Alterations - Exchanged Book 3 (Diaper Dimension)

Chapter 16
Investigations

I WOKE UP sometime later, and discovered that Megan definitely woke up before I did! I rolled over and looked at her doing something on her computer at her desk that was adjacent to a bay window. The window looked to have a bench seat tucked inside. When I sat up, she was oblivious to my waking up, and instead seemed intent on the screen in front of her. I crawled to the edge of the bed and looked at the long drop down to the floor.

I sighed as I realized I needed to pee badly right then and let it loose in the diaper before saying, “Megan?”

She looked up surprised, “Oh, you woke up!” she said with a smile and came over to me. I felt her hand check my diaper and she said, “How about we get you out of that icky wet diapee?”

I nodded, “Please…”

She carried me down the hallway back to the nursery and made quick work of the diaper change and said, “So I’m guessing you’re pretty much happy as long as you have your computer somewhere?”

“That bay window in your room?” I suggested.

She smiled, “I’ve always loved that window seat! Let’s grab you a bottle from the kitchen really quick along the way.” She held me as she bent over and picked up my bag of electronics from the playpen, carried me down the hallway to the stairs and grabbed a bottle from the fridge. Moments later I was placed onto the comfy cushioned window seat to work.

“Thanks,” I said as she handed over the bottle of juice to me.

“Comfy?” She asked.

I nodded, “Much better than the playpen…”

She giggled at that, “I’m going to get back to my game then…”

I gave my own giggle and watched her begin to play some sort of city simulation game and got back to my own tasks. I began exploring the software the university had available for students and came across a chemical simulation program that was sort of able to run on my computer. It was compatible with some tweaking, albeit the program ran rather slowly as my processor wasn’t quite up to their standards. I was able to import the chemical structure of the protein that was so problematic in Amanda’s milk, and then modeled the receptors that would be needed to collect it and send it out through the bodies endocrine system.

I was working on it for about an hour when Megan said, “You’re going about that wrong…”

I started as I hadn’t even noticed her approach as she had climbed on the cushion next to me. After I got my heartrate down a bit I asked, “What am I doing wrong?”

“Do this…” she walked me through another method for ten minutes, explaining why along the way, and the simulation was suddenly successful. “So, if you get this going on in your body, breastfeeding becomes okay again?”

“I’m hoping…” I admitted.

“Speaking of leaky breasts… I’m going to drop you off in the playpen for a bit while I take care of mine…”

“I’m sorry,” I told her, knowing my presence was responsible.

“Don’t be… though I have to say if you get this figured out, I may want some help at some point…”

I smiled, “I’d be happy to help…”

She gave me a hug and helped me reclaim my electronics and moved me to the playpen in the nursery before taking off. I used that time to drain some more of the bottle she’d left me with. I had promised I wouldn’t do this edit without letting Amanda check over my work, so I decided to move on with another project.

The nanites seemed to have other potential uses and I wondered just what else I could do with them… Just as I was thinking of my plans for future uses my phone suddenly shocked me by ringing with Amanda’s face showing up on the screen. I picked it up and said, “Hello?”

“Stacy?” Amanda asked tentatively.

“Hi Mommy,” I said, “How’s Bella?”

“She’s doing a lot better right now. I need you to do something for me for tonight… The real LPS agency is sending over a team on a well-being check. Can you get Megan to help you put your toys away?”

I grimaced, “Yes Mommy, how far are they away?”

“About a half-hour, they were told our lawyer must be present and your grandfather is insisting on an officer that he knows he can trust absolutely.”

“Okay, I’ll get myself into cute baby mode… I love you Mommy!”

“Love you too,” she told me.

I cut the connection and called out for Megan, “Auntie Megan!”

“What’s wrong Stacy?”

“We have guests coming…” I told her as I was putting everything away into my backpack. “I need to look like a well taken care of little…”

She nodded and began helping me with the backpack and clothes being put away out of sight. “Did you pack any of your princess diapers?” she asked.

“I bought some last week and they’re in the diaper stacker,” Grandma’s voice said coming in through the hallway. “Good idea for putting her into one of those.” She dug for a second in a hanging diaper stacker and handed her the pink rectangle, “Here, get her changed into that. You have her in a good outfit, I’m going to take this playpen downstairs along with some toys for looking like she’s spending time playing with them. Why don’t you just hold her on your lap and watch something safe on TV together until they come.”

“Is it fair for them to assess her in this house?” Megan asked.

