Published: July 18th 2020, 2:00:03 pm
"There she is!" Tracy exclaimed, jolting Lyra a bit. Lyra had nearly been falling asleep as she sat on the floor behind Tracy's desk, playing with some blocks the woman had given to her, and she tried to convince herself the surprise had been what made her diaper wet again, although, really, that squishy spot wasn't nearly warm enough for that to be true. "Are you ready to go home, sweetie?"
Before Lyra had a chance to answer, the Nanny had stepped around, into full view of her, staring down at her. Instinctively, Lyra attempted to tug her skirt down over her diaper, but she knew it would do her no good. "H-Hi, Nanny," she mumbled awkwardly, feeling self-conscious, though not so much about the state of her diaper; she was more worried about what her babysitter was going to tell the woman about their activities for the day.
"Hello, dear," the Nanny gave her a smile before turning her gaze to the secretary. "And how was she today?"
"I was really good!" Lyra insisted, fully expecting to be ignored.
The Nanny raised an eyebrow, kneeling down in front of her. "Were you now? And how many diapers did you go through?"
Lyra should have expected that question, and yet, somehow, it still took her by surprise. The day had felt so long... She tried to think back, counting the changes she remembered on her fingers, but she felt certain there was something she was forgetting. She realized, after a few moments of that, how silly she must look, like a little girl still learning her numbers, and struggling with it. "I-I dunno," she finally admitted.
"I have her chart in her bag," Tracy said, of course not knowing that the chart in Lyra's nursery was already updated, that the Nanny surely already knew, and was just trying to make the girl admit it. "I don't think you'll be pleased with it."
"I don't imagine so," the Nanny agreed. "But I also doubt I'll be surprised. Thank you very much for your help. Come along, Lyra." She took the diaper bag as the secretary offered it, holding her hand for Lyra to take, toddling along beside her out of the office.
"Bye-bye, Lyra!" Tracy waved as the regressed woman toddled away, nibbling on her pacifier.
"Well, Lyra?" the Nanny asked, pausing. "What do you say?"
Lyra stared up at her, brow furrowed, for a moment, before putting it together. "B-Bye, ma'am," she waved back to Tracy, freezing with a blush as, by raising her arm, she felt her shirt ride up, and realized her outfit had changed back. Her dress had shrunk back into a shirt, leaving her entire diaper exposed for the whole office to see - not that the dress had left much to the imagination, especially after she'd had her visits with all her workers - and her Mary Janes had switched back to the childish, Velcro-fastened sneakers. And why not? Work time was over... There was no reason for her to wear her 'uniform' anymore.
If she thought she was just going to be able to waddle her way out of this place and go home, she was very wrong. Her workers, apparently, hadn't seen enough of her today, many of them taking a break from packing up to leave themselves to tell her, "Goodbye!", or "Night-night, Lyra!", the Nanny expecting her to politely reply to each. Some even came over, gave her a hug.
One had the nerve, while in the midst of that embrace, to ask, "Uh-oh! Did you have another accident, Lyra?"
"N-No!" Lyra answered automatically.
"Really? Are you telling a fib?"
Lyra blushed as her diaper was given a squeeze. "N-No," she repeated, a little quieter, more embarrassed.
"Don't worry," the woman winked up at the Nanny, as if Lyra couldn't see. "I won't tattle on you."
Lyra made herself stay quiet until they'd gotten out of the building, past the receptionist, who insisted on giving her some more candy, sending her on her way with a pat on the bottom and an overly-loud offer of, "Do you want to change her before you head out? The bathroom's right over there!" to the Nanny.
"I'm sure she'll be fine," the Nanny told her. "Thank you."
As soon as they were outside, Lyra planted her feet - as well as she could, considering the Nanny could easily drag, or carry, her anywhere she wanted - and glared up at her, hoping her expression didn't just look like a pout. "Why did you do that to me?!" she demanded, tugging out her pacifier. "Now everyone's seen me in my diapers, a-and they'll never respect me again, and I'll pro'ly lose my job, and Hallie and me will be out on the street, a-and...!"
