Chapters 27-29 by Sofia Hammerstein

'Alterations' continues the story of Stacy's journey from 'Exchanged' and 'Little Hope.' Stacy is a young college student who chose to travel to a new dimension to study their advanced computing technology at a prestigious university as an exchange student. Stacy thought he knew what he was getting into when he traveled, but multiple events show that he didn't plan for every problem he would encounter. Recently on a trip his adoptive parents adopted another Little, Bella, to help prevent her from being taken by unscrupulous Amazons. Stacy now begins orientation and classes at Emerson as the small family attempts to stay safe from the outside threat. Can Stacy manage to navigate college classes and everything the dimension can throw at him, and still make it back home with a degree? (Story set in the Diaper Dimension)

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The Legal Stuff: Exchanged © 2017-2025 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 

Chapter 27: Residual Effects
 

I HUGGED HER larger body for a few minutes, unsure of what to do before Amanda came in. “What’s wrong, Bella?” she cooed.

She sobbed and wailed, so she did the Mommy thing and sniffed, “Do you need a diapee change?” she said, “That’s no big deal. Let go of Stacy, and we’ll get you all clean,” she told her.

Bella didn’t initially want to let go of me for some reason, but we soon transferred her grip to holding Amanda’s neck. I watched Amanda hug her, kiss her, and bounce for a moment to try and get her calm. Bella played down to the role of sobbing baby quite well as Amanda laid her down on the changing table and put a pacifier in her mouth. Her sobs quieted a little as she sucked on the pacifier, but you could tell it wouldn’t calm her completely. Finally, Amanda pulled the skirt of her dress up out of the way and began to work on her diaper. I could just hear the rip of the tapes as she began wiping her.

At that point, I could feel myself need to go a bit, so I let some urine into the padding of my thick diaper but knew there was no reason to change it for hours yet.

“You poor thing,” Amanda continued to coo, “you’ve had an awful week; I don’t blame you for crying one bit.”

As soon as she had Bella dressed, Amanda carried her over to the rocking chair. She settled down into the chair while wrapping her protectively in a blanket and gently rocking. “Shhh…” Amanda said for several minutes before I watched her sigh, open her blouse, and trade the pacifier in Bella’s mouth for her breast. She continued patting her back and rocking while I sat there awkwardly. Then, figuring that Bella probably would be taking a nap next, I started picking up our dolls and accessories to put them away in the toy bin.

“Leave them out,” Amanda said quietly.

“Why?” I asked, “What if you step on them?”

She gave a pained look, “It shows that you two are well taken care of and playing. The neatness of the nursery was almost a red flag to the LPS lady earlier.”

I nodded, “Okay then…” and just kind of put the dolls at least to sleep next to the crib. Then, I climbed back onto my bed and opened my computer up as Amanda moved Bella to her other breast.

I looked through some things online until she finished nursing, burped Bella, then laid her down in her crib. Without warning, she came over to me and put her hand on my diaper. “That’ll take a lot more, huh?” She asked.

I nodded, “Yeah, it will…?”

“You want to come downstairs while your sister naps?” She asked me quietly.

“Can I just stay here in case Bella wakes up crying?” I asked her.

She smiled, “Sure… want a bottle at least to drink?”

I nodded, “Please,” while thinking what I really wanted was what Bella had just had.

She hugged me and said, “Okay, be right back.”

I did a few mundane things on my computer while waiting for her. Finally, she reappeared with a juice bottle and handed it to me, “Thanks Mommy,” I told her.

“Be good,” she told me as she left again. I quickly nursed about half of the bottle down and then got to work on my project.

I was excited when I learned that part of the university privileges for students included access to electronic medical journals. So I logged in through the university library and searched for abstracts involving studies on Amazon breast milk. Most of them were innocuous enough studies on normal Amazonian babies, especially pertaining to their growth and brain development. I read a couple of the abstracts on those and saw that they really did push breastfeeding’s benefit over formula, just like in my world. However, unlike back home, formula seemed less driven by mothers who could not lactate enough. The few studies I glanced through indicated it was a non-existent problem in this dimension, and every Amazonian mother was able to breastfeed for at least a year. Formula was instead driven by working mothers who didn’t want to pump. Or, also mothers who didn’t like to be chomped on by teeth…

I managed to narrow my search to its effects on Littles and then found several research journals on the nutrition aspect of Amazon milk. They all indicated that an average Little could be sustained solely on their mother’s milk if they fed every two to three hours. Any less than that, and it was likely that a Little would be at least somewhat malnourished. It also indicated that by feeding a Little only on breastmilk, you would get the result of a plumper, healthier-looking baby. Several articles noted that you could get away with fewer nursing sessions by using vitamins and supplementing with formula or baby food. When I finally found a comparison of the components of Amazonian breast milk versus Littles, I was curious to note that the Amazonian milk contained a higher level of calcium and proteins per ounce than the version Little mothers produced.

A few other studies showed that Littles who breastfed were far more likely to be compliant and bond emotionally to their ‘mothers.’ Several psychological studies showed these ‘babies’ rejected the breast at very low rates once given at least one nursing session. Finally, I came across one study that took free Littles and gave them breast milk unknowingly for a week before presenting the mother who had produced it in the same room. The Little instantly hugged the stranger and excitedly nursed at her breast in all thirty cases. The study noted that there might be a psychosomatic trigger caused chemically in the milk. Further investigation was needed, they suggested, as it could be a separately synthesized substance administered to parents struggling to bond with their Littles.

