quickly. “The Littles are locked away and the gas has been deployed. In such a confined space, they’re all out and memories of tonight will only be foggy at best.”

“Good.” Seemingly satisfied that the majority of the house had been neutralized, the tattooed man then turned his attention back to me. “Now, your little ones are all upstairs and unconscious for the moment. Helpless,” he emphasized as he stroked the large knife on his belt. “Tell me where the Little known as Willy Galpin is, or things might just get nasty.”

I panicked as I began to see the other goons begin searching the other floors and the rest of this one. Due to the elongated nature of the house and the debris left from the two grenade explosions previously, more furniture had been knocked over. It meant more obstacles for them and places to hide in general, and therefore the more time it took for the goons to search everywhere and reach the back kitchen. That being said, I knew it was only a matter of time before they did.

Then, as if to answer my question about Penelope or Willy, I saw a speck of movement in the back kitchen. It wasn’t much, but I knew at least one of them were still here and actively moving about. If it was Willy, I was relying on his Little and likely scared nature to flee without question. If it was Penelope, I knew she would want to help me, being the good and loyal worker that she was in the safehouse, but I had instructed anyone who worked for me that the safety of the Littles was always a top priority. Knowing her, she wouldn’t defy that directive and Willy would be safe then as well.

“Might still be upstairs… fifth floor,” I told the tattooed man with a sigh and look of defeat on my face. I was acting about as best I could, my right cheek already swelling from where the man had hit me. It was an outright lie, but again, I just hoped it would be enough of a delaying tactic for Willy or Penelope and Willy to escape.

To my chagrin, just as the other goons went upstairs to fully check the house based on my suggestion, a near deafening squeak went off in the room. It came from nearby, and I had no idea what would have made that sound, except for one of the toys, but it didn’t matter. The goons practically rocketed back down the stairs and the one goon searching the dining room, about to move to the kitchen, ran to the noise as well. Curiously enough, I saw the backdoor pivot ever so slightly. Whoever I had seen move back there before, was now clearly on the move and likely gone from the house. I couldn’t help but smile in relief.  

“There’s nothing here, boss!” One of the goons reached down at picked up Eddy, Harry’s stuffed chimp. “Just this old, stupid stuffed animal.”

The tattooed man groaned and only pointed for another goon to point their gun at me. Without a single word, he stalked over to the stuffed chimp, snatched him away, gripped the stuffy tight, and with fixed and deep fingers on its throat, snarled and tossed Eddy across the room. “You idiots! Go find Willy now! Move!”

Everyone started to depart, but just as I felt that Willy would be safe, the tattooed man looked back toward the kitchen and saw the backdoor swinging slightly in the night breeze. “Wait!” Every single goon still within earshot stopped at once. “Did any of you morons check the back?” It was immediately evident that they hadn’t.

The tattooed man groaned again and ran to the kitchen. “For the love of…! There’s a whole other Big back here and…” From the passageway to the back, I could just make out as his eyes darted all around. “You!” He quickly pointed to the clearly younger goon who had been tasked to search the first floor.

Reluctantly, he jogged over. “Yes, boss?”

The tattooed man picked up a bagged lunch and held it in front of the younger goon. “How the hell did you miss this?” The younger goon could only stare back at the tattooed man, clearly terrified, and unable to make a sound to save himself. “Someone was back here making their lunch for tomorrow.” One hand grabbed the younger goon and his other hand pointed sternly to the figure on the floor I knew was definitely Penelope with the more cleared debris between us now. “Here’s the Big… now where is the Little who belongs to this bagged lunch?”

Before he had a chance to speak, another goon came from his previous searching of the upstairs. “Sir! There’s no one else up here! Fifth floor or otherwise!”

The tattooed man shoved the younger goon backward. “You all!” he directed to his other goons, totaling about five, including the one who had just come back downstairs. “Find the Little. He can’t have gone far! You all better not fail me!”

“Yes, sir!” the chorus of them rang out, saluting right before they dashed out the back entrance to find Willy. I hoped he could avoid them well enough, but I didn’t have much time to hope.

With the other goons gone, Penelope very much unconscious, and the other members of my staff and the Littles being locked and apparently knocked out upstairs, I was essentially all alone.

Before I could think a single further thought, the tattooed man growled and raced over to me. His eyes seemed hand picked from the bowels of the fiery core of the planet and as he picked me up, I felt completely helpless under his sheer power. The snake wrapping around his arm bulged with ease as I was nearly catapulted into a wall above his head. My feet dangled powerlessly off the floor.

“Thought you could play a little trick on us, huh?” he barked at me. I didn’t say anything, and with a huff, the man tossed me back on the floor. “Stupid Big! You’re a traitor to your own kind!” He then spit on me and walked around me like a lion getting ready for their kill of the antelope. I swallowed as best I could in fear. I had delayed Willy enough that he had escaped. I just hoped it would be enough.

For him, it might have been, but for the tattooed man, it was likely the worst-case scenario. With him still panting and grunting as he circled me, I didn’t make a sound, which seemed to only upset him more. In seconds after about his fifth rotation, he lunged in at me. That’s when the punches started to rain down on me.

One after another. His relentless fury had been unleashed and I could feel the weight of his failure in capturing Willy outright as each fist slammed into my body. He didn’t even seem to care where he hit though, smashing nearly every square inch of my body. Even as blood squirted from my mouth and one of the open cuts now on my forehead over his black uniform, he didn’t care. In fact, as I began to turn into a bloody pulp, I could see a smile grow over his face.

I felt a blackness begin to creep in. I felt like death had come for me. It wasn’t how I wanted to go out, but I had helped as many Littles as I could. I suppose there were worst ways…

Just as I felt seconds away from the end though, the tattooed man suddenly stopped.

Relief surged through my body. Only hearing about the beating of my own heart in my ears, I wasn’t sure if the cops had finally showed up. I felt they were much slower than they should have been, but regardless, I wasn’t being hit anymore. Unfortunately, my fear didn’t abate.

Instead of purely stopping and running away from the cops though as I had hoped, the tattooed man, fists bloody and smeared in my blood, smiled. It sent chills down my back, and despite my pain, I could think of nothing else over the verry meaning of that cruel vindictive and playful smirk. If a cat could grin as it was about to swallow the canary whole, I imagine what I saw before me would have been exactly that. “Bring me the shot…”

He said it with such finality to the younger goon. It was just ‘the shot.’ Nothing more. Like a serial killer everyone should fear and know about, it was so simple and yet so terrifying. But I could see the fear through the eyeholes of the mask the younger goon wore. His hands even trembled as he nodded and went to a case I had just noticed nearby. Producing a single shot with some kind of silvery substance, the tattooed man took it gleefully.

It was massive and I tried to fight back. Clearly, I didn’t want it, especially based on the younger goon’s reaction, but my beaten body couldn’t do anything about it. So, with a sick and twisted smile, the tattooed man flicked the needle twice. “You want to protect the Littles so much? How about a taste, huh?” I was confused, but again, I didn’t have time to think.

Without a single hesitation or flick of the wrist, the man turned the needle over like a dagger ready to plunge in my heart and thrust the needle straight down into my body.

*              *              *

“No!” I bolted upright in bed and clutched my chest where the needle had stabbed me that night. There was no wound… no pain anymore. Sadly though, it didn’t seem to matter.

It had already been two weeks since that night. Our advanced Big medicine in our technologically advanced society had mostly cured me after the three days I had spent in the hospital. I still had a few lingering bruises, but I was considered a ‘miracle of modern medicine’ to even be alive as compared to even a few decades ago. I didn’t feel that way though…

Sure, I was alive, and I could walk by myself now, so that was a bonus, but I had been having more nightmares recently about that night. Each one filled in more details from what I had forgotten about when I first woke up, and each was worse than the last one. I had in fact helped Willy and the others out, but I could still feel the tattooed man’s fists pound into me each night since I had come home. I could feel the heat of his body as he sat above me and beat me bloody. In truth, I was still very much afraid of him and so many other things now. But that wasn’t the worst part…

All that was terrible. I will never deny that, and my diagnosed PTSD was going to take time to heal. I knew that and I had been told the same thing at least two dozen times by now. Unfortunately, though, as I lifted the sheets, I saw my larger problem. There, right by my crotch, was a soaked bed. 

It had only started at the hospital after my first nightmare about that night. The nurses were wonderful, and the doctor simply chalked it up to lingering ‘symptoms of stress.’ I hoped he was right, and for a time he was, but now, this was the third time in the past week… and it just seemed to be getting worse. My accident tonight looked almost twice as large as the first one I had on my last day in the hospital. So, doubt began to enter my mind and a single question plagued me every day; what was in that shot?

I had tried researching it on my own, but I had no such luck. No answers… just more dead ends every day. Still, as I heard others begin to stir on the floors below me, I knew I couldn’t dwell on the situation. If I waited any longer, someone could see. A Little wetting the bed was a daily occurrence at Safehouse 81, and even a Middle could have the occasional problem, but a Big… that was just unheard of… taboo even.

So, I gathered all my sheets, quickly stripped and wiped myself off, before running to the washer on the floor below me. While I stayed on the seventh floor, the rest of my staff stayed on the sixth. I knew it was a risk, and my pulse pounded as I trapsed down the steps to the washer there, but as I dumped in my sheets and pajamas, I felt finally…

“Miss G?” I spun around and saw Penelope staring back at me. “What… what are you doing down here?”

“Oh…” I tried to wrack my brain to think of an answer… any answer. My sheets were only halfway stuffed into the top loader washer, so the wet stains were very unfortunately as plain as day. “Uh… what are you doing up so early? Isn’t today one of your break days?” I tried to deflect.

Penelope nodded her head. “That’s right, but I go jogging on my days off. You remember, right?”

‘Crap!’ I was still having a few memory lapses from right before that night. Considering that could be linked to my bedwetting though, I tried to pass it off. “Oh, of course! Right, right. You started… before… and all…”

Penelope nodded, but then looked back at me questioningly and then even more so to the sheet behind me. “So… uh, is everything okay, Miss G?”

I cursed my luck that this had happened the one day she had definitely had off in the mornings. Mildred and Jackie were on staff today for most of the Littles with us currently. After the assault, the safehouse agency we worked out of had given us a lighter duty in the area. Safehouse 82 would be taking in most of the Little not already under our care. Still, I knew I needed to give Penelope an answer. “Uh… just some stress sweats at night. Trauma and all that… you know?”

Penelope looked at me with an odd look, and if I had been any more paranoid, I might have associated it with the look I gave myself to the Littles who didn’t believe the story they were being fed. Still, for now, Penelope seemed satisfied after another moment. “I see. Maybe you should go see someone about it?”

If she suspected anything, she certainly wasn’t letting on, but still… to be frank, I was afraid to see another doctor. Given the unknown qualities of the shot I was given and my recent bed wetting, there were just too many unknowns in our society about the consequences of seeing someone so official. “No… I think I’ll be okay. Most of the crew has already been convicted or killed at this point after that incident at the warehouse with Willy and the gang they were all working for. I think I just need some time.”

Penelope looked at me with a deep-set concern. I knew she wanted to help me… After all, she was the one that had called for the ambulance once she came to after the tattooed man and the rest of the goons had left. She sported a nasty bump on her head, one that was the aftermath of the furniture that had knocked her unconscious during the ordeal, but now, I could see she carried guilt over what had happened to me. I insisted I was fine, but her caring instincts were hard to quiet.

She heavily sighed but then plucked her ear buds out of her armband. “Okay… just take some time if you need it… or if you ever want to talk, I’m…”

“Thank you, Penelope.” I knew I was rather abrupt with my thanks, but it seemed to do the trick and Penelope gave one final reassuring smile and wave, and then trotted off downstairs.

With her gone and my laundry in the wash, I quickly began my day and started to put another wet bed out of my mind. Gina, Harry, and the other Littles milled around their various cribs and beds. Not having any newborn Littles with us currently, the rest just required a few diaper changes. Of the five Littles with us still, it just so happened that each required diapers 24/7. Being a safehouse, it’s just how it was.

Regardless of the start of my own morning though, I continued at my job like I always had. We received one new Little, Jonathan, who actually managed to pass the test to stay on the second floor, marking them as the most mature Little under our care here. Once he had settled in and started to mind his own business and reflect on his safety here like all others did, I went to work with the other aspects of Littlecare in a city safehouse.

Jackie and Mildred were hard at work, and I quickly joined in with them. Mildred was a Middle but was one of our most diligent employees. Despite being the newest around here and considered an ‘intern,’ I was already considering offering her an official job in the next few weeks. Seeing her soothe Harry when he was running around and then tripped and started bawling, the few reservations I had with her were soon vanishing.

The day continued much like that, and just as Jackie went back to her own home after her 12-hour shift, being only a part-time employee here, Penelope started on. She made quick work of making dinner for everyone and starting to plan out the schedules for the upcoming weekend. Everything was going just like it had before that terrible night, and I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Normalcy like this felt good.

“What is this?” Jonathan asked as Mildred placed his tray in front of him on the table. Being the unregressed Little he was, he only required a booster seat at the table. Harry, Gina, and two others had been fed first, and two more had been fed after them. Now, it was just Jonathan and Ian.

“It’s just some avocado, orange slices, and a bit of chili over half an English muffin. No tricks and nothing strange, I promise,” I said reassuringly to our latest charge. Mildred hesitated but I nodded her off back to the kitchen. I knew by now she could handle Jonathan, but I was already there to make sure that Ian at his food. The despondent Little slowly began to eat, but like usual, never made a sound. He had trauma like the rest of them, but unlike the others, his was written all over his body and actions with his never lightening mood.

“So why is the plate a different color then?” Jonathan poked at his bright blue plastic tray with distrust. I couldn’t blame him. Littles were often subjected to the worst imaginable treatments out there, but still, he needed to eat while he was here with us. I refused to let a Little go hungry under my watch.

“I promise that nothing is out of the ordinary.” Jonthan still looked at me with distrust painted all over his face. I sighed and I was feeling puckish myself, so I opted for the ‘nuclear’ option. “How about this? I eat a bit of your food, just so you know it’s okay, alright?”

I could see the cogs in Jonthan’s mind already start to turn. It was a good sign, and I was glad that it at least seemed to be working. Bigs offering to eat a Little’s food was never a good practice or habit to get into. Sadly, food manufacturers more often than not slipped in extra chemicals to embarrass or even regress, temporarily or otherwise, a Little. Considering that Penelope had made most of the meal from natural ingredients, I wasn’t worried in this case though. While not as potent for us Bigs, laced Little food could still make for an uncomfortable following hour in the bathroom.

Fortunately, though, Jonathan accepted my offer. The food was far too sweet for my taste, adhering to a Little’s preferences rather than a Bigs, but I got it down and Jonathan ate the rest of his food without complaint. Next though, was the staff and I’s dinner.

Our food was pretty like what we had served the Littles, and while that wasn’t always the most exciting, I had learned long ago that Littles seeing something they could never have always been a bad idea. They could accuse us Bigs, or in Mildred’s case, Middle, of being unfair and withholding from them. So, we all then took a seat and began to eat our plainer food while the rest of the Littles were already asleep or happily reading a book or watching Adventure Sam in the nearby living room. The cartoon TV show was good for multiple mental ages, and occasionally, I even saw Jonathan peak up every once in a while, at it as ‘Sam’ traveled around our world and showcased the various animals and wonders of nature.

Most Littles being from Earth these days, always gawked at the sheer scope and variety our world had to offer. Apparently, the woolly mammoth had been extinct on their planet for thousands of years. Here, though, it was just a trip to the zoo to see. Still, I could always see the wonderment in their eyes. For a brief moment, nothing else seemed to matter to them and I had to imagine that it gave them a sense of peace in a way.  

Still, with them settled, the rest of my staff, tonight only Mildred and Penelope, as Vivian was currently on vacation, seemed delighted with the food. For my own part, I sighed and wished for a good bottle of wine and some Itali food, but food was food. Interestingly enough though, as soon as the first spoonful of the chili hit my mouth, I couldn’t stop eating.

I quickly ravished through my plate. Every crumb, piece of corn, and even juicy drop of the oranges at the end was a delight I just couldn’t get enough of. I had never experienced something so amazing in all my life. I was even sad to see that I had finished, but just as I set my plate down, having pulled it closer to my mouth to increase my speed of eating, I looked back at my staff.

Penelope and Mildred were looking right at me, both clearly confused and maybe even a little horrified after what they had just seen.

I quickly realized that they had witnessed every little detail of that event. My devouring had likely taken on an odd quality and one of madness or barbarity. I couldn’t help it, but seeing their faces, I knew I had to quickly play it off. I was their leader and showing weakness, in an already tense and shaky environment after the break-in, was something I simply couldn’t allow.

“Whew!” I said exaggeratedly. “That was some meal, Penelope! I must have not eaten that much today. Just couldn’t get enough of it.” I tried to smile and joke, and while Mildred seemed to join in on the hilarity of the scene, I saw something lingering in Penelope’s face. Even behind her eventual smile, I could see something lurking there.

Regardless though, the dishes were cleaned, all the Littles went to bed, and I made sure everything was set for tomorrow. It was still another weekday, but all the Littles were going back to daycare. They had been since the break-in, but tomorrow was going to be their first full day back, as opposed to the half days we had been adhering to for the past week and a half. So, with all that done, I closed my eyes and drifted asleep.

*              *              *

I felt a blackness begin to creep in. I felt like death had come for me. It wasn’t how I wanted to go out, but I had helped as many Littles as I could. Just as I felt seconds away from the end though, the tattooed man stopped.

Relief surged through my body, but that only lasted for what felt like a few seconds. Instead of fully stopping, the tattooed man, fists bloody and smeared in my blood, smiled. It sent chills down my back, and despite my pain, I could think of nothing else. If a cat could grin as it was about to swallow the canary whole, I imagine what I saw before me would have been that. “Bring me the shot…”

He said it with such finality to the younger goon. It was just ‘the shot.’ Nothing more. Like a serial killer everyone should fear and know about, it was so simple. But I could see the fear through the eyeholes of the mask the younger goon wore. His hands even trembled as he nodded and went to a case I had just noticed nearby. Producing a single shot with some kind of silvery substance, the tattooed man took it gleefully.

It was at least a foot long and I tried to fight back. It was useless. I was too weak and beaten, and he was simply too strong. Then, with a sick and twisted smile, the tattooed man flicked the needle twice. “You want to protect the Littles so much? How about a taste, huh?” I was confused, but again, I didn’t have time to think.

Without a single hesitation or flick of the wrist, the man turned the needle over like a dagger ready to plunge in my heart and thrust the massive needle straight down into my chest.

*              *              *

“No!” I bolted up again in my bed. My eyes darted around, and I tried to find some bearings of where I was. I was scared and confused, and I felt very small for some reason. To my relief though, I knew I was in my bedroom and the tattooed man had been dead for some time now. As I came to my senses though, to my dismay, I knew I had wet the bed again. “Shit.”

Hearing more shuffling from downstairs through the floor, this time much earlier than usual, I rushed downstairs without thought. I hadn’t even bothered to wash myself off. I could always do more laundry when everyone else was busy… or so I thought.

Right as I piled my soaked pajamas and sheets into the was again, I heard someone speak up from behind me. “I thought as much…” I spun around, and to my horror, I saw Penelope standing right there with a look of both annoyance and deep concern.

“Penelope… it’s… it’s not what you think. I swear!” I could feel the fear of being discovered begin to gurgle up from my stomach. I felt like I was going to puke on the spot.

Penelope sighed. “It’s okay, Miss G. I understand what happened… but we can’t keep doing this. I’ve seen you here before even yesterday. You aren’t as quiet as you think you are…”

I swallowed and never thought that she would be awake if it wasn’t her morning shift. A constant night owl, she usually elected for the afternoon and night shifts here, but I should have known better. Her door looked right across the hallway at the washer and dryer room. It wouldn’t have taken her much to notice my presence here nearly every morning recently.

“I knew you were hiding something, but this…” I was terrified she was going to make a scene, but instead, she just walked over and pinched a dry spot of my sheets and pulled them up a little to see the extent of the wet patch on them. It was horrible and I just wanted to die or bury myself in a hole someplace. “This is something more.”

She turned to me, and all the annoyance or anger or whatever I saw before, was now gone. Instead, there was only sympathy and her previous look of concern. “We need to get you to the doctor. I’ve already called Jackie just in case this happened. They’ll think you’ve got the flu or something. Being around Littles, we all know how much that can happen.”

I cracked the faintest of smiles. I could tell she was trying to get me to feel better at this point and truly was coming from a place of concern for my well-being. Embarrassing, but as she had mentioned, being around Littles just got one sicker than normal. The whole staff still remember the puking incident last summer when one stomach bug floated into our safehouse. It wasn’t pretty, and I just tried to get myself to think of this whole mess as just another version of that. It wasn’t, but the tiny relief the notion gave me was a welcome feeling.

So, I quickly showered and piled myself into the car while Penelope drove me away. I wasn’t feeling up to it anyways, but it also maintained the illusion that I was sick. Littles under our care may have been damaged, abused, and regressed in all the ways one could be, but they had a curiosity and saw the world very much for what it was. If I left singing a tune and as happy as a clam, each one of them would have questioned me rigorously when we returned.

A short drive later, Penelope parked in front of a pleasant brick and glass building. It seemed like dozens of other recently added office parks throughout the suburbs of the city and I at least admired the well-maintained flowers embedded in the flowerbeds around the base of the building.

“Come on,” Penelope coaxed me out of the car, “he’ll be waiting.”

“He?” For some reason, normally being the ‘in-charge’ person that I was, I normally scheduled all my appointments. This one though, I was going in completely blind.

Penelope nodded and nudged me toward the door. “Yes, he. Dr. Benson is one of the best in the city at treating Bigs who have been…” She trailed off and I froze in place.

“Penelope…” I tried to use my sterner voice on her but standing there and coming here for wetting the bed, I couldn’t help but feel a little weakened. “Is this doctor for…” I looked around to see if anyone was nearby. They weren’t. “Bedwetting?” I tried to whisper, but already inside the lobby by now, my voice seemed to echo all on its own.

Penelope smiled but shook her head. “No. Not that. I figured you didn’t want to go there. Instead, Dr. Benson specializes in science experiments that have gone… well, to put it plainly, wrong.”

I began to freak out internally. I hadn’t told anyone about the shot. “Wait… how do you know about the shot? I thought… I…”

Penelope sighed and gestured for me to get in the elevator that had just dinged to the lobby floor. “Get in and I’ll tell you.” I sighed and complied without fight. The elevator jolted upward.

“Look… I found you after I came to and they had left. I saw the shot and you…” I could already sense her hesitation. “Well, you freaked out a bit when you saw that thing.”

“I did?” I had no memory of that.

Penelope nodded. “You did. Not surprised that you don’t remember but the doctors and police bagged it, and I haven’t seen it since, but with everything going on… I put two and two together. I figured we would start here and go from there, okay?” It felt nice that I had such a loyal number two under my employ. Still, I trembled like a leaf as I entered the main office of Dr. Benson.

It was even worse when we were eventually called back, but as the tall, clean-shaven, and dark with some gray steaks in it haired man in a lab coat entered, I felt oddly at ease. After Penelope excused herself, to give me at least a little privacy, Dr. Benson began.

“Hello, Miss Glifford. I’m Dr. Benson,” he said calmly. His eyes seemed to nearly sparkle with intelligence and a kindness I really needed right then. “What seems to be the issue, or at least, why are you here today?”

It took a second, and after a little coaxing, I finally managed to spit out everything that had happened. I felt a enormous weight lift off my shoulders, and I already felt better, but I knew I still had some problem. It didn’t help that Dr. Benson already seemed slightly worried as he began to write a few notes down on my chart. “Okay… not as unusual as you might think, so don’t panic there, but to see what we’re dealing with here and what you’ll need going forward, I’m going to need to ask you some questions, okay?” I nodded and with a glowing smile, he began.

“How often do you wet the bed?” “Do you often daze out when interacting with Littles?” “Do you wear protection during the day currently, or do you have the desire to?” “Are there any authority figures in your life that you have started to defer to, both in times of stress and daily activities?” “Have you noticed any unusual habits in your daily routines, like drinking water, eating, or even brushing your teeth?” “Do you cuddle with any toy or object that brings you comfort?”

With each one, I began to realize two things. First, each of his questions made me doubt my own existence in this world a little more. While most of the answers were a plain ‘no,’ there were at least 10 of his thirty questions, that I couldn’t exactly say ‘no’ to completely.

Secondly, though, and more concerning, I started to realize the questions began to take on a nature of their own. While the first seemed silly, like asking if I spontaneously collapsed into a gelatinous substance when loud noises were present, I began to notice a pattern about halfway through that I could confirm by the 20^th. Being the head of a safehouse, I recognized the questions as nearly identical to the ones I would ask a Little to gauge their maturity level. As soon as I realized that pattern for certain, I didn’t let Dr. Benson ask his 29^th, let alone 30^th question.

“What the hell do you think you’re playing at, doc?” I growled at the man before me. “Are you even a real doctor? Can’t you see that I’m a Big, and not a Little?”

Dr. Benson sighed and nodded. “I apologize for my questions, Miss Glifford, but I think we need to…”

“No!” I didn’t want to let him finish that thought either. I was pissed. I was confused about what was happening to me. But above all, I was scared. His questions seemed to only be heading in one direction, and I didn’t like that place at all. I had said ‘no’ to all his questions, but with each that he asked, that ‘no’ became less uncertain. I was sure he knew that, and I was nearly petrified inside that soon, my answer would instead be a ‘yes.’ I couldn’t let that happen.

“Screw this!” I edged my chair back and stomped up and over to the door before looking back at a worried and slightly bewildered Dr. Benson. “Thanks for nothing, doc! I’m not going to turn into some pile of good all of a sudden, so I think you can just take your tests and shove it!” Without letting him say another word, I turned about a headed to the elevator as quickly as I could without running.

“Miss G!” Penelope tried to call after me. “Wait! Wait for me!”

But I was already pushing the button and tuning everything else out. It wasn’t until the elevator beeped and I hopped on to leave this building altogether that I realized I should have handled that whole situation better.

Normally, I was a level-headed person. I was focused on my job and caring for the Littles in my protection at the safehouse, the government required that much at least, but I was happy and content. Even keeled and not prone to outbursts was my reputation through nearly everything.

A Little threw a toy at my head? I would scold or punish them, but never let my anger or pain get away from me. A Little called me dirty names and wished I was dead? Hurtful, yes, but I always kept my emotions in check. Or if a Little breaking free from a new employee while we’re at the park was terrifying, I always made sure to get them back safely and keep a clear mind about it.

Now, all that seemed to be just out of my reach. I felt a burning anger inside my chest, a sadness in my eyes and trembling lip, and an unbridled fear in my head. I wanted it to stop… for it to be over, but it kept at it. Even when I got to Penelope’s car and waited for her to catch up, I still felt very much the same.