“Not really, but fortunately I’ve kept everything baby proofed for your sisters’ babies. No real point in it for the littles, it’s not like Stacy is going to be foolish enough to put something in an electrical outlet and electrocute herself, but LPS would insist on it otherwise…” She shook her head, “Go on, get that diaper changed and get downstairs,” she ordered.

“So how scared should I be right now?” I asked Megan as popped the snaps on my romper and pulled the tapes of the slightly wet diaper loose.

“I don’t know honestly Stacy… Hopefully Dad and Larry have this in hand,” she told me as she lifted my feet in the air and pulled the old diaper out and put the new on in place. She held my feet in the air for a second longer to wipe me thoroughly and then put some lotion on from my diaper bag. I shuddered for a second thinking of poor Bella, but knew that lotion had to have been safe at least. As soon as she was satisfied, she wiped her hands on a wipe and taped me in. The romper was snapped shut and she carried me to the bathroom where she washed her hands.

“Let’s get you a pacifier?” She suggested.

“Maybe another bottle too?” I said with my mouth feeling very dry all of the sudden.

She gently squeezed me before retrieving one of my pacifiers that she attached to my outfit with a clip and stuffed the nipple of it into my mouth. She patted me gently on the back as we moved downstairs and I suckled on the reassuring pacifier, just hoping beyond hope that nothing bad was about to happen to me. She stopped at the fridge and grabbed a bottle of juice and carried me to the couch and exchanged the pacifier for the bottle that she held as she turned on a movie that she decided on, “This is a kids movie and it’s free of subliminal messages as far as anyone knows.”

“Okay,” I said pausing from the bottle for a second. I had downed maybe half of the bottle when the doorbell rang and Grandpa moved to open the door.

“Hey Larry,” he said as he let in his lawyer friend.

“Hi Joe, did I beat them here?”

“They should be arriving anytime now I would expect,” he said as I looked up from the bottle I was drinking from.

I embarrassingly put it down as he came to sit down in a chair that Joe provided next to the couch. “How are you doing Stacy?” He asked politely.

I shrugged, “I’ve been better. Do you know what they’re coming for?”

“I…” he started to say when the doorbell rang and Grandpa Joe went for the door.

“Hi, I’m Claire Parsons, I’m with Little Protection Services, and this is Police Detective Deming,” I heard from the door.

“Hi Ty,” Joe said to the man.

“May we come in?” They asked politely.

“Yes, come on in,” Joe said and directed them inside to the living room. I was a little surprised to see that Claire appeared to be a betweener at probably only six and a half feet tall. Smaller than Megan who waved at her from underneath me.

“This is Larry Worthington, our attorney, my wife Theresa, our youngest daughter Megan, and this is Stacy, who I believe you are here to see?” He asked.

“Yes,” Claire said, “May we sit here and talk?” she asked.

“Yes ma’am,” Joe said politely and motioned to a chair that was catty corner from where Megan and I sat on the couch. Grandma sat down next to Megan and Joe sat down protectively next to her.

“Thanks for speaking with us, I know I wouldn’t trust anyone at this point with what happened yesterday…” Claire started out speaking with me. “Umm… just out of curiosity I thought you were going to college Stacy? I wasn’t expecting to see you living as a traditional little?”

I wondered if it was a trick for a moment, but I decided there was something about the shorter woman that I could trust. Grandpa had already said he trusted the officer sitting next to her. “It’s kind of a dual arrangement,” I said with a smile, “I agreed to some of the baby treatment in exchange for being able to go to school. I don’t have to worry about being adopted and having to worry about being maimed or something… But I can study in this dimension where the technology is so much further advanced.”

“I don’t want you to worry about appearances for our sake right now Stacy, I understand you are a very intelligent young woman. What we both need to know is what happened as far as you were aware yesterday…”

“I agree Stacy, don’t worry about playing baby right now, we want to know what happened so we can nail the lady and anyone else connected with her.”

“Go ahead Stacy, and you can tell them about the other stuff you all have figured out too. I checked into her, and Ty here is one of the most trustworthy people I’ve ever known,” Grandpa said across from Grandma.

I gave him a look but the nod from him meant I felt comfortable talking with her with that kind of information. I looked at her, “Where do you want me to start?”

“Well how about yesterday to begin with?”