To the Nanny's credit, she didn't chuckle at this, although even Lyra knew she was being a bit silly, and over-reacting, likely not helped by the body she'd been stuck in for so long at this point. It was easy to act like a toddler when you hadn't physically been an adult for days. "That isn't going to happen, Lyra," she promised, giving her a hug.
"Y-Yes, it will!" the girl sniffled.
"No, it won't," the Nanny countered. "Nobody is going to remember this happened, except for you. There will be a part of them that knows you learned your lesson - and you did, didn't you?" Lyra nodded. "As long as you continue to demonstrate that, and don't backslide, that's all they'll ever have... A faint reason to know that you've proven you deserve a second chance, even if they don't know why."
"Y-You promise?" Lyra asked nervously.
"I do," the Nanny told her. "If you get back up to your old tricks, however..."
"I-I won't!" Lyra shook her head. She could think of few things more motivating to keep her from losing her temper than the thought of the person she was yelling at recalling this version of her, regressed to a toddler, running around the office in a dirty diaper.
The Nanny raised an eyebrow, but stood up, taking Lyra's hand again, plucking the paci from the other one and sliding it back into her mouth. They went to pick up Hallie, Lyra standing by, having to listen to the report on how well she'd done with her potty training. "Just one little accident," the worker told them, "She's still in the back-up undies you sent along, and they've been perfectly dry since we put her in them."
Lyra could already imagine what the charts looked like, the gulf between her and her daughter widening further. Hallie had been here before, of course, but normally, at this stage, she looked anxious, worried that she'd mess things up again at any moment... Now, she was standing there proudly as the worker told them about her day, confident... Was it because of the Nanny? She was so supportive, so kind to the girl... Was that what had made the difference? Lyra hated to think she was being anything different to her daughter, yet she knew that wasn't always the case when it came to this, to her expectations for someone her age and potty training...
That didn't mean she wouldn't have any more accidents in the future, obviously. Even if she had one per day, however - or, for that matter, two - she'd still be doing better than Lyra, by far. And Lyra had a feeling Hallie would be going a few days, at least, with none, possibly longer, given her usual pattern. It was clear, by this point, it would take Lyra more time to figure out how to correctly control her weakened muscles...
Perhaps she'd get lucky, manage it in a week. Until then, her chart would be filling up far faster than Hallie's. Assuming Lyra didn't have any more accidents afterwards.... Well, it might not matter. Hallie might be so far in the lead that it would be impossible to catch up; that was certainly how it felt now, staring up at her in her big girl panties, while she was stuck in a soggy diaper.
She wasn't the only one who noticed, either. "I bet you're looking forward to when you can do the same," the worker winked down at Lyra. "Do you mind if I change her? I can put her into some of her big sister's extra diapers... I don't think she'll be needing them."
Lyra expected the Nanny to turn her down, like she had the receptionist, but the woman nodded instead. "If you'd like," she said. "We might as well use those up somehow."
Lyra was picked up, plopped down on the changing table, one of the diapers she'd bought for Hallie, and left here 'just in case', ages ago, set down beside her. "Isn't this fun?" the worker gushed. "Well, I bet you're used to wearing your big sister's hand-me-downs at this point, aren't you?"
Lyra sucked her paci and nodded her head, knowing that, if she really were Hallie's baby sister, that would probably be true... And she'd rather be seen as that at the moment than as her mother. "Don't worry, I bet you'll be in big girl panties like her eventually, too!"
Lyra blushed, wiggling as she was cleaned up, the fresh diaper slipped under her backside. "Looks like this is a little big," the worker commented. "But that's okay! We can still make it fit!"
Was she serious?! Was Lyra really too small for a diaper?! She knew diapers came in different sizes, of course, but she'd never thought about her needing a smaller size diaper than her own daughter, even knowing she was shorter than her... For whatever reason, that was what really hit it home for her, proved to her how tiny and helpless she was...