I vowed to never return to Dr. Bensons, but as I wiped the snot and tears away from my emotional outburst on my sleeve, I knew something was definitely wrong with me. My pride might have been my downfall, but I wanted… needed to figure this out on my own. It was just a shot, and I was a Big. A bit of stress, PTSD, and some chemicals were not going to keep me down. As Penelope exited the building with a worried look on her face though, my resolve melted just a bit. I kept my outward confidence that I would d be fine, but a tiny bubble of growing doubt was buried deep within me. My gamble was certainly that, and I just hoped that everything would be okay.  

[Guilend]

First OMG IT'S STARTING!!!!!!

I've been trying to be patiently waiting for the first chapter. I was curious where in the timeline you'd start. I figured the first chapter, maybe two, would be before the incident. I failed to realize that it wouldn't be needed because you've done plenty of character building in the first story. At least enough to not have to do more then touch up on some of it and do a little character building for the other two characters. 

I knew as soon as I read the title of the chapter it would be Miss G waking up in a wet bed. Though I thought it would be at the end of the chapter.

I'm guessing one of her fears when Penelope confronted her about her bedwetting was that she'd either get spanked for wetting the bed or for trying to hide it and lie about it. While they wouldn't do that to a Little or probably even a Middle at the safehouse, she'd have no way of knowing exactly what Penelope would do. 

I am certain that she's going to be scolded on the way home for her outburst and I'm pretty sure when she comes back into her room after her shower and getting ready for bed, Penelope will be there waiting for her with a very thick Amazon sized night time diaper. The question is, will she need a spanking before letting Penelope put her in a diaper or not? Either way, the next morning when she wakes up in a wet diaper, she will have a hard time handling it and probably have a difficult time the rest of the day. Her dominant personality, especially when around Bigs is already starting to faulter. Can't wait to read the next chapter.

[codsterc10@msn.com]

Love it so far. I look forward to reading more as it goes. 

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone!

So, as noted in my previously, I was looking into creating a poll for this story. This is as about experimental as I’ll go for, but I’m at least interested in it to see if it can work. If I’ve set this up correctly, it should only allow people to vote once. Also, only I should be able to see the results, but I might change that later, depending on if I want a ‘grand reveal’ at the last chapter or not. Regardless, for now the link is below. Please let me know if it doesn’t work, so I can fiddle around with it, or cancel it completely and go back to you all posting your preferences instead on here for now.

https://strawpoll.com/kjn1D82kAyQ

For your viewing of the descriptions and selection, though, here are the ideas:

Bethany (Sequel to The Opening)

Set as a semi-sequel to The Opening, follow former drug runner, Bethany, as she strives to find herself a better life that has been promised in the newly discovered dimension, tentatively called, ‘The Amazon Dimension,’ though some have begun calling it another name due to the ever-increasing rumors of something awaiting all portal Littles on the other side. Join Bethany as she looks to turn her life around there and maybe even find a redemption of sorts and something else in the most unexpected of ways. Watch out though, in this new world, new and even greater dangers than the ones she left lurk around every corner.

Boys Maturity Reform

Set in a not-to-distant future, join John as he navigates through a world where all males must be required to pass a maturity test of sorts. While women are allowed to go to college or pursue their life at will without any such test, all boys over the age of 18 must attend a special school for three years to prove they are indeed ‘mature.’ Tests are laced throughout the time at this special school, but danger lurks around seemingly every corner for John and the friends he makes at the school. Success through these tests and obstacles ensures an eventual graduation and normal life afterward, but any failure is met with practices and punishments to demonstrate to others just how immature they are. Punitive measures, conspiracies, breakdowns, dwindling amounts of potty control, tests, and learning to cope with this unfair world all ensue in this longer story.

Peter Age Regression Virus

For a yet to be named story, follow Peter as he deals with a world and a life that has been infected with the age regression virus. Coming off the heels of a terrorist attack, grapple with Peter as he tries to cope with his descending age and the realities that come along with it. While he greatly enjoys many of the benefits that come with a younger body, watch as his life unfolds where he discovers that with youth, more vitality is only a benefit to the several complications and restrictions that come along with it. Only time will tell if he bounces above or below the age where one begins to lose themselves truly to the whims of their new younger body.

Now, looking ahead, I will be going on a trip. I'm not sure of when the next time I will be able to post a chapter, but it should be at least sometime next week. If this changes though, I will post another announcement on here.

Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys this first chapter of this story!

Chapter 2: Uneasy Parallels and Realizations

The car ride over was contentious at best. Penelope seemed too shocked and annoyed over what she had just witnessed to say anything of note, and I was far too emotional still to try and diffuse the situation like I always used to. It was one of my strengths, but feeling as I did then, I knew that it wouldn’t take much for me to truly enter the dastardly realms of anger, sadness or fear. A single push, and I felt something growing inside of me that would have me punching Penelope, bawling my eyes out, or cowering in the corner as much as I could within her car right now.

Back at the safehouse, things weren’t much better, but daycare soon ended, and all our Littles rejoined us to great success. I played off this morning as feeling under the weather and that I had received a quick treatment and was already better. Purely science fiction to those on Earth, but here, it was a believable enough story. For her part, Penelope just moved on and busied herself starting to change the diapers that needed it.

So, the days progressed very much as they had been since I came back. We received no new admits, but I was at least able to find safe and permanent homes for two of the Littles under my care. Gina, Harry, Ian, Jonathan, Becky, and Timmy were all still here, but it just meant that they were able to receive more care from my limited staff and me.  

Further, I felt like I was even improving. My nightly accidents had barely occurred and just using a simple pad seemed to prevent anything worse from leaking out anymore. I still felt unsure about my direction and decision to leave Dr. Benson’s so suddenly, especially when I started getting some… odd cravings and desires, but everything felt fine… until I started to dream again one night.

*              *              *

My head pounded. I could hear the blood rushing through my ears. Beeps and suction noises surrounded me as well and I felt like I was on fire and being crushed by a giant anvil at the same time. It was agony, but through my pain, I knew I was at least alive.

Waking up more fully, I could still feel my eyes were mostly swollen shut, but I was still in the land of the living. After essentially being stabbed in the chest by that behemoth of a tattooed man, I thought for sure that I was dead. The pain had been excruciating, but as I looked down, there was no massive hole in my chest as I had at first feared. A bandage, yes, but I thought for sure there would be a hole the size of my fist right where my heart once was.

Instead, I saw an elderly gentleman standing outside my room. I noticed him occasionally looking in, and I could feel my pulse begin to race, especially when he finally noticed my gaze at him and walked into my room. “Well, hello there. I know you’re probably in a lot of pain right now, but don’t worry, you’re safe now. I can promise you that much at least.”

“Who…” My throat felt like sandpaper. “Who are you?” I finally managed to croak out.

The man smiled and he quickly opened his jacket and pointed to his badge hanging there. “I’m Detective Blake. I pulled you out of the building and made sure you were breathing. I was in the area when a call went out about a break-in at a local safehouse. Needless to say, I wasn’t expecting a ‘break-in’ to look like that.”

I just remembered my shattered front room. Glass was everywhere and the Littles. ‘The Littles!’ I panicked and reached out toward Detective Blake. “Please… please, where are my Littles? Are they… are they okay?”

Detective Blake patted me on the hand. “Yes, they’re fine. We actually picked up a…” He quickly produced a small notepad from inside his jacket. “A… Willy Galpin?” I smiled and nodded. “Right. Well, he’s fine now and getting some personalized protective custody. The other Littles have been placed under the temporary care of Safehouse 82… at least until your house stops looking like a warzone.” He smirked in a way to show me that he was attempting to make a joke.

I smiled at his attempt at humor, but winced as well, when I guess the effort was simply too much for my bruised form. “Easy there… you took quite a beating. You’re all black and blue now, but when I first saw you…” He shook his head. I got the distinct opinion he was trying to put that mental image out of his head of my broken body… or maybe something else entirely. I just wasn’t sure. “Yeah, but anyways… I let the doctor know you’re up and one of your staff has been floating in and out all day. Very persistent that one.”

I blinked and looked out toward the nearby window. When I had lost consciousness, it was already dark. Now, I could tell the sun was already setting.

Detective Blake then reached out to me and placed his hand reassuringly on my shoulder. In an instant, I flashed back to my barely conscious form being hauled away outside of the safehouse. It was all fuzzy and all pain everywhere, but I remember Detective Blake holding me gently out there on my front lawn. Oddly, I had never felt safer than in his arms at that moment. Someone else was there right behind him, trying to talk to me, but my vision was too bloody and swollen for me to really make them out and my ears were too distracted by all the other sounds around me to hear them.

Right then, despite my feeling of safety with Detective Blake, I was so scared that I would never wake up again if I closed my eyes, but soon, flashes of red and blue lit up the whole block. Several people were crowding around me now and another one injected something into my arm. I felt funny… silly even before then oddly enough. After the needle though, I got more scared, and then… all went completely black.

“You know… you had me and your friends really worried,” he said somberly, knocking me back out of my thoughts about that night. “They injected you with something and when I got there you were…”

“Miss G!” Penelope practically squealed as she rushed in. She went in full force for a hug, but quickly stopped when she saw my body. I still hadn’t seen what I looked like in a mirror, but if her face and my pain were anything to go by, it certainly wasn’t pretty.

“You’re okay…” Her eyes began to dart everywhere in the room and finally fixated on my monitors before breathing a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank you! You’re okay.” Her attention then snapped back to me. I was almost having a hard time following her movements, something akin to a hummingbird in her rapid pace for my bruised vision. “I got the doctor, so he should be here soon to explain everything, but I’m just…” I could see her choke back her emotions. “I’m just so glad you’re okay!”

She then looked over to Detective Blake. “Thank you, Detective for watching over her. I can watch her now.” Her thanks to him and his services were sincere, but I got the odd opinion that she wanted the nice detective to leave. I almost didn’t want him to myself, but I was too weak to speak up on his behalf.

So, instead, the detective just nodded and turned toward me. “I’m just very glad that you’re okay, ma’am. You rest up. We’ll catch the people who did this to you.” With that, he walked outside and disappeared from my view.

Once he was gone, Penelope quickly turned back to me. “I just want you to focus on healing up, okay, Miss G?” I nodded, not feeling I had much other choice, feeling as I did then. “Don’t you worry about a thing at the safehouse. I’ve got it handled,” she said with a fair amount of pride. “I already coordinated with Jackie, Mildred, and the others, and we’ve already got crews coming to fix the house up in two days. Then, we can get the Littles back.”

“Thank you, Penelope.” My gratitude was sincere, but I wanted to know the bigger picture about myself. Remembering the shot, I was still worried that something worse was waiting for me just around the corner. Still, though, Detective Blake seemed like he was just about to tell me something important. I wanted… needed to know what.

“Penelope?” My employee quickly shot her eyes back at me after grabbing another blanket from the nearby closet. “Detective Blake… he seemed. Well, he seemed concerned when he found me. Was there anything… unusual about me when he carried me outside?”

Penelope hesitated and I knew that something was up, but ultimately, she smiled as if nothing was wrong at all and came over to me and sat on the edge of my bed before grasping my hand gently. The wires and IVs connected to didn’t stop her for a second. “You’re alive and that what really matters, Miss G. We should be thankful for that. Everything else…” She subtly shook her head and then clearly tried to cover it up by smiling even wider at me. “As I said… you’re okay and we should focus on that.”

She then reached behind me and fluffed up my pillows as gently as she could. “You just rest now. I’ll do everything else that needs to be done and I’ll make sure to take care of you until you’re better.”

Her wording seemed strange and her demeanor even stranger, but I just sat back in my bed, trying not to think of the pain that had been mounting in my body since I had opened my eyes. Before I could question anything else or ask for more pain medication, the doctor entered the room. ‘Strange… I thought he didn’t enter until later that night… when the sun was already down…’

“Hello, everyone!” he cheerfully greeted. “I see someone is up today. That’s fantastic news!” He strolled around and got between Penelope and me. “I’m Dr. Coatsworth. I’ve looked over your chart and I think you’re doing wonderfully… especially after what you’ve been through with the shot and all?”

‘Wait… what?’ The doctor didn’t find out about the shot until the next day… not the first day I met him. ‘What is going on?’

“We haven’t been able to identify the shot the tattooed man, but we at least know the effects it has on the body… even that of a Big,” he noted calmly.

I was still confused in this dream or memory or whatever, but I just let everything play out naturally. “What, doctor? What… what will happen to me? Is it… anything… unnatural?”

The doctor and Penelope chuckled loudly. “Oh no, not at all!” I felt a tiny relief for a moment. “It just regresses you! Pretty soon, you’ll just be an itty, bitty baby!”

My eyes bulged and I began to panic. I needed to get out of here. I wasn’t sure where or even how, but I started to feel a deeply embedded fear begin to take over me when I couldn’t move and inch. “What? I don’t understand… Regress me? That can’t be possible!”

“Oh, I’m afraid it is…” He glared over me, and I suddenly felt very small. Even Penelope, my closest friend and employee at the safehouse started to loom large over me. “You’re just a tiny baby but relax… we’re here for you now.” Both their words seemed to float around the room and practically enchant me. While internally I was freaking out, externally, I conveyed nothing but peace and tranquility. Still, even inside of me, all this felt so wrong and yet… so right.

“There, there, little Tiffany… we’ve got you.” Penelope started to swoop in and cuddle me up. Using my first name was one thing but picking me up like that on the bed just felt wrong. We were at least the same size, but now… I felt about the size of a Little… a baby.

“Easy,” the doctor warned. “Cradle her head…” Penelope quickly did as she was instructed, and I felt her arms wrap all over my body. It was secure and comfortable, but inside, I was still panicking about as much as I could. Every time I tried to protest though; I couldn’t seem to find the words. It was all half gaps and gurgling now instead. I was terrified, but I couldn’t do anything about it.

“Shhh, shhh. Easy there, little Tiffy. I’ll be there for you… no matter what,” she cooed above me. “Just relax and melt into my arms. I’ve got you. There, there.”

I wanted to thrash out and make any move, but I only managed to grunt in my position. All it earned me was a few cloying smiles from Dr. Coatsworth and Penelope, still cradling me in her arms with the sheets wrapped all around me.

Suddenly, both began to sniff the air. It wasn’t big at first, but both kept at it and started to make peculiar and questioning faces. I tried to smell the air as well, worried about some gas leak, but I couldn’t smell anything. It probably didn’t help that my nose had been broken in three places, but still…

“Uh oh!” Penelope finally sang out loud. “I think I smell someone had a bit of a whoopsie!” She beamed down at me from above and I felt comforted yet so confused. ‘What was she talking about?’

Without my say so though, Penelope looked under the sheets and turned me to the side. Being as helpless as I was, still in pain and terrified, I didn’t move a muscle. All I got for my fears though was a pat to my backside. No… more like a squish to my backside.

My eyes bulged in terror. I instantly knew what they had smelled. ‘Oh, please no. Not that!’

Penelope rolled me back and I could feel the mess that had gathered back there squish tightly against me. “Doctor, can you get me the changing supplies I had brought in here earlier. Looks like our widdle baby needs them a lot sooner than we were anticipating.” She looked down at me and bopped me playfully on the nose. “If she’s going this fast, she must have always been a big baby somewhere down deep… even when she was a Big!”

Both laughed at my expense. I tried to tell them off, to protest… anything, but I only managed to squirm and make my mess worse. I longed to scream out, even as Penelope set me down, repositioned me and stripped off my patient gown. I was still covered in bandages, except for a singular area near my crotch.

The fetid smell was overwhelming, but Penelope and the doctor only smiled and maneuvered me around. I eventually managed to make a sound, but it was basically near only gurgles mixed in with some cooing. I felt like I was in a living death. I wanted out of this nightmare.

I tried to clench my eyes and roll away from Penelope and the doctor, but nothing was working. I was stuck… trapped as Penelope rolled me about and began thoroughly wiping me down. No fold or patch of skin was left untouched. I shivered at the cold wet wipes, but it didn’t seem to matter at all. I was their tiny baby and I had made a mess. To them, there was no other outcome or course of treatment for me.

So, like I had done to thousands of Littles and babies before, Penelope positioned herself at my feet and readied the diaper. Sweet smelling once more, I could only gape in horror as my friend and staff member positioned the thick and babyish garment underneath me and pulled it up. “Stahp!” I finally managed to cry out.

The doctor and Penelope only smiled at each other in that singular moment. No signs of stopping or seemingly listening to my urgent request. The only thing that did happen was Penelope leaning over my broken body and taking my hand, curling my fingers and inserting my thumb into my mouth. “There, there. I know you’re scared, but I’m here, baby. I’m here and I’m never leaving you. You just lay back and let me finish pulling up your diapee, okay?”

With my thumb seemingly glue in place in my mouth, I couldn’t even make a single protest anymore. I was trapped and doomed as Penelope pulled the diaper up between my legs. One tape and then the next. I was no longer messy but now trapped in my infantile garment. A final pat, and looming over me with a smile, Penlope patted the front of my enormously thick diaper. “There you go baby! All done!”

*              *              *

“No!” I bolted up in bed. I was horrified that once again; my nightmares had returned. I hadn’t had one since I visited the doctor, but now… this one felt even worse. It wasn’t reality, which was bad enough, but it was my imagination going haywire.

I did meet Detective Blake like that, and Penelope had shooed him away, but the rest was purely a figment of my imagination. Now, even my own mind wasn’t a place of solace it seemed. Feeling the wet sheet once more undeath me, I groaned in despair as I felt betrayed in both my body and mind.

I had little time to mourn or panic though. Soon, I heard the patter of feet and the shuffling of the rest of my staff to attend to the Littles. Knowing I only had moments before I could be discovered with my wet evidence, I shot out of bed, stripped everything off, donned my robe and fled downstairs to the washer once more in disgrace.

Unfortunately, nearly as soon as I got there, Penelope was already waiting. “I heard you upstairs. I don’t think Mildred did, but you had another nightmare, didn’t you?” I couldn’t respond. The Penelope of my dreams was still far too real. Her changing me into a diaper… her coddling me on the bed. It all felt so wrong, but buried somewhere, I couldn’t deny that it also just felt peaceful. I quickly shuddered at the thought.

Penelope stepped closer to me, and just like my nightmare, she suspiciously sniffed the air and then looked down at my sheets. “Another accident, huh?” This time, there was no way I could hide the evidence or shirk off what had happened. So, instead, I just dropped my head in defeat and nodded slowly.

Penelope sighed loudly and I could feel her start to pat me on the shoulder. “That’s okay. I think it was only a matter of time, but… I think we need to go back to the doctor.”

My situational depression soon gave way to fear and anger. I pulled my head up so fast to meet her gaze, it almost hurt. “No! I refuse to go back to that quack! His questions, his demeanor toward me… it was humiliating! I’m not going back!” I almost stomped my foot on the ground to emphasize my point, but I decided not to at the last moment.

“Shhh!” Penelope quickly hushed me and even placed a single finger over her lips. “Do you want others to hear you?” I realized my mistake and quickly shook my head. “I thought not. It’s bad enough with your laundry every morning around here when this happens, but can you imagine what the Littles would think if they knew you had stains on your mattress?”

Fear only grew in my heart. I knew about the subtle yet growing stain on my mattress upstairs in my room. I had vowed to get cleaning products the other day, ones suited for that other than what we already had in the house, but I changed my mind at the last moment. I didn’t have the nerve to do something like that, but now, I knew that Penelope knew about them as well.

“Yeah… I know about those.” I could already hear the disappointment in her voice. It wasn’t comforting. Strangely, having felt that way in the dream, I wanted nothing more right then. “Now, I know something more is going on here. You protected us all and plied for time. I should have helped you and I wish to everything in the universe that I did, but we can’t change things now.” She took a deep breath and seemed to try and center herself.

Opening her eyes back up, she looked at me with a new, frightening sort of determination. “So, this is how I see it. You can either go to the doctor willingly with my help, or I can call your direct governmental supervisor, explain the situation, and we can take it from there.” I thought she was finished, but she slightly leaned in and almost whispered to me. “Somehow… I feel she’ll be less understanding than me…”

I could feel my hands already starting to tremble. My emotions were all in flux, and just like the other day, I swung easily from anger, to fear, and now to sadness. I knew Penelope was just trying to help me, but I felt like I was a tiny puppy trapped in a corner, their owner ready to come and scold them for wrecking their flowers in the front lawn and threatening them with the pound. It was too much.

Tears began to well in my eyes. I sniffled a few times and tried to maintain my composure. Holding my wet sheets, I wasn’t sure what to do, so instead, I just stood there, afraid and tearful over what my life had seemingly come to.

Not being cruel or callous though, I think Penelope saw what her words had done to me. Clearly, I was having a problem, and her sternness soon gave way to the calm and thoughtful approach that she had adopted when dealing with the most difficult situations her in the safehouse. “It’s okay, Miss G.” She came over to me and gingerly took the sheets I was holding and plopped them in the dryer. “I know all this has to have been really hard on you, but we need to face the facts. You need help… more than I can give and certainly more than you can give yourself.” She paused briefly, and despite looking awkward about the whole thing, slightly extended her arms outward. It was a look and singular carer move that I had often practiced myself, so seeing it readily available now in my time of need, I collapsed into her arms.

At first, her hug felt just like a friend trying to comfort their emotionally distraught friend. No further implications and no deeper meaning, but as time progressed in the hug, I found myself feeling comforted. That was the point of a hug after all, but this just felt different. Maybe it was the fact that I still faintly smelled of pee, or the fact that I had just had a nightmare, or likely that Penelope had just tossed my soaked sheets in the washer, but regardless, I felt oddly like a Little. More disturbingly though, I don’t think I minded that…

“It’s okay, Miss G,” she tried to comfort me after a few minutes. “You know… when I first came to, I saw you lying on the ground with that strange shot by your side. You woke up and… you giggled, Miss G. Then you cried… I felt so helpless, and then that detective showed up and the ambulance took you away.”

I had no memory of all that, but Detective Blake’s hesitation to me when he was describing how he pulled me out of the house initially now made sense. I had felt silly… even through the pain. Whatever that shot was, I was learning to fear it and grow wary of what it was doing to me. Based on her description, I almost seemed to be acting like a Little.

“Detective Blake and I… even Dr. Coatsworth later in the hospital. We all thought you would be permanently altered,” she admitted as she stroked my back. “We all thought you would never be the same and slip into a coma or wake up but still have brain damage or something. So, all this… it’s not shameful. It’s just… well, we just need to deal with it now, okay?”

I backed out of our hug and nodded. “Okay…” I couldn’t believe that I was accepting going back to Dr. Benson, but standing there after another wet bed… I didn’t see much choice in the matter.

“Uh… Miss G? Penelope?” Penelope and I stopped hugging and turned to face where the voice had come from. There, at the top of the stairs was Jonathan, standing awkwardly and holding up a blanket in front of him.

“Jonathan…” Penelope began, leaving me to wipe my eyes away. She was right about the Littles. They couldn’t see me like this. “What are you doing up here? Where’s Mildred?”

“I… uh…” I quickly tell that he was trying to tell us something… something he didn’t want to but knew he had to. “She was changing Harry’s diaper and hadn’t gotten to me yet, but I…” His head dropped down and his eyes nearly seemed to bore holes in the floor.

Penelope walked closer to the nervous Little. I had seen this before and I could almost bet what he was about to say. Penelope spoke first though. “Did something happen?” Jonathan nodded glumly. “It’s okay. You can tell me. I promise… I won’t be mad.”

Jonathan sighed, and I could almost hear a break in his voice, but finally, he dropped his blanket. There, plain as day, was a pair of soaked pajama bottoms.

“Oh, Jonathan…” It seemed to all be too much and as soon as Penelope uttered her last syllable, he burst into tears. Just quiet ones, but I could see his pain behind them. Curiously and horrifyingly to one extent, I knew exactly how he was feeling. And like me, Penelope shuffled over closer to him and held her arms out ever so slightly.

It was almost the carer’s handshake by now. It had been honed from years of practice and trial and error. No hug and the Little could spiral into a complete mess and the carer would have an even bigger problem to deal with. Too forceful though and the Little could outright reject them. Particularly in Jonathan’s case, one wet bed was minor compared to the lives of other Littles, but it was likely devastating and frightening to him at this early stage still. Again, I could understand exactly what he was going through. And, not long after, like me again, he openly embraced the offered hug from Penelope.

“There, there,” she said, stroking his hair from above. “It’s going to be all okay. You dry your tears now.” Jonathan temporarily backed out of the hug and wiped his tears on the sleeve of his pajamas. “Good. Now, we’re going to go get you cleaned up while Miss G fixes herself up for the day, okay?” Jonathan only nodded and allowed himself to be guided back downstairs. Before she disappeared, Penelope winked at me and gestured for me to fix myself up. Under her watch, two crises for the day had been averted.  

After, Penelope called the doctor while I fixed everyone’s breakfast. We were a well-oiled team and Mildred was making quick work of feeding Becky and Timmy already. Discussing it with me, Penelope then made the appointment for this afternoon when Jackie would start her shift. So, until then, I just had to focus on the Littles.

It should have been business as usual, but curiously and slightly annoying by the end of the day, I noticed that Penelope kept an eye on me. I changed a diaper, heated a bottle, or even read to the Littles who would listen, she watched me like a hawk. I worried that trust between us, or at least a mutual respect between boss and employee or even among friends had been broken. Eventually though, I just had to push through my own suspicions of it and attend to my own duties in the safehouse.

As such, about an hour before Jackie showed up, each of the Littles was about to be put down for a nap. We allowed some time to pass for their lunches to be digested so each Little could go to sleep with a clean diaper on after we changed them. For the time being, that meant maybe a game or two usually, but today, I had been so distracted with playing the first game of ‘I Spy,’ I had inadvertently left out a package of cookies. By the time I realized that though, one had been secretly nabbed.

Now, I’m not the biggest stickler for rules. I only have a few in the safehouse, and that’s mostly to protect everyone inside from themselves or from those on the outside wishing to do any of us harm. Taking food though, was more of a pet peeve. If the Little had asked, I would have said yes in a heartbeat, but this… if I was more stringent with the rules, I could have even accused one of them of stealing.

Looking around the room, though, it was quickly obvious who it was.

Gina, Harry, and Becky were way too engrossed in playing with their stuffed animals to one side of the room. Jonathan was sulking, and seemingly dreading the prospect of a nap. Ian was already being changed upstairs, but Timmy… Timmy was guiltily looking anywhere but in my direction. Further, I spotted a few crumbs on the hardwood floor by his feet.

“Timmy?” I quickly pulled his attention away as I approached him. The sandy-haired Little looked at me with the largest blue eyes I had ever seen. He was clearly already trying to influence me to just let the cookie nabbing go, but I had seen him pull that trick one too many times by now. I sighed. “You know… that’s not going to work.”

Timmy grinned back at me. “Waht no wouk?” I groaned internally, but I had to remind myself not to get too upset with him. He was playful and grinning now, but I knew like all the rest, he had a pain buried inside. Coming from an experimental test facility, he could pass for a warm-hearted Little without problem, except for two things. First, he had the worst of nightmares, probably even worse than my own, and second, he was utterly terrified of any needle within sight. Still, I needed to get to the bottom of this.