“Grandpa had me for the morning to stay with him. We had come here and were eating lunch when we got a call that LPS was doing a wellbeing check on us…” I paused, “We’d been kind of expecting something like that after everything that was going on, so Grandpa took me back home. There were two individuals who had identified themselves as LPS agents waiting there when we got there. The lady stated her name was Diana Ellis, and she said the man’s name was Bob Drindel,” I told her.

“Wait, how do you remember that clearly?” Claire asked.

“I have a really good memory… as you said before I’m smart. The lady insisted that she needed to be able to examine my body for marks or about the complaints of malnourishment. She started to try and change my diaper when she had me undressed, but Larry said he would take care of it.” I paused, “I appreciated his being willing to protect me from dealing with her molesting me at the time was all I worried about…” I felt a little bit of tears come to my eyes but I shook it off, “Anyway after he insisted on doing that, she said she wanted to speak with me. We sat down on the floor for what I would expect would be a pretty typical interview?”

“What all did she ask?”

I thought back, “She asked about my adoption, if it was willing, if my parents spanked me, why I would bother to go to college,” I thought back and wasn’t remembering much else. “I think we discussed the failed kidnapping attempt at the university? She also seemed concerned that I’d been left unsupervised on the university campus… We pointed out a free little could babysit me and Larry shut down the conversation?”

He nodded, “That’s basically the conversation. I have a recording of the whole encounter from when I entered the room if you would like it?”

“We would, I know we already have the video of what happened with her and Bella…” the detective said. “Did you see any other signs of problems?”

I hesitated, “I’m not sure what it would look like for a normal visit, but I know a lot of abuse happens in this dimension to littles that no one seems to do anything about… So, I have no way to gauge that honestly.”

“That makes sense,” Claire said, “And you’re right about the abuse. We have a number of agents that we’ve investigated in the past too that have taken desirable littles away to sell for a higher price…” she shook her head, “I hope you know not all of us are like that. I’m certainly not, which is why I’ve been tasked to investigate the matter.”

“So, you have no doubts as to the care of Stacy and Bella?” Grandpa Joe asked.

“None whatsoever, though I do hope that Stacy doesn’t get pushed anywhere she doesn’t want to go with her life… She seems too smart to get stuck with just being a mindless baby. Do you have any other information to add?”

I looked at them and nodded, “I took the video images we captured and compared them with pictures online… I let Mommy know about the discrepancy that was passed onto the police so they could arrest her. I was able to do some further research and tied her with a Breeding and Export business that was after Bella when we met her. They had gone through some elaborate steps to get her to fly out to Selegansol to kidnap her. Now they don’t seem too happy to have lost her. There were a few attempts there to kidnap her, and I suspect that was the same group who tried to kidnap me in the student union.”

“I agree,” Detective Deming said. “Unfortunately, proving it beyond a reasonable doubt, and identifying the person who ordered everything is probably out of our reach for the moment.”

“Any ideas on how to keep me from being attacked anymore?” I asked him.

“We’ve increased patrols around this house and your home. Hopefully that deters them. I know Joe was working to do some more work to secure your home there to harden entry points. They got in last night by ignoring the alarms and just busting in through a side window on the first floor. They appear to have run straight to the nursery, and then ransacked it some when they didn’t find you.”

I felt a bit of fear in my gut hoping that my Switch with the hidden pistol had stayed hidden. “How much did they do?” I asked.

He pulled out a tablet with pictures and showed me the nursery. To my horror basically everything had been tossed except the mattress of my bed. The crib had actually been thrown onto its side, clothes and toys were everywhere on the floor. It looked like they emptied bottles of baby lotion and powder and poured that everywhere too… it seemed pointless levels of vandalism. All of my important stuff other than that weapon were with me though, and it looked like the mattress to the toddler bed had been spared completely. I was able to flip through photos and saw they had also done some damage to the master bedroom and Fred’s office. It looked like they had been scared away before getting to Amanda’s workroom though.

I handed the tablet back to him and said, “Thanks, why’d they stop?”

“I don’t honestly know,” he said, “Unless they found something they wanted in the office?”

I shook my head, “I’m guessing they got scared off myself?” I paused, “I’m not sure what was up with the vandalism in the nursery.”

“Probably a psychological attack,” Grandpa Joe said, “It definitely struck Amanda to the core, and it takes away your sense of safety.”

“I agree,” the detective said and Claire nodded.

“So, where do we go from here?” I asked.

Detective Deming sighed, “That’s a good question. I was hoping having a conversation with you might bring up some new leads… and it did with Venture, but that is like an impossible ivory tower to scale right now. They have so many politicians and officers bribed, to protect them, that they’re not going to go down easily. Add the Trelini family connection that seems to be present from your first kidnapping and I’m not sure what can be done right now.”