"Aww, it's okay, sweetie," the worker cooed, wiping her face, Lyra having not realized she was actually crying until then. "Like I said, we'll make it fit!"
"Here," the Nanny offered, handing over a booster pad.
"Look at that!" the worker beamed. "We'll just fill up the extra space with more padding!"
By the time she was done, the diaper was nearly as bulky as the doubled-up one she'd spent part of her day at the office in, the one she'd been wearing when she'd had her poopy accident, the memory making her quiet and blushy while the worker taped her snugly into it. Thankfully, the Nanny picked her up off the table, didn't expect her to walk home like this.
"Thank you," she told the worker. "What do you say, Lyra?"
"F-Fank you," she parroted from behind her paci.
"You're welcome!" the worker gave her tummy a tickle, and, to Lyra's horror, she felt herself giggling uncontrollably, dribbling into the diaper that had been on her barely a minute, earning herself yet another frowny face on the chart.
Hallie skipped all the way home, feeling rightfully proud of herself. "Can we play?" she asked the Nanny, once they were back in the living room.
"I think your sister is a little tired out," the Nanny said. "She needs a nap first."
"Aww," Hallie pouted. "But it's almost her bedtime! Is she just gonna sleep all day?"
The Nanny smiled, brushing the hair out of Lyra's face. "She's a baby, Hallie; that's what they do, I'm afraid."
"All right," Hallie sighed, cheering up as she asked, "Can I tuck her in?"
"Of course," the Nanny agreed, carrying Lyra into her room, setting her down on the changing table. Lyra didn't get a fresh diaper, however - it was barely damp, really, from her little accident with the tickling - she just had her shoes and socks removed, her shirt replaced with a PJ one before she was laid down in the crib.
Hallie helpfully pulled the covers over her, tucking them in under the mattress, trapping her mother beneath them. "Nighty-night!" she gave Lyra a kiss on the forehead, as Lyra squirmed, barely able to get an arm free to give her a hug.
"I-I'm really proud of you, Hallie," she said. It felt a bit silly, saying it now, when she was so much smaller than the girl, but she felt like she had to. "You're doing so good."
"Thank you!" Hallie beamed, kissing her again.
Lyra wanted to talk to the Nanny, but the woman turned off the light, switching on the mobile over her head - which Lyra didn't think she remembered being there before - and, by the time she'd pulled up the side of the crib, Lyra was fast asleep.
She had no real idea how long it was when she'd woken up, her only indication of time passing the increased wetness in her diaper. When she opened her eyes, however, the bars of the crib had been lowered again, allowing her to hop out, toddle across the floor of the nursery, diaper even thicker after absorbing all that liquid. Thankfully, the door had been left open a crack, so she could pull it open, since, otherwise, she wasn't positive she could reach the knob.
She heard the television on, in the living room, but instead of going there, she turned her head, saw that the door to the guest room was also open a tiny bit, and, in the darkness of the hallways, she spotted a hint of light coming from it. She waddled towards it, standing outside nervously for a few moments to gather her courage before reaching up one tiny, chubby hand, and knocking.
"Come in," the Nanny told her, not sounding surprised at all. Lyra pushed the door open, her eyes widening at the sight of the room within.
The guest room was, of course, the smallest bedroom in the house, since it was the one used the least often. Or it should have been, rather... The room Lyra was looking at now was gigantic, far bigger than her own, simply - but elegantly - decorated with furniture and pictures on the wall that she knew she'd never bought herself.
"Yes, dear?" the Nanny turned from the over-sized writing desk she was seated at, looking down at the toddler slowly making her way across the massive floor, which, at the moment, with her tiny legs and thick diaper, seemed just as wide as her entire house normally would.
"Umm..." Lyra looked around, feeling overwhelmed at the size of this place, and, by extension, the Nanny, who appeared to fit there perfectly, whereas Lyra, herself, felt like a miniscule intruder. "C-Can we talk?"
"You just did," the Nanny told her. "And I am right now, so it seems the answer is yes."
