Intensive Care

Chapter 1
Intensive Care - whole story

Intensive Care

By Groblek

The woman stared at the ceiling in the strange room as she awoke, trying to think through the fog in her head. She was… Her name was… Leslie! That was it! Her name was Leslie. Something had happened, she couldn’t quite remember what, but she knew that this wasn’t where she usually slept. She took in the curtain surrounding her bed, the strange things beeping next to her and the noise of people moving around outside. She knew she should recognize the place, but it was so very hard to think, her mind just refused to focus.

“A hospital! I’m in a hospital! Why? What happened?” Leslie muttered to herself as she finally made the connection. She remembered movement, the screech of metal against metal, and impact... She shivered, recoiling from the memory and the fog closed back in on her thoughts, soothing her, sending her back to sleep.

Leslie awoke somewhere new, obviously still in the hospital, but in a room free of other people. Her thoughts were still scattered, and she couldn’t remember how she got here, but she really had to pee. Her body felt strange, foreign, and she was barely able to move her arms, much less get out of bed. After several minutes of fumbling in vain for a call button, she just let herself go in the bed. To her surprise, she felt something around her crotch absorb the liquid, leaving her nearly dry. She reached down and felt something crinkle.

“Why am I wearing a diaper?!” Leslie exclaimed, her voice sounding high and strange. “Hospitals don’t usually put people in diapers. At least, I don’t think they do… Do they…?” She trailed off, unable to remember the answer. This felt wrong, but her head was still so very foggy and she just couldn’t gather her thoughts long enough to answer… answer something. She had a question about something, didn’t she? Exhausted by the struggle to focus, she let her mind scatter back into the dreamless sleep she’d just left.

Leslie felt hands under her bottom, lifting her and removing the soiled diaper. She forced her heavy eyelids to open in time to see a nurse fasten another diaper around her middle. Something was wrong, she thought. Her legs, they looked strange, and her whole body tingled faintly.

"There you go, all nice and clean. That should let you sleep better, little one. Just rest and let us make you all better." The woman said gently as she pulled the blankets back over Leslie, covering her up once more.

Leslie opened her mouth, wanting to ask... Ask something... She blinked as her concentration shattered once more, and the nurse left the room before Leslie regained her focus on the strangeness in her legs. She reached for the blankets, but her eyes were so very heavy, and she was tired... Her arm dropped to the bed as Leslie fell asleep again.

The next time Leslie awoke, she thought at first that she’d been moved yet again. The room seemed huge, as if built for a giant. She struggled to free herself from the pile of blankets entangling her, and saw something move in the corner of he vision. There, on the other wall, she saw a small dark-haired child swimming in an enormous bed.

“Hey there.” She said, and jumped back when the child’s mouth moved in time to her own. Her mind reeled as she realized it was her own reflection.

“No, no. That’s not right. I’m not a child. Am I?” She struggled to remember, to think of the time before she’d come to the hospital. It was difficult, and the memories came slowly and in fragments. She strained with the effort of gathering her fragmented thoughts. “I… I was in school, I think. College?” She tried on the word, and it felt right. “Yes, college. College is for big people, isn’t it? I think it is, anyway.”

Leslie looked over her reflection again, then down at herself, seeing her smooth, flat chest peeking out from under the too-large hospital gown. “But I’m not a big person, am I? I’m small? But, I thought I was bigger…”

She trailed off, knowing that this wasn’t right, that she should look different somehow, but she couldn’t think, couldn’t remember. The fog closed in again, and Leslie felt a stab of panic before sleep claimed her once more.

She awoke again to movement, and saw doors moving past through the metal bars surrounding the new, much smaller bed she found herself in. She rolled over to see a nurse pushing the bed just as they passed through a door and into a room full of wailing babies. Leslie’s bed came to rest at the end of a row, fitting in perfectly with the cribs around her. The nurse smiled and turned to go, causing Leslie to let out a wail of her own. She tried to call for the woman to come back, to tell her that this must be some sort of mistake, but all that came out of her mouth was the wail of an angry infant.

Leslie kicked and screamed until her throat was sore and her muscles tired before settling back into the bed, unconsciously sticking her thumb in her mouth and sucking. This was wrong, wrong! She didn’t belong with the babies! She was in college, a… an… An adult! She should be on her way home from a party with… with someone… A friend… She tried to remember the name as she drifted back to a fitful, dreamless sleep. “I’m not a baby, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not!” was her last thought before the dreaming took her.