“Timmy… don’t play that game with me,” I said as I doubled down on my angry and disappointed glance at him. “You know what you did. Just tell me now and I promise, you won’t get into trouble.”

Timmy briefly panicked and his grin vanished. I felt bad for what he had gone through, but now, he very much lived in the moment. It made him prone to tiny misbehaviors like taking the cookie, but it also meant he was quick to apologize or admit the truth as well. “I sowwy…”

I nodded and bent down to him. “That’s okay, Timmy. I know you didn’t mean to, but remember what we talked about last week?”

He quickly nodded. “No steawin’.” His eyes flashed with the realization of what he had done. “Oh…”

I smirked and gave him a quick hug. “That’s okay, Timmy. I know you mean well.” Sniffing the air though, I realized I had another problem on my hands. I backed up and gave him the opportunity to tell me the truth. “Timmy… did you make a mess?”

He smiled and even giggled for a moment. “Maybe…” His mischievous streak was definitely out in full force today, but again, I couldn’t stay mad at him. He had confessed to taking the cookie and that he might have made a mess in his diaper. For him, I had to take the positives where I could. So, without another word, I made sure that Mildred carted him off upstairs first before the others. If I had to guess, they still had a few more grunts to get out.  

As soon as Gina, the last Little to be changed, went down for her nap and Jackie arrived, Penelope and I loaded up into the car once more. Feigning a need to do some shopping, we headed back to Dr. Benson.

I tried to enjoy the view or just sit back and listen to the pop songs that Penelope had tuned the radio to, but I couldn’t get my mind off my growing nerves. Before, I was only hoping to get better when I visited Dr. Benson. Now, we both knew what was happening to me. There were no false pretenses this time. I was going to his office because I had started wetting the bed and that the tattooed man had stuck me with a needle containing an unknown substance. My palms began to sweat. I had no idea what was going to happen today.

As we got out of the car, I saw a few Bigs and Littles in the nearby park. Middles were pretty uncommon in this part of Libertalia for some reason, but seeing the two contrasting members of our society, I felt an overwhelming sense of the ‘norm’ of life around here as it had been now for decades… even centuries to one degree or another.

The Little danced about the flowers and the fresh cut grass in her short sundress. Barrettes littered her hair and her thick diaper occasionally flashed to anyone looking without her giving a single care to the world. The Big though, was ever vigilant of her Little and enjoyed reading her book on the park bench while she maintained the stroller nearby to her, fully loaded with a bulging diaper bag. It was all perfectly natural in this world. There was a Little and there was a Big. No in between as far their maturity levels went. Bigs simply did not wet the bed like a Little… like Jonathan had as well this morning.

I could appreciate the irony of the matter too… me having comforted hundreds of Littles throughout my years after they had wet the bed. I always said it was okay, but now being in their spot myself, those words felt hollow. As I entered Dr. Bensons office once more, I wasn’t sure what I expected him to do, but I knew I needed him to do something for me… something more than those same hollow words I had used myself. I knew that as a Big, wetting the bed just didn’t happen. So, this time, I was determined to stay until I got an answer of some kind to help me… no matter what.  

[Guilend]

I'm surprised Penelope didn't at least leave a package of diapers in her room. However, I have a feeling just from the conversation that morning, she will be wearing some form of protection at night from now on. I am definitely excited to see how it will go with the doctor. At least Miss G didn't let her call that one person. Miss G would be put in the care of a Big that's probably really strict and won't look kindly to a Big that wets the bed and can't control her emotions. Miss G would end up spanked every morning she wakes up in a wet diaper and probably made to wear pull ups during those days. And definitely getting spanked anytime she throws a tantrum. If it was any other Big id want that, but not to Miss G.

 

I went ahead and voted for the boys maturity test story. Mostly because it's either been close to winning or tied with a story and I think it's time it has it's day. But I'm going to say this now and I'll probably say it a few times during that story, I bet the women judge each other harshly. I'd imagine the female prison system is sort of an etiquette center to teach the female criminals or trouble makers what's right and wrong. Which involves humiliation and spankings and if they don't graduate they have their female status removed and is treated like any male that has failed the maturity test.

[LostBBoyBear]

Update

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm back from my trip. It was really fun, but now the true work begins on this story. I do have another trip coming up, but it's not as long, and if everything goes according to plan, I should be able to post almost about as much as I did with my last story. 

That being said, I have a lot to catch up on and there just isn't enough time to fully finish and edit the next chapter today. Unless something catastrophic happens between now and later however, you all should expect another chapter to be posted sometime tomorrow night. I'm sure a few of you are going to just love what's around the corner.

[babykamper]

Yay!!! Guilend was in the verge of being normal human being. It was getting tough without his fix. Haha

[Guilend]

2 hours ago, LostBBoyBear said:

Update

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm back from my trip. It was really fun, but now the true work begins on this story. I do have another trip coming up, but it's not as long, and if everything goes according to plan, I should be able to post almost about as much as I did with my last story. 

That being said, I have a lot to catch up on and there just isn't enough time to fully finish and edit the next chapter today. Unless something catastrophic happens between now and later however, you all should expect another chapter to be posted sometime tomorrow night. I'm sure a few of you are going to just love what's around the corner.

Yay I'm happy you had a good time. I'm also happy you're back.

I can guarantee that no matter what happens next in the story, I'll be very happy with. 

2 hours ago, babykamper said:

Yay!!! Guilend was in the verge of being normal human being. It was getting tough without his fix. Haha

I am a normal human being. Just one with a slight addiction to certain stories and I might come on here a million times a day to see if there's an update to one of those stories or a new one 

[Kat5]

19 hours ago, babykamper said:

Yay!!! Guilend was in the verge of being normal human being. It was getting tough without his fix. Haha

I'm sorry. But there was no way Guilend was anywhere near close to that. I like him a lot, but he is fully committed to being his own meme!

[Guilend]

3 hours ago, Kat5 said:

I'm sorry. But there was no way Guilend was anywhere near close to that. I like him a lot, but he is fully committed to being his own meme!

Awww she said I'm a meme. I feel loved. It's the nicest thing anyone has said to me.😁

[Guilend]

Totally not me at 2am checking for the 30th time since 1:28am to see if there's another chapter. 😂

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone!

As I said previously, I made it back safe from my trip. Not necessarily the trip I was expecting, but that’s not always a bad thing either. Lots of fun and new experiences, but regardless, I’m ready to hop back into this story.

In light of that though, the lack of sleep from my trip finally caught up with me. I really tried to get this story out last night, but I struggled to write the final few paragraphs out and I knew my editing of everything just wasn’t going to happen. So, I apologize for that.

Next, with everything I’ve planned out, there are only about 12 chapters to this story. Keeping that in mind, this story should be done before the end of this month if I post how I want to when I’m looking ahead. More might be added later if I feel the story needs to be fleshed out, but this is just a nice, end of the summer story before some of the heavier ones I’ve included in the poll from the last chapter.

Speaking of which, I just wanted to thank the several of you that have already voted. I can’t tell which of you have, but the results of using this poll system seem to be very telling already. I think I might also post another poll during the last chapter to see what you all think about using the system, but feel free to comment below if you wish.

Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys the next chapter of this story!

Chapter 3: Too Much of a Good Thing

My knee practically couldn’t stop bouncing as I waited around for my name to be called in Dr. Benson’s office. I had been here once before, and that visit ended with me storming out in a huff because I was being treated like a Little… or at least being asked the questions that most Bigs asked Littles with any kind of problems in our society these days. Now, I was determined to stay through anything and fix my problem, but that inner resolve didn’t help calm my nerves very much. Still, regardless of my own feelings, I didn’t have much time to truly panic as a nurse soon exited from the door to the rest of the offices.  

“Tiffany Glifford?” the nurse called out. I stood up and nodded toward her before following her to the rear of the clinic. Penelope stayed behind, still electing to give me a smile and a thumbs up, but for some reason, despite everything else I had been through and that I had already seen Dr. Benson before, I was slightly apprehensive about her staying behind. It was a peculiar sensation longing for her to come with me, but I quickly had to brush it out of my mind as I stepped on the scale and then had my temperature taken. All of it was standard, but that uneasy feeling I had in the waiting room wasn’t leaving and even seemed to be growing.

Finally, though, I sat down on the waiting room exam table, complete with a disposable pad that rolled from the rear. As I waited a little longer, I wondered what other type of patients had sat here before me. Some of the signs around me pointed to the whole notion that anyone could have sat here.

In one corner, there was a poster with tips on dealing with diapers and sleep problems, clearly designed for Littles, but on another wall, I saw warning signs that noted ‘Your Little Could Be Making You Sick,’ clearly intended for Bigs. That polarization wasn’t what caught my attention though. The truly worrying and even downright horrific piece was in the center of the room, right where I was directly facing from my seat on the table.

Black and yellow writing and insignias adorned the whole poster, making it look like one giant caution sign. It was one of the ‘If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms…’ type of posters, but reading on, the symptoms listed unnerved me to my core. Diarrhea, sweating, fever, coughing, incontinence, weakness, confusion, inability to read, burning sensations, dissolving skin, odd growths, and changes to skin color were just the tip of the many symptoms the poster warned of. I wondered if I should read further into those symptoms for myself, but Dr. Benson soon knocked on the door and entered.

“Hello again, Miss Glifford,” he said smiling with a slight wash of relief over his face. “I’m glad you’ve decided to return. I just want to apologize for my questions the other day. This job can be… a bit much at times and I just find those questions strike at the heart of 99% of the problems that come through these doors. Moving forward, I will try to maintain a bit more of a sensitivity with your current, uh… problems.”

I was relieved to hear him say that, and I smiled back, still trying hard to block out my nerves from the waiting room and now the warning symptoms poster. “Thank you, Dr. Benson. But really, I want to apologize for running out of here like I did. I’m not sure what came over me… maybe fear? Anger?” I sighed thinking back to my behavior that day and my lack of control over it. “I’m just really not sure, but I’m definitely sorry for behaving like that.”

Dr. Benson gave me a reassuring smile and I felt a little reassurance and pride come back to me. “But you did come back, Miss Glifford. How about this? Let’s just call the first visit a learning curve and see if we can do better, okay?” I smiled and nodded. Despite my inner reservations about Dr. Benson still, I knew I needed his help now more than ever. His questions, though blunt, now just seemed thorough in retrospect in trying to truly determine my problem. If I was to tackle and beat whatever was affecting me, I needed to stay on his good side and embrace whatever help he could give me. At this point, I knew that if I wanted any success, I needed to push all my other feelings about him down as far as I could.

So, regardless, with a fair amount of trepidation but determination, Dr. Benson and I then discussed several of my problems. He delicately asked a few more of his questions, and while I did recognize them as being Little-orientated like before, I felt an ease I hadn’t previously. His new and more tactful mannerisms were definitely paying off this time. Also, each of his questions seemed more focused now and while not terrible individually, I ashamedly answered ‘yes’ to nearly every one of them for this round instead.

“So, what is this? What’s happening to me, doctor?” I asked impatiently as Dr. Benson looked over his notes carefully after I answered the last of his questions. “Is this some kind of rare cancer that I’ve never heard of before? Some new drug on the market I accidentally got exposed to? What?” I wanted to know specific answers, but with each question I asked, I also felt I knew the answer deep within me already. It was the most obvious, but also the most perplexing and the answer with the largest number of unknowns if it was confirmed: the shot that the tattooed man had given me.

Dr. Benson sighed and pulled out another file from the notes in front of him. “Do you know what this is?” I looked over the manilla folder, but not seeing any writing on it at least from this angle, I shook my head. “This is your official hospital and police file. I had a copy sent over to me to see if it could fill in any gaps with my remaining questions after you stormed out. If you noticed, my questions were a little more pointed today.”

“I did,” I said with a blush. It was a nearly devastating and death-inducing embarrassment to admit to wetting the bed to a practical stranger, doctor or not.

Dr. Benson just smiled warmly back at me though. “You shouldn’t be embarrassed, especially because I now believe I know what happened to you…” My eyes widened and I leaned forward while I sat on the edge of the exam table with bated breath. “I’m not sure the official name, but I believe you were exposed to a new tricky substance that was likely bio-engineered in a lab somewhere. I’ll have to do more research on it, but doctors in my line of specialty have been noting cases, like yours, that seem to follow a pattern. So far, you seem to be sticking to those patterns almost exactly.”

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was comforted by that notion at this point or not. I wasn’t alone, and therefore maybe not the freak I feared I was in our society, but a spreading wave of people with symptoms like me didn’t exactly spell success or a ‘cure’ either. Also, based on Dr. Benson’s face, I had an answer, but it shouldn’t be taken as the best of news. Still, I wanted that to be confirmed. “So… is there any good news then?” I didn’t want to ask the question, but I had come here for answers. Like ripping off a bandage, painful but quick seemed the way to go to figure out what this was.

Unfortunately, Dr. Benson sighed and briefly rubbed his temples. “Well, there’s no cure per say, but we can mask the symptoms with one course of treatment. It’s pretty simple, but it’s effective if my guesses are right. Unless you were lying to me at some point today, or the first time you were here, you should see some relief with your… problems.”

The lack of a ‘cure’ didn’t sit right with me, but I knew that even with our society’s advanced technology, not everything could be cured. Still, masking the symptoms and helping me with my problem seemed a welcome relief if nothing else. So, with few options open to me and without further question, I stuck out my hand and nodded. “Sounds perfect. Just give me the treatment now and I’ll be on my way.”

Dr. Benson sighed once again but then nodded and reached up into the cabinets above him and removed a single pill bottle. “I just got these the other day… just in case. This isn’t a cure as I said, but if you take these as prescribed, and only that, they should help you out a bit. Let’s make an appointment for two weeks from now, but also, feel free to book another if anything else should occur or your symptoms advance.”

I knew he likely wanted to say, ‘if my symptoms got worse,’ but he had probably learned to sugarcoat bad news or phrases like that in a clinic where ‘skin dissolving’ was a common enough warning sign to watch out for.

Pocketing the pills and then getting back home with Penelope, I took the ‘Enilikas’ medication as soon as I returned to my room upstairs. Tiny and unremarkable, the light-yellow pills were easy enough to swallow with one gulp of water right after eating as directed.

To my delight, like a light switch flicking on, my brain immediately felt clear. Almost as if I was instantaneously pulled out of a drunk stupor, everything seemed to normalize around me. As the day progressed, the feeling would fade slightly but then pop back again once I took them again a few hours later. Otherwise, though, I felt normal.

So, everything else seemed to go back to normal as well.

I could still see Penelope watching me like a hawk initially, but after a week, I noticed she resumed her normal duties and left me mostly by myself. Around the same time though, I noticed that the ‘clear’ effect wasn’t as prominent compared to when I started taking the doses.

At first, I thought my overall mind might have been improving and my peaks and highs weren’t as prominent. After I began to hunger to be hugged and actually found one cartoon show fascinating though, I then realized that my tolerance might have increased, or the pills were no longer working. So, proud of myself for at least catching onto my symptoms this time, I felt that if the pills once worked, taking more now when their effectiveness had faded seemed the best step.

I started this new slightly increased routine on Tuesday right before lunch to give me a boost. Wednesday I was fine and even Thursday I was fine. But by Thursday night, I felt unusually scared of the dark all alone in my room. I tried to hug myself or a pillow or my sheets, but nothing worked. Afraid, angry, and frustrated, I took another pill. Instantly, I felt better and passed out.

During the following day, everything proceeded like normal. I was on my new regular dose of the Enilikas and had just changed Ian and Becky’s diapers and helped put everyone down for a nap, so satisfied, I decided to take a seat and watch some TV before I resumed my normal work duties around the safehouse. Right as one of my dramas ended though, a new PSA came on the screen.

Jonathan was with me and as the PSA progressed. At first, I wasn’t even paying attention, but about halfway through, I started to notice him looking at me funny. I had mostly tuned the PSA, so when it repeated to ensure the message came across to viewers, I froze in terror over the message before me. “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We have just received reports of Bigs giving into what best could be described as ‘Little tendencies.’ These can vary greatly, but authorities have now asked for the public’s help in tracking these individuals down. If their symptoms persist, they can become a danger to themselves or their community. So again, any Big spotted behaving more like a Little than a mature adult, should contact the following number on your screen immediately. Thank you.”

The straight-faced announcer seemed so friendly and authoritative, but Jonathan’s look from before deeply concerned me now given what the PSA was about. ‘Did he know something? Was I that obvious?’ Fear of being found out or turned in gripped my very soul.

“Hmmm… probably just some propaganda, huh?” Mildred asked, suddenly shattering my thoughts as she walked up behind the couch where I was seated.

I jerked around to see her, terror in my heart now. “Geez, Mildred! You startled me right there, but yeah…” I said as I desperately tried to calm my heart rate down, “you’re probably right…” My focus drifted to the green stuffy chipmunk that one of the Littles had brought down from the nursery earlier today. For some reason, in that single moment, I just wanted to hug the stuffy more than I had wanted to do anything in my life. I felt like I was going to burst if I didn’t.

Then, like a bolt of lightning, it hit me. Right then, I wanted to cuddle and take comfort in a stuffy of my own.

My eyes bulged and my pulse increased in seconds. Not wanting to attract attention, as much as I could, I casually got up and walked over to the stairs. “Uh… I’ll be right back. Just need to… fix my hair and check on the Littles in the newborn wing.” Jonathan shrugged his shoulders and Mildred gave me a funny look, but it was enough for me to leave the room. Unfortunately, halfway up the stairs to my room, I remembered that currently, we didn’t have any Littles in the newborn room. Mildred had the grace not to call me out on it, but she knew I was lying. It didn’t help my anxiety as it surged more as I advanced up through each floor. Going back to explain my actions would just have been too suspicious at this point.

Trying to put yet another thing out of my mind, I finally came to my room, and I burst into my bathroom. I found the Enilikas pills right away and popped out another pale-yellow pill. A single pill was smaller than my pinky nail, but right then, I couldn’t think of anything else. I needed that pill if was the last thing I was going to do. So, popping it in my mouth, I then downed a glass of water, exhaled, and immediately began to feel the effects of the medication sharpen my mind. Almost as quickly, I could feel my anxiety start to ease off as well. I felt comfortable, relaxed, and relieved. So, I went back downstairs, seemingly no one the wiser of what I had done.

With my own welfare sorted, Penelope soon returned from her duties with the rest of the Littles, and we all helped clean up and deal with making dinner for tonight. We even asked Jonathan to help, but he was growing more reserved and quieter every day, and we knew his help would be limited at this point. Having taken him to the doctor last week, concerned about his bedwetting, we discovered that he had been dosed with FOY by a Big who he once called his friend. The news was devastating, and it didn’t help that at least once an hour, a commercial would pop up describing all the ill effects of the illegal drug. Legal forms existed in clinics all over but here in Indianapolis, FOY was the street drug of choice for regressions, temporary for parties or long-term for easily preyed upon Littles. To an extent, Jonathan was doomed, and we all knew it.

I felt bad for him, but I couldn’t help but be a little selfish and think of myself every time I saw him wake up to a wet bed and now a pair of wet pull-ups. It was what I was trying desperately to avoid, despite what Dr. Benson had told me about the Enilikas not being a cure. So far, my efforts seemed to meet with success, but there was a tiny tingling feeling of sorts in the back of my mind. Drugs were tricky, the ones our society created most of all. Now, I was increasing my dosage. I knew it was a risk, but considering the alternatives, I felt fine with that risk.

So, for now, everything went according to my perfect plan of staying clear for longer. Nap time soon ended and amongst the flurry of badly needed diaper changes and round of cuddling after everyone had woken up, the house was alive with electric energy once more. Six Littles under the care of Mildred, Penelope, and I was manageable, but today, Harry was having a bad day.

“No! I won’ give ‘em back!” Timmy shouted as Harry tried to pull his stuffy chimp, Eddy, back from his now former friend. Eddy was intact and smelled nice. Timmy’s dedicated stuffy however, was about the polar opposite and was being mended and washed currently. Without a dedicated cuddle buddy now, Timmy wanted Eddy.

“No! No! He’s mine!” Harry yelled back, desperately trying to win his own stuffy back, while noticeably pushing forward toward Timmy. Other observers might assume that Timmy was winning their impromptu tug-of-war match, but watching and knowing them as I did, I knew that Harry was just trying to protect his precious Eddy from being torn in two.

Unfortunately, right as he stepped forward on the fifth time, he came too close to Timmy. Immediately, I could see the panic in Timmy’s eyes, and I knew from his background that he would only react in one way to what he perceived as a legitimate threat. And, sure enough, not two minutes later, Timmy smacked but missed Harry. It didn’t matter though and the two began to engage each other in an attempted slap fight.

The other Littles cheered on, and Penelope and I held back for a moment. We knew this was a teachable moment for everyone involved and could save us effort down the road as long as no one got hurt. As soon as Timmy actually clocked Harry in the mouth though, Penelope and I knew their time was up.

“Enough you two!” Penelope shouted first after giving me the nod that she would take the lead this time to quell the fighting. “Both of you! Stop your fighting! Now!” Both complied instantly, but stopping the fighting and then quickly taking Eddy away was only step one.

“Buh, buh… he stawted ih’!” Harry countered back, in a vain yet endearing way to try and sway Penelope’s favor toward his side and avoid punishment. His eyes darted back and forth between Penelope and his beloved stuffy now clenched tightly in her fingers.

“I don’t care who started it. I’m ending it.” Penelope’s voice didn’t waver. I could tell in her eyes that she knew Harry was ultimately in the right and likely only defending himself in his mind, but in a safehouse full of impressionable Littles, giving in at all to a single Little was a sign of weakness that at least one of them would try and exploit later. Littles were good for the most part, but regressed and stressed emotions combined with a yearning to return to their old lives as ‘adults’ just meant that we had our fair share of outbursts and periods of misbehavior like this. Examples of misbehavior had to be dealt with quickly and fairly.

I could see that Harry still wanted to protest, but trying to be good, he immediately began to pout instead. Timmy sulked in his own way, but I could see the tiny flexes of his fingers as he tried to reach out and take Eddy back from Penelope. Seeing my moment, I swooped in and snatched up Timmy before he made things worse. “You deal with Harry, Penelope. I’ve got this one.”

I could see the fear eclipsing both Timmy’s and Harry’s face as I carried Timmy off. Nodding, Penelope picked Harry up to take him in the back as well. For her part, Mildred now held back the rest of the Littles and cleared a path for both me and Penelope with our respective Littles. I took the kitchen while Penelope went outside to my small office back there.

For Harry, I knew at worst, he might just receive a strongly worded lecture that would instill a sense of guilt and right versus wrong. It was a substantially less severe punishment than what Timmy was going to get. According to plan Harry would be punished still in a minor way, but would remain more hidden, while the harsher punishment of Timmy could at least echo through the house and serve as a warning. I didn’t want to be cruel, and I made sure my staff wasn’t either, but Littles here needed structure and to follow the rules of the house. Bending the rules could be okay, but hitting another Little staying here and taking their toy were two big ‘no-no’s.’ Despite my care toward Littles, I couldn’t let something like that simply stand without some type of consequence.

I sighed as I paused and set the still struggling Timmy down on the kitchen floor. “Now, Tommy. I want you to think about what you’ve done. You…”

“But I…!” He tried to interject, but I made sure to quickly cut him off.

“No,” I said firmly while also holding my finger up to him and giving Timmy a stern glance. “We do not hit here, and we do not take other people’s stuffy’s. Is that understood?” Timmy muttered something under his breath which I could only guess at. Wanting to make sure I heard a full acknowledgement that he was in the wrong in this case, I pressed on. “Come again, young man?”

Timmy dejectedly looked at the floor in defeat. He wasn’t a bad kid, but he had a bad day. Every Little had them, even the near-painfully timid Ian, still quiet as he sat in the corner and attempted to read his old diary entries rather than get involved with the drama of the house. We had been working on his reading comprehension, but it was still a struggle. Regardless, though, Timmy knew he had messed up and I could see the look of regret wash over his whole body. “I… I… sorry, Miss G…”

I could see his bottom lip begin to tremble and my heart reached out to him fully, but I knew the rules here by heart. Half were government mandated, but the other half were my own based on my experience with Littles. They just needed some structure sometimes, and that’s where my staff and I fell into place. Unfortunately, the structure here for unruly Littles like Timmy today meant a spanking to one degree or another. With two relatively minor offenses, however, it was would just be four quick spanks. Some Littles elsewhere or before coming here were subject to at least 50 for the same infractions.

It was naturally terrifying, but as I started to position myself in place, I think something might have snapped in Timmy. It happened to a lot of Littles who once owned a business or had an ego the size of Gaule or might have experienced some form of severe punishment before. There were a lot of reasons for his actions, and I should have expected something… but I didn’t as I crouched to get closer to him. “Okay, Timmy. You know the drill by now. I’ll go really fast, and I’ll even make sure you get the soothing cream during tonight’s diaper change, but just stay still and this…”

“No!” With the speed of a thunderbolt, Timmy spun around and then reached out and smacked me across the face with all his might.

I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first. Timmy had been emotionally damaged by the testers at the experimental lab he was eventually rescued from, but he had never been this violent toward me or anyone else before. I wanted to know more, but before I could make out even a single syllable, he smacked me across the face again. “No! No, no, no! I won’!”

He then even went for a third, but I was ready this time from his right-handed slap. “No, Timmy! No! We do not hit!” I could feel my blood boiling in seconds, and I wanted to exact my revenge over what he had done. In truth, I almost felt a bloodlust, which absolutely terrified me, being far from my normal response… but I didn’t stop myself. For some reason, this time, it felt too good.

“Now, come here, mister!” I said with about as much self-control as I could muster. I really just wanted to blister his butt and give him a lesson he would never forget. I had the power, and I had won over him. He needed to know that it was my way or the highway. “Now, over my lap…” Unfortunately, I was so focused on his right hand slapping me and my revenge, I didn’t account for his left hand at all.

Significantly less strength, but his left hand landed right across my check with a sickening smack. It was small but surprisingly powerful for such a tiny person in front of me. “No!” he shouted at me again. “I won’ be spanked! I a good boy! No spank! No spank!”

At that point, I lost it. I could see his fear, but no, my blood was boiling, and I was even pissed at myself for not holding Timmy under a more iron thumb. So, determined to do that now, I went in for the first strike and nearly spun Timmy around to position his butt for a pre-spank strike to quell his thoughts of rebellion further, but something happened first.

As I positioned my arm above my head, I felt faint over my entire body.

It was just small at first, but as I leaned Timmy forward for a better angle, I felt this new weakness and feeling of faint even more. As I reached up again to land the first strike against his defiant butt, my mind went fuzzy. I gritted my teeth, and my hand dropped limply to my side. “Oh! My head! I feel so… so…” Everything then went black.

*              *              *

‘My head… my head…’ My eyes fluttered open as my head felt like it was splitting in two. I felt heavy everywhere, my mouth was dry, and I wanted to puke seven times over. I was very confused but as my eyes better adjusted to the light, I realized I was in my room. ‘Wait… wasn’t I downstairs in the kitchen with Timmy about to…? Oh no!’