I squirmed at just how invasive and awful some of the experiments were. They were all written in scientific language, but all I could picture were the Nazis in Germany under Josef Mengele justifying their horrific acts. I shuddered but kept digging, hoping to find something more specific about the chemical mechanisms. My bottle was empty when I finally found a study linking their milk to urinary and bowel control.

‘Pathway to Control’ was the name of the study and specifically looked at the usefulness of a specific Casein Protein E3 present in Amazon breast milk. Wading further through the technical terminology required several dictionaries and more research, but they named a Pontine Mictruition Center, along with the spinal cord, that controlled bowels, and urinary release. The flooding of the body with the amino acid that made up the E3 Protein resulted in the buildup of chains right on the receptors of those two centers. Something about the tiny receptors bonded very quickly with the E3, and they discovered a ‘clumping’ of those chains around them. The effect seemed to be that those centers were inhibited and constantly would give signals to the bladder muscles that it was full. Its effects would also diminish the signal to the cortex of the brain. Due to that, the status of the bladder was consistently misinterpreted. A similar process towards the center that controlled the anal sphincter seemed to occur, too, causing the muscles to continually relax their hold while simultaneously blocking that signal from the brain’s receptors.

I read one paragraph that made me squirm, ‘Short-term studies show that removing the protein’s presence will let the centers recover and clear – returning full control to the Little. However, continual long-term exposure for at least a month results in a residual structure remaining around the center. This seems to be damage that cannot be easily corrected. Furthermore, Littles rarely showed any control even when no longer exposed regularly to the protein.’

The study believed that the protein could be isolated and marketed as a medication to help Littles who were fighting the diaper training their ‘parents’ were giving them. Included within the study was a diagram of the specified mechanism, and I wondered if I could use it to program the nanobots to clear the chains off the centers? Or make an immune response to attack the chains?

Amanda came in right then, though, and said, “Ready for din-din?”

I shook my head and quickly closed out of what I was doing before saying, “Sure.”

Bella was still fast asleep, so Amanda said, “Bella baby, do you want to wake up and have dinner?”

She groaned and said, “Don’ feel good... swweep pwease?”

I watched Amanda’s face turn into a worried frown, but she said, “yes, you can. If you need something, call out, I’ll have the monitor on downstairs.”

She just mumbled and rolled over. Amanda came over to me then and stuck her hand on my diaper, “Let’s change you after dinner?”

I shrugged, “I can’t really feel it in these, so that’s fine.”

She hugged me and carried me downstairs to my highchair. Some pot roast was cut up along with mashed potatoes on a plate for me. “Thanks!” I told her, “This looks great, Mommy!”

A bottle of juice was placed on the tray, too, “Okay, so what is it you’re working on…?” as she sat down.

Fred looked at me curiously, “What are you talking about?” he asked.

“Our daughter here is most definitely up to something; I just haven’t figured out what. Seems she’s been messing around a bit with Mommy making her think she was on the web?”

“I have been on the web,” I told her.

“On sites that don’t exist in this dimension?” She asked with a smirk.

“So, it was you!” I smiled and stuck my tongue out at her, “I hoped it was.”

“Apparently, you really are too good at this for your own good. Most people wouldn’t have found that, let alone fooled me for a couple days here.”

I smiled, “I didn’t know who put it on… I’d rather have a secure system,” I told Amanda honestly.

“That’s honestly really smart… now back to my question?”

I debated about lying but decided there was no reason to. “I’ve been researching the causes of why your milk would make me lose control.”

Fred’s eyes went up a bit at that, “How?”

“I’m a university student? I have full access to the electronic library with medical journals and everything else.”

He nodded, “I have the same access but haven’t really had a chance to sit down and look myself. Did you find anything?”

I looked around and mouthed, “We’re secure?” to Amanda.

She nodded, “I swept earlier and got rid of the four presents the LPS officers left.”

I sighed and looked at Fred, “I think so. Your milk has a specific protein that isn’t present in Little mother’s milk. The research shows that it binds up inside a Little’s body on two receptors,” I gave him as technical of an understanding as I had gained about it.

“Hmm… if you feed long-term, though, those build up?” Amanda asked nervously.

“Yes… Kind of like plaque in arteries… There must be some clearing possible, though? I mean clearly, some Littles who get away and can re-potty train?”

Fred looked thoughtful, “I know that probably ninety percent of them end up still wearing diapers though for at least occasional accidents. So whatever control they gain back can’t be that great?”

Amanda sighed, “I guess that means no more nursing for you.”

“Well…” I said.

“You can’t seriously be thinking of risking it?” Amanda asked.

“Not without some adjustments…?”

“Adjustments…?”

“Give me a day or two, and I’ll explain. I don’t want to get my own hopes up yet?”

She narrowed her eyes at me, “Nothing crazy, right?”

I just made the most angelic face I could, “Mommy, I’m not cwazy… It’s not wike I came to another dimension to get adopted and become a baby again?”

They both laughed at that, and we all finished eating. “May I go back to my room and work on my computer?” I asked.