Movement in her crib, followed by screaming woke Leslie from her slumber, and she turned to see hands place another baby next to her in the crib. The newcomer shook tiny fists at the nurse and glared at her back as the woman strode out of the room, leaving the two babies alone together. The other baby rolled over to look at Leslie, and she felt a flash of recognition. She’d seen the baby before, but not in person, in a picture? Yes, an old photograph – a photo of her friend… Her friend… Amber! Yes, that was the name!

“Amber?” She tried to ask, the sounds coming out garbled and strange. Still, Leslie smiled when the other baby stared, then nodded. She tried to speak, but again couldn’t make the sounds form proper words. After several minutes, she managed to get her own identity across, and the two girls clung together in their crib as they took comfort in each other’s presence. Eventually, Amber fell asleep, and soon Leslie followed, despite her fear of what new changes might happen while they slept.

Leslie was awakened by the sound of a door closing as her crib was wheeled into a hallway. They moved quickly, turning left, then right, and finally stopping at a large pair of double doors. The nurse pushing the crib turned to swipe something in front of the doors and they parted with a click to reveal still more hallway beyond. Leslie read the word "Maternity" on a sign over the door as they passed.

“Maternity?” Leslie mouthed, looking at Amber in confusion. The word seemed familiar, but somehow very wrong. She was sure it shouldn’t have anything to do with her or Amber, not yet anyway. Maybe later? She couldn’t remember, but it seemed familiar and foreign all at once. Agitated now, she let out a wail, but the nurse pushing the cart ignored her as they came to a stop in front of yet another door. The name "Corrigan" was written on the whiteboard outside the door, with "Twins" written underneath.

As she and Amber were wheeled into the room, Leslie heard panting noises and low conversation coming from the other side of a curtain stretched across one side. The nurse who had brought them here reached down and plucked Amber from Leslie’s side. Leslie wailed even louder at their parting until other hands picked her up, quickly stripped her of the now huge diaper around her waist before bending down to place her next to Amber in a strange circular plastic enclosure on the floor. The walls of this new bed were high enough to obscure the surrounding room except for one small section of short wall facing away from the curtain. The two nude infants snuggled together for comfort and warmth in this new place, and Leslie watched the tall shape of the cart disappear from view, followed by the sound of a closing door.

Leslie strained to think through the fog, trying without success to work out what was happening to herself and her friend. As she concentrated, the panting from behind the curtain grew more labored, and she heard a woman groan in pain and effort. Listening, Leslie could make out the sounds of a woman speaking words of encouragement from somewhere on the other side of the plastic walls around her.

“Just a little more, you’re almost ready. You can do it, love.” The panting continued now, louder than before.

Some time later, another voice spoke with authority. “The girls are here, so I think it’s time to move to the stool. You’re nearly dilated enough.”

Leslie was struggling to understand what could be happening behind the curtain when a shadow darkened her world. She looked up to see a naked woman astride their enclosure, her bulging belly obscuring everything above her waist. The woman slowly sat down, settling herself onto the walls of their prison, their angle forcing her legs aside and filling Leslie’s view with a giant pussy, labia parted slightly. Leslie saw a dark shape push aside the reddish curls of the giantess’ pubic hair as she bore down, only to disappear as the contraction ended. Horrified, Leslie realized that they were in the bottom of a birthing stool, and wailed as the shape emerged again, then disappeared once more. The woman grunted with effort, and the shape burst, pouring warm fluid over the two girls. Leslie flailed around, trying to push away the viscous liquid that clung to her face, succeeding just in time for another contraction to douse her with still more. The liquid tingled against her skin, and Leslie felt her mind fog a little more, dulling the dread building inside her.

Something soft, warm, and solid landed with the third wave of birthing fluids, and Leslie watched in numb horror as fleshy cords writhed around them, eagerly seeking. One found Amber’s navel and dove in, fusing with the girl’s belly as the other wriggled towards Leslie. It found her, and she let out a final wail of terror before her lungs shut down, no longer able to breathe now that her mother’s umbilical had been restored to its proper place.