"Umm..." Lyra blushed, looking down at her bare feet, and getting a good view of the bulky diaper halfway down, reminding her why she needed to talk to the woman, and making her even more embarrassed about it. "I-I..."
"If you'd like a change, we'll have to return to your nursery," the woman said. "I'm afraid I don't have a changing table here."
"N-No, that's not it," Lyra shook her head, although she did want a dry diaper. "I-I, uh... I-I wanted to talk to you... about our bet."
"I did not bet," the Nanny replied, sounding almost offended at the word. "I merely offered you a challenge."
"O-Okay, that, then," Lyra sighed. "I-I'm.... I-I'm not going to win, am I?"
"That is not for me to say," the woman gave a shrug. "I cannot see the future, so..."
"I'm not!" Lyra stomped her bare foot. "Just... Just look at me!" She gestured down at her sodden diaper. "A-And look at my chart! I was wrong... It's so much harder than I thought, and Hallie is doing so, so good, and I... I..." She blushed, hating having to say this out loud, to admit it, not only to the Nanny, but to herself as well, having to fully accept it if she spoke the words out loud. No matter how much she'd been thinking it, it didn't feel real until now. "I c-can't do it."
"You can't do what, Lyra?" the Nanny asked, bending over, closer to Lyra.
Lyra whined, cheeks burning. Of course she wasn't going to make this easy... "I-I can't get potty trained again," she mumbled.
"You can't?" the Nanny smirked. "But it's so easy, Lyra... Toddlers all around the world can do it. Why can't you?"
Lyra squirmed, knowing she'd said very similar - or, knowing the Nanny, probably the exactly the same - words to Hallie in the past, when she was frustrated with her lack of progress, or her latest bout of backsliding.
"Are you saying you are more of a baby than those children?" the Nanny asked. "Than your own daughter?"
"Y-Yes," Lyra admitted, feeling a weight lift off her chest. "I'm never gonna be able to catch up with her at this rate. Y-You never really said what would happen if I lost, but... Th-There's no need to stretch it out, is there? To make me wait? I already know it isn't going to happen, so... Wh-Whatever punishment you think I deserve, you should just do it."
She gulped, closing her eyes, bracing herself for the worst, only to hear a chuckle. "What do you think is going to happen, Lyra?"
She opened her eyes, blushing, staring up at the woman. "I-I dunno..." she shrugged. "I-I thought... Well, I-I was afraid that maybe you'd keep me like this forever."
"And is that what you want?" the Nanny asked.
"N-No!" her cheeks warmed up even more. "I-I'm a grown-up! I-I just... I thought, since I couldn't do it..."
"I can hardly leave Hallie in charge of you forever," the Nanny said, "and there are other people who need my help, so I'm afraid I cannot stay here forever, either."
"Then... What?"
"Well, Lyra," the Nanny stood finally, towering over the tiny girl, "I suppose you'll simply have to wait and see."
Lyra did, anxiously expecting the other shoe to drop as she was fed her dinner, given a bath, put to bed for the night, well before Hallie. Nothing seemed any different, other than a sense of relief, knowing she didn't have to worry about trying to make it to the bathroom on time, of worrying about her chart - which, when Nanny took her to her room to change her after their talk, was gone completely - or if she was going to win.
"Good night, my dear," the Nanny told her, after tucking her in. There was something different to her tone, a slight sadness, almost, or perhaps a hint of finality.
The next morning, Lyra woke up in her old room, and her old body, the diaper and footed sleeper she'd been put to bed in vanished along with her crib, and any sign the Nanny's visit had ever happened. Lyra smiled, staring at herself in the mirror, happy to see everything back how it should be, although, like she thought she'd heard in the Nanny's voice the night before, she couldn't help feeling just a little sad.
She saw it in Hallie's face, too, as she rushed into the kitchen, finding her mother there instead of the Nanny, though some of it went away when Lyra set the plate of pancakes she'd been working on onto the dining room table.
"Chocolate chips?" Hallie's eyes lit up. "Is it a special occasion?"