“Let’s see what your sister is doing first,” she said, “and change that diaper of yours too. You probably can’t even waddle in that thing at this point.”

I poked at the padding through the weird panty and nodded, “Probably not.”

She laughed at me quietly and carried me upstairs. Bella seemed to still be asleep, so Amanda was quiet as she changed me into a regular pamper. “Let’s take you and your computer down to Mommy’s lab?” she suggested in a whisper.

I shrugged but nodded and grabbed my computer and tablet from where I’d left them. When we arrived at the workroom, I asked Amanda, “How bad was the LPS lady to her? I can’t believe she’s slept this much…?”

Amanda looked at me thoughtfully, “I honestly don’t know why she’s crashed so hard…?”

I felt my gut tighten then, “Are you sure she’s okay?” I paused and added, “Are you sure those were really LPS agents?”

The terror on her face made me think she hadn’t considered that. She hurried back down the hallway and cried out, “FRED!!!!!”

I just sat there in the highchair for a moment as I heard Fred’s footsteps pound down the hallway to our nursery. I looked down at the harness I was strapped in with. I frantically pressed on the buckle release with all of my might. It took several minutes of trying many different ways before I miraculously got the buckle to come loose. ‘Thank God I’m in a baby’s highchair and not a Little’s…’ I thought to myself as I climbed down. I hurried to the nursery and found that the baby gate was open and forgotten. Fred held a limp Bella in his arms and moved towards the changing table.

“Amanda, call 9-1-1!!! Tell the operator she has a very weak pulse and is non-responsive.”

Amanda stood there for a second, looking lost and confused, “What’s happening to her…?”

My phone was sitting right on my desk, so I grabbed it and dialed the number myself.

“Nine, one, one, what’s your emergency…?” The operator asked.

I looked up to see if Amanda looked like she could talk to the operator, but seeing her in a state of shock, I took the initiative, “My little sister is unconscious and unresponsive. My daddy is a doctor, and he said she has a very weak pulse, and we need an ambulance to take her to the hospital.”

The lady impressed me by not questioning my high squeaky voice, “What’s your address?”

I had to think a few moments before responding with the address I needed for some paperwork, “9387 Oak Lane.”

“Okay, the ambulance is on its way, sweetheart. Just stay on the phone with me until they get there. Does your daddy know what’s wrong with her?”

I looked up at Fred, who was still observing her. “The operator wants to know if you know what might be wrong with her?”

Amanda finally snapped out of her stupor and asked, “Fred… what can I do?!?”

“Go get my emergency bag from the car,” he told her. “I have a crash kit in there. I hope we don’t need it, but she’s breathing shallower.”

She hurried out of the room, and he told me, “I think she may have been poisoned. I don’t know what form it was. She was acting strange earlier, right?”

I thought back and nodded before I relayed that to the operator, “We think she might have been poisoned…?”

“Poisoned? Intentionally?” The lady asked in shock. “Never mind that. Can you give me as much information as you can on your sister?”

I told her Bella’s age, height, and weight then. After that, I decided I didn’t know enough about what happened earlier to see if it was the LPS ‘agents’ or not. It seemed likely to me, but I didn’t mention it to them on the phone since I would just be guessing.

Amanda came back upstairs quickly with Fred’s emergency bag and handed it to him. I watched as he hurriedly opened it up to find whatever he needed inside. He attached some leads to a small square box and then to her bare chest. I guessed it must have been some sort of small AED or heart monitor, as it began beeping irregularly. He grabbed a bag valve mask and placed it on her face before he started gently squeezing it to help her breathe. From what I could tell, she didn’t seem to be improving, and Fred’s face looked increasingly concerned as every moment passed.

After what seemed like an eternity but was probably only five minutes at the most, the doorbell rang, and Amanda ran downstairs to get the door. Paramedics followed her upstairs and assisted Fred in getting her on a small stretcher board. “I think she’s going into some sort of toxic shock. Do you have epinephrine?” I heard him ask as they carried her quickly downstairs to the ambulance.

As they carried her, I found Grandpa’s number on my phone and dialed it as the paramedics had arrived.

“Grandpa?” I asked as he answered.

“Stacy? What’s wrong?”

“Bella… something’s wrong with her! Daddy thinks she might have been poisoned. So they’re leaving with her to the hospital!”

“We’ll be at your house in a minute!” He said and hung up.

I followed the group downstairs and stood by Amanda as we watched helplessly as they loaded Bella into the ambulance. Fred climbed into the ambulance, and they were off a moment later. Amanda just couldn’t register much of anything in her shock, from what I could tell. I walked over to her and hugged her legs tightly. Her only response was to reach down, pick me up, and tightly hug me to her body while crying her eyes out.
 
 

Chapter 28: Analysis
 

GRANDPA JOE AND Granny had to have broken every speed limit and ran every red light to get there as quickly as they did in their two vehicles. Both pulled into the driveway at the same time. Joe appeared to have come all of the ways from the studio since he was still in his gi. “Oh, baby, what happened?” Granny asked as she enveloped Amanda in a tight hug.

She just sobbed for several minutes, “Stacy… Stacy… and I were talking, and… she asked if Bella was really okay…?” She tried to get her sniffling under control but was failing miserably. “She had a gut feeling something was wrong… So I went to check on Bella, and she wouldn’t wake up… I kept shaking her shoulder and then found her pulse was weak...”

