Arrivals in the Maternity Ward

Chapter 1
Chapter 1

Chapter Description: In the not so distant future, Stan and Maria Lockney are expecting the birth of their daughter Emily. Their anticipation turns to shock when their doctor discovers something concerning only the bone marrow transplant of a donor of fitting age and genetics can cure. How far(back) will Stan go to ensure his child's health?

Stan and Maria sat in one of the hospital’s many waiting rooms. The brown haired man had laid his arm around his wife, allowing her to rest her blond haired head against his chest. Maria enjoyed it, but he could see her remaining focused on her visibly full term belly, as she caressed it. Softly he also laid a hand on it, hoping to feel a movement from their daughter separated from them by so little and yet so much. This caused Maria to look up to him. Her blue eyes meeting his grey ones.

“Why is this needing so long,” Maria wondered, worry clear in her voice.

“It will be fine,” Stan noticed. “Her vital signs are strong, else Dr. Meyer would have called us already.”

Maria pressed his hand. “I only want to be back home.”

“Me, too,” Stan said, understanding his wife’s desire to spend the last days before the expected date of birth at their house. “Do you want something to drink?”

“I could bring you a bit off water.”

The expecting parents looked up and noticed a robot nurse standing a bit away from them, looking at them with eyes shining light blue. They hadn’t noticed her approaching, but then again these androids were meant to be silent to not disturb the patients in the hospital. Like they all, this one wore a nurse’s coat over white plastic skin, including a name tag revealing her to be Sarah.

“Thank you, but no,” Maria declined. “I don’t want to have to use the toilets here.”

The robot nurse bowed her head.

“Of course,” she replied, her tone perfectly understanding and with just in the right dose of support and competence. “Dr. Meyer is ready for you now.”

The couple shared a look – the connection of these androids to the hospital’s network made a lot of things easier – and then hand in hand walked to the doctor’s office. Laying eye on the doctor, Stan wondered not for the first time, why the man had chosen to allow the slightly grey hair to sprinkle his black ones around his temples. With age-regressing and progression since many years safely used, most people opted to stay in their optimal age range, far away from such signs of advanced age. Maybe it was to give his patients a feeling that he had the competence brought by years of experience. If so, Stan found it to work quite well in moments like this.

“Good afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Lockney,” he greeted them. “Thank you for your patience. Please have a seat.”

The seriousness in the doctor’s voice and eyes made Stan grow cold.

“What did the test reveal?” He asked sitting down along with his wife.

“The test showed a condition we identified as mykor anomaly,” Dr. Meyer said his tone a bit more mellow. ”It is an anomaly in the bone marrow, preventing it from building up the immune system the way it should.”

Maria gasped and Stan immediately took her hand.

“It isn’t dangerous, yet,” the doctor assured them warmly, looking to the expecting mother. “Your immune system still protects the baby and will do so for some time after birth.”

“Emily,” Maria said.

The doctor looked at her.

“Her name is Emily,” she explained.

Maria didn’t know why she had said this, but the name suddenly had an immense importance for her … nearly like a charm.

“Emily,” Dr. Meyer agreed. “Emily will be protected for a few months by what she got from your immune system and what she gets through your milk. The rest she will get by regular injections until we can find a matching donor for bone marrow.”

“What about us?” Stan asked.

“We checked.” Dr. Meyer shook his head. “Close but no match, also at this stage to prevent complications it is best she gets transplants from another baby the closer to newborn the better.”

“But if we wait …” Maria began. “She will be fine, won’t she? There is no risk now or later?”

Dr. Meyer hesitated a moment too long.

“Mrs. Lockney, we will do our best,” Dr. Meyer said solemnly. “She isn’t the first case.”

Tears dwelled up in the woman’s eyes.

“What if she was transplanted into an artificial womb?” Stan asked, desperate for a solution and knowing how many babies were grown in such wonders. “If she stays linked to a functioning immune system and is stopped from aging…”

“Each month she ages her bone marrow will match more that of potential donors,” the doctor replied. “This would be a measure of last resort.”

Stan felt his wife pressing his hand and instinctively pressed back. The helplessness he felt made it nearly impossible for him to breath. He understood the changes for a bone marrow donation from newborns were so very slim and realized every day without one would put his daughter in danger. His eyes wandered from the doctor to his wife’s belly. If there was something …

“What about me,” Stan asked calmly.

“I already told you, you are now match,” Dr. Meyer reminded him.

“Yes, but you have the ability to change the DNA of a person,” he noticed. “You could change me into the perfect donor.”

“Given half of your DNA already matches your daughter’s this is pretty easy to make you genetically her sibling, yes,” Dr. Meyer conceded. “Still, the age difference of the cells wouldn’t make this optimal.”

“Then change me to her age, too.”

Silence fell over the room, as the two other persons realized what he was suggesting.

“Stan …” Maria pressed his hand.

“It would only be for the operation,” her husband said, looking in her shocked, tear stained face.

“Plus a few days recovery time,” Dr. Meyer noticed seriously. “Regressing someone to a newborn isn’t something done regularly. The stress of the operation and the regression …”

“But it can be done,” Stan pressed.