“That’s a bit of a dreary picture,” Grandma said from beside me. “Well is there anything else you need from us?”

Deming looked at Claire who shook her head, “We’re going to investigate how the imposter got her credentials altered. The lady she claimed to be was actually found murdered in her house today when we went to check on her.”

I felt my blood turn to ice as once again I could see how serious they were.

“Murdered?” Megan asked as she hugged me protectively.

“She hadn’t been seen in a couple days, so they had been working on this at least that long. The other guy who was with her was on loan from another office, so they hadn’t worked together before. He seems to be innocent in this.”

“That’s crazy…” I said as I felt some urine leave me into the thick diaper.

“Yes, it is,” Claire said. “Look, the only thing I can assure you of from my end is that your file has been flagged so that if it comes up again, I will be the agent to investigate any complaints. I’m pretty certain I’ll be able to close them in a single visit and a shake of my head. I can tell you’re definitely with a good set of parents, and I hope your sister recovers quickly.”

“Thanks,” I said.

She and the detective made their exit and I was left sitting on Megan’s lap. Larry made his own polite departure then too, as he was no longer needed, leaving the four of us sitting there in the living room.

“This is scary,” Megan said.

“Yes, it is,” Grandpa said, “Megan, would you please go help Stacy change into something more comfortable and a regular diaper so I can work with her… actually make it one of her uniforms like she’ll be going to school.”

“What are you up to Joe?” his wife asked.

“The game has changed; we were just worried about kidnapping before. Now I’m worried about lives, I’m going to arm Stacy with every dirty trick in the book. We’ll be downstairs in the workout room for the rest of the day.”

“Are you sure dear?” she asked nervously.

“Yes, I am. Go on Megan,” he told her and she followed his instructions with a squeeze of a hug for me.

“Are you okay with this?” She asked me.

I nodded, “It’s not a matter of if, but when, I run into these guys again.”

She kissed my forehead as she laid me down on the changing table. “Definitely could have stayed in this one longer,” she told me with a smirk.

“You should have seen the monstrosity from the other day…” I groaned.

The change was quick, just a quick wipe, some powder, and the new Pamper was on. We dug out one of my school uniforms and dressed me completely down to the shoes before she carried me downstairs past the first floor, and to the basement where I discovered Joe had a mini version of his studio there.

“Go ahead and leave us alone Megan, call us up for dinner and we’ll take a short break, but we’ll be down here until her bedtime tonight.”

“Yes Daddy,” she said and set me down beside his towering frame.

He had changed into a gi and looked to be back in full martial arts master teacher mode. I bowed politely as she left and took a comfortable ready stance. When the door closed, he walked over to a bag and said, “I called a friend yesterday afternoon after I left you all and asked for a rush order on something.” He pulled out a pair of shoes that looked identical to mine. He sat down on the floor and showed them to me.

“They look just like mine; I have a feeling there’s something concealed?”

“Don’t ever let anyone find this, but there is a blade in each of these shoes,” he showed me how to pull two thin bladed weapons from the heel of the shoe quickly. There was a set of finger holes that resembled a set of brass knuckles attached to a thin single bladed knife.

The weapons had a curve to them that made them look beautiful, if not deadly. I placed my fingers in the holes of the right hand one and amazed that it was a perfect match to my hand. I took a tentative swing with it and marveled how it became an extension of my hand. I looked up at Grandpa Joe, “I take it you can teach me how to use these without hurting myself in the process?”

He gave a light laugh, “That’s the idea. First, we’ll practice just drawing them smoothly.”

I pulled my other shoes off and replaced them with the new ones that even felt more comfortable. As I went to lace them though he said, “These have some special laces, put your finger right here,” he said to a place that seemed to just be a spot of regular patent leather.

I did as he said and they suddenly laced up on their own, “Cool!” I said with a smile.

“I take it you don’t have self-lacing shoes in your dimension?”

“Only in science fiction movies!” I said with a smile.

“They will only unlace now if you use your fingerprint on that spot. They won’t be able to cut them off easily either, so since they’re cute, you’ll probably see an Amazon give up in a hurry on taking them off.”

“So just keep them hidden and wait to strike?” I asked as I stood up.