She lost it then, and Granny hugged her and consoled her. Then, finally, Grandpa Joe squatted down next to me, “What do you think happened?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know… Bella seemed fine for a while… but then seemed sick or tired. She could have just been traumatized from whatever that lady did to examine her… but she didn’t want to wake up for dinner… then she didn’t wake up even later… Something about it seemed wrong when I stopped and thought about it…?”

“I’m so scared, Mama!” Amanda sobbed on Granny’s shoulder.

I walked over and hugged Amanda’s legs and found myself picked up again and joined in the crying session.

“Theresa, why don’t you take Amanda to the hospital. I’ll stay here with Stacy as they probably wouldn’t allow her into the NICU anyway…?”

Amanda looked down at me, and I could see she was scared and concerned for the girl that had only been calling her ‘mommy’ for a week. ‘I guess the maternal bonding of an Amazon doesn’t take too long to form!’

“I’ll be fine, Mommy. Go check on Bella. Grandpa and I’ll be fine here,” I tried to maintain a fake smile for her sake.

“Come on, Mandy,” Granny told her.

I was given a squeeze and then handed to Grandpa, who watched them leave before bolting the door and carrying me to the couch to sit down. “So, really, what do you think happened?” He asked me.

I shrugged, “That lady had Bella upstairs on her own before we came home earlier. From what little Bella said, it sounded like she was pretty invasive with her inspection for abuse and a diaper change - inappropriately so. She could have easily put something inside of her then or just used a cream on her before putting the diaper over it?”

His eyes narrowed, “That’s probably a good guess… did she have a diaper change after that?”

I shrugged, “I don’t keep track, but I think so?” I thought for a moment, “Yeah, she did…?” Then, I wrinkled my nose, “Just before dinner, it was a poopy one that she was upset about since it was the first one she didn’t know she had gone.”

“Come on, let’s go upstairs and see if we can find the diaper that she had on… it would be a good idea to have it checked out.”

“We’re digging through the diaper pail?” I wrinkled my nose and groaned as he hoisted me in the air and carried me to the nursery. Fred’s medical bag’s contents were still strewn about the room. He walked over to our diaper pail and opened it up. Amanda used a type of pail that made little pockets in a long plastic wrapper, sealing each diaper in its own smell-resistant wrapper section as it was dropped inside. He pulled the tube of used diapers loose from the entry spot and began looking at them.

“That should be the one, right? She’s a lot larger than you in diaper sizes…?”

He held it to where I could see the poop stains on the larger-sized diaper. I grimaced at the smell that began to escape from the pail, “That’s hers, alright.”

“I’ll be right back…” he said before walking out. I heard his footsteps go down the hallway, and he came back with gloves, a Ziploc bag, and a pair of scissors. I watched as he put the gloves on, cut the section of wrapped diaper out, and then placed it into the Ziploc. I wrinkled my nose as a bit of poop smeared against the clear Ziploc.

“I think it would be a good idea to get this to a friend of mine at the police department. They have a good lab, and he should be able to test it quickly. Maybe if they can identify the agent, they’ll be able to treat Bella better.”

As he pulled off the gloves, his cell phone rang, “Fred, what’s the word? Mandy and her mom left about ten minutes ago.”

I held my breath, wondering what Fred would say…

“Not good then? They can’t identify the poison?” He paused, “Well, I have a clue in my hands… it’s the diaper that lady changed her into. I’m going to run it to a friend on the police force. I think they might be able to identify any foreign substance in their lab…?”

“Well… yeah, I could take her there too while I’m at it… She’d be safe? Or maybe Megan can come to pick her up?”

I couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, and it made me go a little nuts. ‘I need to boost the gain on my hearing or something!’ I thought while looking around my room. I just glanced up at the video baby monitor then and smacked myself mentally for not thinking about it before. I left Grandpa’s side and ran back down the hallway to Amanda’s lab, where my computer still sat on my highchair tray.

I hesitated for a second as it wasn’t the safest thing in the world, but I climbed up carefully into the seat that was a bit above my head, gathered the computer, and then began an awkward climb down. Then, I ran back down the hall to our nursery with my laptop in hand, where Grandpa was still talking on the phone.

“Stay there with her. Hopefully, the treatment they’re giving her is the right one. You might have Amanda checked for anything, too, since she contacted her when she changed her diaper later? Stacy and I’ll go down to the police station to drop this off, and then I’ll drop her off with Megan in her dorm.”

“See you soon, love you,” Grandpa said and finally got off his phone just as I opened up my computer.

“How is Bella doing?” I asked

“Bella’s heart stopped a couple of times on the ride to the hospital… She’s got an erratic heart rate right now, but at least it’s beating. The doctors are treating her the best they can for an unknown poison, but it’s going to be touch and go…?” He said before noticing I had my computer at my desk and turned it on. “What are you up to?”

I pointed to the two cameras that Amanda had to monitor in the nursery, “I think those record?”

“Oh…” he said. “You can get into that? Doesn’t Mandy have it passworded?”