I realized that I was only seconds away from punishing him in a way that I found totally unacceptable. ‘What’s happening to me? Why was I so… uncontrolled? But… how did I get here?’ My confusion didn’t dissipate as it normally did during some of the mornings I had woken up with a hangover. Things cleared or became obvious during those times when I righted myself with the world. Nauseous or incredibly thirsty, but still clear and able to piece most of what I last remembered before passing out. It was usually pretty weird, but the truth was still there… waiting to be discovered. Today… everything just felt foggy… or even completely blank. As I sat up, though I got my bearing back a little bit. My head cleared a bit more, but with that, I discovered two large problems.

The first was my clothing. I discovered that I was no longer wearing the soft blue blouse and khaki capris that I had dressed myself in this morning. Instead, it was my pajamas, which might not have been so odd, but most concerningly, I had no memory of dressing myself in them. That, however, paled in comparison to when I shifted slightly in my bed and heard a very distinctive crinkle. To my horror and shame, as I slowly lifted my sheets to confirm my terrible suspicions, I knew the truth. I was diapered.

Despite having this very dream hundreds of times before of being diapered like an infant if my condition ever worsened, the only solace I could take in my diapered state was that the diapers at least weren’t babyish themed. No baby blocks or cartoons for me, but it was of little comfort. The waistband just sported the company title and the size and thickness of them. To my chagrin, I already knew without even seeing the thickness label, there were few thicker sizes for adults on the market.

Just as I was about to launch myself out of bed though to change out of this ridiculous garment, my door opened slowly, and Penelope walked in. “Oh good! I thought I heard you wake up. I was so worried when you didn’t wake up. I almost called an ambulance.”

I could feel my pulse immediately quicken. A blackout combined with a diaper and a concerned Penelope likely seemed to only spell disaster. “Worried? You were worried? Why were you so worried?” I didn’t want to know the answer on some level, but Penelope just nodded.

“I figured you might ask me that, but the answer is simple…” She sighed for a moment and then looked directly at me with a piercing gaze that seemed to practically crawl under my skin. “You took more pills, didn’t you?” In a second, I instantly felt like I was being treated like a Little that belonged downstairs, or at least being questioned like one. For a Big, there were far fewer things that could be more nightmare inducing or terrifying than being questioned like that while wearing a diaper.

“Maybe…” I really didn’t want to tell Penelope that I had and give her more fuel to drag me back to Dr. Benson’s like some naughty toddler. I felt I had this whole thing handled… but another part of me knew that I was in diapers for a reason. I didn’t want to know, but I knew the answer would be coming soon.

Penelope sighed. “Well, that ‘maybe’ caused you to pass out after you and Timmy had it out with each other. I was just coming back inside with Harry after I scolded and then gave him a cuddle when I saw you collapse on the ground. I got Mildred to get all the Littles out, Timmy and Harry included, and made an excuse to them that you were still recovering from a rare sickness. I think most of them bought it, but Miss G… you woke up not long after but…” Her eyes and words trailed off. I knew right away she was trying to hide something from me.

Again, I didn’t want to know, but I knew I just had to hear what happened. “Tell me. Please…”

Penelope sighed again but ultimately nodded her head. “Very well… see, you were babbling. Not just a little or slurring your words like you were drunk or recovering from a drug overdose, but full-on babbling like a tiny baby or regressed Little. It wasn’t long before you completely wet yourself on the kitchen floor and then started crying. I turned on the TV really loudly to keep your secret, but I was so scared.”

In a second, I felt like the whole world was collapsing in on me. Babbling? Crying? Wetting my pants? It was all too much to hear, and a deep and gnawing sensation started to take over in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t want this to happen, but as I shifted again on the bed, I knew this was sadly no dream or illusion. I was indeed diapered and had likely done each horrifying task.

“After that, I calmed myself down and then soothed your tears,” Penelope continued. “I brought you back up here wrapped in a towel and cleaned you off. I made sure that Mildred was able to distract all the Littles by reading them a story and then switching on the TV when she let them back down into the living room. A few asked questions and got freaked out a bit when they got scared. Honestly, if I was in their position, I couldn’t very well blame them for something like that. Lots of baggage and all, you know? For all they know, you could have gotten some rare disease from one of the people they had run away from or had been rescued from.”

My mind was buzzing with all the possibilities this opportunity presented me with, but none were any good for my future. I felt it was too much to hope for something to bail me out of all this mess in a second and I cursed the Enilikas pills. I knew they were the root of the problem, but they were my own salvation so far.

It just felt so unfair! I just wanted secrecy and to get better. ‘Was that really so bad?’ I mourned for the fate that seemed to befall my current circumstances, but I knew I had to refocus and ensure that everything had been taken care of. If Penelope was telling the truth, I hoped that everything could continue like it had been. It was small, but it was a sliver of hope I desperately clung onto. “Maybe we shouldn’t tell them or the rest of the staff about this? Could be a problem…”

To my surprise and relief though, Penelope nodded. “I agree. It won’t be easy, but the Littles have enough on their plate, and if your blackout was only temporary, I don’t think there’s a reason to alert anyone else for now. For all we know, all this could be gone or significantly less next week with the proper use of Enilikas.”

I breathed a sigh of relief… for about two seconds. “Wait!” There was one part of this cover-up plan that seemed to be missing, and I knew with a single slip-up, it could undo everything. “What about Jonathan, Mildred, Timmy, or Harry? I think they have to know. I mean… how can’t they? They saw me, right?”

Penelope shook her head. “Don’t worry about them. I kept it all in the house and kept everyone tight-lipped through various means. Nothing illegal, but… let’s just say that Santa came early with a few of them, Mildred especially.” Penelope sighed. “Besides, if the Littles at least do tell anyone, they’re mentally fragile and young enough at this point that I doubt they even know what they were seeing. Even if they discover any of the evidence from earlier, I doubt they’ll truly know what to make of it other than that you were sick.” She then smirked. “Besides, even if they do find out or know something, who is going to believe or even trust a Little when they talk about what happened?”

I nodded with relief over her logic. Mildred could still be a problem, but I felt some relief. Everything felt fine and I breathed a contented sigh as I tried to fathom the notion that I was actually wearing a diaper currently. Oddly, it didn’t feel bad… just soft and warm… comforting even.

It wasn’t long though before I saw a grave look come over Penelope’s face. Having seen it for years, I knew it had to be something bad. “What? What is it?” Penelope was about to speak but I quickly stopped her to cover my bases. “And don’t try and lie to me, okay?”

Penelope sighed and then nodded. “Very well. It’s just that… well, some of the staff and the Littles… they’re getting nervous… about a few things around here now.”

I tried to search the deepest parts of my mind for what she was alluding to, but I just couldn’t make heads or tails of it. “I don’t understand. If you assured or bribed them about today, then why are they getting nervous? Has something else gone wrong?”

For a moment, to my surprise, Penelope almost seemed annoyed at my question. “Miss G… they might not know the full story, but they know something is going on with you. Even before today, you’re just… you’re not there anyone… or at least not like you used to be.” She briefly walked away from my bed and then walked back seemingly with a firmer resolve to lay out the problems. “Before, you were firm but caring, smart but emotional. It shined in your work here with the Littles and as the boss to your staff. So, while you might have gotten better in some respects and have connected better to the Littles more than ever before, you’re just not the same. You…” she groaned and kicked the air around her. “Oh, I don’t know how to even say it!”

I could tell that Penelope was trying to get at something, but I wasn’t seeing it. “I’m sorry… I just… I don’t understand… Is there something else you’re not telling me?”

Penelope walked around the room again and I could practically feel the tension radiating off her body. When she returned, she looked at me with a pained and worried expression. “Miss G… we got a letter from the inspector’s office. We’re going to have an inspection in the next few months of our safehouse here. The Littles… the staff… with you, well… they think they’re going to shut down Safehouse 81…” I nearly wanted to puke on the spot.

“What? They can’t do that!” It was one thing for me to be a problem, but I just couldn’t imagine the whole house being shuttered over the direction of my own life lately. They towed a party line, and that was logical to an extent, but for cases like ours with everything that had happened here recently, it just felt so unfair. Still, rules were rules, and I knew that if I wanted to save the safehouse, I knew I was going to have to work hard in the next few weeks to get everything back up to their standards.

Already dreading the future now and thinking ahead, I knew several Littles under my roof might never leave. For perspective, even now, Timmy was a prime example of one who would have to be labeled as a ‘problematic Little’ if he was put into the main system now. I knew I couldn’t blame him for how he was, that was the fault of the testers in the facility he was rescued from, but I also knew that others would and that only led to one outcome for a Little. If Safehouse 81 closed, he would likely have nowhere decent to go. There were other places in the city he could try, but I knew that in all likelihood, in a week, he could be dead or taken in and forcibly regressed to a newborn level to be more ‘compliant.’ For the others, problematic but less so, even they would likely be institutionalized or homeless, starving, and reeking of old diapers. It was a pitiful experience and one I knew I had to prevent at all costs. For now, though, it was just too much for my stressed-out mind to handle. Blackout, diapers, and possible eviction were all overwhelming my sense of self and stability.

“Shhh, shhh,” Penelope said as she tried her best to comfort me as she sat on my bed. “It’s okay. We won’t let that happen, right?” I had my doubts but leaning on her quick display of strength by my side, I nodded my head in a resolution to try and keep this place open… no matter what. The first step though was to figure out what would happen next with my own affairs. My old self could have righted the ship in days, but currently… I had my doubts already. Something had to be done.

So, a few minutes later of preciously needed comfort later, I spoke first. “I think…” I sighed, not believing I was even considering this idea in the first place. “I think… I need to go back to Dr. Benson’s.”

Penelope smiled and scooted closer to me on the bed. Without warning, she then gave me a huge hug and even began to rub my back. In an oddly calming way, I instantly felt that everything was going to be okay. “I’m so glad to hear you say that,” she said with a clear sign of relief in her voice. “It shows a lot of maturity and strength of character.” Now, it was her turn to pause and probe my own hesitations. “But you’re worried about something more, right?”

I didn’t want to admit it to my friend and employee, but I knew after everything she had helped me with, she deserved the truth. So, I quickly nodded and felt ashamed and utterly terrified for not knowing the answer ahead of time. “I just… I’m scared of where all this is headed. I want to know, but I just don’t think I’ll ever get a full answer until something bad happens to me.”

Penelope sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time and then took my hand firmly. “Miss G… I’m sure your blackout was downright terrifying, but I just couldn’t fathom if something like that happened to you in public. What would the media say? I mean, what would the whole world say if they found out?”

“Buh… buh…” I couldn’t find my words. “But the bad people will take me away if I go back!” I wasn’t sure why I was suddenly so afraid and why my words seemed to come out all slurred-like, but my inner fear was still genuine. After all, even just earlier today, I had watched the PSA on Bigs with Little-like symptoms which had caused me to take more Enilikas in the first place. Considering everything, I felt I was caught in the middle of protecting myself and seeking treatment from the doctor.

Penelope, seemingly at a loss for words, just pulled me into another tight and warm hug. This one was longer and seemed truly more genuine rather than a single check mark on a list of ways to comfort people. This time, I didn’t fight my feelings and leaned fully back into her. I wasn’t sure why, but right then, that hug felt like the most precious thing in the whole world to me. “It’s okay, Miss G. We’ve got this. Just you and me against whatever the heck you were dosed with that night.”

It was a gratifying relief to hear those words. All at once, I no longer felt that I was battling whatever this was alone. She had helped me previously, but now, I felt I genuinely had someone on my side to quite literally hold my hand if it came to that. During that time, however, despite her hug and genuine words that seemingly touched my soul in an indescribable way, I still felt I was missing something else… something more that could comfort me in that moment.

Looking across the man-made lake outside my window in the near distance, I saw what was happening there and I knew I shouldn’t, but I just couldn’t help but see the Littles couple with their caregivers. Even from this distance, I knew that each was happy and without a care in the word. Curiously, most of the Littles were with a Big as well and sported a stuffy of their own. It seemed perfectly natural, but that wasn’t the part the truly thrilled me and then made me frightened.

The part that chilled me to my bones, despite the hug, was that now, I felt a sudden urge to go over and hug one of my pillows. In that moment, I wanted a stuffy of my own. Terrified of these strange new thoughts, I barreled back into Penelope’s hug and closed my eyes. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I just hoped that if I hugged her for long enough, those scary thoughts would go away.

[Guilend]

Omg I love it. Also, I'm glad you got your sleep. 

I'm actually happy that Miss G didn't spank that Little. While I wouldn't have enjoyed seeing her get spanked, I wouldn't like the fact that Penelope would have had to report it and things would've gotten bad for Miss G and the safehouse would be shut down.

[Guilend]

I'm both curious and scared of what the doctor will say once he finds out she basically was overdosing on her medication. It won't look good for her at all. Eventually Mildred is going to have to be informed about what's going on just so she can effectively run interference with the Littles.

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone!

I will likely be too busy this weekend to post another chapter, so the next chapter will likely not post until Monday at the earliest by now.

Also, I just got some great news, and if it all clicks into place, some of the negatives from last month might soon be erased or at least mostly fixed. Looking ahead though, with this news, my time might be more limited on certain days unexpectedly. I’m hoping to work around this and write a lot on my upcoming trip away and break, but as a warning, future chapters may come out a lot slower. Right now, I’m just not sure, but I figured you all at least had that right to know.  

Next, as a reminder, I have posted a link to an informal poll back in chapter two, along with my next story options. It is completely anonymous and is limited to one vote per IP address I believe. Right now, it’s really just a test of a new voting system, but so far, I think it’s working out well. As usual, I will be posting the results and announcement of my next story during the final chapter of this one. Until then, though, feel free to vote or message me personally if you feel more comfortable doing that. Another poll might be utilized during the last chapter to get your all’s thoughts on this new voting system, but I will let you know at that point about it.

Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys the next chapter of this story!

Chapter 4: A Unique Solution to a Rare Problem

Sitting in the car once again going back to the doctor the next morning, everything felt very much the same, but very different now as well. The first time I had gone, I had left my appointment in a huff. The second time I had been given Enilikas and a sense of hope I hadn’t had since the tattooed man had injected me. Now, though, I was coming back because I had taken too much of the medication, blacked out, and wet my pants and babbled and cried like a baby. Even now, I didn’t want to risk anything, and I wore an extra-sized, in thickness level, disposable pad in my underwear that was mostly used for older women Bigs who needed a ‘little extra help’ in their twilight years.

Truthfully, Penelope tried to convince me to wear another diaper as I removed the old one that she had put me in overnight yesterday, but feeling the bulk and worried about the full surrendering to the worrisome feelings I had earlier with her just wasn’t appealing. Going to the doctor again was already a big step for me. So, as I exited the vehicle to Dr. Benson’s office building for the third time, I knew I needed to be here like I had discussed with Penelope, but my concern over my condition and equal part embarrassment were also powerful motivators to just leave.

Anticipating this though, I had asked for Penelope to actually join me through the whole appointment this time. The nurse at the front desk was a little confused and then even seemed concerned with the request initially, but after showing a strange look after looking over my shoulder at Penelope, she readily approved it. I thought I saw her make a face of judgement or condescension after that, but not wanting to start anything, I just let it go and went to the back room once more.

“So, I hear there may have been some problems lately?” Dr. Benson asked casually as he entered the room and then sat down on his stool while I once again sat on top of the protected exam table. For her part, for now at least, Penelope sat quietly in the corner. I couldn’t see her, but strangely, her presence alone seemed to ease my nerves as compared to the last time I was here.

Nodding at his question, though, I could also feel a sense of unease in my chest. Eventually, I was certain that he would need to hear about the fact that I had taken more than was originally prescribed to me. “I… I blacked out…” With the looming knowledge of my ‘overdose,’ I felt more timid than I had in years. ‘What is happening to me?’

“I see…” Dr. Benson was straightforward and showed little to no emotion to my plight. In retrospect, he was probably testing me in some way, but in that moment, I was uncharacteristically and suddenly enraged that he would be so cavalier with my condition.

“You see?” I felt a rage nearly begin to foam at my mouth. I was normally a calm person, but lately, all my emotions had felt so raw and uncontrollable. “That’s all you have to say?”

Dr. Benson sighed and scooted his stool closer to me. “Miss Glifford, please. You have to understand that…”

“No!” I immediately cut him off. I could hear an excuse coming from a mile away. “I want you to fix me, darn it! I blacked out in front of a Little! What if that happened in front of my supervisor in the government or while I was driving or when I was out in public? I could lose my job or be taken away as some sideshow freak of the Bigs! Or something even worse!”

I’m not sure why, but I felt like I needed to drive my point home to the doctor even more than before. His neutral expression only seemed to piss me off more, so I felt if my words weren’t working, actions would instead. In seconds, I stood up and stared defiantly back at Dr. Benson. “Fine! You won’t do something about all that, then what about this?” I’m not sure why I needed to, but right then, I felt a burning desire to show proof of my issues. So, without a second thought, I unbuttoned my pants and dropped them to my ankles.

The old lady pad, as I had dubbed it, was actually pretty large and even through my tan full-cut panties, it was very obvious. Dr. Benson only looked at them casually and then looked back up at me. “Miss Glifford… Tiffany… please pull up your pants and sit back down. I understand you’re upset, and I see what you’re going through, but we need to talk with calmer heads. Do you think you can do that for me?”

‘Do you think you can do that for me?’ It was such a simple question, but it snapped me out of my anger. I think that was because if I was any other patient of his, I might have just complied and relinquished any feelings I had about it and simply complied without another thought. For me, caring for Littles as long as I had, it was a phrase I had used hundreds of times when I first was dealing with an unruly Little. I ashamedly hadn’t used the phrase with Timmy the other day, and I regretted that decision bitterly ever since, but hearing that phrase now, I couldn’t help but blush and realize that I was now standing in front of Dr. Benson with my padding exposed to the world. Doctor or not, it felt very unladylike, and more importantly, at least in the way I did it, something no adult would ever do.

So, with about as much dignity after the fact as I could muster, I slowly bent down and gathered my pants up. Once buttoned back up, I sat down and stared back at Dr. Benson with horror at what I had just done. It had all been so spontaneous, it just felt so right at the time, but now… that same concern I had been feeling for a while, started to creep up into the back of my mind.

“Thank you, Miss…” He quickly grimaced. “You know, since we’re probably going to be seeing each other more now, do you mind if I call you Tiffany instead?” I hesitated at first and I think that he could maybe see that. “It’s okay if not, but I like having a more friendly and familiar relationship with most of my patients. I think it cuts down on some of the stress you might feel when coming in here.”

I didn’t need to hear anything further to be convinced. Feeling less stress was always better these days. Even if it felt strange and almost too familiar, I craved feeling less of a burden currently. “Tiffany is fine…”

He smiled broadly back at me. “Perfect.” He adjusted himself on his stool and looked down at the file in his hands. “Now, I know I put you on Enilikas last time, but you just said you blacked out. Is that true?” I didn’t want to admit it again, but I didn’t want to lie, so I just nodded.

“I see…” His eyes squinted for a minute, and I wondered if he already knew what I had done with the pills from that one symptom alone. “You know… Enilikas is designed to combat the effects of almost every regression drug out there on the market, but there can be… side effects for certain individuals… particularly if the original regression drug was powerful and even more so if the pills are…” He quickly sighed. “Shall we say… abused?”

I could already feel his judgment and verdict raining down on me. He knew. I just knew that he knew that I had taken too many, but I just couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud. It turns out my silence was all the confirmation he needed though.

“I see…” He sighed again, this one more of frustration. “Mishandling of the that drug can be a serious problem… particularly with someone who had been exposed to such a high dosage of another regression drug.” Dr. Benson then shut his eyes closed tightly and pinched the bridge of his nose before looking back at me. “You know your situation is very serious, Tiffany, right?”

I figured about as much if the blackout, old lady pad, and apparent babbling were any indications, but I had never heard those exact words from Dr. Benson before. Hearing them know, I couldn’t help but gulp in fear of what that could truly mean for me. “But I didn’t mean to!”

“I know you didn’t, Tiffany, but you need to start taking this whole matter a lot more seriously. It’s not just something you can brush aside,” he warned. “If you abuse this drug, it will lose its potency or even lead to further incidents like this one. In fact, at some point, it could be totally ineffective, or your body could react like it did this time even if you stop taking it. Is that what you want?”

I knew Dr. Benson was just trying to relay the urgency of everything, but to my scrambled mind and delicate emotions, I was just feeling like a little kid again being scolded at for failing to pass the Algebra test. I could even feel myself curling into a tiny ball within myself to get away from his truthful but biting words.

Fear gripped my whole body. Fear and shame that I had abused a drug of any kind in this way. I thought briefly back to what my life had been before Enilikas, and while it wasn’t absolutely terrible, it certainly wasn’t normal. So, if what Dr. Benson was saying was any bit of the truth, my actions could have just made things worse. I’m pretty sure that was my tipping point.

“I… I’m sorry…” I could already feel the tears welling up behind my eyes. My voice was cracking, and the lump was growing larger in the back of my throat. I tried to swallow it and push everything down, being far too embarrassed overreacting like this in front of Dr. Benson, but it only seemed to make everything worse. “Please, please… I’ll do bettah… please give me anothuh chance… please!” At that point, the tears started to flow freely, whether I wanted them to or not.

Dr. Benson only blinked at me at first. “Tifanny… I…”

“Please! Please!” I shot forward and leaned onto the doctor as I grabbed his white lab coat. “I’ll do bettuh! I’ll do bettuh! Jus’ give me anothuh chance! I’ll do anything!”

Dr. Benson seemed completely shocked by everything. In truth, I was as well, but I just couldn’t seem to turn off my emotions right then. I was feeling that same sense of shame I had before and I even started to freak out a little as my tears wet Dr. Benson’s shirt, and even more so when I finally realized that my words weren’t all coming out as they normally would have. In a way, if I had heard my own words, I would have sworn that I was at least tipsy, if not outright drunk.

And at that point, as I boiled in my own shame and anguish, Dr. Benson looked over to the corner of the room. I wondered why, but soon, I could feel myself being lifted backward and someone shushing me as they rubbed my chest in order to try and calm me down. It worked.

My sobs began to fade, and I could feel a calm start to envelop me. So, coming to my senses more, I quickly remembered that Penelope was in the room, and seeing her plainly manicured hand stroke my chest and shoulders, I knew I was being comforted by her. Strangely, that realization that she was the one helping me helped me calm down even more.

Finally, after I was reduced to only a sniveling but calmer mess, Dr. Benson wrote a few notes down and then looked up at me. “Are we feeling better now?” Still shuddering over my most recent outburst, I still held back in Penelope’s arms and nodded silently. “Good. I’m glad to hear that, but I’m also going to take your word that you’ll do anything to fix this.”

I quickly looked at Dr. Benson in horror. My wind whirred with the terrifying possibilities of what he meant by that. Too many horror novels and TV dramas hadn’t exactly given me much faith in doctors with few boundaries.

Dr. Benson only laughed back at first. “No, no. Nothing like that!” He chuckled a little more, and pressed against Penelope, I could tell she let out a little laugh as well. I didn’t help my ego, but it did help my fears lower at least a little bit.

Dr. Benson then regained his composure. “I promise you… it’s all safe, but maybe… just a little different.”

“But does it work, Dr. Benson?” Penelope finally piped up from behind me. “I think I can speak for both of us in saying that we’ll do whatever it takes as long as it works.” I found it odd that this whole thing was now a ‘we’ but hearing the possibility of another fix, I just focused on Dr. Benson for now.

To my relief, he nodded. “Yes. We’ve found that a combination of this treatment and the Enilikas is very potent. As I said, it’s not very traditional, but I’ve seen a number of successes.” He then sighed and put my chart down. “As I said, you aren’t the first to wander down this terrifying path.”

I wanted to have an actual say in everything, so I quickly spoke up before Penelope could… just in case. “Okay, but just tell me what to do. Is it another pill or…?”

Dr. Benson shook his head and wheeled his stool back over to the nearby cabinets and drawers that contained the rest of the medical supplies in the room. As he shuffled through one of the top cabinet drawers, Penelope slowly let me go. At first, I felt a tremendous loss I couldn’t explain, but after about a minute of her gradually tapering off, we had detached from each other, and I was no longer panicking.

“Ah!” Dr. Beson suddenly exclaimed. “Here it is!” I leaned over a bit and saw that Dr. Benson was now furiously scribbling an address onto a piece of paper. A nearby flyer lay on the countertop below him. I couldn’t quiet make it out, but it at least seemed colorful… whatever it was advertising.

Dr. Benson then rolled back and held out the piece of paper. Worrying Penelope was going to try and do something, I snatched it away. When I realized she hadn’t even made an attempt for it though, I blushed in my eagerness and paranoia that she was somehow treating me like a Little. That fear was growing, but now, I just felt ridiculous.

Dr. Benson just seemed to ignore the action though. “Just come here tonight and bring someone you trust absolutely. Do you have someone in mind maybe?”

I thought of all my friends and family, but each of them either lived very far away or seemed to be the gossip queens of Indianapolis. Each would want to know why I was coming to the address now in my hand, or worse, would want to come in with me. Not being sure of what was in this location, I felt there was only one other person I could trust.

I quickly spun around, the paper crinkling underneath me and stared back at Penelope with a wide but hesitant smile. “Penelope?” I couldn’t tell if she was acting or her face was genuine, but she definitely seemed shocked at that moment. “Can you take me tonight?”

Her shocked expression didn’t last long though. In seconds, it turned into a wide and warm smile right back at me. “Of course I will. Do you want me to hang onto the paper so I know where I should be headed?” My paranoia ramped up again, but her offer also just seemed logical. I could have been her navigator in the car, but logic and my inherent trust of her so far, with few indicators to suggest otherwise, let me hand her the paper with the address on it.

With my ride now secured for tonight, I then turned back to a smiling Dr. Benson. “Well then, I guess I’ll see you both tonight.”

We then made a few other arrangements and discussed a few technical aspects of tonight with directions and the like, as well as set up another appointment for three days from now. With all that out of the way though, I made sure I didn’t look like a wreck and followed Penelope out of the door as I was prescribed another bottle of Enilikas. Soon, we were back at the safehouse.

Like before, the day proceeded very much as it usually did. I could feel a sense of unease settle among Mildred, Jackie, and the Littles still with us, but I just brushed it off, took another Enilikas pill, and went on with my day. Penelope promised to keep a close eye on me, and while the reason still flushed my cheeks, I felt a little more guarded with her presence around me.

Still, the day went pretty smoothly, and approving it with Mildred already with the promise of overtime pay, Penelope and I decided to let our two mentally oldest Littles, Jonathan and Becky, in our plan for that night… or at least as much as they needed to know to actually agree to it.

“So… you want us to be babysitters for tonight?” Becky asked, her swings in mental regression becoming a little more predictable and easier to manage. She had gotten stuck in one of those horrible mechanical nurseries for weeks when one of her friends pranked her after a dare between them had gone sour. Too scared for their own selves though, they simply left her, and while she was eventually rescued, her mind had just been on the verge of collapse. Now, with the work we had done with her, if she didn’t give into her urges, she was one of our more mature Littles.