There was more panting from above them, and gloved hands reached in from outside the stool to pick up Amber, holding her kicking feet firmly together at the knees before plunging them toes-first in between the laboring woman’s parted labia. Leslie watched in horrified fascination as her friend’s legs, bottom, and torso passed into the open birth canal above, stopping briefly as Amber’s chin and shoulders stuck against the woman’s pelvic opening.

The regressed woman flailed her fists, beating uselessly at her mother-to-be’s thighs as the hands cupped her head and pushed. The woman strained, the attendant pushed, and Leslie saw the giantess’s hips actually move farther apart before her friend’s head disappeared inside with a pop. The hands were removed, and Leslie got to watch her friend slowly travel up the birth canal, hands clawing for some way out until she disappeared from view.

Then, it was her turn, and Leslie fought just as hard as her sister. The birthing attendant stilled her flailing legs, holding them in an iron grip until Leslie’s calves were safely inside the birth canal of her new mother. Leslie tried to grab hold of part of the other woman’s crotch, to push herself back from the devouring pussy, but her hands slipped on the soft hairs and slick folds, sliding inside to be pinned at her sides as she was pushed into the birth canal up to her head. Hips already stretched wide by Amber’s passage, it only took one quick push for the woman to pass Leslie’s head through her gates, and Leslie watched the outside world recede into darkness as she was reunited with Amber.

Leslie clung to her sister as the woman’s cervix sealed behind them and amniotic fluid began to fill the womb. Together, she and Amber fought their imprisonment, but the cervix remained closed and unyielding to their tiny hands. Eventually, they collapsed together, and the fog of sleep reached up to claim them once more.

Leslie awoke disoriented and feeling closed in. She kicked out, trying to stretch and met resistance. Her world was dark, and full of loud, unfamiliar sounds. She struggled to think, but her memories came only slowly, even her recent time in the hospital reduced to fragments. She knew that something was wrong, that this dark, damp, and cramped world wasn’t where she belonged. She wanted out, out! Kicking and flailing, she lashed out, trying to reach the world of light she remembered. After a moment, she felt another’s hands grab her own, and she slowly calmed at her sister’s touch, the dim memory of a bond with this companion soothing her panic. She clung desperately to her nameless sister, seeking comfort, until sleep dragged her down once more.

The world shook, awakening the baby as her head was pushed violently against the cervix below. The shaking stopped, allowing a moment’s relaxation before it began again, followed by another pause. The cycle repeated itself over and over, the cervix parting slightly more with each contraction until her head finally slipped through. Strong muscles squeezed her all over, forcing her through a narrow opening into a blinding light. Shapes moved against the lit background, and the infant winced as something was cut from her navel.

Warm skin against her body chased away the chill of the air in this place, and she smelled something that made her stomach rumble. Rooting around, she soon latched onto the offered nipple and let herself be soothed by the warm milk filling her belly. Moments later, another small form was placed next to her, one familiar from their time together in the womb. And somewhere else too, but the baby couldn’t recall.

The milk flow slowed, and the baby whined, wanting still more. To her surprise, she was pulled off her mother and cradled by new hands, with a new, darker-colored breast placed in her mouth. She calmed again as she suckled sweet milk from her other mother, and was soon joined here too by her sister. For the first time in a long, long while, the baby felt that she was where she belonged as her mothers snuggled close to their new babies.

A year and a half later, Dr. Donna Summers, Head of Midwifery for the DeLeon Maternity ward in St. Margaret’s Hospital opened the files for Leslie Summers and Amber Smith she’d requested from the Emergency Department. She flipped though them carefully, pulling out all the notes and photos from their time in Intensive Care, and moving them to Sally Corrigan’s file from Maternity. Dr. Summers casually read through Sally’s case history as she interspersed the women’s records in with the other records from Sally’s fertility treatment and finishing with the girls’ ultrasound pictures.

When she’d finished reviewing the Corrigan file, Dr. Summers opened a letter of thanks she’d received earlier that day from Sally and Brittney Corrigan and carefully made three copies. She made sure to include the attached announcement of the recent home birth of their twin daughters Laurel and Julie. Smiling at the photo of the new family, she placed a copy in each file, initialed the last paperwork, stamped the files as “closed”, and placed them in the pile to be sent off to the archives. She placed the original letter back in her personal files before turning to the next case needing her attention.