I gave him a grim smile and then got to work. I quickly hacked my way back into that system and found that the system did indeed record a day’s footage. If I hadn’t thought of it, though, by tomorrow at this time, it would have been gone… I quickly scrolled through the footage until I found Bella being carried into the nursery by the lady. I played it back and watched the lady take Bella’s clothes off. As she did so, she said, ‘let’s change that wet diapee while we’re checking you out!’ After she put the strap over Bella’s chest, I noticed that she reached into her own purse for a pair of gloves and then a bottle of lotion of some sort. We watched as the video clearly showed her spread it all over her diaper area, chest, and legs like baby lotion before she put that bottle back in her purse and put the used gloves inside a Ziploc in her bag. There would have been no point to her using her own, though, because you could clearly see that there was a large bottle of baby lotion on the changing table…

“That’s pretty damning,” Grandpa said while looking over my shoulder.

“Yeah…”

“Download that, and put it in a few safe places?” He suggested.

“Done already,” I told him. “It’s on my computer, Amanda’s computer, and Fred’s computer. I also uploaded it to an online storage account I have, and it’s on this memory stick,” I handed him one of the drives Amanda had given to me with an adapter on it that I removed.

“You are a nerd-baby…” he said with a smirk. “Let’s run now and see if we can identify this poison!”

I grabbed my backpack, put my computer and power cord in it, grabbed my phone, and added my tablet. Then, I stopped, “Grandpa, did I hear you say that you’re supposed to drop me off with Megan?”

“Yes, your Grandma and Fred think it would be a good idea?”

“Then I guess I better change into a uniform and grab some pajamas and extra diapers while I’m at it.”

He nodded, “You have your own diaper bag too, right?”

I pointed downstairs, “I think it’s where you set it down when we came home earlier still.”

I grabbed a few extra Pampers from the shelf that I could reach and put them in my backpack to be safe. Then I walked to the closet and pointed to one of my uniform sets, “Can you grab two of those to be safe?” I told him and then pointed to the footed pajamas I wanted next, “And that?”

He smiled, “You need a change first while you’re getting changed?”

I assessed how the diaper felt in my brain and nodded. Grandpa picked me up and sat me down on the changing table before quickly changing my wet diaper like a pro. As he started to pull my outfit off to change me into my uniform, I asked, “Actually…Umm… would it be better just to make me seem like a normal baby to your friend?”

“Normal baby?”

“Put a hat on me, and I look like an innocent three-month-old infant… he might not display as much prejudice?”

He looked at me thoughtfully, “Might not be a bad idea, actually!” He grabbed the clothes he was going to put on me, folded the outfit neatly, and handed it to me, “You have room in your backpack for that?”

I nodded, pulled the bloomer panties back on, and stuffed the clothes as neatly into the backpack. I kept my student ID on my neck, dangling it underneath my dress, and walked over to the closet where Amanda had started a hat collection. I found a bonnet that matched my dress and carefully used it to cover all my hair while he ran downstairs to find the diaper bag.

“You know there is something to be said for you being able to blend in like that… perfect spy…” he muttered.

I smiled, “I try!”

He put another spare uniform, a cute sunsuit dress, and a pair of my footed pajamas into the diaper bag. I made sure that I added several days’ worth of diapers, just in case. I didn’t want to rely on the dorms for diapers! Joe picked me up and placed me on his hip while I carried my backpack myself on my back. Meanwhile, he held the diaper bag and the evidence in his other hand. Grandpa made a quick stop in the kitchen to grab a couple of clean baby bottles, several sealed bottles of water, and a handful of small bottles of apple juice that were quickly stuffed into my bag. “Be careful what you drink around the university,” he reminded me.

I nodded, “I know.”

He moved about, set the house alarm, locked up, and placed me into his car that featured a new rear-facing infant carrier car seat now. “When did you get a new seat for me?”

“Your Grandma dropped it off earlier… she wasn’t too happy with you being in a seat too big for yourself,” he said. “It’ll actually work really well, though, for your idea. I’ll just carry you in it and rock you back and forth. No way he’ll think you’re anything but the baby you appear to be.”

I nodded as he closed my door and walked to the drivers’ side. He started the car, and I stared at my outfit and hands as he drove for a long while. I missed the mirror that Amanda had put in the car for me. At least with it, I could see what was in front of us. I was also missing Bella as someone to talk to, at least...

Like every time I was in a hurry back home, it seemed like you hit every red light that existed! I sat and thought about Bella and hoped that she’d be okay. Medical technology seemed to be far ahead of our own back home, so hopefully, they had something – maybe even the nanites, that could help. I couldn’t help but think that ‘I came close to being the victim too!’ I wondered what the point of killing Bella after everything… ‘I guess they could mutilate her body and get the chip they’re after…?’ I kicked myself for not trying to hack it already myself.

At the police station, Grandpa Joe separated the car seat from its base and carried me out of the car. “Grandpa, why don’t you give me my pacifier?” I suggested. He set me down on the ground for a second while he dug through the diaper bag and found one to hand me. I plopped it into my mouth and smiled, “Fanks!”

He smiled back at me and closed the car door before putting the car seat handle under his arm and grabbing the evidence of what happened to Bella. I couldn’t see a lot from my vantage point, but the female officer at the desk smiled at me and cooed, “Oh my gosh, she’s such a cutie pie!”

“Right now, she is, but wait until she gets hungry or poops that diaper!” Grandpa joked. “I’m amazed how quickly she can go from being cute to a monster!”