“That’s one option, but I personally think your best bet at this point is to strike first and not allow them to get their hands on you if you can help it. These would also let you cut through safety belts in car seats. Since they would probably want you in a rear facing seat that might be an easy way to keep covert there…” We spent a while longer talking about some tactics before he said, “Let’s practice,” he said.

After the first time I pulled them free, he handed me a set of practice blades to put in their place and began drilling me in a number of positions to draw them and then move into a ready stance. We had only practiced that when Megan came down just as I had replaced the practice set in the shoes, “Dinner’s ready you two,” she said, “Mom wants me to tell you to clean up, I’ll change Stacy, and then we’ll eat.”

“Okay,” he said. We exchanged a quick bow to each other and then I walked up to the stairs where Megan scooped me up.

She made a face as she checked my diaper, “It’s been hours! This diaper should be a lot wetter, you need to drink more…”

“I’ll try and remember that…” I told her. She changed me into a fresh diaper, washed her hands, helped me wash mine, and then carried me to get situated downstairs in my high chair. I had a moment of fear remembering earlier on when I first arrived that I would likely be eating baby food under Granny’s watch.

I saw from the pasta pot and a red pot of sauce that dinner was apparently a pasta dish in a homemade red sauce.

“Here, let’s get you a bib,” Granny said and appeared with one that said, ‘My Granny Spoils Me More than Yours.’ I rolled my eyes internally as she tied it on and then gave me a plate of pasta and one of my small forks.

I sighed in relief and said, “Thank you Granny!”

“You’re very welcome Stacy,” she said with a kiss to the top of my head.

“Has Mommy called with any more information on Bella?”

“She’s still in the ICU, but they have seen some signs of her waking up. They’re going to try and wake her up in a few hours if she hasn’t on her own.”

“That’s quick…” Megan said. “I wish I could be there for her,” she added.

“If you want, I can stay here with your Dad and Stacy and you can go there for a bit?” She suggested.

She shook her head, “Mandy wanted me to watch Stacy. Why don’t you go back after dinner though?”

“I’ve got Stacy under control if you both want to go?” Grandpa Joe suggested.

They both looked torn as I twirled some of the large spaghetti noodles around my small fork and took a bite. After I chewed, I took a sip from my bottle that sat on the tray and then said, “Go, it’ll do everyone some good. Grandpa and I are just going to hang out downstairs anyway, right?”

He smiled at me, “Right!”

They both sighed but said, “Okay, I think we can trust you two for a bit…”

He mocked pain and said, “Just for a bit?”

“To be fair they probably shouldn’t trust us at all,” I said with a smirk.

“Definitely my favorite granddaughter,” he said with a laugh.

We all ate pretty quickly and I filled up on the large noodles. It was almost like eating a pasta the thickness of penne pasta. The sauce was one of the best I’d ever had, “This is amazing,” I told her.

“I’m glad you think so, I worried you might not like it?”

“Why?”

“I don’t put sugar in my sauce. Our other little grandchildren didn’t like it while they could eat it.” She was sad at the end of the statement.

I grimaced but nodded, “I keep hearing my taste buds are weird…”

“How else?” Megan asked curiously and seeming interested in a change of conversation.

“Well… I think Daddy and I might have to go and have some fun with fiery food challenges…”

Granny looked a bit nervous at that, “What?”

“Well I grew up that the smaller the chile, the spicier it is. Even your smallest peppers are like the size of our mild poblano peppers to me. I think because of that they taste milder. Bella regretted it when she tried a little of one that I didn’t feel a tingle on.”

Megan looked intrigued, “They have some events sometimes at the university…”

“Before or after bedtime?”

“Some before… I’ll keep an eye out for those for you!” She said with a smile.

Dinner ended soon and Megan made me finish the bottle before changing me again. She delivered me back to Grandpa’s care, before they both took off for the hospital. “Okay, draw those blades again,” he told me and came at me simultaneously.

I did so with a front tumble as I moved to his left and drew the blades, standing to face him to my side. “Good!” he said, “But, you left yourself open…”

For the next few hours we worked nonstop until my muscles hurt, and I was dripping with sweat. He showed me how to go for the tendons around the ankles, and to attack the hamstrings first. We also worked with him reaching for me and going after holding my arms and wrists. There were also drills with me getting to the blades while being held, cradled, and aggressively squeezed. By the end of that night I knew I could be beaten by the right person, but I thought I might have survived someone who underestimated me. I hoped with more practice even the right person would be unlikely to win!

My watch showed eleven when Megan walked in and said, “Okay Daddy, Stacy needs to take a bath because I’m guessing she stinks, then she needs to get to bed.”

