Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 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.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 

Chapter 47: Model

THE DAY IN Caireen’s world was spent making other fortifications around the valley. I had suggested building some tall tower structures around the valley’s perimeter walls to allow archers to defend in the unlikely possibility Camulus decided to come around the sides. They became reinforced mini-citadels with housing for a small garrison of two-hundred archers a piece and space for three trebuchets to perch. With the skill of Caireen’s soldiers, combined with magically enhanced arrows, the soldiers could land a bombardment outside the new walls of the valley - as well as inside if needed. The likelihood of the structures being overrun was minimal. Still, I also built a magical self-destruct so they couldn’t be used against us at the castle.

Once we had discussed the designs, I managed to do one of them that day. It left me nearly as exhausted as I had with the walls the days before! On the plus side, it allowed me time to cuddle with Caireen and feel loved in her arms.

Saturday morning, I woke up excited! Camille and I were cutting our trip short and leaving a day earlier than planned to head back to Bechtel! Her parents gave her a tearful goodbye at the train station. I also received hugs and kisses as their honorary grandkid! With my extra days in Caireen’s world, it felt like it had been more than a week since I’d left Hannah, and I was bouncing with excitement when she let me out of the carrier seat.

“Oh my, someone is a happy little girl?” a woman nearby said to Camille.

“Yes, she is! She’s getting to go home to Mommy after visiting her Granny,” she told her.

“How old is she?”

“Eighteen months, and she’s never been away from her mommy for more than a few hours before.”

“I bet there were some real tears from that?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe!” Camille laughed, “My sister owes me!”

She chose that moment to tickle me and then felt my diaper. “Come on, Princess Soggy Pants, let’s go get you a new diapee.”

She left the carrier in our reserved seat and carried the diaper bag and me to the restroom. Unfortunately, the changing table in it was almost not even big enough for me, and she left my ankles dangling off the edge of it. “You’d think they’d know babies older than newborns need changing,” a woman said as she washed her hands next to us.

Camille agreed, “She’s not even close to being potty trained either!”

I accepted my pacifier from her and couldn’t help blushing. The train ride was long and boring, but my energy level kept growing for some reason. Camille practically had to wrangle me to sit still long enough to drink a few bottles and eat lunch on the way. Finally, just before dinner, we pulled up in the shuttle from the station to Bechtel. Camille had texted Hannah that we were almost there, and she practically yanked me free from the carrier seat to hug me.

“Oh my God, I’ve missed you so much!!!!” Hannah said to me. She squeezed me tight, and we both cried more than I expected.

“I missed you too, Mommy,” I told her. My brain froze for a moment, and I wanted to take back those words.

She giggled, “Well, I guess we know that being separated isn’t something we want anymore, huh?” She said as she kissed my forehead. “You two haven’t eaten dinner yet, right?”

“No,” Camille said, “We didn’t have time since we got to the station.”

“Let’s grab your stuff, and we’ll go straight into the Friar Hall?”

I blushed as Hannah helped Camille put the carrier seat into the stroller. “This is adorable! I didn’t think the carriers were quite big enough for her? And what’s up with the eye and hair color Sofia?”

I started for a moment and then released the spell that changed me back to normal.

“Camille made one slightly bigger to help me blend in as a younger baby,” I told her.

“I thought it would do her good before your upcoming assignment?”

Hannah nodded and continued carrying me while Camille stacked my bag in the carrier seat and pulled along her small suitcase. I blushed as we entered since everyone would assume rightly that the stroller and carrier seat were for me. I watched Streaked laughing at me from across the Hall but knew better than to engage with her after my warning with Captain Tilling.

I found it refreshing to once again be able to fill my plate with as much food as I wanted! I was excited to not have to hide the fact I was eating a lot. As I ate, Hannah was asking constant questions about our trip. I noticed that Camille did her best not to talk about the last simulation run she had joined me for. I smirked, thinking of how cute Baby Camille had been! Then, she pivoted and asked Hannah about her recovery when things hit a little too close to home. She told us the discharges had finally let up the night before, and she hoped she wouldn’t deal with it ever again!

‘Remind me to put an exception into my shield spell!’ I told Caireen.