“Oh, hush Joe, she’ll grow up with a complex!”

He laughed, “Maybe… Given my daughter is her mother, that may be inevitable,” he chuckled, “I’m here to see Bo in the lab?”

“Yes, sir, if you’ll just sign in here,” she said as she handed him a clipboard that he quickly signed before giving him a visitor’s badge. “Your little cutie doesn’t need a badge yet!” she told him.

He laughed, “Thanks, he’s still in the same place, right?”

“Same cages for the lab rats,” she said with a joke back.

He swung me again from his arm and moved down the hallway to wherever his destination was. He had to be buzzed in through two security doors before he finally sat me down on a table and began talking to this ‘Bo’ person.

“Hi Joe,” he said, extending a hand. Swinging from his arm, I actually had a good view of their conversation, seeing that he was quite a bit shorter than Joe - definitely scrawnier than average for an Amazon. However, I guessed that he was probably only eight and a half feet tall, so Joe easily towered over him.

“Hey Bo, thanks for letting me come in.”

“Yeah, no problem, Joe. You said it’s an emergency?”

“Some asshat bitch of a lady poisoned my daughters’ new little girl she adopted. I think it happened when she took her off to examine her during a fake LPS visit. In the video, we have it that she rubbed some cream on her, but we don’t know what the agent she used was. This was the diaper she was changed into by the lady.”

I watched the guy wrinkle his nose slightly, “That’s a different piece of evidence… some might say it’s really shitty evidence…?”

Joe gave a small grimacing smile, “The puns never stop with you!”

He shook his head and shrugged, “I aim to please. Believe it or not, it’s definitely not the most disgusting thing I’ve had to analyze. So what exactly do you want me to look for?”

“She rubbed the cream over her diaper area and her chest. I think that’s the substance we need to identify. There will probably be more than slight traces inside the diaper on the lining. The lady used gloves when she put the diaper on, so there won’t be fingerprints left to analyze. My granddaughter has been in and out of consciousness, and they’re barely keeping her going. If we can figure out the agent, she may have a chance.”

“And if she doesn’t make it?”

“Then I want to know what she did before I put her down for good,” he snarled.

“What were the symptoms?”

“She was cranky, seemed to have some loose stool – that would be in the diaper you’re holding, and then she became really sleepy. She wouldn’t wake up for dinner and when my daughter went to check on her discovered her barely breathing and non-responsive.”

“Shit… Well, a couple of things could cause that; off the top of my head… I’ll get right on it. Maybe it’s a common substance with some sort of available treatment. My equipment can probably have an answer in an hour either way?”

“That’s about as much as I can hope for… So I’m going to take my other grandbaby here to my youngest daughter to babysit for the night. We didn’t think it would be good for her to wait in the hospital.”

“No, it wouldn’t… So if you drop your grandbaby off, then come back… I’ll probably be about done analyzing it?”

“Great,” Joe said and shook his hand, “Thanks, Bo, I owe you!”

Bo shook his head, “No, I definitely owe you about fifty times this for saving my skin. This isn’t even close to enough to even the table. Erin would never have been able to raise our kids alone.”

“I’ll be back in a bit,” Joe said, giving him a gentle pat on the shoulder before picking me back up and carrying me out to the car.

Once I was secured, he went into his door, and I asked, “What did you do for him?”

“A few years back, there was a crime scene he was on-site investigating that was really just a trap by a bunch of cop-hating morons. Five heavily armed guys attacked the investigating techs and officers with automatic rifles. They had Bo pinned down, and the rest of his crew was either wounded or dead... I just happened to be nearby having dinner and managed to take down four of them before an injured office managed to get a round off into the head of the fifth. All were wearing heavy body armor… Seven officers died that day. Bo was injured, but I managed to do enough care at the scene that they were able to patch him up in the hospital and send him home to his family.”

“That’s amazing,” I said, “I had a feeling you were a bona fide hero the second I met you. You remind me a lot of my own grandfather.”

I felt a bit sad about missing him back home.

“I’d be honored to meet him someday,” he said to me with a voice that left no doubt that he was sincere.
 
 

Chapter 29: Sleepover
 

THE CAR RIDE to the university took as long as it had taken to get to the station. By the time we were there, I was thirsty, and my wet diaper was getting cold and clammy. He called Megan as he pulled into the parking lot, “Megan? We’re down here in Lot Forty-Two if you’ll come to collect your niece?”

He hopped out of the car and waited for Megan with me. “Let’s change your diaper and get you back into your school clothes.”

I nodded as he undid the harness straps and then moved me to the back seat on the other side of the car to strip me naked. I was more than slightly embarrassed to be in the midst of a diaper change as Megan came up, “Hi Daddy!” she said and hugged him. “Hi Stacy…” she said as he laid me down on the diaper and taped me in.

“Hi Megan,” I said.

“Did you bring pajamas?” She asked me.

I nodded, “They’re in the diaper bag?” Then, I added, “I thought it might be better to be in my uniform, though?”

She shook her head, “Pajamas make you look like an innocent little girl right now… Your uniform would mean people think you’re out after curfew?”

I grimaced, knowing that would undoubtedly come with spankings and demerits. My stupid brain recalled that being worth seven… “Should you carry me in the carrier then too?” I asked.