We both bowed to each other and I said, “Thank you for teaching me Sensei.”

“My privilege, I really do hope we have more time to train… Here, let’s switch the training blades out,” he added quietly as he hugged me. I discreetly repositioned the blades into my shoes. I now had the real blades that were razor sharp where they could be useful.

I walked over to Megan who looked at me with wide eyes, but squeezed me as she picked me up. I asked her, “Did Bella wake up yet?”

“Yes, she did. She’s groggy and disoriented, but seems to remember everything that’s happened recently, as well as further back in the past. She managed to answer questions for about fifteen minutes before she went back to sleep. They’re cautiously optimistic that there won’t be too many long-term effects,” she had made it up to the top of the stairs then.

“Have they noticed any so far?”

“She seemed to have some coordination issues, nothing major, but there may be some losses there. They can’t really tell much more until they have her try and move around though.”

I nodded as she reached the door to the nursery. She stripped the dress I wore off and tried to take my shoes off but couldn’t do anything. I went, “oops, let me get those,” and put my fingerprint where the sensor was hidden. They came undone and I slipped them off, “Make sure I put those on tomorrow please…” I told her.

“Mmm… Okay,” she said leaving me in just my diaper a moment later. The discolored garment was hanging almost loose on my hips at that point as she removed it and carried me bare-naked to the bathroom, where Granny was already running a bubble bath for me.

I blushed as Megan passed me to her and she sat me down in the water. “Do you mind if I bathe you?” Granny asked. There was definitely a tentative nervousness to her voice, but also you could tell she really wanted to bathe me.

I blushed but nodded, “Okay.”

The next ten minutes or so weren’t that different than Amanda bathing me. It was a little more embarrassing with the lady who I had at one-point thought would be my biggest antagonist. Every stroke of a sudsy wash cloth, or massaging of baby shampoo in my hair was so gentle though, so I felt pretty content. I was almost feeling like going to sleep in the bathtub when she said, “I think my little grandbaby is ready for night night, huh?”

I nodded, “Yeah, it’s been a long day…”

She nodded and wrapped me gently in a towel before carrying me down to the nursery. Megan was hanging around then as Granny asked, “So are you okay with going to church with us tomorrow?”

I felt my nerves come up again, but wasn’t sure how to respond as she deposited me onto the changing table.

Megan came to the rescue then, “Mom, why don’t I stay home with Stacy tomorrow?” With everything going on right now she could probably use another day of sleeping in before classes start on Monday.”

I looked up at Granny and she pursed her lips, “I think I can live with that if you promise me that you’ll both come next Sunday?”

I nodded, “Okay Granny, I appreciate you letting me sleep in…”

She pulled my legs in the air as she put a thick princess diaper under my rear. “You’re welcome sweetie,” she said. Powder followed all over my diaper area, stomach, and legs. She taped up the diaper and then helped me get dressed into my footed pajamas. She brushed my hair and used a loud blow drier before braiding it loosely.

“You want a bottle before you go to bed?” She asked me. “I heard you don’t mind them?” she added with a smile.

I looked at Megan who flushed a bit at having been busted at telling my secrets to her mom. “No, they’re okay… sure. Just regular milk though, right?”

“No breast milk for you for now per your mommy’s wishes,” she agreed.

“Here, Megan hold her while I go get her a baba,” she said with a quick hug to me and passed me over to Megan.

She sat down on the floor with me and turned me around in her lap to face her, “Sorry I told Mom that…”

I giggled, “She’s your mom, you don’t probably have a ton of secrets from her. It’s okay.”

She gave me a quick squeeze, “I figured tomorrow going to church might be a bit too much. I’m not sure if they’ll send you with the babies to the nursery, let you hang with us in the college room, or send you to a free littles group…”

“Thanks, that’s more thinking than I would want to do tomorrow,” I agreed. “Maybe I can get a few more things done on my computer before Chloe and Cassie come over…”

“Sure,” she said. “Do you have many more things you’re working on?”

“I have a couple more things I want to check on... “

Her mother came back up the stairs with one of my bottles in hand, and Megan handed me over to her. She carried me to a well-worn rocking chair in the corner where she placed me in the crook of her arm and placed the nipple of the bottle of warm milk to my lips. I latched on and began nursing as she hummed a lullaby that Amanda must have learned from her. My eyes closed gradually and I must have been fully asleep as she settled me down inside the large crib.