‘We’ll talk about it more tonight,’ she assured me, ‘it’s not a big deal.’

I was about halfway done with my second plate full of food when I noted I was being stared at by Camille. “You must have been starving that whole trip?!?”

I shrugged, “Kind of; that’s why I kept drinking more bottles, though.”

“What are you going to do on your assignment?” She asked softly. It was only the three of us, and the place was clearing out at the end of the service time.

“What do you mean?” Hannah asked.

I was debating about doing a privacy ward, but Camille beat me to it. “Her cover is just having had her first birthday yesterday?”

“She had her first birthday, and I didn’t get to have her eat a smash cake?” Hannah’s eyes twinkled.

I groaned, “Not funny, Hannah; Camille already made that joke!”

“Anyway, you want her to seem like a normal baby, right? Maybe even have her be behind the development curve, so they think she’s an easier target?”

I groaned but nodded, “Yeah, Agent Sanders and I decided I can say ‘Mama,’ ‘baba,’ and ‘no’ at this point.”

“You’re already breastfeeding her,” she said.

Hannah looked nervously around, “Not so loud!” she whispered back.

“Her privacy ward means no one will hear Hannah,” I told her. “But please… umm…”

“I get it… Maybe Olivia isn’t eating solid foods yet so well?”

“Eewww…” I complained. “You’re not suggesting?!?”

“Yes, but I was thinking of maybe getting Volango to technomage up some ‘special’ baby food with some more calories for you. Maybe something that tastes halfway decent too?”

“She could do that?” I asked, kind of stunned.

“I wouldn’t be surprised?” She paused, “We could probably do the same thing with magic, but with Maponus involved...?”

“Yeah, I’m already worried about my disguise potentially setting off warning bells.”

‘I can teach you a spell that will keep you hidden still,’ Caireen assured me. ‘I like this idea of super baby food!’

‘Of course you do!’ I whined.

“I guess let’s talk to her, Hannah. Do you know if she’s back?”

“She is… but we need to stop at our room first…?”

I smiled, “Okay!”

Hannah decided to try out my new ride and buckled me into the carrier. I made a face at her, but she popped a pacifier in my mouth and said, “Behave! You’re a baby!” Quietly to me in that ‘don’t you dare embarrass Mommy with a tantrum’ voice.

I sucked on the pacifier as she maneuvered the stroller down the sidewalks. Several students peeked in as we passed and waved at me, “Hi, Sofia!” several said. I blushed as she pushed the stroller out of the elevator on our floor and down to our room.

“What are you so embarrassed for?” She asked as she opened our door, “Didn’t you get pushed and carried around like this the whole trip?”

Camille had followed us in, “Yes, but she didn’t know anyone,” she reminded her, trying to help me out. “I’m going to see if I can find Volango; I’ll let you two do your thing! Glad you’re feeling better, Hannah!”

She closed the door behind her, and Hannah began unbuckling my harness. She carried me to the rocking chair and only belatedly thought to check my diaper. “You’re soaked!” She said.

I shrugged, “Sorry… Change me after?” I suggested.

She smiled, “If you pee on me, little girl…?”

“I can’t help it. I’m just a baby!” I told her with a smirk.

“That you are,” she said and bared her nipple for me to latch on.

There was no hesitation from me whatsoever as I hungrily nursed! Hannah seemed just as relieved to have me back to nurse, and the world suddenly seemed genuinely right for the first time since the accident! Sometime after she switched me to her other breast, I felt movement from my rear end, but I just kept nursing. I sighed, ‘I can’t do anything about it.’

Eventually, I began not really sucking any milk out and pulled my head away. Hannah hugged me then tightly, and both of us were teary-eyed, “You’re never leaving me again, baby girl!”

I smiled, “Okay, Mommy.”

“What’s with you calling me Mommy now?”

I shrugged, “You’re one of my three mommies… I won’t call you that in front of our classmates, but it’s getting harder and harder to think of you as Hannah.”

She tickled my stomach, “I guess I should be considered a mommy since I have to clean your stinker butt up all the time!”