She looked thoughtfully for a second, “Let me think while we get you dressed. Daddy, do you mind if I take over? No offense, but you’re a little out of practice…?”

He laughed, “You girls and your dolls!”

She tickled my bare stomach and quickly zipped me into the pink-footed sleeper. “Naw, we’ll leave your carrier here. I’ll just carry you and have your diaper bag on my other shoulder. Daddy, can you hand me her backpack?”

He did so as she held me comfortably on her side. “Any more word on Bella?” She asked nervously.

“Not yet,” he told her, “I have a lab analyzing some evidence… I will go back there and hopefully have an answer in a half-hour or so. I’ll call you as soon as we know something more about Bella.”

She gave me a comforting squeeze then, “Okay, I’ll take care of the princess here. I’ll probably need to keep her at their house after tonight. Otherwise, they’ll get picky on her not being in a Littles dorm!”

“Yeah… I guess I could just take you there now?”

“No, you worry about figuring out what happened to Bella. We’ll be fine for a night if I have her in bed quickly when we get inside. No one can say she’s not being taken care of, and I am just babysitting my niece.”

He nodded before hugging us both, kissing her head, “I love you, Megan. See you soon.”

“Love you too, Daddy,” she said with a smile.

“See you later,” I said.

She waved my arm bye as we watched him pull out, and she began the trek to her dorm room. “Pretend to be sleepy for me, okay?”

I nodded, “It’s not that hard right now.”

Then, she gave me a comforting squeeze and waived her ID at the scanner to enter her dorm. There were a lot of ‘awes’ and ‘she’s adorable’ comments as I was carried upstairs. Then, just outside her room, she ran into Raileigh, “Hi Megan,” she said before taking a double-take, “why do you have Stacy?”

Megan sighed, “Her little sister was attacked this afternoon and is in the hospital. I’m babysitting while her parents and my parents are sorting out everything.”

“Oh my gosh, is your sister going to be okay?” She looked at me.

I shrugged, “Her heart apparently stopped a couple of times, and they’re doing all they can… It doesn’t look good right now,” I admitted with a few tears leaking out of my eyes.

“Aww, you poor thing,” she said sympathetically.

“Yeah… anyway, we’re going to turn in for the night. We’ll see you later,” Megan told her.

She closed the door and sat me down on the bed, “I thought we would have a clean entrance until we saw her!”

“Will we get any trouble for me being in here?” I asked.

She shrugged, “It’s an emergency. You’re an adopted Little in the capable hands of a babysitter. You don’t live in the dorms, so it’s not like it makes sense to send you there. And, clearly, according to the law, you cannot legally stay on your own.”

I nodded, “Umm… do you mind if I get on my computer for a little bit here?”

“Why?” she asked, “I thought you were sleepy?”

I smirked, “I’m tired, but I’m probably okay to stay up for a while longer. I have the image of the lady who did this to Bella. I’m hoping I can search it against their employees and anyone else?”

She nodded, “Go ahead, but we’re turning the lights off and laying down in the bed just in case anyone comes by to check on us!”

“Okay!” I told her.

“You want a drink before bed?” She asked as she handed me my computer from my bag.

“There should be a bottle in the bag?” I asked.

She looked and saw a full juice bottle in addition to the empty bottles, “You really want a baby bottle? You know, you’re not at my sister’s house?”

I smiled, “I’ll tell you a secret…?” Then, blushing, “I don’t think they’re that bad. I actually kind of like nursing from them.”

“You’re a weirdo, you know that?”

“Takes one to know one?” I suggested.

“Why you,” she said with a smirk and launched into a quick tickle attack before saying, “I actually need to go to the bathroom before bed… you’re coming with me because I can’t leave you alone in here.”

I nodded and held my arms out. Megan balanced me on her hip with her right hand and carried a carrier of stuff with her left into the bathroom. She washed her face, brushed her teeth, and then used the toilet with me sitting there in the stall with her. When we emerged, an older student was standing by the mirror. She seemed to be waiting for us.

“Megan, I heard you have a Little university student here? You know you can’t adopt the university Littles?”

Megan laughed, “I haven’t; this is my niece. Her baby sister is in the hospital in the ICU… My sister, who’s her mom, had nowhere else for her to stay tonight. So our dad asked me to babysit her here for the night with everything going on. We’re going to make a blanket fort and a bed on the ground so she can’t accidentally fall out of my bed. Kind of a slumber party?”

“She’s a student, though? Shouldn’t she be in Wenig?”

“Terra, she doesn’t live in the dorm. She’s adopted.”

“Then how is she a university student? Every Little university student has to live in Wenig?”

‘Clearly, this girl isn’t too bright!’ I thought to myself.

“I can be a student because my Mommy enrolled me here because I’m smart.”

She scoffed at that, “No Little is smart.”

“Well, I kind of am,” I told her. “Now, I know this is unusual, but I’m just here for tonight. I’m in a diaper, so there’s no worry of me leaking anywhere and making a mess. Aunty Megan is my babysitter. So is there really a big problem?”

She looked at me skeptically, “I guess not… it is a special circumstance, but you need to be in bed like now. Little’s were supposed to be in bed an hour ago!”

“I couldn’t just leave her unwatched in my room alone,” Megan reminded her.