Responding back, I nodded. “That’s right, Becky. Penelope and I need to leave tonight, and Mildred is going to need your two’s help. Do you think you can do that for us?”

Becky was already smiling and nodding her head, but I could tell that Jonathan had some serious doubts of his own. “Jonathan? Is that okay with you?”

“I…” I could see that from his nightly wettings, his confidence was already starting to break down. The FOY in his system likely didn’t help matters, but I knew his days were numbered as one of our more mature Littles unfortunately. “I just don’t know…”

I sighed. “I understand, Jonathan. It’s a big ask and I wouldn’t ask if this wasn’t important.” I hated the fact that Jackie had another engagement tonight and Vivian was still on vacation. At this point, I wasn’t even sure if she was going to return, but with everything so at the last minute, I knew the agency the safehouses fell under couldn’t send another replacement in time. Plus, if we did ask, we would have to lie or explain everything, and Penelope and I agreed that explaining things to them would just be too risky at this point.

“Maybe think about it like this…” Penelope mused. “For both of you… think of this as an opportunity to shake off some of the blues I know you both have about your own conditions.” I could already see from the twinkle in her eyes that she had a plan brewing. “Maybe… you two do well tonight… we might just consider adding more privileges or goodies to your time here.”

Again, Becky was already rapidly nodding, likely thinking of maybe being given to try out the potty once more, but again, Jonathan seemed more hesitant. Still, despite it taking him a few more moments to process everything, he eventually nodded. “Okay, fine. I’ll do it.”

I smiled back at how well this plan was already going. I wasn’t the biggest fan of negotiating with Littles like this, but I also knew that Penelope had just gained something tonight without giving too much away. Being our two mentally oldest Littles, most of the time at least, new privileges were likely coming anyway. This way, everything had just been sped up, and ultimately, considering what we, or I, was getting in return, it just made sense.

So, a final warning to the pair of them not to abuse their authority over the Littles, a ‘good luck’ and a ‘goodnight’ to everyone later, and Penelope and I left the safehouse once more. With the address from the paper already loaded into the GPS, we took off to an unknown event tonight. The whole way there, my fingers remained eternally crossed in the hope for our own good luck tonight.

Finally, making it to the address, at first, Penelope and I were confused and wondered if everything for tonight had been a trap of some kind. The building was just like any other plain brick building of the surrounding area and even looked more like a warehouse of sorts. Only the cars already parked here, the noises only faintly coming through the walls, and the seemingly bouncer figure in front of the door said otherwise.

Gathering up our nerves, Penelope and I approached. “Stop right there,” the beefy security guard all in black commanded to us. His voice seemed to boom through my eardrums, and I could see plainly that he wasn’t the sort of person one would want to cross. “Referral and password.”

It was so plain that if we hadn’t been told beforehand, Penelope and I would have been confused and maybe even frightened of his curtness. Being warned by Dr. Benson of this though, I sighed and remembered what he told us to say. “Youth is quick in feeling but weak in judgement.”

At first, I thought he wouldn’t allow us in, as he just stood there for a moment, but I then saw his hand go up to his ear and back down. “Very well. You are approved. Please, go inside now.” Penelope and I nodded and went in together.

As we entered, another Big was there and held his hand up to us. “Ladies. Please hand me all your phones, electronic devices, or any recording devices you may have on you. I will store them, and you may access them at the end of the night. We also suggest you keep any of your valuables, such as purses, wallets, or jewelry out here as well, but this is up to you.”

The request quickly sent a tingle of fear up my back. I had done that before when I was younger in college when I went to the local clubs, all security reasons of the various members inside, but my mind was telling me different things as well. I felt this was supposed to help my symptoms… not be a place that needed to be concerned with security measures like these. Still, I was desperate, so Penelope and I quickly gave up what he requested and went through a scanner through a pair of black-out curtains. On the other side though, my jaw nearly fell to the floor.

In front of me, I saw six interconnected but separate rooms. The first seemed to be a changing room of sorts with changing tables and curtained stalls to one side. The second was full of cribs and seemed to be the darkest and most serene of the lot. Next seemed to be an exercise area of sorts where balls, jump ropes, and even swings and a jungle gym were. The fourth was clearly meant for arts and crafts with the flurry of glitter and almost snowstorm of paper that was being tossed about in there. The fifth and next closest room contained just a stage and several crates full of what I could only surmise were costumes. Then lastly, in the center of it all was the sixth room and appeared to be a lounge of sorts that the main entrance neatly dumped into.

If this was a daycare of sorts, I would have felt right at home with all the Littles or actual babies or toddlers running or crawling about. Everything smelled like lavender, disinfectant and baby powder, so just from that alone, I felt I was returning home, but that wasn’t what stopped me in my tracks or dropped my jaw. Looking all around I saw the figures weren’t Littles or actual babies or toddlers, but Bigs.

They weren’t just Bigs though… each was brightly dressed in all manner of babyish and toddler clothing. My eyes nearly popping out of their sockets, it took only seconds to connect the thick bulges around their waists to the changing table I had seen in the first room to my left. Every Big here was diapered it seemed like. As if to punctuate that, I then felt a tug to my left. I looked down.  

Bearded and buff but wearing only a romper and his own obvious diaper underneath, a Big was crawling at my feet and now pulling at my pants. “Miss! Miss! You da newbee?”

I was too stunned to speak, and I guess Penelope was too. It didn’t seem to matter though. “Dat’s okay! We all new! If you awe her dough… can you be my fwiend?”

Before I could even begin to stutter, another figure came over. “Colin!” The diapered Big before me shrank down even closer to the floor and now sported a saddened lower lip. The other Big walked closer and began to point and scold Colin as he bent over slightly for a bigger impact on him. “You know not to bombard our new guests like that. Do you need a minute on the timeout stool?”

“No! No!” Colin said, shaking his head nearly violently back and forth. “I’ll be good! I’ll be good!”

The other Big smiled and patted him on the head. “That’s what I thought. Now, run along and go find your other friends to play with.” Seeming terrified of any ‘timeout stool,’ Colin rushed away as fast as he could while still only subject to the speed of his crawling.

Standing back up from his scolding of Colin, the other Big looked right at me. “Good evening, ladies. My name is Wilbur and I’m the caretaker of this place. Welcome… to Adulescens!” He then reached over to a nearby shelf and pulled out a few items and presented them to us with a wide smile. “Care for a complementary sippy cup of juice or a snack perhaps?”

Penelope remained unusually quiet… almost like she already knew about this place or at least wasn’t as shocked to see it as I was. Still, I finally manage to find my wording. “N… no… definitely not. I… I mean… wh… what is this p… place?”

Wilbur’s smile and near majestic introduction to this place dimmed immediately and he quickly set the sippy cup and snack back on its original shelf to the side. “Oh… you don’t know?” I quickly shook my head. “Oh… you must be one of the true newbies here.” He shook his head and popped his smile back on. “No worries! If you two will just follow me, I’m sure everything will be explained right quick!”

Not sure what to make of any of what I was seeing, I meekly followed Wilbur to the central lounge of the hope and spoke designed building. Once inside, it didn’t take me long to distinguish this space from the other rooms.

While each of the surrounding five rooms was almost solely occupied by at least a dozen or so Bigs in total, the central area was pleasantly decorated but still maintained a sense of authority and an almost underground poker room vibe instead. Most strikingly though, sitting around the couches or the table off to one side, each Big was clearly still a Big… not some diaper-wearing oddity.

Getting closer, it didn’t take me long to spot Dr. Benson, especially when Wilbur tapped him on the shoulder. “Doctor? I’m sorry to bother you, but it seems your patient has arrived…”

Dr. Benson’s eyes widened, and he immediately stood up and began scanning around. Finding me, he smiled and ran over to me. “Tiffany! Penelope! You made it!”

I was expecting an apology and not just some warm greeting like we were seeing each other again for the first time in years like at a class reunion. My emotions swinging wildly, I clocked in back from shock to anger. “You made it? Is that all you have to say for yourself? No explanations? Just almost some form of just a ‘hey?’ in this type of place?”

The smile on Dr. Benson’s face vanished, but he still maintained a sense of authority I couldn’t quite place. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Tiffany, but if I could just explain, I’m sure that you’ll…”

“Stuff it, doc!” Everyone stopped what they were doing, gasped, and turned to us. I felt I was in the wrong, but my emotions felt locked in place and unstoppable. “I want some damn answers you bastard!” Everyone gasped again, and this time, I saw a few of the nearby diapered Bigs look at me in terror.

Dr. Benson breathed in heavily but seemed to still maintain his outward demeanor. “Now, Tiffany. In here, we do not cur…”

“No!” I just didn’t want to hear what he had to say at this point. I had come here for a cure, or at least some medication or other therapy… not to be the very thing I was trying to avoid. I was making assumptions of course, and I will admit a fault to that, but seeing all these Bigs parading around in onesies and thick diapers just made me want to flee or fight as fast as I could. “I’m not a baby and I won’t have you treating me like one! No, no, no! Damn it, I won’t! You can take this piece of crap place and shove it!”

Everyone gasped again and I could feel a hand on my shoulder trying to pull me back, clearly Penelope trying to deescalate the situation as fast as she could. For Dr. Benson, he stepped closer to me, and with a disapproving glare, stepped closer to me. Before he could speak though, Wilbur rushed to his side. “Sir… sorry, sir, but we have rules here and language like that is not approved of. If you won’t do anything about it, I might suggest that someone else take charge of her pun…”

But Dr. Benson quickly put his hand up. “No,” he said sternly. “I’ll take care of this, Wilbur. You can reassure everyone else I will handle this.” He then took another step closer to me and glared down at my resolute but slightly shrinking form under his new gaze. “Outside. Now.”

It wasn’t a question, and in that singular moment, I realized I had screwed up in a big way. I still felt justified in my shock over seeing this place initially, but I knew I shouldn’t have made a scene like that and cursed in front of everyone. So, not wanting to cause more of a scene, I turned around and quickly exited.

Out in the parking lot, while Penelope stayed inside to collect our things quickly if needed, I stopped, and Dr. Benson glared at me. Before I could start making excuses though, Dr. Benson angrily spoke first. “That was totally unacceptable, Tiffany. You do not get to come here and mouth off like that, do you understand me?”

I felt like a naughty child right then, and I couldn’t help but wilt a bit and nod quickly. “Good. First, I want you to take a breath and hear me out. Can you do that much for me at least right now?” His doctorly and commanding, rather than purely displeased, voice was returning. So, taking a breath, I nodded.

“Good. Now, just listen.” He took a breath and continued. “Enilikas works wonders, but for a case like yours, and the others here, your younger side will lash out in times of stress and may take over completely. This could be against your will even, but here, you can unleash that inner stress and your unconscious need to enter a regressed state. It’s not perfect, but it’s worked so far with the rest of the Bigs in there.”

“But they’re so weird!” I couldn’t get the image of grown men and women crawling around in diapers out of my head. When Littles first came to our world when the portal opened, we got a lot of adults that wanted the Little lifestyle. For some, it was more than they bargained for, but most became the ideal adoptees to wanting Bigs. Everyone just felt that wanting to be a Little, or a baby, came naturally to their kind and our own native Littles, but all this… it felt in complete contrast to that notion, and it was freaking me out.

“To some, maybe… but we have all walks of life who come here. By now, in this city alone, we have almost 50 members. We even have a judge now, but this place…” He pointed back to the building we had just come out of. “Adulescens is a place they can go to feel safe and unwind. If you go back in, it can save who you are, but you need to leave all your anger and judgement out here. Is that something you can do?”

I wanted to give anything a try, but any way that I cut this whole thing, just felt like too much. I tried to find a way I could say that I would be okay with it, but I failed over and over again. “I… I don’t think I can do that…”

Dr. Benson sighed and looked at the ground briefly. “Well then… it seems we have a problem here.” He scratched the back of his head and continued. “The way I see this… you have two choices going forward and two choices only.”

Not seeing them clearly, I wanted to hear them out loud. “And those are?”

Dr. Benson held up one finger. “First option… you take the Enilikas and come back inside. Maybe not tonight, but you come back in and save your adult self when you’re not here. Do it now and things should go back to normal, or at least as normal as they could be not counting your still-present PTSD from that night.”

Given what I had just seen and the measures I would have to take in order to do what Dr. Benson wanted, I just wasn’t sure anymore. “And the second option?”

Dr. Benson groaned, almost like it pained him to even say it out loud. “Well, your second option is that I cut you off from your medicine. Whatever Enilikas you have, will be it. It’s harsh and unfair maybe, but this place with the drug you were injected with would make the Enilikas practically a waste at some point. So, you go with this option, at some point, you will run out. Keep the meds you have and then you can see where this whole thing goes with your symptoms.”

I could quickly tell that he didn’t want me to choose the second option, but I could also see the resolve in his eyes that he wasn’t going to back down from these choices. I would either have to embrace this babyish treatment for a single night here, or

Dr. Benson sighed with regret. “Look, I want you to choose the first option. I really do think it’s what’s best, but I can already see your face. You would probably rather anything else, so you’re probably going with option two, right?” I hesitated, but I still nodded eventually. “Yeah… that’s what I figured, so I can at least leave you with this hope if nothing else… just so you don’t think I’m leaving you to rot.”

I felt a sense of hope buried behind all his worry and I wanted to know more. “What? What is it?” I felt desperate for anything else… just as he said.

“Well, to be completely open and honest with you, there are a few case studies with people like you that go cold turkey with the Enilikas.” I knew he wanted to keep this a secret from me as much as possible, so for him to tell it to me, actually meant a lot right then. “The studies suggest that cutting a body off from it might dissipate symptoms eventually. It’s tough and notably embarrassing or even messy at times, but it could be a fix. So, the choice is up to you and the second option could work. Doubtful, but possible…”

Right then, Penelope exited Adulescens and stared at us both out here with worry. “Is everything okay out here? I was getting a little worried…”

Dr. Benson looked at me with a worried determination… like trying to hold out hope that somehow, I would return to him. I could see that hope fade though and being as smart and as good with his patients as he seemed to be, he probably already knew my decision before even I did.

“Everything is fine, Penelope,” I finally said. “We were just leaving.” I could practically see the hope and the life drain from Dr. Benson’s face. He knew which choice I would make, and it would be easy money to bet he believe it was all going to go wrong for me.

“I’m sorry, doc,” I said, feeling the need to at least apologize to him at this point. “I don’t doubt you, but in there… in there, I feel like I would be surrendering to whatever this is. My second option might be worse, but if there’s a chance that I can break out of this whole mess… I have to take it, right?”

Dr. Benson shrugged his shoulders. “I honestly don’t know, but I have to say that I’m a little disappointed.” He shook his head and then stood back up as straight as he could. “Still, I want to wish you luck out there, okay?” I nodded and we both shook hands before he went back to the front door by the bouncer.

“Help her… please,” was all he said to Penelope before turning back to me. “Just in case you need it though, you know where we are, and understand tonight that our door will always be open to you.” He nodded again to both of us and then disappeared back inside.

Penelope, bewildered by what just happened, marched over to me. “What the heck was that? What chance? What is your second option? What happened, Miss G?”

I sighed and shook my head. “We’re not coming back here. That’s what. Just…” I wanted to explain everything to her, and I would, knowing I would need her help, but for now, I just wanted to leave and go to sleep. “Just… drive us out of here and let’s get back home…”

Penelope nodded silently but with a noted look of concern and we both got in her car and drove away. Seeing a distant storm forming, I sighed and reflected back on what had just happened. I hoped more than I think I ever had in my life that I had made the right decision. As we hit a bump in the road, I could feel my old lady pad crinkle slightly and I knew that only time could ever answer that question.

[Guilend]

She really needed to be punished for how she acted at that place. Even if she left, she should've done it with a red bottom.

At this point Penelope will probably take on more of an authority role with her. I'm sure she'll be wearing diapers to bed from now on.

I bet she'll start peeing herself on purpose before long just because she has that pad in her panties and she'll decide it's better then stopping to use the potty.

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the lateness of this posting tonight. With the good news and possible delays that I had noted before, I wanted to do a test and see if I could still write and edit in the way I had been since I started here. I think my answer is a ‘yes,’ but also a ‘try to write other times as well so it’s not so late’ as well. Regardless, all that is for a later date to discuss.

Next, as a reminder, I have posted a link to an informal poll back in chapter two, along with my next story options. It is completely anonymous and is limited to one vote per IP address I believe. Right now, it’s really just a test of a new voting system, but so far, I think it’s working out well. As usual, I will be posting the results and announcement of my next story during the final chapter of this one. Until then, though, feel free to vote or message me personally if you feel more comfortable doing that. Another poll might be utilized during the last chapter to get your all’s thoughts on this new voting system, but I will let you know at that point about it.

Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys the next chapter of this story!

Chapter 5: Old Reminders

I had never smoked cigarettes in my life, but my mom did, and I saw her go through a withdrawal from them when she quit when I was in high school. It seemed both painful and irritating all the time, and it was one of the reasons I had never even been tempted to pick one up in my whole life. Despite having the medication now to curb most of the withdrawal symptoms or completely cure any nicotine addiction, I didn’t want to take that risk and go through the same ordeal. Now, though, despite what I had tried my whole adult life to avoid, I was going through my own withdrawal.

At first, it just felt like a little fog creeping into my life. Here and there things seemed blurry, out of focus, or like I was looking at the world through a thick fog, both mentally and physically. I felt slow and bloated in everything I did, and if it wasn’t for Penelope, I’m definitely sure the safehouse would have fallen into disrepair or something bad would have happened on my watch otherwise.

Trusting Penelope more and more completely lately, I left her downstairs to take over whenever I felt another fog coming on. I slowly began to taper off the medication after Dr. Benson had cut me off, and it was terrible and full of lapses in my temporary regression, but I also knew there was a time coming soon when I would either be completely out of the medication or go back to Adulescens.

It wasn’t that it was a terrible place or that I had a bad time there… or at least would have if I had stayed. Now, I can admit that there was even an appeal to my adult sensibilities as well. I would never admit something like that out loud, but Adulescens felt very much like a tiny break from being an adult in our fast-paced world. On the surface, I don’t think I knew an adult alive who could claim that was a bad thing. The diapers, bottles, onesies, and just the whole place though once you saw inside though… that was something else entirely. So, vowing not to go back, I eased up on my dosage of the Enilikas pills.

Tapering off, I hit a few roadblocks on my journey to get free of the medication while also not mentally regressing like I used to. Unfortunately, during that journey, there were several times where I feared everything, even in my own room. I had to order a nightlight online and I hugged my pillows constantly in lieu of a stuffed animal, something I had been craving for at least two solid weeks now. From all that and more, I felt shame like nothing else in my life. Plus, I knew that at some point, someone would question why the upstairs potty was flushing so much recently and I fully dreaded when that day would come.

Still, after a week, to my relief, the fogginess seemed to fade. My heart leapt within my chest, and ashamedly, like some toddler celebrating their victory after finally making it to the potty, I ran to Penelope and told her the good news. “I did it! I did it! I made it a week and I can already feel the fogginess go away! I’m cured! I’m cured!” I didn’t care how close my joy seemed to toddler-like in that moment.

Penelope only grinned widely and gave me a massive hug. When we separated after a moment, though, I could sense a hesitation in her as well that I found extremely unsettling. “That’s great, Miss G. That must feel so good…”

I knew Penelope well enough by now that seeing her hesitation, I knew she had something else on her mind. Morbidly curious, I probed further. “But what?” Penelope looked at me questioningly for a moment. “Don’t look at me like that. This is good news for me, Pen, but I’ve seen the face you’re making right now… there’s something else on your mind other than ‘congratulations,’ so spill.”

“Right, right… you’re right.” Penelope sighed but nodded her head. “Look, I just… don’t be so quick to celebrate all this right now, okay? It’s just been a week and that drug you got injected with is really tricky.” She paused briefly and seemed pained to have this conversation. No doubt, my face and happiness probably instantly showed that she had ‘popped my little balloon of happiness’ already.

“Just take it easy for me, okay?” I could see her inner joy for me still, but I also plainly saw her concern and caring for my well-being as well. She wasn’t being cruel to me on purpose by a longshot and I think we both knew that, so everything was still okay between the two of us. “Just another week of this, okay Miss G?”

Having been cooped up in the safehouse for the past week, only feet away from a bathroom on any level or carrying around a tiny stuffed animal that I had found in a fast-food meal the other week, I wanted to leave. Still though, I trusted Penelope completely by now and her advice was well-warranted if not a little frustrating. “Fine… one week.”

So, one week later, I started to leave the safehouse with my gratefully still-clear mind. I felt the fear that I had been for a while, but everything else felt pretty much normal. I even went shopping at the mall and in some of the shops downtown like I always used to do. It was great, and the following Friday, I even bumped into Molly, Willy’s new caregiver, who invited me over to lunch the next day at her house.

Her and her husband, Kent, were both Bigs, cops, and the new caregivers of Willy, the same Little whom the tattooed man had been looking for. Since that night though, most of the crew had been killed, or at least arrested, So I knew that Willy was safe and happy now. Of course, one or two members of the crime organization still were awaiting trial due to ‘extraneous circumstances,’ but I mostly just put them out of my mind completely.

“Please just be careful,” Penelope warned me the next day for what felt like the sixteenth time since I had woken up this morning already. She had a good heart, and I knew she was coming from a place of caring, but I was starting to feel stifled from all that care.

“I’ll be okay, Penelope,” I said confidently. “It’s just lunch.”

Penelope sighed. “Yes, maybe it’s just lunch, but don’t forget… you really haven’t seen Willy since that night. I just don’t want to see him be an emotional trigger or…”

“No, no,” I told my friend abruptly while holding my hand up for emphasis. “I’m not some wilting flower that will faint at the first sign of Willy Galpin… Donovan?” I wasn’t sure if he had taken Molly and Kent’s last name yet. “Regardless! I’ll be fine, okay?” Penelope sighed, but probably seeing she wasn’t going to change my mind, waved me off.

Driving over, I slightly cursed Penelope for her concerns. I knew they were genuine, and she was just worried about me, but inadvertently, she had also placed a little bug in my ear of doubt. Doubt that this was a terrible idea and that everything was going to go wrong as soon as I saw Willy again. Before I could change my mind though and go back home, the short drive over was already over, and I knew I either needed to look like a fool and speed away or I should just get out of my car. Sighing deeply, I elected to simply get out.

“Miss G!” Molly was already outside her front door and greeting me with a warm smile and a giant hug. After Willy’s original adoptive Big parents had died or were incarcerated now and had given up their legal rights to him, Molly had sought me out to get my advice on Willy. Apparently, he talked about me a lot in the early days as someone he admired or was at least concerned about. “I’m so glad you’ve made it! Willy’s been so excited since I told him you were coming over for lunch today. He even made sure to clean up his toys all around the house. I swear he takes orders from his elephant stuffy. Littles, right?”

Oddly, I had noticed the same, but I was just glad that one of us was excited about today. My old lady pad was still situated in my panties and its slight rustle as I stepped onto their front porch was a reminder of what had happened the last time we had seen each other. I wanted to be happy, but reminders like that made that task more difficult than I would have liked. “Me too… can’t wait to see him again.”

I tried to mask my concern as well as I could, but I could see that Molly likely saw something of it in me regardless. She was a cop, and her instincts had always struck me as some of the sharpest I had ever seen. Still, she also had the decency to leave my worries alone and only gestured for me to come inside.

After two promotions for both her and Kent, they had upgraded their living space to a nice and quaint house just on the edge of town where the main area of suburban life started. Their commutes were longer now, but neither minded their new lives from what Molly had told me yesterday, and Willy absolutely adored the small playground only about two blocks away from here.

“I love what you’ve done with the place!” I said cheerfully, remembering my manners of entering someone’s house for the first time. It was still a little bare in places, the consequences of upgrading from a townhome to a house, but it was still airy and pleasant. Further, as opposed to my far more cluttered house, only a few baby toys littered the floor. Still, I knew that a Little was living here after hearing the various tweets, slaps, and laughter from a cartoon show playing in the other room.

“Thank you!” Molly quickly replied back. “Kent and I have been working every second we can when we’re not at work or looking after Willy on sprucing this place up.” She looked around briefly and even slid her hand down some of the clearly new molding around the door frame. “Still have some work to be done, but we’re hoping to have everything completed before Willy’s next birthday. Gives us a while still…”

“Oh, I’m sure it will be even more lovely then.” The cartoon show blared from the other room and briefly distracted me. “I’m sure Willy will just love having his party here.”

“Yeah,” Molly then flashed a smile on her face. “But you know… now that I think about it, how about you come as well? With as much as Willy wants to see you today… it just seems right.”

I had only known Willy for a few days before he was taken, but I guess I had made some sort of impression on him. If I had to take a guess, removing my own ego from the picture entirely, I knew that most Littles clung onto me so quickly in the past because of the stark contrast to the places where they had just come from. Willy, being the adoptive Little of two distant Bigs and then narrowly escaping a massive shootout, was only bound to like me and the safehouse more.

“I’d love to come. Just send me a card or something in the mail when it gets closer,” I requested. “I love collecting all the little invitations of Littles who stay with me and then find new families. Gives everyone a real sense of accomplishment in the safehouse, but also… whenever the new Littles see all the cards in my back office, I think it gives them a tiny ray of hope, you know?”

“Definitely.” I could see a sad look cross Molly’s face, and I wondered if it was more from knowing where Willy had come from and the further complications even after the assault on the safehouse that night, or if it was simply from her own experience as a cop. Indianapolis wasn’t necessarily crime-infested, but with Littles… I’m sure she had seen her fair share of bad moments with them as well.

Once again, the cartoon show’s noises from another part of the house cackled over to us. I briefly looked in that direction and I think Molly saw. “Hey… you wanna go see him now?”

Her question was so simple, but I couldn’t help but hear a little playful tone as well. Her announcing that course of action almost felt like she was asking if I wanted to go see my grand prize or the either wonder of the world. It was curious, but I knew I only had one answer, despite my reservations before. “Absolutely. You lead the way.” Molly nodded and led me down a hallway and into a semi-large room.

As opposed to the rest of the barer and emptier house, that was at least mostly devoid of signs that a Little stayed there, this room was anything but. Colorful pictures and posters decorated the walls up top and below each was either a storage bin filled to the brim with crafting supplies or a small bookshelf full of thick and simplistic books, perfect for someone like Willy. Scanning the room further, a myriad of toys was strewn everywhere, with only a few grouped together off to one side. I wondered if that was what Willy had considered cleaning up, or if he had since played in and disturbed the previous organization he had done in the room. Being a mentally regressed Little, I knew full-well it could have been either scenario.

Still, pushing beyond all that, I finally spotted Willy. Today, he was dressed in a pair of black overalls with orange striping along the seams and a long-sleeved yellow shirt adorned with cartoon lions. Of course, he was thickly diapered and next to him was his elephant, Tusk. To cap the scene off, in front of him was a large TV showcasing the cartoon I had been hearing since I had arrived. I personally felt he was sitting way too close, but considering Adventure Sam was on today and they were talking about the ancient islands of Catalon, I really couldn’t blame him.