"It is," Lyra smiled down at her, kissing the top of her head. It was silly, she'd decided earlier, as she'd started fixing breakfast, to relegate the girl's favorite kind of pancakes to a few days a year; a little chocolate never hurt anyone. "Any day I get to have you as my daughter is a special occasion."
Epilogue
"Have a good weekend," Lyra smiled at Tracy, giving her a wave as she walked by her desk.
"You, too," the woman waved back pleasantly. Lyra walked across the office, smiling at her employees, watching them packing up, only to pause as she saw one monitor still on, a spreadsheet still being frantically worked on.
"That's funny," she couldn't help herself from stopping and saying. "I could have sworn I got an e-mail from you saying you'd have that done an hour ago."
She could see her worker squirming, mouth opening, ready to spout out their reasoning... But, pinned to the side of the cubicle, she saw something else. There it was, the construction paper apology she'd written out, sitting there beside her secretary, in her diapers, hand aching, feeling so tiny, and powerless...
"We don't have to turn that report in until Tuesday morning," she reminded the employee, and herself, forcing herself to calm down, to remember that this was a person, one who probably felt similar to the way she had, that day. "It's the weekend... Get out of here. It will still be here on Monday."
She still felt a little self-conscious, walking into preschool to pick up Hallie, but, thankfully, the teacher who had changed her didn't recognize her as her daughter ran over and gave her a hug. "How did she do today?" Lyra smiled, hugging the girl back.
"Very well," the teacher replied. "Another completely dry day!"
"Great job, sweetie!" Lyra praised her. But it didn't stay that way....
"Mommy," Hallie whined at the first stop sign outside of the preschool. "I-I hafta go potty."
"Hallie," Lyra sighed, "why didn't you go at school?"
Hallie fidgeted in her seat, blushing. "I-I was playing with Kristy, a-and I forgot..."
"Do you want to stop somewhere?" Lyra asked her, "Or do you think you can wait until we get home?"
"I-I can make it home," Hallie said. And, technically, she was right, though she was wiggling pretty badly by the time they arrived. Lyra did her best, fumbling to get her key into the front door, but it wasn't fast enough.
She turned around, pulling the door open, to find her daughter standing behind her, face red, a wet patch already forming on the crotch of her pants, quickly growing, spreading down her legs. "It's okay," Lyra told her. "I should've just stopped... It's a long way back."
Hallie was still clearly upset with herself for breaking her dry streak, no matter how hard Lyra tried to be supportive, to tell her it was all right, that it happened to everyone. Lyra got her cleaned up, into fresh pants and panties, but it didn't seem to help much. Lyra knew what would, though... She blushed a little, thinking about it, but if that was what it took to cheer her daughter up...
"Hey," she suggested, giving the girl a smile, "why don't we play with the dollhouse a little before supper?"
Just as she'd expected, Hallie's eyes lit up. "Really?" Lyra nodded, watching the girl drag the dollhouse out of the corner and pull it open...
And, in a flash, they were inside, standing in the nursery. They weren't twins anymore, though, not like on their first visit... Lyra was very much the baby, staring up at her big, mature older sister, blushing as she felt her diaper growing warm and wet immediately.
"Lyra!" Hallie giggled, bending down and checking. "Do you need a change already?"
Lyra shrugged bashfully, knowing that it wasn't really up to her... Nothing was, here. It was all up to Hallie.
"I think you do!" Hallie cooed, picking her babified mother up and setting her down on the pink, plastic changing table. "I don't want you to get a rash!"
Lyra nodded, sucking peacefully on her pacifier. Of course Hallie had made the right choice... She always did. She'd really grown to love being this new position, during their time with the Nanny, and Lyra was happy to give her a chance to go back to it now and then, when she needed it. And, if she was being honest, she didn't mind being the baby sister all that much, either, not when she knew she could return to her adult self when they were done playing.
"Fank yew," she mumbled from behind her paci, once Hallie was all done, giving her a hug, thinking about how lucky she was to have her as her daughter... And, from time to time, her big sister.
The End