Hannah placed me on the changing table and quickly changed the very wet and poopy diaper. It had leaked some, so she didn’t hesitate to dress me in a set of footed pajamas I didn’t recognize. They were pink with white polka dots and a koala bear across the zipper that went down to my foot, ending with a bit of cloth covering to keep a baby from escaping them. They were cute, “Where’d you get these?”

“They were in the boxes the FBI sent for our assignment.” She pulled the zipper up, “They sent us both complete wardrobes with a lot of used clothes for both of us. This was one of the few newer outfits… I think it’s adorable.”

I smiled, “It is!”

She was just about to say something else when someone knocked on the door. She carried me to the door, and Camille stood there with Volango, aka Beth. “Oh my God, you can’t get any more adorable!” she said as she came in.

They closed the door and found seats around the room on bean bag chairs. “What’s up?” She asked, “Camille was secretive but said you need some help?”

We explained the assignment and the concern. “So, you need like eight thousand calories condensed into a four-to-six-ounce container of pureed baby food?”

“Preferably a mixture of jars, pouches, and those plastic tubs Gerber uses?” Hannah told her.

“Hmm… Interesting challenge… You want these to taste good, right?” She said, looking at me.

“Please…? The whole point is it’ll work with my cover better, but you’ve seen how much I eat?”

She laughed, “Right! I don’t know where you put it!”

“Her diapers,” Hannah and Camille said simultaneously, causing my face to turn red!

“This is not ‘pick on Sofia day!’” I complained.

Hannah took that opportunity to tickle me for a moment, “Of course it is! It’s alllllways pick on Sofia day!”

My diaper was soaked when she finally let up, and I glared at her. “You just made more work for yourself.”

She shrugged, “That’s okay; I’m getting used to it!” Then, her attention turned to Volango, “Think you can do it?”

She nodded, “I think maybe I can make a device that can take an existing baby food item and add in the right calories… maybe go ahead and make the flavors more gourmet, too…?” She started talking to herself and said, “I’ll have it to you tomorrow…” and walked away.

“She’s okay, right?” I asked Camille.

She nodded, “Luckily, she’s in no danger of teaking out from Teak’s Syndrome. They’ve been good about checking technomages for that in recent years.”

“Good…” I said, thinking about how bad it could get for some of them. Some of them would literally go on crazy mad scientist binges when they teaked out. They would steal components for their devices and usually create all sorts of mayhem. It was rare that someone with Teak’s wasn’t a villain! The idea of cute Beth doing that kind of terrified me. Technomages were special because they could come up with almost any invention in their minds and could ‘Tech’ them. Basically, as long as mentally the physics worked in their own heads, the design would work as planned. If anyone else tried to copy it, their copies wouldn’t work.

“Well, I think she’ll get that taken care of. I know you already got her in her jammies. Still, she probably needs a bath tonight,” Camille told Hannah, “And I officially relinquish my auntie duties to Mommy!”

Hannah laughed, “Sounds good, Auntie Cami!”

Hannah looked at me, “Will your diapee hold a little while? You should call your parents and tell them you made it back?”

I pushed in on the diaper and shrugged, “If not, I guess it’ll just leak. I do need a bath anyway?”
She nodded, “Okay, your phone is in your backpack still, right?”

I nodded, and she carried me over to grab it, dug into the pocket to pull it out, and then carried me to the rocking chair before she handed it to me. She cuddled me gently as I pressed the screen and was soon dialing our home phone.

Dad picked up and said, “Hello?”

“Hi, Daddy!” I said excitedly.

“Hi, Sofia,” he said, and I could feel his smile, “Rachel, Sofia is on the phone!” I heard him call.

I heard a little voice say, “Let me talk!!!!”

I smiled as she was on the phone a second later, “Hi, Sofia!”

“Hi, Lily! What’d you do today?” I asked her.

I listened to her babble for about ten minutes before she got off the phone to play. Then I talked to my parents for another half-hour. I could hear the tears in Mom’s voice that matched my own as I hung up the phone.

Hannah didn’t need to say anything; she wrapped me tightly in her arms and hugged me. “It’s okay,” She told me.

“I miss them so much!”

“I know… I’m hoping maybe we can see our families at Christmas?”

I nodded, “I know you must miss your mom and dad too…?”