“Willy?” Molly gently asked over the noise from the gesturing figure of the titular Adventure Sam on the TV. “Willy? You have a special guest to see you today…”

I saw a tiny shift, and I knew it was near impossible for a Little to tear their attention away from a TV screen once it started, but Willy finally did and soon spotted me. Like a light switch turning on, his passive look immediately vanished and was replaced by pure joy. “Miss G!” Before I even had a chance to say hello back, Willy bounded over to me, Tusk tightly gripped under his arm, and ran headfirst into my legs. In seconds, I was bound from the thighs down and even wobbled a bit as I threatened to tumble to the floor.

“Woah there, buddy! Easy now.” I patted his back and rubbed his shoulders in a way to see if I could pry him loose before I fell over. I wasn’t successful though and he remained adhered to my lower half. “It’s… great to see you too.” I tried to chuckle to mask my sense of urgency over my wobbling form, but I looked over at Molly and gave her a wide-eyed glance to push the subject.

“Oh Willy… You’ve gotten Miss G all tangled up and stuck. Come here, baby.” She tried to pass off the urgency as well in her tone but still immediately bent down and pried Willy off my legs. I quickly snapped them apart in case Willy wanted to stick to me again. At least one leg could be free to move about the place now.

“Buh I wan’ Miss G! She’s hewe fo’ me!” Willy snapped his attention back to me. “Wigh’ Miss G?”

I wasn’t even fully sure myself why I was over here, really just accepting an invitation to come over when Molly offered it to me yesterday, but I could already see Willy’s wide and hopeful eyes. His mental regression was usually pretty strong, and he was very much at the stage where the world seemed to revolve around him. So, not wanting to cause a fuss with my own unknowns, I nodded and smiled back. “Why of course! I had to make sure my little buddy was doing okay.”

Willy beamed right back at me, wrenched his way away from Molly, and then stared back up at her. “See? Tol’ ya’!” Molly only smiled back and nodded. She probably knew that I wasn’t here solely for Willy but giving him this victory was easy enough.

Willy then popped back over to me and grabbed my hand. “Come on, Miss G! I wanna show ya’ my stuff!” Knowing I really didn’t have much of a choice, I simply followed Willy as he dragged me over to see the rest of his new playroom.

Curiously, as soon as I saw all his toys and stuffys up close, I actually wanted to see every item he ever owned like I was now somehow looking over a horde of precious jewels. His explanations about everything were complicated and longer than they needed to be, but even as he stumbled over all his words and had troubled making out most of them, I found myself glued to what he was telling me. Even when I had to help him out with several of the words, I found myself nearly transfixed on everything from his collection. In some weird way, I almost felt envious that he had someone in his life to buy him all these wonderful gifts…

At that point, I kind of lost track of time. Adventure Sam, now muted by Molly, had even concluded and moved on through another show called Little Wonderland. Part reality show and part fantasy afterward, it wasn’t exactly the most creative plot, but I knew several of my Littles liked. Still, my focus was on Willy’s new toys… at least until Molly spoke up.

“Willy, baby?” Willy stopped his presentation about his new Equity Alliance superhero toys and we both looked back at Molly. “Can I borrow Miss G just for a moment?” I could already sense the hesitation in departing with me for even a second. “I promise that she’ll be right back, sweetie.”

I knew Willy probably didn’t have a choice in the matter ultimately, but Molly still used her own instincts and at least gave him the illusion of control. It was a small technique nearly every Big used to make things go smoother with their Littles, including me. It took longer, but a Little would be much more compliant if they made the decision themselves. “Okay… Miss G can go wiff you…”

Smiling at his reluctance, I got up off the floor and walked back over to Molly while Willy briefly played with two of his Equity Alliance toys, the Blur and Mantis. “He seems really happy here, Molly. You should be proud of that… Not every Little could bounce back so quickly after what he went through… particularly after the whole kidnapping business…”

Molly sighed and nodded. “He’s a real trooper, but he’s changed a lot since we first got him. So many night terrors at first, Kent and I had to double his diapers every night from the number of times he was simply soaking through all the layers already…”

“That’s awful…” Strangely, I felt a slightly stronger bond with Willy from that tiny fact alone. I didn’t feel as alone anymore in my previous nightmares and unfortunate… nightly accidents. Beneath my concern though, now, we were both healing in our own ways, and I felt a little pride over that fact.

Molly shrugged. “It was, but that seems mostly over by now. We got him some tapes to listen to at night and they really seem to help. Lots of changes and fast…” Concerningly, Molly then looked me over as if she was looking for something specific. “Speaking of changes… you seem… uh, different…”

“Oh?” I felt a tiny flicker of fear within me that Molly somehow knew of everything I had gone through since the assault. She was a cop, but I felt like she didn’t have access to the files that showed my problems since then, or the Enilikas, or even Adulescens… “Uh, what do you mean by that?”

“Oh, nothing really,” Molly replied casually, my stress quickly lowering. “You just seem… different. I don’t know…” Molly then shook her head. “Anyways, I have to go make a quick phone call. You mind watching Willy for just a sec?”

I didn’t see any problem with that, having already done it before when he had stayed with me. Things were a bit different since then, but I didn’t think in this way though. “Sure. Take your time. I think Willy’s still got another shelf to show me of his new stuff.” Molly only smiled and left the room while I returned back to Willy. “Okay, champ. Show me what else you got.” Needing no further prompting, Willy started to explain about his new hand-me-down stuffys. He still had Tusk, but it quickly become clear to me that he wanted another… brand new and just for himself. I made a quick mental note to tell Molly about that later…

“You wanna jus’ watch some Pocket Pals?” Willy finally asked me, after showing me the last of his collection. “Iss weally good!”

“Sure. Why not?” I had already accomplished my one supposed goal of ensuring that Willy was okay, so now, I just needed to entertain him until Molly got back. In fact, as I sat down on the floor with Willy right next to me, I noticed that his speech had already improved under a more vigilant caretaker. I had no doubt now that Willy had been suffering from neglect originally but satisfied that he was now safe and even better off than he had ever been before as a Little, I just sat back and watched Pocket Pals.

The concept was pretty simple. Aimed at mentally younger regressed Littles, the show sought to educate them on the various animals that were of the marsupial family, hence the names. It was a simple cartoon with leads like Momma Kangaroo, Mr. O. Possum, and now a new addition, the kindergartener, Kevin Koala. It was all pretty simple, yet I couldn’t look away. I even thought I heard strange voices, and normally I would have tried to find them, but they just made me more relaxed. I felt at peace… more than I had in a long time, and I guess not so surprisingly, I never wanted it to end.

“Looks like a pretty great show, huh?” I nearly jumped to the ceiling as I then just noticed Molly come up from behind us.

“Oh, geez, Molly. You startled me a bit there!” I could my feel heart racing erratically, but seeing there was no threat, had already started to calm down.

“Sorry about that, Tiff…” I wasn’t the biggest fan of being called that, but for Molly, I allowed it, especially now that I had been caught spacing out. “Found a friend though, huh?”

At first, I thought Molly was simply referring to Willy, but I noticed her gaze was directed elsewhere. It didn’t take me long to realize she was instead looking on my other side. Looking as well, I saw it… a giant blue bird stuffy.

My eyes widened after noticing it by my side… no, not just by my side… the thing was practically nestled right into me… almost as if I had been only recently hugging the thing tightly as I watched the show. Panicking internally, I knew I had to try and wave my concerns off in front of Molly. If she knew… she was connected to the police. If they knew, the bad men would try and get me and…

I shook my head for a moment, and just cleared my throat to give me another second to think. My mind clearing after a moment, I nodded. “Oh, yeah… figured we’d match today. Tusk seemed pretty lonely all by himself down here…” I fibbed and I wasn’t sure if Molly bought my line, but she just smiled and stood back up.

“Well, I’m glad you two had fun. Care to join me in the dining room now, Tiff?” Her question was simple, but I still felt dazed. I couldn’t say no, no matter how much I wanted to know if Kevin Koala was able to learn the last of his ABCs in school.

“Yeah. Just…” I tried to think of any excuse, but with the fog around my mind slightly clearing up now, I knew the perfect excuse. “Leg fell asleep a bit. Just need to shake it for a second…” Molly only nodded and soon disappeared out of the room.

Looking down, I questioned everything about the blue bird stuffed animal. It was so soft and cuddly, even my fingers briefly stroking its back seemed near electrified over the thought of seeking comfort in its mock plush feathers. It felt so wrong to want something like that, I was a Big after all, but there was just something so enticing… so visceral about my desire for it, that I just couldn’t help myself.

“Iss okay…” I then heard softly from my right side.

Glancing over, just to make sure I wasn’t completely losing my mind, I saw Willy staring back at me with his usual wide and innocent eyes. “Uh, come again, Willy?”

“Iss okay, Miss G,” he repeated, clearing up the matter that I was in fact not hearing things. “You no need to be em… emba… emmm… bar…” His eyes then looked at me pleadingly.

“Embarrassed?” Willy quickly nodded and I felt my usual satisfaction in helping another Little out with the bigger words they would struggle to say now. Regressed Littles might lose their words entirely, or just be unable to say them and then stop saying them altogether. Willy was more of the second kind of Little.

“Dat’s da wowd!” He seemed so joyful, but his attention darted briefly to Tusk and then back to me. “You wooked wike you wan’ed him. I jus’ asked you an’ you nodded…”

“I did?” I had no memory of that at all. I wasn’t sure if I was more concerned with that or the notion that I wanted him in the first place.

Willy quickly nodded back. “Uh huh, buh’ don’ wowwy… you scwet iss safe wiff me.” I nodded, fully appreciating his promise to me, but as I then left his playroom to rejoin Molly in the dining room, I couldn’t help but be concerned. I hadn’t had some emotional response to seeing Willy, but something had definitely happened in that room just now… something that very much did not seem adult.

Unfortunately, as much as I tried to push those thoughts of concern out of my head, they persisted all the way through lunchtime with Molly. Even when she fed Willy, changed him, and then put him down for his afternoon nap, I couldn’t shake what had happened earlier. So, once Willy was down, I bid my goodbyes and got out of there as soon as I could.

Brushing it off as just my mounting stress though, I blew right past Penelope on my way in. She was too quick for me though. “So, how did it go?” I heard her literal question at its base, but I also heard genuine concern in her voice as well.

“It was…” I was momentarily distracted by Jonathan yelling at the TV screen when a rerun of Adventure Sam showed him going over the Atorian Falls in central Alkebulan. Other continents in our world always fascinated everybody.

“Uh, it was… fine,” I added quickly. I didn’t want to elaborate further. I knew that most likely, that could only lead to more problems down the road.

“I see…” I wasn’t sure if Penelope was convinced or not, but I soon ran up the stairs and to my room. On my way home, I realized my old lady pad was slightly damp, so I made sure to change it. After, I just refocused on my Littles and put the whole thing out of my head.

That night though, I stood in front of my bathroom sink. I only had a handful of Enilikas pills left. I knew if I wasn’t careful, my tapering off them wouldn’t amount to anything and I could have a genuine problem on my hands. Before I could decide whether I should take one tonight or not though, I heard a knock on my door. I then hid the pills just in case. “Come in!”

I quickly ran to meet whoever was at my door. My ‘open door policy’ meant that anyone could see, which was a problem somedays, but today was just Penelope. “Oh, it’s just you.” I quickly felt a sense of relief wash over me. “I thought you were one of the other staff members or a Little needing something.”

“Nope,” she said, shaking her head. “Just me, but I did want to talk to you about something though…”

“Oh?” I felt like I already knew where this was headed, and I dreaded it, but I felt I couldn’t do a thing to stop it. Instead, I just tried to calm my nerves down. It really didn’t work…

“Yeah… about today.” I think I would have jumped out of the window to avoid this conversation if I could. “What happened with Molly and Willy?” She paused for a moment, almost long enough for me to say something, but she quickly spoke back up. “And don’t say it was ‘just nothing.’ From the way you ran up here and basically actively dodged my question, I know there was something.”

I almost considered lying to Penelope on the spot, but I didn’t for two reasons. First, as I had likely seen with Molly earlier, I wasn’t a particularly good liar. I could do it, but the results were mixed to say the least. Second, though, I felt a trust with Penelope up here in the privacy of my own room that I hadn’t felt like when I was downstairs and being questioned by her earlier. “Something happened…”

Penelope sighed and came over to the side of my bed, sat down, and then patted the spot next to her. “Well then, just take a breath and come here and sit down. I want to hear about it all.” I could only nod and go over and sit down next to her as she suggested. Strangely, I felt powerless to say no to her.

“I… I blanked out. Blacked out…” Penelope only nodded and gave me a slight squeeze from the side.

“Go on…” she encouraged me, letting go of me briefly.

“I blanked out and…” I wondered if I really should tell her everything, but I knew she would likely keep pressing me until she was completely satisfied that I had said everything. Knowing her and my own constitution, or lack thereof recently, I doubted she would stop until I had told her everything anyways. “I came to, and I was watching Pocket Pals still with Willy.”

I sighed and knew I had left out one piece of information. “The problem was though that Molly came in and startled me, but she also noticed… a blue stuffed bird by my side.” Penelepo’s eyebrow closest to me raised slightly. “Willy said that I had been eyeing it while we were watching Pocket Pals and then just gave it to me… but I don’t remember that. At all…”

I could see the mounting concern in Penelope’s face. Instead of yelling or freaking out like I thought she might though, she only leaned into me again and gave me another hug. This time, it was for much longer and I felt completely safe in her embrace. This time, I wasn’t embarrassed by such a clear sign of affection from her to me. In truth, I felt the same.

“I understand that. I really do, Miss G. That must have been really scary to not even remembering how that happened.” I quickly nodded my head. “But that’s okay…”

“It is?” To be frank, I think that was the absolute last thing I had expected to hear coming from her. She was supportive of me usually, but she always held so much emotion whenever I told her of a new problem. Especially considering that I had been doing so well since I had started tapering off the Enilikas. To me at least, this felt like a  massive step backward.

Still, Penelope nodded. “It is.” She then paused though and gave me another squeeze in her hug. “I think you should go back to Dr. Benson though. He’ll want to hear about this new development.”

And there it was. I just knew something had to be coming down the pipeline for me with this. It was maddening how well I knew how these interactions would go lately, but still, I was at least grateful, her suggestion was just that. No yelling or even a single raised voice. It was just a calm suggestion. Still, I knew my only answer back to her or anyone else who would ask by now.

“I’m not going back, Penelope.” I tried to remain as resolute as ever. I’m not sure how well that came off being hugged so tightly by my employee, having just changed my pad, and having reawakened earlier today with a stuffy right by my side, but I knew I just had to keep saying ‘no’ to going back to him.

Right then, though, Penelope let go of me. I instantly felt her loss of contact and longed for her to hug me again. I even wanted to tell her that directly, but I just kept my mouth shut as she then got off my bed and then turned around to face me with a weary expression. “And that’s your right, Miss G, but I’m just trying to look out for you. Nothing more at this point.”

She paused for a moment, and I could tell that her eyes momentarily glanced at the package of old lady pads that I kept by my bed for those ‘just in case’ times. When I first started tapering off from Enilikas, there had been more than a few times where I was glad that I had moved the package closer to my bed.

“I just want you to be safe and happy,” she continued. “Being unhappy doesn’t do you or anyone else for that matter any good around here. Besides, no one else really knows and you know me already… or at least I hope you do. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I wouldn’t judge you if you want back and just got a little hel…”

“It’s still a no, Penelope,” I interjected. I then stood up and faced her more directly to try and make sure my point came across. “I’m not going back and that’s final.” I didn’t want to be so dismissive of her, but after today, I can be mature enough in this instance to admit that I wavered a bit on going back, but I didn’t want to admit that out loud. If I said that out loud, I knew my resolve would crumble.

So, for the time being, I just kept shaking my head and telling Penelope ‘no.’ “I hope you can respect my decision, Pen…” She seemed like she did, but right then, my clock chimed that it was already 10 PM. Any later and I knew I would have a problem tomorrow.

Penelope likely could see my glance at the clock though. “Well, I won’t keep you up then, boss. I just want to help.” She gave me a half smile and turned around. Right before I closed the door though, she turned back around. “I won’t ever judge you, and if you ever change your mind, just let me know, okay?”

I only nodded and then shut my door. I hoped it would never come to that, but Penelope had done her job as my friend tonight. She didn’t push me, but she still told me the hard truth that I likely needed to hear. I knew I still wasn’t going to see Dr. Benson, but Penelope had at least given me an out tonight that I hadn’t had before.

Still, it was late, so I then cuddled up in my bed and turned on my bedside reading light so I could read a book that I just plucked out from a bookstore the other day. Smiling as I viewed the colorfully illustrated pages and smelling the scent of new paper, I smiled and began reading. Two paragraphs in, I questioned why I had ever stopped reading this type of fantasy illustrated story in the first place. Shrugging, I just turned back to my new book, and I knew a wide smile was already forming on my face from my rediscovered love of these books that I used to read when I was younger.  

[Guilend]

Great chapter. I'm sure Molly noticed her little extra padding Tiff has in her panties. I bet Molly knows a lot of suspects more then she's letting on.

I think at this point Penelope needs to either take charge and become Tiff's official or unofficial caregiver or let Tiff fall till she asks Penelope to be her caregiver. This playing the line it's helping Tiff. She doesn't have any stability. 

I do know that if Tiff isn't careful she'll be sporting a very red bottom. She almost didn't get away with it when she was at the center.

I doubt those pads hold up to her bedwetting. I wouldn't be surprised if at least ones or twice a week they look really bad.

As for the way the poll was done, I really like it.

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone!

I completely spaced out about the fact that I will be gone this Friday when I normally would post my fourth new chapter of the week. This particular trip will only last until Sunday night, but because of it, I will likely be only able to post one more chapter this week and then not again until next Monday at the earliest. I still expect to finish this story by the end of this month looking ahead, but my four chapters a week rate from my past stories likely won’t happen with the reminder of this story.

Also, sorry about not posting last night or earlier today. Yesterday, I tried to see if I could write everything with my new upcoming and busier schedule, but it didn’t exactly work out. Then, today, something unexpected came up. It is what it is and the future is still up in the air more than I would like it to be, but I guess that’s just life.

Next, as a reminder, I have posted a link (also listed below again this time) to an informal poll back in chapter two, along with my next story options. It is completely anonymous and is limited to one vote per IP address I believe. Right now, it’s really just a test of a new voting system, but so far, I think it’s working out well. As usual, I will be posting the results and announcement of my next story during the final chapter of this one. Until then, though, feel free to vote or message me personally if you feel more comfortable doing that. Another poll might be utilized during the last chapter to get your all’s thoughts on this new voting system, but I will let you know at that point about it.

https://strawpoll.com/kjn1D82kAyQ

Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys the next chapter of this story!

Chapter 6: A Bumpy Path to Follow If You Don’t Turn Around Now

I clutched the bracelet a Little had made for me a few months ago tightly in my hand. Its multi-colored beads stood in contrast with my white knuckles, and while anyone else could have made the thing pretty cheaply, I had been using it lately to help my growing anxieties. For that, it felt nearly priceless to me.

Since I had gone over to Molly’s house to see her and Willy and have some lunch just to see if he was okay after the assault, I had been nervously pacing around the house every time something new happened to me. Most new incidents could just be waved off as nothing more than simply stress or a lack of sleep. My nightmares had come back last week, so that wasn’t great, but I was still coping with them and proud of myself for pushing forward.

It had been almost four weeks to the day since I had last seen Dr. Benson and six days since I had run out of the Enilikas. With my numerous conversations with Penelope since I had come back from seeing Molly and Willy, I had entered into her confidence. It wasn’t much and I definitely didn’t tell her everything, as well as dismissing most of her fears or insistences that I go back to Dr. Benson, but the tiny relief I felt afterward was nothing to sneeze at.

I had been managing everything pretty well since I had gone off the medication. Nightmares and tiny slip-ups, sure, but nothing major… nothing catastrophic. The safehouse still stood, the next inspection was still a little way off, and all the Littles seemed happy and as content as they could be given their current circumstances.

What’s more, one quick conversation and guarantees of safety and comfort from a nice family ensured Becky’s departure two weeks ago and I already had preliminary offers for Ian, Gina, and Harry as well if they accepted them as well. So, for now at least, according to the state and their regulations about waiting periods after what had happened here with the tattooed man, they were giving us another Little.

Before today, all Safehouse 81’s Littles were here prior to that night of the assault or didn’t last more than a few hours after our initial interview with them. Jonathan was a special case and most of the staff didn’t count him as new as his interview happened just the day of the assault from his worrying about his home life. Things had escalated and he had come to us after the assault, but his file had already been logged and the staff already liked him. Now, though, we were gladly accepting a completely new Little into our midst. So, after finding the bracelet the Little had made for me last week, I nervously spun it around in my fingers as everyone waited for the new Little to arrive.

“I don’t understand why we all have to wait down here,” Jonathan complained as he lounged on the couch, eagerly counting the seconds as they ticked by. Normally, in this type of world and the nature of city living, the safehouse would be accepting a Little every three to five days, but the assault had limited the amount of Littles we could take in. So, Jonathan had never experienced our greeting from this side before.   

“Now, Jonathan…” I started to warn, though still trying to maintain my cheery demeanor. I then got an odd nagging sensation at my collar and at my waist and I briefly tugged at my clothing, but still put it out of my mind to focus on the present situation at hand. “Every new Little here is greeted openly like this if we can. It helps everyone feel welcome. Not everyone is able to come here with a clean history free of neglect or abuse.”

Jonathan blushed and retreated into himself for a moment. I made a mental note to talk to him later after our new Little had arrived. He was now wearing pull-ups during the day as well and his mood had soured considerably since then. Every Little knew that diapers were just around the corner at that point and if his potty-training chart in the bathroom was any indication, he was just about there. So, for his own problems, I knew he would need a kind voice and a gently guiding hand in the coming days.

The front doorbell then rang.

Everyone shot up in their seats and if they could, most of the Littles then hopped off the couch and eagerly stood at attention. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if they were more antsy to get back to playing or in meeting our newest Little. Looking at my watch, the new Little was already two hours late, but my Littles were also to some degree mentally regressed and prone to impatience, so I knew it could be either.

Regardless, I pressed my clothing down, made sure everyone here today was in place behind me and then opened the door. Standing there, was a Little for sure, but I could tell that he was desperately trying to cling onto some scrap of his ‘adulthood.’ A ballcap, jeans, sneakers, sunglasses, and a t-shirt with some kind of logo completed his more mature look, but the seam running up his pants and the slight bulge around his midsection spoke otherwise.

“Hello there,” I greeted the newest Little. I briefly looked above him to see if anyone had dropped him off, but not seeing anyone, I looked back down at him. “You must be Seth, right?”

He removed his sunglasses and looked at me directly, a scowl already forming on his face. “Yeah. What of it?”

My heart dropped. I remember reading Seth’s file initially and remembered that Penelope had deeply underlined the phrase ‘prone to mood and regression swings.’ It was pretty typical, but from my experience, I was also guessing that he was new to those swings. Eventually the swings would level out, older or younger, but until then, at first at least, foul moods and the detesting of any Big was unfortunately common.

Still, I knew I had to present a happy front to him. “How about you just come inside and meet the rest of the crew here?” He grumbled briefly and then brought a single bag in. I made sure not to comment on correcting his mood or the fact that he had brought so little with him. If I said even the tiniest part in a way he didn’t like, it could spell a tumultuous time to our relationship already.

Entering in, I closed the door behind us and then gestured to the rest of the crowd in front of us. “Seth, this is everyone. Everyone, this is Seth.” The group all smiled and waved. Seth did not.

Looking at Penelope and doing my best not to sigh, I knew I still had to walk on eggshells around Seth for the moment. Once we got to know each other, I could lay down the more trivial and everyday rules beyond the ones every Little knew before they agreed to stay here. Penelope had gone over those already with Seth, but he clearly still needed to learn those about manners and playing nice with others. I dreaded any potential playtimes at this point.

“Alright everyone. I’m going to say your name and I want you to wave to Seth. For now, I just want him to start knowing your names. Getting to know each other more can come later, understand?” Every Little quickly nodded and I turned back to Seth, now sporting an annoyed and impatient look.

“Okay Seth. Let’s start with the staff first.” I then started to point to Penelope and then Mildred. He would learn about Jackie and Vivian later, but I at least wanted to get his feet wet with everyone who was here today. Both then waved as I had instructed before I started announcing the Littles. Jonathan and Ian weren’t very enthusiastic, but everyone else eagerly smiled and waved. I could tell that each of them at least was nearly bursting at the seams to meet their new friend. I worried about how those interactions would go, but I reminded myself to only deal with one problem at a time. With everything going on with just me alone, more stress was just a problem waiting to happen. Still, we got through it.

After Jonathan finally gave his own wave, I led Seth upstairs to the fourth floor. I felt that soon Jonathan would be joining his as well, but for now, it was just him. Changing tables adorned part of the room and more advanced picture books and toys were scattered around the walls in their own tiny cubbies and shelves. Instead of cribs though, each bed only had a shortened rail on either side near the head. Penelope continually asked me to seal them off completely on the fifth floor, having the same rails there as well, but I hated to box any Little in at night unless I had to, like I did with those in the cribs on the sixth floor.

Seth quickly chose a bed in a corner of the room and sat with a slump on the bedspread, crinkling the mattress protector underneath that I had made sure to have on all my Little’s beds here. Still, despite his aversion to seemingly everything, as he took off his baseball cap, I could see the same look of hopelessness and finality of coming here that I saw in most Littles. I always found that picking your bed and actually sitting on it really struck home for most of where they were now.  

Simply put, safehouses were simply not vacation homes. Littles only came here when they had nowhere else to go to or felt like being away from our protection posed a threat to them in some way. It wasn’t paradise, but it was safe. From his file, I honestly wasn’t sure which category fell into though, but seeing his saddened expression, my heart still reached out to him. So, gingerly walking over, I slowly sat on the bed next to him. Considering he didn’t stop me, I was already feeling happy that I had passed that first barrier at least.

“Everything okay, Seth?” I briefly saw him twitch in my direction, but instead of opening up, he just buried his look right back into his lap and the baseball cap he held in his hands there. “Big fan of the Indianapolis Imperials, huh?” In truth, I didn’t know much about baseball. It was only a recent addition to our national sports teams since the portals opened and Earthers brought it over, but I still knew a little.

“Yeah… my old da… caregiver was a big fan. After seeing so many games, I guess I kind of latched on as well…” I didn’t make a big deal of his slip-up with his old caregiver’s likely self-imposed title. Daddy figures were rare in our world to start with, and even more rare after a particular virus hit most males here hard a few years before I was born. Still, they existed but I could sense that Seth was embarrassed about that relationship. I made a mental note to check out what happened between the two of them later and why he was here now.