The girl rolled her eyes for some reason, and we were able to make a quick exit from the bathroom to her room. “Work quickly,” she told me after pulling her mattress down and making a blanket fort like she’d talked about.

I didn’t waste any time loading the computer and running digging into the LPS systems. I ran her picture against a database of IDs and failed to match her. I remembered her name was supposedly Diana Ellis and typed that into the system. Her name came up as an employee, but she was definitely not the lady we had seen that afternoon.

“Shit…” I said softly.

“Stacy!” Megan admonished me quietly.

“Sorry… but the lady earlier was a fraud!”

She looked at the information I showed her and added her own, “Shit!”

“Auntie Megan, I have delicate ears here…” she responded by sticking her tongue out and dialing her phone.

“Dad?” She said quietly, “It’s Megan… Stacy just figured out the lady from this afternoon was a fraud.” I listened as she outlined what I had said and kept searching the lady’s image. It finally matched up with a company ID for Venture B & E. I showed her, “Dad, Stacy just gave me some more information that the lady works for that company they had problems within Selegnasol.”

I could hear him say, “Shit… hold on one sec…?”

“Is he at the lab?” I asked her.

She nodded, “Yeah, I’m still here…” she listened for a second, “Yes, sir, we’ll keep the door locked until you or Megan come tomorrow. Love you, Daddy, tell Mandy that I love her too, please,” and then hung up.

“They find something?” I asked her.

“He says they identified a poison, and he’s calling Fred at the hospital to see if the information helps with treatment.”

“Did he say what it was?”

“Iocainoxitate?” she paused, “I think that’s what I heard the tech tell Dad?”

I quickly typed the name into a search browser and felt my heart drop,

‘Iocainoxitate is used in industrial settings to aid in producing beryllium isopheres. The compound is considered highly hazardous, and full protective gear must be worn to ensure no exposure to skin or lungs occurs. Exposure to quantities as low as 10mcg are known to be fatal to adults.’

“This doesn’t look good,” I said, tears going down my face.

She looked over my shoulder and then hugged me, “There’s still hope,” she told me.

I nodded but didn’t agree verbally because what little I could see didn’t give me much hope. Finally, I decided it was time to call it a night and had closed the computer and laid down under the blanket ceiling of the fort she made when there was a light knock. I gave a look at Megan and put my head down to pretend to sleep.

I heard her lightly step to the door and open it, “Yes?” she said to the person.

“I was told you have a Little student from the university here?”

“I have my niece here. She is a student, but she’s been adopted by my sister and enrolled here. I’m babysitting her right now while her parents and my parents are at the hospital. Her little sister is in very bad shape there.”

“You know they have their own dorm…?”

“But she doesn’t live there.” She sighed, “Look, I’ll watch her at my parents’ home or her house tomorrow night if need be, but this was a very urgent emergency. Her sister’s heart stopped several times, and she may not make it through the night!!!”

“Oh my…” the voice said.

“Yeah… so can you please just let her stay here tonight? She’s already asleep?”

“This one time only… Any other time you have to watch her, you need to babysit at their house, or she needs to get a bed in Wenig since she’s a student.”

“Thanks, Carmen. I appreciate you doing this,” she said sweetly. “Now I don’t want to wake her up, so good night,” she told the girl.

We both feared the girl, who I suspected was the Resident Hall Director, would stand outside and wait to see if we began talking. Megan locked the door and changed into her own pajamas before laying down on the mattress next to me and giving me a big hug. “Let’s not risk her coming back…” she whispered in my ear, and I nodded.

I found her arms to be quite comfortable around me, and with the sound of her heart beating drumming in my ears, I was lulled to sleep pretty quickly.
 

AS I WENT to sleep, I feared the phone ringing telling us Bella had died. Instead, neither Megan nor I woke up until close to ten in the morning. A loud knock on the door was what it took to make me rub my eyes and fight to remember where I was. Megan was apparently as much of a morning person as I was because it took a few minutes of knocking before she sat me up and crawled her way out of the blanket fort to the door. I followed her, needing to pee badly. I felt my bladder completely drain involuntarily as she opened the door revealing Dean Sanders’ face.

“Good morning Dean Sanders,” I said, standing beside Megan.

“Good morning, ladies. Megan, I had an odd message this morning from your RD that a Little was staying with you. Do you have an explanation? This is normally against the code of conduct for our university for both big and Little girls,” she said coldly.

“Would you like to please come in and have a seat?” Megan said with a surprisingly calm smile as she looked at her and picked me up protectively in her arms.

“I guess,” she said, and Megan motioned her towards a small couch she had on one side of her room.

Megan settled herself down while placing me onto her lap as she sat in her desk chair. “Last night, my dad called me and said they had to rush Stacy’s sister to the hospital. It’s been touch and go all night long for her after she was taken there. My dad was needed to do a few other things and then went to the hospital with my mom to wait with Stacy’s parents for any word about Bella’s condition. Since the hospital obviously won’t let an adopted Little into the ICU, my dad dropped her off here with me.”

“What happened to your sister?” Dean Sanders asked me.

I debated what to tell her but decided to tell her the truth, “We think a lady impersonated an LPS officer yesterday and poisoned her.”

She narrowed her eyes, “You shouldn’t make up stories, young lady!”
 
 

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