She sighed, “I do, but as long as I have you, I don’t notice it as bad.”

I looked up at her, “Sorry I left you.”

She squeezed me tight, “You needed someone to babysit you, and Camille’s family was perfect. You even got a chance to get some training in – it’s okay.”

I nodded and sat there for a bit before she squeezed my diaper. “That’s not going to hold much more, but I need to check my email – my Esens teacher was supposed to send me something to help me catch up on the semester.”

I nodded, “I haven’t even turned on my computer since we left… I should probably check too.”

I dug through my backpack and pulled out my laptop. I set it down on my desk, plugged it into the charger, and sat down with a squish on my chair before turning it on.

I found a hundred emails I needed to get through, but one caught my eye from ‘Amanda Kensington.’ The subject was ‘Modeling Offers.’ I clicked on it and opened it up.

 
Hi Sofia,
We sent your portfolio off to a number of the major baby manufacturing companies like we talked about. There was quite the bidding war, and I think there will be a few other deals soon too. Several clothing companies and a couple of toy companies are currently negotiating for your services. Aphrodite’s will screen and negotiate on your behalf as your agent to get you the best deals. One major diaper company made a considerable offer that I think you should take them up on. I’ve included the contract attached to this email for it. They would bring their product and crew here, make the proposed commercial, and photograph you for print ads and packaging.
They want to do this in the last week of finals before they launch a newly updated product in February. So let me know if you are on board to move forward!

Amanda Kensington
President Aphrodite’s
 
I squirmed a bit as I read it. I looked over the contract and felt my jaw drop! I’d researched child model rates for the heck of it one day and knew this was way above that! They were offering me $7,500 for the day of shooting. They also offered me a rate for each print ad being used. That didn’t seem high, but knowing how many ads they ran, I figured it could add up! I giggled then, thinking about the pun.

“What’s so funny?” Hannah asked from her desk.

“Just making a pun inside my head… umm… That girl, Mandy, has a contract for me already,” I told her.

“For what?”

I sighed, “Diapers?”

She laughed, “Well, you do wear them! Are they throwing in some free ones?”

I shrugged, “I didn’t see that, but they’re willing to pay me good money for the day of shooting!”

We discussed the offer for a few more minutes before I used an e-sign option to sign off on it. We noted that I may have to reschedule depending on another job. But I was eighteen and could make decisions on matters like that! Between the FBI salary and contracts like this, I might not have to worry about asking my parents for money!

I replied to a couple other emails and read some announcements.

One email was sent from Sergeant Harris stating that the team we had joined with Camille would have a practice run scheduled for ten in the morning on Thursday. I groaned when I saw the team’s name, “They called us the Babysitter’s Club for our team name?!?!”

Hannah laughed, “Diaper Duty Crew was another finalist.”

I groaned and replied we would be there after seeing we were excused from our morning classes to participate. “We’re going to keep missing so many classes!” I grumbled as I realized that we would miss more in addition to the undercover time taking us away.

“It’s just Calculus, and you’re doing fine in there! Well, also Costume Design, but we’ve already finished our assignment there! She just approved my design, so we’ll be done if you can make it tomorrow?”

I nodded, “Do we take Costume second semester too?”

She shook her head, “It’s a first-semester course to get everyone ready for finals, basically, optional after that.”

It was nice to feel less like a baby and more like a student for a while. Hannah eventually picked me up and said, “You leaked!”

I shrugged, “Not my fault. I’m just the baby here!”

She tickled my stomach for a moment before she stripped off the wet sleeper, “We’ll have to wash that before we go. Let’s get a bath, and we’ll find another cute outfit for you.”

Hannah was gentle and loving as she gave me the bath that night. I could tell that being apart from me had been hard for her… maybe even harder than it had been for me being away from her. That night we were both very content as I nursed myself to sleep.

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I would really really really appreciate it you would leave one! I do really appreciate the Kudos button, but please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading? Some of you are doing a fine job of commenting, and I really do appreciate it! Please keep up the good work! New commentators are always loved too!!!! I will fully admit to feeling neglected when there’s none…? (Pretty Please? With a cherry on top?!?)

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If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.