“Well, maybe we could go see a game of theirs sometime,” I suggested, trying to find a way to get Seth to open up more about his ease in staying here. I shifted uncomfortably in my clothing once more. I made a mental note to check my detergent to see if it had changed. “A lot of people who stay here have their own likes and I try to make sure everyone is happy in their own way if they let me. Does that sound like something you would maybe be interested in?”

Seth only nodded, but I noticed his eyes quickly went back to his lap. I started to suspect something more, but when he squirmed awkwardly on the bed, it told me everything I needed to know. Like to his mortification, Seth needed a diaper change.

“Well, I’ll see what I can do about getting tickets sometime.” Gathering up my inner strength and patience, I then turned to Seth to face him more directly. “You know… in the meantime, I’m here to help in any ways you need. So is the rest of the staff as well. If you need something… whatever that is, we’ll help you out with it, okay? No judgement.”

I could already see the hesitancy in Seth asking me to help him out, but he still wouldn’t break. “Okay…” was about all he could muster. I could feel him right on the verge of cracking and asking for my help, but I didn’t want to push it. So, I just got up to hopefully push the point.

Some could have seen my leaving his side, knowing he needed a diaper change, as cruel or neglectful. Seth was likely just wet, given the lack of smell beyond baby powder and floral-scented cleanser in the room, but I honestly did hate playing this game with new Littles. I just wanted to hug them and reassure them everything was going to be okay before making them all clean and fresh, but Seth needed to learn this lesson on his own if he hadn’t already. Either he would swallow his pride now and ask me for help or he would wait, get a rash, and learn the lesson that way. Diapers and Littles often just went together, and I wanted to ensure that a Little was never shy about asking me for a change. I found that it just made things way easier in the future.

Right as I got to the door though, to my relief, Seth made a tiny noise that slowed me down. “Wait…” he said a few seconds later as my foot exited the room. I stopped and turned back to him, waiting to see if I needed to give him a final push or if he would ask himself. “I need… can you…” I could see the struggle he was going through and even saw it when he poked the bulge under his pants. Without saying a word, his eyes looked back up at me in desperation. It was all I needed to swoop in.

I walked up to him like I was getting close to a baby deer. I knew one wrong move and he would scatter or cuss me out of the room. “I understand, Seth. There’s no need to be embarrassed in front of me. This is just something we deal with around here, but we don’t make a big deal out of it. It happens and then we make it go away, okay?” Seth almost let out a full whimper, but then just nodded.

“Okay then,” I said with a discernable sigh of relief. “Now, do I have your permission to change your diaper?” I made sure to directly ask my question without any room for interpretation. Some Littles required consent, while others were mentally too young to give it but needed the change anyway. For them, I was their caregiver, and a diaper change was just part of keeping them healthy, whether they wanted it or not… like eating their vegetables at dinner. It was a tricky line and most of the time, instincts were one of the few ways to know how to proceed and those took time to master. Fortunately, in this case, Seth nodded.

And that was it. I quickly plucked him off the floor and laid him down on the changing table. I popped open his pants and then ripped off his diaper before wiping him down. A minute later, he was clean, and I dumped the baby powder over him and quickly fastened a new diaper on before snapping his pants shut once more. I was quick and efficient without any fanfare or the drawing of attention to his diaper in anyway. For a new Little here, it was just what was needed. “There. All better?”

To my partial surprise, though, Seth giggled back and nodded. Being one of the mental swingers here, it meant that sometimes he was his adult self. Other times, he was more of his Little self. It was a problem occasionally, but I knew to treat him with kid gloves most of the time, be prepared for any changes, and then definitely indulge his Little side whenever I could.

“Oh! Looks like I’ve got a giggly Little on my hands now, huh?” I went in and tickled his belly through his shirt. Seth, against all odds from what I had seen earlier, immediately began to laugh and flinch on the changing table. I made another mental note to ensure that he was strapped down while getting a diaper change if he was in this state.

Smiling for now though, I plucked him off the table and set him back down. “Okay, Seth. Do you want to stay up here and maybe take a nap or read a book, or would you prefer to go back downstairs and see everyone again?”

Seth pondered the question for a moment, but then looked up at me with wide and curious eyes. “Will there be friends for me downstairs? And… and fun?” His questions were completely innocent and spoke to the Little he would likely be fully one day. Moments like these were why I became a caregiver of sorts at a safehouse in the first place. These times could be scary, and you made sure to guide a Little through those times, but other moments were just filled with the joy that only came from a Little finally feeling safe.

“Absolutely. Let’s go downstairs then and meet them.” Seth nodded and even reached up to take my hand. It surprised me a bit and I wondered if Seth really belonged on the fifth instead of fourth floor, but I put that out of my mind for now and led him back downstairs.

Almost instantly, he was the star of the show. I think he knew it as well and placed himself as the leader of the more regressed Littles. It was a downside of having so few Littles here lately. If one Little was less regressed than the others and no one could challenge them, they would lead with ease. I had only met one Little ever before who was more mentally regressed and yet still the leader. Regardless, for now, Seth was that leader.

At first, I didn’t mind the fact. Laughter and sounds of playing echoed off the downstairs walls. Jonathan even had to retreat outside at one point, and that gave me pause if we should be continuing like this or not, but I let them have their fun. When they started running around and tossing a ball around, I knew I had to put my foot down.

“Okay everyone!” I announced while clapping my hands three times. “Time to take it down a level. It’s going to be naptime soon for everyone, so let’s see if we can calm ourselves down, okay?”

Most of the Littles, like Harry and Timmy quickly ceased their running, but one Little, kept running. “Never! You’re gonna have to catch me!” Seth shouted back at me as he ran into the kitchen. Only a second later, I heard the scraping of metal from in there.

Rushing in, I saw that Seth had already removed one of the pans from the lower cabinet. Despite him struggling to lift it up fully, I was even surprised he could do something like that in the first place. “Seth… just put down the pan and come back in the living room so we can calm down, okay?” I tried to keep my patience and calm, but Seth was having it.

Giggling, he dropped the pan, sending a loud bang throughout the house, and then took off again. At first, I honestly thought he was just going to give me a hug, so when he ran towards me, I only braced for an impact. Instead, he breezed right around my legs. When I realized what he was going to do, I was too late. “Seth! Stop running!” But he just kept going.

Chasing him back to the living room, he stopped and briefly tried to get Harry and Timmy to join him. They moved a few inches but snapped back to quietly playing with their toys once they saw me. Despite my previous lapses, my more recent successes through my own will and Penelope’s help had pushed me back into shape. Still though, Seth didn’t budge.

“Seth…” I tried to remain calm, but I could feel my stupid wavering and sensitive emotions start to bubble back up. I had been working on breathing techniques with Penelope just in case they flared up again, but Seth was pushing my buttons as he started jumping up and down on the couch. “Seth. Get off the couch. Now.”

Seth kept jumping and Harry and Timmy looked frightened as they saw him defy me yet again. I didn’t rule with an iron fist or keep a spanking paddle on display to maintain discipline, but they knew I had the authority on extra TV time, more naps, or loss weekend activities or worse, loss of desert.

“Seff! Geh’ down!” Harry tried warning him. Timmy, usually the one I could count on being the problematic one, just clutched his own stuffy in the corner of the couch. I think he was actually stabilizing more lately, but at this point, that might have just been wishful thinking so that I didn’t have two swingers with wild attitudes.

“No! I’m gonna fly!” I could see the wide smile on Seth’s face. I wanted him to be happy… I really did, but he was getting to the point of both defiance against me and danger for himself. It was a no-win situation.

“Seth! Get down now!” I’m not sure why. That one instruction might have been enough, but I felt the moment called for one more than I had always seen do the trick. I might have cautioned against using it on someone so fresh, but by then, my emotions were too prickly to turn back. “Or else!”

Seth bounced a few more times, but each successive bounce was a little less than previous. Finally, he stopped, and he glared at me. I realized that it might have been a trigger word of his that was previously used in his past to his pain. “What did you say?” I realized that I should have looked at his file more closely to see if Penelope had mentioned that or if this was something completely new that we needed to track. If his previous home had said that and then reacted violently in the ‘what else’ part of it, my saying it now was only going to be a problem. I regretted adding it, but seeing his face, I knew it was too late to turn back.

“I just want you to stop bouncing and try and calm down,” I tried to defend myself, but Seth’s face only glowed more with a burning rage inside. “Let’s just both sit down and maybe we ca…”

“No!” I could already see the flip happening with Seth from his more rambunctious but sweet toddler mentality back to his gloomy and now angry adult self. One psychologist almost described it as a split personality disorder at one point, and while an over exaggeration, I could definitely see the connection. “I will not!”

“Seth, please…” I had realized my previous anger had been building and had seen my mistake, so now I was desperately trying to fix it. “Just…”

“No!” Seth was as defiant as ever and started to stomp on the ground once he hopped off the couch.

“Boys…” I tried coaxing both Timmy and Harry away from Seth. I knew that this could get nasty, and I didn’t want them to see this. “Go to the kitchen now and wait for Mildred to come back down from changing Ian or for Penelope to come back inside.” Irate, Seth started throwing blocks. The three of us in front of him narrowly dodged it.

“Uh…” I could see that Timmy and Harry were both petrified. They had joined under Seth’s leadership, but they just wanted to have fun. Their boundaries were lacking, so they didn’t really have that off switch anymore to tell them not run around the house, but they weren’t bad. “Harry… you take Timmy and go find Penelope.” Seth threw another block, and we narrowly missed it again. “Now!”

Both Littles scurried away, and I turned back to Seth. Having knocked over a block tower when they had been running earlier, I horribly realized that Seth had all the ammunition he ever needed. “Seth… please…”

“No!” It seemed to be his favorite word at this stage, and I really wondered how much adult Seth I was seeing as opposed to his Little side. Currently, both sides seemed to blend nearly seamlessly with each other. “You can’t make me! I’m an adult and I have a job, and I won’t be dictated to anymore! You can’t punish me!”

I definitely knew now that Seth had been likely punished much further beyond the norm in his previous home. My heart cracked a little, and I could see the scared Little buried deep within him. For now, though, I just had to dodge yet another block.

“Seth!” I wanted to give him one more chance before I brought in the big and sadly likely needed heavy-handed punishment techniques. “You will put that block down right…”

I didn’t get to finish my warning to him. Right as I had called out his name, he bent down and picked up another block. This time, even curling his tongue to his upper lip, he aimed right for me and threw it. The block, wooden and dense, nailed me right in the head. Everything went black.

*              *              *

“Ow!” I bolted up from where I was lying down. My head throbbed in the one spot I had been hit. My vision was blurry for a moment but rubbing my eyes after painfully learning not to touch my sore spot, I saw that I was in my bedroom once again. Confusion swirled around me, but shifting my gaze further, I saw a resting Penelope sitting at the foot of my bed.

“Wha… what happened?” It tried to fully sit upright in bed as Penelope started to stir awake, likely be awoken from my initial cry of pain.

Penelope sighed and leaned forward. Before she could speak though, Mildred burst through the door. “Oh my! Are you okay? Did you fall out of bed? Did you…?”

“Mildred!” Penelope barked at the clearly concerned Middle, though still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. “She’s fine…” She rubbed her eyes once more and stood up. “Now that you’re in here though… I think it’s high time we all had a little talk.”

I didn’t like the sound of that, but I let her continue, still trying to piece everything together. It felt like the last time I had passed out, but I tried desperately to convince myself otherwise. If I had passed out like last time, that meant that my reaction to the shot I was given by the tattooed man actually wasn’t going away.

“Miss G…” Mildred started, but Penelope quickly held up her hand to stop her. From that tiny spark behind her eyes, I could tell she had an approach to all this already mapped out.

“Miss G,” Penelope started, “what do you think happened today?”

“Well, uh…” My hand briefly moved up to my forehead, but I recoiled it at the last second, remembering not to touch where Seth had thrown a block at me. “Seth wasn’t listening to me and then he threw a block at my head and then…” I trailed off and I could see both Mildred and Penelope perk up.

“Nothing after?” I shook my head, and my two employees looked at each other with an odd and yet at least definitely concerning look. Penelope then looked back at me. “Then we definitely have a problem, Miss G.”

Panic gripped my heart. “And that is?” I screamed in my mind for her not to confirm my deepest fears, but deep down, I knew what she was going to say. I’m not sure how I exactly knew, but there was just something familiar that I knew I should have recognized as the reason to why I knew.

Penelope sighed. “Miss G…” She then picked up the shirt I had been wearing yesterday. “You wore this yesterday, and while I have to admit you wore something nicer today, you seemed… uncomfortable in it.” I remembered back to the few times I had fidgeted in it, but I had just assumed it was my detergent. When Penelope held up my shirt from yesterday though, it became clear why today had been so uncomfortable in comparison.

“Now, I’m no fashion expert, but a purple t-shirt with a sparkly unicorn on it just doesn’t seem like the fashionable and professional Miss G I know.” She causally glanced over, and I could see the blouse I had been wearing earlier today. For some reason, the skirt was missing. “As I said, today was great, but yesterday wasn’t the first time you wore something like this. I mean, when was the last time you wore your usual professional clothing when you didn’t expressly have to?”

“But it was stifling in them,” I tried to defend. “I needed more room to maneuver with the Littles. They are very demanding and Seth…”

“Seth just came here today,” Penelope interrupted. I could see a slight quiver of fear in Mildred behind her. “This has been going on for… well, for a while now. And don’t make me look under your bed.”

Her voice was so commanding in that one moment that I oddly felt like a tiny child being scolded for keeping snacks under there that I had been warned not to because of ants. My mind tried to think of what was under there and what she wa… I then realized what it was. I hadn’t told anyone about her, but she was there. No one had seen her, I thought, but she was with me every night. Miss Pink, the stuffed bear I had recently ordered online to help me sleep at night was there in all her glory. I quickly started to panic at the evidence that Penelope was presenting me with.

I had felt so confident and mature… that I had beaten whatever I had been injected with, but now… everything had been so slow. It wasn’t all at once but looking back now with a directed outcome of it all, I could see a pattern. Skirts and slacks gave way to shorts and jeans. Blouses and button-ups to t-shirts and then ones with sparkles or colorful patterns because they ‘made me happy when I was sad,’ or at least that was what I had told myself. And Miss Pink… I was terrified of my nightmares leading to another massive accident. She helped me and I thought it was for the best, but a large pink stuffed bear?

I then realized one further thing. Between their looks, me passing out, my missing skirt, and me now wearing my pajamas once again… I knew something had to have happened between when I blacked out and when I had just woken up a few minutes’ prior. I didn’t want to ask, but I knew I needed to. “The cameras we installed after the assault… I want to see what happened after I got hit on the head.”

Mildred looked like she was about to faint. “Oh Miss G. I don’t think you want to see tho…”

“No,” Penelope interrupted her once again. “I think she needs to see what happened this time. If she does… maybe it can actually mean something. Maybe it’s just enough for what we… talked about…” She said those last two words much more quietly than I was comfortable with, but still… I was intrigued by everything. At this point, I needed to see that footage.

Penelope left for only a moment and came back with the disc that she had just created from our file storage downstairs. She then inserted it into the movie player in the small TV I had in my room. I normally didn’t have one, but when I had gotten sick last year, it felt like a miracle.

Penelope then turned around. “Alright, Miss G. I’ll show you this, but just know, we’ve made sure all the Littles have been taken care of through bribes or pink promises. Most didn’t see anything, but… well, you’ll see.” I think I was dreading seeing it more now than ever, but I eagerly watched on as Penelope hit play and synced it up.

“Seth! You will put that block down right…” I saw the block smack me right in the head. Instead of passing out though, I clutched my head and dropped to my knees. “Ow! Why’d you do that, you big meanie!”

“You told me not to,” he retorted. I then started to see myself try and attempt to hold back my tears. “Oh my… are you crying?” Seth dropped the next block he would have thrown and ran up to me. “Holy shit! You are crying!” He then started laughing maniacally. I knew at that point; the adult version of Seth was definitely more in charge.

“Stop it! Stop it!” I blubbered back. “Iss not nice to point an’ laugh at other people…” I was clearly trying to defend myself and teach a lesson, but something in me seemed different… younger ever, at least mentally wise.

“Baby! Baby! Baby!” Seth taunted. “You’re just a little baby like all the others!” He then scoffed. “Just how in the world did you end up the big bad boss around here. I bet you even suck your thumb!”

“Do not!” I countered.

“Oh ho! You do, don’t you!” I tried shaking my head, but Seth was too far into his own delight to pay any attention to my protests. His taunts then continued further, and I could see as each one struck another nerve within me. Pretty soon, I had run away to the back and started banging on the door.

“Let me out! Let me out!” Seth continued to torment me with his insults. Now, they didn’t mean much, but I could tell each was revealing a fear this other version of me had all along. ‘poopypants’ seemed most devastating.

“Miss G?” I then saw Mildred enter the frame. “Miss G!” She quickly set Ian down on the stairs and ran over to me and blocked the still taunting Seth. “Back off mister! We do not make fun of others here!”

“Yeah?” Mildred nodded, not even seemingly phased by the fact that I had basically collapsed into the fetal position and was silently crying behind her. “What are you going to do about it? You’re just a Middle. You’re barely bigger than me! Why should I listen to you?”

“And what about me?” I was so distracted by their interaction that I didn’t even see Penelope walk up behind Mildred and I on the screen. “Hmmm? How about it, Seth? Are you willing to try and defy me as well?”

“But! But!” I could see as the fear finally eclipsed back into Seth’s eyes. It had taken three staff members to quell his outburst and rebellion, but Penelope had finally done it.

“Not buts!” she barked down to him. “You go upstairs to your room right this minute and sit on your bed!” Seth yelped and sped off. “I find you an inch away from your bed and so help me!” Seth quickly disappeared from view and Penelope then looked back to Mildred and I. “Okay. You deal with the Littles down here. I’ll help her out and once everyone is down for their nap soon, we can talk more then.” Both of them then looked back at me, and to my horror, I had clearly wet myself.

Penelope then paused the video right on that moment. “I… I…” I really wasn’t sure what to say. To my chagrin, everything had been caught on camera and I couldn’t deny what I was seeing now. Maybe if the camera was just a listening device instead, I could have gotten out of this whole thing unscathed, but especially with the video paused where it was, my wet skirt on display for all to see, I knew completely now that my cold turkey of the Enilikas pills wasn’t working.

Penelope sighed and came over to me and stroked my back a little. “It’s okay, Miss G. As I said, all the Littles have been taken care of and Seth is very sorry. His mood and mental swings cloud his memory a bit as well it seems, not sure why, but I’ve already made an appointment at the doctor’s tomorrow. I think we can get him on those Littles stabilizer meds and help him out until he mellows out a bit more around here.”

I nodded, grateful for that much at least, but I then saw Mildred just standing there with a supportive look on her face, which was good, but I swear that I also saw one of fear as well. Penelope saw my own concerned expression regarding Mildred. “It’s okay. I told her everything…”

“Actually, I already kind of suspected something was going on,” she admitted. My heart sank a bit hearing that. I thought Penelope and I were good secret keepers, but if even Mildred knew, I wondered just howe many others did as well now. “There were just too many tiny things, and I wasn’t sure how they added up exactly, but I knew it was something.”

I think she then saw my look of concern as well. “But I swear I won’t tell anyone. I swear so much, Miss G. I promise from the bottom of my heart… your secret is safe with me.”

“Thank you, Mildred.” I wasn’t thrilled with another staff member being told about my condition, but I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to keep it secret for much longer at this rate. If someone else really had to know, I was glad at least that it was Mildred. “I appreciate that. I just…”

Penelope rubbed my back again and as much as I felt like I was the subordinate in the room, rather than the boss, her touch did feel nice. Right then though, as I rocked slightly into her back rubs, I heard a much more distinctive crinkling sound. Seeing myself on the screen again with my wet skirt, I knew what I was wearing. I was in a diaper again…

“So… we need to talk about what’s next…” I could see the look of concern now on Penelope’s face and I think my own internal fear spiked in a second.

“No! No!” I yelled. “I won’t go to one of those facilities where they put the Big freaks. That PSA told me about it. They’re going to take me away and stick things in my brain and stick me in a cell to be forgotten about. No! I won’t be taken away!” I could already feel the hot tears slash on my cheeks.

“Woah, woah, woah,” Penelope said, clearly not expecting such a big reaction from me. She quickly made sure to rub my back and soothe my fears. “It’s okay, Miss G. I promise. I only meant that… well, we need to do something else… something more to help this problem of yours.”

“Yeah, Miss G,” Mildred added. “We would never allow you to be taken away from this place. Just because that tattooed guy messed with you big time, doesn’t mean that you need to be punished for it. We just want to help.”

I always forgot how loyal and kind Mildred was. In a house and society full of Bigs and Littles, Middles, including Mildred, often got overlooked. Some suspected they only made up 10% of the population these days, but there wasn’t anything official like that for them. In fact, most of the time, due to their maturity as opposed to Littles, their statistics usually just got lumped into the Bigs.

“Yes, but how?” I wiped the tears off onto my sleeve and wondered what they had in mind. For whatever reason, the fog felt like it was creeping slowly back across my mind. It scared me to death, but I just tried to listen into what my two employees had to say.

“Well,” Penelope began, “to me at least, I think there’s a very obvious solution…” Again, through my fog, I just couldn’t seem to figure anything more out than what was already shown right in front of me. “I think you should go back to see Dr. Benson…”

My eyes widened in shock. “No! Anything but that! They’re going to make me…” I shrank back at how ridiculous my own argument sounded.

“Wear diapers?” Mildred finally asked, clearly bypassing the awkwardness that Penelope seemed to exhibit. To my chagrin, I nodded. “Well, I don’t know how to tell you this but…”

“I know!” As if to confirm the notion, I shifted awkwardly and let out another loud crinkle and even a small smell of baby powder. “Adulescens just feels… different.”

Penelope sighed and patted my back. “I know, Miss G, but… I don’t think we have very many alternatives. Do you?” She paused briefly, but I really couldn’t realistically think of any on my own. “I mean if you do, please tell me. We can that route, but I just can’t think of any…” Sadly, I didn’t either after another strain to think of one, but ultimately, I shook my head.

Penelope sighed again and nodded. “That’s okay. I know you don’t want to, but Dr. Benson has something that works and just think about the safehouse. If you don’t get this fixed, you passing out could happen again when we’re being inspected. They’ll shut this place down and everyone will have a problem. Then where would everyone be, including yourself?”

It had been the stuff of my nightmares recently and one of the main reasons I had bought Miss Pink. I could always see it now that if they shut this place down, I likely would end up one of two ways. A freak at some lab figuring out my problems or destitute on the street and desperate for any offer of warmth and care. If I didn’t die then, I knew that if I didn’t run into a miracle face first, I would be doomed forever. So, I shook my head.

“Yeah… that’s what I thought. It’s just not good for anyone.” She then gave me one big side squeeze and stood up. “I don’t know what will happen with Dr. Benson, but whatever does and for whatever it’s worth, I just want you to know that I’ll be here for you.”

“And so will I!” Mildred quickly added, her smile quickly becoming infectious.

“Right… so will Midred.” Penelope then turned back to her and twitched her head out the door. Mildred got her signal and quickly exited the room. Penelope then turned back to me. “I’ll make sure we go tomorrow night. You might consider taking off tomorrow, but I’ll just leave that up to you. For now, though, just get some rest and if you want, we can talk more in the morning.”

Smiling and saying goodnight to each other, Penelope then closed my door. Alone now, everything started to collapse on top of me. Everything that had happened today from Seth to the revelation of everything with Penelope and Mildred. It felt like just too much and the TV screen being paused on my very wet skirt didn’t help either. I started to sniffle, and I could feel the tears fall down my face once again. I was getting tired of crying, but I knew of one quick solution to help me.

So, I grabbed the remote and turned off the TV with the image of me wetting myself. Already feeling better from that alone, I then reached under my bed and grabbed Miss Pink. As embarrassing as she was, I made sure I got the soother version, and turning her on, I could already feel her effects begin to calm my mind. Still sad and fearful about the future, I laid down and shut my eyes. I didn’t feel completely better, but I finally let my mind drift off. Tomorrow’s problems could wait.

[Guilend]

Wow. I think she should start wearing pull ups during the day from now on. Especially since they don't know what her triggers are yet. It would at least make it less of a clean up once she regresses again. I can tell that Penelope is on her last nerve with Miss G. At least they're going to see the doc again. Miss G needs to find out exactly what treatment she will get at the facility. Like is it like a rehab facility or mental health facility where you stay for a few weeks or is it kind of spend a few weeks or days out of the month or just an evening type of thing. Good work 

[kerry]

Wow. This is a wonderful and different kind of DD story, and I suspect that it has easily leapfrogged everything else as far as Guilend is concerned! After all, Bigs in diapers are his bread and butter. 🙂

The thing is, though, that what I appreciate here is the complexity of the narrative. That the problem itself stemmed from a drugging from a terrorist and that Miss G's situation has clearly resulted from that, all issues of blame are off the table. She's just trying her hardest to fight off what appears to be inevitable regression. I find myself wondering whether it would be better for her to be shrunk to Little size should that happen; being a regressed Big in this world can't possibly be easy.

[LostBBoyBear]

2 hours ago, kerry said:

Wow. This is a wonderful and different kind of DD story, and I suspect that it has easily leapfrogged everything else as far as Guilend is concerned! After all, Bigs in diapers are his bread and butter. 🙂

The thing is, though, that what I appreciate here is the complexity of the narrative. That the problem itself stemmed from a drugging from a terrorist and that Miss G's situation has clearly resulted from that, all issues of blame are off the table. She's just trying her hardest to fight off what appears to be inevitable regression. I find myself wondering whether it would be better for her to be shrunk to Little size should that happen; being a regressed Big in this world can't possibly be easy.

Thank you. I was definitely trying for something different this time. I'm sure Guilend is just going to die of joy in the next few chapters.  🙂

Something to consider with Miss G/Tiffany though... all this is coming from her perspective. Despite the PSA, it's not a leap here to say that she's exagerating some of these problems more than they need to be. I'll expand on that more in later chapters and even other stories, but a Big being diapered at this point or exhibiting regression symptoms is certainly taboo, but it's not criminal. Frankly, the PSA really only exists to curb possible mutigen viruses from spreading amongst the Big population. Some things designed for Littles actually affect Bigs too. Despite this community maybe wanting something like that to exist, most of society would probably do anything to stop the spread as soon as possible.

But also yeah... it would probably be easier for her to have been shrunk to the size of a Little, but easier isn't always better or what everyone would want. Remember, most Littles are respected even less than Big children in this society. If a Big was to shrink, that built-in buffer of respect would go away quickly. I guess anyone in that position would question whether it was better to blend in with the Littles or be embarrassed as a Big. 

[Guilend]

4 hours ago, LostBBoyBear said:

I'm sure Guilend is just going to die of joy in the next few chapters.  🙂

Oh my. I've already been living the last few chapters, I'm excited even more now to see what happens next.

 

4 hours ago, LostBBoyBear said:

Something to consider with Miss G/Tiffany though... all this is coming from her perspective.

I never thought about this and how it's probably exaggerated. Now that I think about it, especially on how Bigs feel about Littles in general, a Big doing anything similar to what a Little will do, even when drugs are involved, would be seen in a much bigger light. Especially for the Big experiencing it. I mean, she deals with regressing Littles all day, it's her profession. So any little thing she does that can be compared to what a regressing Little would do would be seen and felt in a much bigger way. And that's before you take into account for her emotional instability. I imagine some things she used to do before the incident she overthinks and compares to a regressing Little even if it shouldn't be. 

 

4 hours ago, LostBBoyBear said:

I guess anyone in that position would question whether it was better to blend in with the Littles or be embarrassed as a Big. 

In my personal opinion*stands up to the podium* Any Big that shows signs of immaturity, either due to drugs or hypnosis or simply because they're immature, should feel embarrassed and should not be shrunk down to blend in with Littles. *Stands down from podium* it totally has nothing to do with the fact I enjoy seeing Amazons being embarrassed and humiliated. It's completely rooted in facts. *Nods* 

Speaking of Amazons being shrunk, that would be a great witness relocation program 😂 

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone!

Yay! This story is now officially over halfway through. It might not be getting as much love as I would hope, but the poll is going great, and I can see that there’s at least a few of you reading this thing. So, for those of you that are, I just want to thank you sincerely. These stories are great, but they’re almost nothing (besides to my own enjoyment in writing them) if you all don’t enjoy them as well.

Now, like I said before, I have another trip starting tomorrow, and I won’t have time to write anymore tomorrow or this weekend. I should be able to hit this story back again on Monday, but I will note here that it’s just tentative for now. I’m hoping everything will be fine with what is happening that day, but it’s entirely possible that Monday could be a lot for me, and I just simply won’t get to this story until Tuesday. I will work as hard as I can to get this story out there, but I just can’t make a guarantee of that at this point.  

Next, as a reminder, I have posted a link to an informal poll back in chapter two and the previous chapter, along with my next story options. It is completely anonymous and is limited to one vote per IP address I believe. Right now, it’s really just a test of a new voting system, but so far, I think it’s working out well. As usual, I will be posting the results and announcement of my next story during the final chapter of this one. Until then, though, feel free to vote or message me personally if you feel more comfortable doing that. Another poll might be utilized during the last chapter to get your all’s thoughts on this new voting system, but I will let you know at that point about it.

Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys the next chapter of this story!

Chapter 7: Moro and Downward

My palms sweat nearly the entire morning as Penelope, Mildred, and I got everyone ready for tonight. We had gone out before, but with the addition of Seth to our group, it was usually a policy to keep the nightly outings to a minimum when someone new had arrived and were the type of Little he was. He was definitely a cutie when he mentally regressed, but he was a terror of the house at almost all times. Still, Mildred knew the task before her, and we made sure that she and the other Littles we could rely on made an easier time of it for her. It meant a likely trip to the zoo this coming weekend to convince the Littles to be on their best behavior, but the three of us knew the importance of this for me.

The problem was that at this point, at least technically speaking, I was still in charge of the safehouse. I still felt a surge of pride, but if I was being honest with myself though, Penelope was more in charge now than I was of some of the daily tasks in running this place. It didn’t matter though.

Per government regulations designed to keep Littles safe from undo influence from other Bigs, only one Big was allowed to be in charge of the safehouse at a time. That was fine but said Big also needed to be certified and officially approved. Penelope was making up for my slack, and I was eternally grateful for that, but any safehouse employee knew that if Penelope eventually became the safehouse’s next leader, in case something more severe happened to me, the safehouse would need to be inspected first. Since they would question my absence or ask to me directly why I was stepping down, we all thought it best that I still remain the head of the safehouse. It was a risk, but all our options were at this point, this plan led to the fewest questions being asked.

I also suspected that tonight was also going to serve as a barometer of sorts to see what our next steps could be where I was concerned. If tonight actually worked like Dr. Benson claimed it would, as he did again on the phone last night apparently when Penelope called him, I could be better and the safehouse would get back to normal. If it didn’t work though, my longing for Miss Pink all day to give me a source of comfort would have been the least of our problems.

“All set?” Penelope quickly asked as she checked her personal bag for entertainment options just in case for tonight. Being our first official time, neither of us knew exactly what to expect, and every Big coming for ‘treatment’ at Adulescens needed a corresponding responsible Big. Often, it seemed that one Big could be responsible for up to four treated Bigs, to at least not crowd the space for a one-to-one ratio, but as we were new, we didn’t have that option.

Checking myself briefly, I nodded back. “I think so… hard to know though with this place…”

Penelope warmly smiled and rubbed my shoulder tenderly. I had to stop myself from leaning into the gesture. I was practically itching with the need for comfort of some kind. “It will be okay, Miss G. I promise. Just take some deep breaths. Mildred has it covered here and the rest of the Littles are on your side. In fact, I think for the ones that can actually handle some responsibility, they’re practically rolling around with pride and glee over being treated more maturely tonight.”

“No, no. You’re right. I just… it’s a lot to process that we’re actually going tonight, you know?” Despite her caring words, which did make me feel a bit better, I still had a nagging fear in the back of my mind.

“I understand that, but it will be okay.” Her glance then darted lower than my eyesight, and seeing that expression before, I knew what she was doing. Her glance then popped back to me. “And… the other thing? Are we all good there as well?” I think I nearly blushed about 10 different shades of red on the spot.

Since I was only promised another bottle of Enilikas after going tonight and the fact that it seemed like stress caused my blackouts, it was hard to predict when the next one would be. Horrifyingly, I seemed to regress or swing my whole demeanor like Seth did now or that Timmy used to do all the time. He was better, but I wasn’t…

So, much to my shame and humiliation in front of my two most hardworking employees, Penelope insisted that I wear a diaper of sorts full time now. We could revisit the issue later and she claimed I was wearing ‘adult briefs’ but I saw them. She could mix her words however she liked, but they were still diapers. Only my pride fueled my internal drive to keep calling them ‘adult briefs’ instead.

“They’re there and they’re fine,” I tried to quickly brush off. I was still very conscious about the crinkle they induced whenever I walked around. Penelope said I was just too hyper focused on them and that no one else could hear, but even if that was the case, I knew and that was enough.

Still, for now, smiling and nodding, Penelope and I then exited the house and got in her car. Mine was still parked from coming back from an errand the other day, but again, with the possibility of another blackout on my part, my driving ability was just too much in question for it to even be remotely safe. Penelope had been driving me to Dr. Benson’s and the like since the beginning, but this felt different now. My position on the passenger side now felt more childish than a simple matter of convenience. I was seated there for ‘my own good.’ Still, I tried to put all that out of my mind as we then pulled up in front of the club once more.

Looking around, I could see that there were about the same number of cars here tonight as when we first came. In fact, nearly everything felt identical to the first time as well. One bouncer, check. One password, check. One bag and valuables checkpoint, check. Even Wilbur performed his song and dance routine for us. This time though, Penelope took the offered crackers tonight. “What? I’m hungry.”

I just sighed and looked ahead to where I could clearly spot a happily sitting Dr. Benson. “Just come on and let’s get this over with… I see Dr. Benson already. So, let’s go over and figure out what we need to do, okay?” Penelope only stuffed her mouth with a cracker and nodded.

Getting to Dr. Benson, I felt myself putting on a bit of a show for him. Nothing obvious, but I guess I was compensating as I tried to stand and even walk over to him as maturely as I could. It probably had the opposite effect, but it also made sure that Dr. Benson saw us walk in. “Ladies! Welcome back!”

“Not like we had much of a choice…” I was still upset, though my nerves were starting to become my main issue at this point, but it had started to spill over into my tone.

“Awww, don’t be like that!” I nearly shuddered at his playful and almost childlike voice. “We’re here to have fun and to fix you right up! Probably could use a little of that now, huh?” I didn’t want to answer him, so we all just stood in silence for a moment.

“So, how do we do this?” I finally asked. I could see that Dr. Benson was already testing me tonight. I didn’t like it but considering the ‘adult briefs’ I was now wearing, I was willing to step a little more down to accommodate his ego, medical sense, or whatever was going on with him while in this place.

“Well, it’s simple,” he began. “We get you nice and relaxed, and then all suited up.”

“Discounting the relaxation, you almost make this sound like I’m going into a combat or hazard zone…” Flashes of my youth watching late night TV and all the reruns of violent movies or the actual reels from the Last Great War. They all seemed so final and permanent whenever they said that. I couldn’t help but gulp in my fears that this arrangement might end up being the same for me.

“No, nothing like that. Just need the proper… attire.” Dr. Benson then looked around and it wasn’t hard to guess just what ‘suit’ I would be wearing. All around us, Bigs, clearly regressed and in their own world from what I could tell, crawled or toddled around. Occasionally, one would fall, but they either wouldn’t care about the impact, or they would tear up and not a moment later, another Big would swoop in.

“Fine.” I had come here to heal myself and prevent the ‘adult briefs’ I was wearing now from going… further. “What’s next then?”

“Well, you take your pill and then you have some fun!” he said too cheerfully. But then my mind snapped to one word he had just used. “After, we get your sorted and then it’s…”

“Wait… pills?” My mind tried to justify that they were the Enilikas pills again, but I knew that even if I had any leftover, per Dr. Benson’s own instructions, I couldn’t take them until later. “What pills are you talking about exactly?”

Dr. Benson’s face went white. It was the first time I really saw him looking nervous. It scared me honestly. “You mean… you don’t know?” I shook my head, hoping this was just some mix-up in communication. “You should have been told. I left specific instuc… tions…”

He paused awkwardly, and then furrowed his brow, like he was trying to solve some complicated math problem. “Wait…” He then leaned over a little and looked directly behind me. “Penelope?”

I spun around to face my employee. This time, instead of her usual confident self, I saw someone nearly shirking under the very visible and recent spotlight. “What did you do?” I pressed. I was feeling the fog, but this sudden turn of events was giving me enough ‘umph’ to push through.

“I…” Penelope wrung her hands together and shifted on the spot. “I didn’t tell you Miss G. You would have never agreed to have come and…” She looked back up at me and I instantly saw the fear, the concern, and the worry for me all mixed into one. “You need this place, Miss G! Whether you realize it or not. No matter what Dr. Benson asks you to do, you need to do it! I don’t care if I lied. You need this place, and I promised to help you through this! I…”

“Penelope!” Dr. Benson barked. She quickly quieted down and went back to her previous shrinking pose. “Both of you… with me… now!” We didn’t need any other prompting, and both followed him to a back room. Inside were various paddles and even a single stool in the corner. I knew it was the punishment room and I could instantly feel my heart start to race, and my palms start to get sweaty.

Dr. Benson then stopped and pivoted to face us both. “I’m very disappointed in both of you.”

“Me?” I questioned. I felt I hadn’t done anything wrong here. Penelope was the one who lied to me. I was the victim! “I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Dr. Benson sighed but then glared right at me. “You made Penelope feel that she had to lie to you. She was probably right in the fact that A, you need this, and B, you wouldn’t have come here if she had told you the truth. She’s just trying to help you and for a split second, I just wish you would allow others to help you.” Properly put in my place, I hung my head low. They were both right, and I was wrong. I just didn’t like being lied to…

“And you…” Dr. Benson snapped his attention to Penelope. “She’s the one with a condition here. I would expect lies from her as a defense mechanism, but you? You need to step up to this plate, or so help me, I will find someone else who will. No more lying! Do you understand?”

I could see Penelope briefly look at the implements in the room, and almost opposed to the usual confident demeanor I had seen her with lately, she only meekly nodded. “Yes, Dr. Benson. I’m sorry…” Dr. Benson didn’t let up his scowl though. Penelope clearly saw why as she turned to me. “And I’m sorry too, Miss G. I shouldn’t have lied to you…”

“Okay. Good,” Dr. Benson declared before I could apologize. “The night is only so long, and we need to get to it right away. Tiffany, you can apologize to Penelope later.” Fearing anymore scolding more than normal for some reason, I quickly nodded my head.

“Good.” He then reached into his front suit pocket and pulled out a single blue case and popped it open. The two pills shined in their glossy black appearance. “This is called ‘Moro.’ It will help relax your mind. Ease your burdens if you will. It also boosts the Enilikas once you take that when you leave. It’s a powerful combination, and if it works right, you shouldn’t need to come here very often. First though, you need to sign these forms.”

I sighed and just followed Dr. Benson away. In seconds, I had affixed my name to several legal documents. Each gave permission and care to those here in the building, plus a massive and strict confidentiality agreement that bound everyone to this place. Breaking any of the rules set down was ground for immediate expulsion from Adulescens, stopping of all future medication, and likely legal problems as well. In essence, to violate that around here meant one’s doom anyways.

“Okay,” I said, after taking a massive deep breath. “I think I’m ready. Or at least… as ready as I’m ever going to be I guess.”

Dr. Benson smiled. “That’s something and you being ready is an important part.” He then waved over, and Wilbur came running. Seconds later, I had two Moro pills and a glass of apple juice to wash it down with.

“Okay. That… woah.” I had swallowed the pills and Dr. Benson couldn’t stop smiling. I almost wanted to tell him to stop it, but I was already feeling a warm sensation of sorts.

“Easy there, Tiffany.” Dr. Benson gestured over to Penelope to come help me sit down and to make sure I didn’t completely fall over. “This first dose is the big kicker. We’ll record it for your records and ours and we’ll see just where you end up and what you’re like. We do each step carefully, but be warned… the first time, it’s not uncommon to blackout.”

“What?” I didn’t know that. Strangely though, despite my mental fear setting in, I only felt what I could describe as a giddy joy rising up through my body. “Is it safe?”

“Perfectly.” Dr. Benson got closer and rubbed my back. He also gave an all-knowing look to Penelope I couldn’t quite place, but honestly, in that moment, I really didn’t care I couldn’t place the look. “It might just feel a little funny when you finally…”

*              *              *

“I think she’s coming to…” I heard a familiar voice say through the fog that was now rapidly clearing as I opened my eyes.

“What… where… who… ugh!” I clutched my head as the bright lights from the room almost instantly gave me a headache. “What’s going on? Where am I?”

Dr. Benson then crouched down to my view. “Well, you’re perfectly safe, first off. Your treatment was a success. Isn’t that right, Penelope?”

Penelope leaned in over me and smiled. “That’s right Dr. Benson. You were just so great tonight, Tiffany. A real cutie and a trooper to boot.” She seemed… different but I just could quite place why.

The fog lifting even more now, I looked around the room. It seemed to be a backroom of sorts that appeared like it was used for several purposes. Medical equipment lay to one side while bins of various items lay to the other. For my part, I was dressed back just the way I came in, but my buttons seemed different… like someone else had dressed me. I wasn’t sure if that disturbed me more or for the simple fact that my ‘adult brief’ felt different than the one I had first put on.

Dr. Benson then handed a single disc to Penelope. “You two should watch this. Things can get lost in the moment for you Penelope, so I suggest a rewatch, but for you Tiffanny… I think it will be an… enlightening experience for you.”

My sense nearly coming back fully to me, I leaned forward and swung my legs over the doctor’s exam table I had been laying on. “I very much doubt that. Whatever you saw… whatever you two think you might have saw… it isn’t me. It was jus the drug… nothing more.”

Penelope and Dr. Benson both seemed skeptical of that. “Well… maybe to some degree, sure, but so you know… Moro really only affects your inhibitions. With most regression drugs, they bury themselves in your mind. They can be a lot worse all at once sometimes, because those barriers we build up as we grow are quickly taken down. Moro does that to perfection. So, sure… the ‘you’ on this disc isn’t ‘you,’ but it’s definitely not something that just came out of the blue. This is you, Tiffany. It’s just another version of you… it’s only buried down deep in places you dare to go within your own mind.”

I wasn’t sure what else to say, so Penelope quickly packed up and headed out. Creepily, we were the last ones to leave, so when we were collecting our valuables before exiting, Dr. Benson came up to us without any reservations. “Wait… just one more thing to think about before you go.”

I willed every ounce of my being not to groan at being kept longer. I was already feeling extremely tired and for some reason, my knees really hurt. “And what is that exactly?”

Dr. Benson sighed. “The disc… it’s all true and it might be embarrassing for you but remember two things. First, this one event can prevent dozens more. If you come back on a regular basis and take what I tell you, you should be much better off than before.” He paused, and I really wasn’t sure if it was more to collect his thoughts or if it was just for added effect.

“Second thing,” he finally continued, “is that while the tape is true and you were right in saying that a large part of tonight was from the Moro drug, there’s another part as well that I forgot to mention.” Intrigue my body seemed to lean in, consciously or even subconsciously. “Tonight, and what you see in that disc… if you don’t keep this up, that will likely be what happens to you in the future.” He then straightened himself up and tugged at the jacket he was now collecting from the front as well. “Just food for thought…”

‘Food for thought’ indeed… The whole ride back with Penelope was just us sitting in silence. I could tell she wanted to talk to me, but I could almost see the disc burning through her purse seated between us as I yearned and yet feared what was on it. All this could be the solution to my darkest fears, but seeing that tape… I knew it could be my undoing as well.

The next day, I was nearly itching to finally have a moment of rest later in the afternoon. Mildred and Jackie were both on and Penelope was serving as a back-up and extra hand if needed. Seth still hadn’t exactly calmed down in his personality swings quite yet. We managed, but none of us wanted to take a chance with him again and be unprepared due to a lack of personnel.

Still, I wandered up to my room, grabbed Miss Pink from under my bed, and then popped the disc in. Sitting back on my bed and making sure only the speakers nearest to my bed were functioning so I could still listen to it quietly, I pressed play.

From the start, I was horrified. Like the previous video I had watched with my interaction with Seth and my subsequent breakdown in front of him, I almost felt like I was looking at a different person in this case as well. That Big had my same hair, same build, even my same voice, but everything else was completely different. The Big I was seeing now was six seconds away from either being completely giggly to a bucket of tears in the next moment.

To be honest, I think that got to me way more than even when I plopped myself onto the changing table and had my own diaper changed by Penelope. On some level, I knew she did that, but considering I was already wearing an ‘adult brief’ now, my change yesterday didn’t shock me. Even the strawberry-themed romper I was placed in wasn’t out of place, but my behavior… it just scared me. If I didn’t see the screen and only heard the audio, I could have sworn I was listening to any Little off the street or staying downstairs. It disturbed me to my very core, but I kept watching through snack time, coloring time, and even story time.

It was a lot to watch, but two things became very clear to me. First, I knew it was me and I was completely regressed in the video I was watching. Not babbling or soiling myself, but regressed, nonetheless. If the doctor’s warning to me about this being my future was at all true, it made one thing clear. Second though, even after my initial fog and my embarrassment watching everything unfold still lingered, I had never felt clearer… even with the Enilikas.

Still, both notions led to the same conclusion; I had to go back. I might have been cuddling with Miss Pink today, but everything else felt more normal. In a way, despite the ‘adult brief’ and Miss Pink, I had never felt more adult or opposite to the Big I was now viewing. Before I could watch any further though, I heard a knock at my door.

Curious, I paused the video and then went over to open my door. It was a tear-eyed Jonathan. “Jonathan… is everything okay? Are you hurt?” He shook his head rapidly, but like Seth had done the other day, Jonathan shuffled about and was clearly trying to hide the crotch of his pants. Wearing pull-ups meant that he likely hadn’t leaked, especially considering that the floor was dry under him, but his hand nearly pointed me right in the direction of the problem though.

Knowing Jonathan as I did though, I knew my technique could and likely had to be different when dealing with this kind of situation as opposed to Seth. There were many factors, but chiefly… Jonathan was wearing pull-ups, but seeing him now like this, I knew sadly that they were just going to be a thing from his past yet again.

“Is there something you need to tell me, honey?” To some, it might have sounded far too saccharine, but I knew for Jonathan in this moment, he likely knew what it meant. He didn’t need a firm hand or trickery. He needed compassion and care.

“I… I…” Jonathan tried to look me in the eye and confess what he had mistakenly done in his pull-up, but I could see that his shame was too overwhelming. “I didn’t make it in time.” I could already see the tears forming and I went in for a hug, like I had one a thousand times before whenever a Little hit this stage. Something stopped me though.

Right as I leaned in to give him a hug, I continued to do so to ensure that Jonathan wouldn’t question what was wrong, but this time, I heard a crinkle.

To my shame, Jonathan had outlasted me in moving from his first layer of protection to his second now. I had used an old lady pad, and he had been in pull-ups. Now, he was the same, for now, but I was different with my ‘adult brief.’ Of course, his own future protection would likely look very different from my own, but their purpose felt eerily too similar. Still, I knew I had to set my own feelings aside for a moment and address him directly.

“That’s okay. These things happen and I’m so sorry for it, but you know what?” Jonathan and I leaned apart, and he shook his head, not knowing where I was going with this. “I bet that pull-up of yours doesn’t feel too comfortable though, does it?” He shook his head again. “Alright then. Let’s get you all sorted.”

I then led Jonathan back down to his room, now on the third floor. I was tempted to move him to the fourth floor already, but Seth posed a problem. Now though, based on a unanimous vote, everyone agreed that he could be moved to the fifth floor. Now, Jonathan had a greater need for what was on the fourth floor and Seth needed more structure and safety measures in place on the fifth.

I hated this part, but I knew I had to do it quick and get it over with. The faster Jonathan accepted this new path, the better it was going to be for him in the long run. “Jonathan…” He looked at me with despair, particular when he saw that I was standing by his potty-training chart. Sadly, there were more rainclouds than sunshine days lately.

“I think… I think we need to discuss maybe a different option with you staying here…” Jonathan’s lower lip trembled but he seemingly refused to give in and cry. “I think we need to move you up a floor… and into diapers as well.” A single tear rolled down his cheek, but he only dropped his head in defeat.

“I know…” It was always a surprise when a Little knew of a decision before any of the staff did, and while it could mean a harder road before getting there, on days like these, it made everything else so much easier. No straps, mittens, locking pacifiers, sedatives, or even straightjackets would be needed for Jonathan to comply with what needed to be done now.

So, knowing what had to be done, I raised my arm out to him. “Come on, sweetie. Let’s get you all fresh first. I’ll have Mildred bring the rest of your stuff upstairs in the morning.” Without complaint, Jonathan took my hand, and we went up to the fourth floor.

Stopping in front of the changing table, I knew I had to get the logistics out of the way first. “Okay, Jonathan. We just need to talk about a few rules and odds and ends first, okay?” Wordlessly, he nodded. “Good. First, a staff member should ask you permission to change your diaper for now at least. You get below a certain point; it just needs to happen… whether you want it or not. So, Jonathan, nod and say yes, but do you consent to a diaper change.” Another tear rolling down his cheek, Jonathan nodded.

“Good. I’m very proud of you for that, Jonathan. For that, I’ll make sure you get extra desert tonight.” I then cleared my throat. “Next, let’s get you into a diaper and then we can talk about the rest afterward.”

Jonathan just stood there and held his arms up. Our changing tables on this floor at least could be accessed by a Little, but I could tell he was still too much in stock. I didn’t mind and made quick work of hoisting him upward. So, easing him back, I removed his pants and revealed the sopping wet pull-up.

Gathering my supplies, I then went to work. Unlike Seth, given this was Jonathan’s first diaper change, I made sure to explain all the steps to him. He didn’t need details, but I wanted to make sure he knew what was right and what was wrong. If it was wrong, I made sure he would tell a Big right away. Diapers might be required in his future, but humiliation or… problematic Bigs were not. Soon, I made sure to tape the diaper on firmly and then patted the front, this one adorned with Adventure Sam cartoon motifs. It was cute, but not babyish. Perfect for someone like Jonathan at this point.

Finding a new pair of pants for him, these with snaps running up the inseams, I pulled Jonanthan up and sat him on the edge of the table, my hands never more than a few inches away to keep him from falling. “Okay, next you need to know the rules…” Jonathan didn’t say a word, so I just continued.

“First, always wear a diaper. Also, never remove it yourself… just find a Big you can trust, preferably the staff from our place.” Jonthan nodded. “Now, for the moment at least, if you need to potty, let one of the staff know as soon as you can. Try not to hurt anyone or wreck anything when you do, but we will try to do our best to get ou to a potty in time.”

I sighed over the next part. Some Littles didn’t react well to it… “That being said, if you are taken to the potty and someone else is using it, they take priority. Even if someone else comes along, unless they are diapers too, they get priority. Do you understand?” Sniffling, I could tell that Jonatha was too in the zone to say anything back. Still, he at least nodded.

“Finally,” I continued, “just remember that any business you do in the diaper will be cleaned as thoroughly as possible for health reasons, but accidents are okay to have. This diaper…” I pointed to and even pressed slightly into the newly formed bulge in his pants. “This is just a symbol of your bodily functions and nothing more. It’s not who you are and it’s not your status here…”

Like stepping forward and hearing the crinkling noise, this time I heard the rods I had told more Littles than I could count. I said that to help Littles out who felt dumb or self-conscious about their diapers. It usually helped, so I just kept up with the pep talk. Now, I felt it directly applied to me as well. My cheeks flushed in mortification of that fact, but it still helped me a little to accept my own fate in life now.

Nodding himself, I could see that Jonathan desperately needed a hug. Wrapping my arms around him tightly, I made sure that he had no doubt how much he was cared for here. Then, to ensure that he only left here with happy memories, I led him back downstairs to play with his budding friends of the rest of the younger-minded group.

Pleased with how it all went, I made sure to inform the ever-watchful Penelope about what had just happened. Not shocked at all and just nodding for now, we gave each other the look of ‘good job’ and the need to talk later. Mildred needed to be informed as well, but now, Jonathan was officially back in diapers.

Trying to take advantage of the rest of my break, I saw that I had left my TV on with an image of me playing with a ball, clearly diapered and totally oblivious to that and probably nearly every other factor out there. I cursed myself for being so careless as anyone could have been looking for me and now would have known my secret. It was too terrible to think about.

Still, as I clutched Miss Pink back on my bed and continued to watch the footage on my bed, I was disturbed by what I was seeing. I tried to vow to go less often… just at least just as much as I needed. I wasn’t sure what that meant but having successfully dealt with Jonathan and feeling clearer than ever, I had to admit Adulescens wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t great, but I felt a single hope in my chest. Maybe, just maybe, if I kept going back, one day, I would be cured of this infernal problem. For now, though, I just leaned back on my pillows with Miss Pink and watched the footage as I tried to draw something with a crayon in the art section of Adulescens. Stupid, maybe, but good? Most definitely.

[Guilend]

This is exciting. It is sad that she doesn't remember any of this. I wonder if the rules that she told Johnathan about will the same for her once she's demoted to diapers full-time and if she will lose control fully or if she'll decide to quit using the big girl potty. She should have her pad replaced with pull ups. And Penelope should take over her bedtime routine and require full on diapers at night. I also disapprove of Penelope calling them briefs, it's no different then a Little having the same problem and everyone still calls them diapers and not briefs. Just because she's a Big doesn't mean she deserves special treatment in that regard.