“There are risks,” the doctor warned.

“Stan, are you sure about this?” Maria asked.

Stan looked at his wife and touched her belly.

“I would do anything for our daughter and for you.”

They shared a kiss, when suddenly Maria gasped.

“Stan, something is happening,” she managed to say while breathing hard, her eyes widening. “I think … I think labor is starting.”

***

Delivery Room

Maria was rushed into the delivery room, already wearing a patient gown. As the contractions intensified every passing moment, she looked around with in a pain larger than just physical. She wanted Stan by her side … needed him … but he was already being prepared for his regression and genetic change. Without close relatives or friends in this city there was no one else there for her and the feeling of abandonment was overwhelming.

“Mrs. Lockney.”

She focused on the doctor in front of her, noticing a robot nurse a bit behind him, obviously ready to assist.

“I’m Dr. Bush,” the man explained. “Don’t worry, we are there for you.”

Thinking about the man she really wanted by her side, Maria still nodded.

Examination Room

Stan sat on the examination table, as instructed already undressed but for his underwear, the rest lying on the stool besides him. He had gotten slight goosebumps and felt close to shiver, not because it was cold, not because what was awaiting him, but because he knew his wife needed him now and he couldn’t be with her. How much he longed to hold Maria’s hand now and … The door of the room opened and Dr. Meyer entered, holding a syringe already filled with a clear serum.

“Mr. Lockney this is it,” the older man explained. “Are you sure you want to proceed?”

Starring at the syringe’s needle, Stan nodded.

“Very well then,” Dr. Meyer said seriously. “Please lie down.”

Delivery Room

“Now press!” Dr. Bush told her.

Lying on her back, Maria gave her best to do so. She felt like the pain and worry of labor couldn’t possibly become stronger. Vaguely she was aware more robot nurses had arrived. The androids remained silent and seemingly uncaring as she let out screams of pain.

“She is coming,” the doctor informed her. “I can see her head.”

Examination Room

“This way you can see yourself,” Dr. Meyer explained. “Studies shows this eases the disorientation during and after the change.”

Lying on the examination bed, Stan looked in the large mirror the doctor placed next to him. He appeared just as he had seen himself this morning in the mirror of his own bathroom. An adult of 29 with brown hair and grey eyes. This would change in a few moments as he was well aware.

“Please give me your left arm,” the older man requested.

Stan did so. His limb was stiff … but not trembling as he had feared, not even as the needle hovered centimeters above his skin.

“Ready?” The doctor asked.

Stan took a deep breath and nodded. Even now it felt surreal, though he could see the needle touching his skin, then entering it. The pain of the penetration seemed to pop a bubble and suddenly it felt real. Already the doctor was pressing the serum into him. It was a slight pain, no comparison to donating blood or anything. To think that something such small would change his DNA and age. He almost couldn’t …

Suddenly he felt a strange sensation. A tingle starting in his stomach and extending to his whole body. The man gasped! Looking into the mirror he already could witness the effects. His skin became smoother and his limbs leaner, as his muscles seemed to melt. Within half a minute, he looked like he belonged right in college, moments later he would have no problems fitting in high school … his muscular frame beginning to adopt a leanness typical for teenagers.

It was surreal on a completely other level and scary, even more so since he knew he was just half through the process.

For Emily … Stan thought. For Maria …

Delivery Room

Half through, Maria tried to encourage herself, breathing heavily, just as she had learned in the preparation courses. I’m half the way through … Emily is.

“And press,” Doctor Bush told her.

She did as she was told, holding her breath, taking all her strength and pressing while trying to ignore the pain as the opening of her vagina was stretched even more with each moment.

“And relax,” the doctor said, “Just breath. Your daughter just crowned.”

Crowning, Maria thought, trying to distract herself from the pain. They call this moment crowning, when the newborn’s head doesn’t retract inside between the contractions anymore.

In this moment she felt like she deserved a crown after all she had been through already. But even more than anything else she wanted Stan by her side.

“It is all right,” a kind voice said besides her. “You are doing this great.”

Maria looked up, staring into the kind blue shining eyes of one of the robot nurses. What shocked her was that she was holding her hand. How long she already did so, the woman had no idea, but it felt warm, soft and strong at the same time, probably having been constructed with situations like this in mind. It was a pale imitation from what the support she would have gotten from her husband, still right now she was thankful for everything.

“And again,” Dr. Bush said. “You can do it.”

Part of Maria doubted this, but with the android’s support she gathered her strength for another push to finish the journey forward and deliver her daughter into this world.

Examination Room

Stan starred into the mirror, captivated by the journey backwards his body took. The loss of weight alone already was dazzling, leaving him feel lighter, as he left more and more years behind. His changes seemed to slow a bit, as he approached the border between High School and Elementary School. The regressing man still noticed the signs of puberty, pimples and a hint of acne, but they quickly faded as they changes continued.

Stan’s skin became a bit lighter, his nose a bit thinner and his skin showed slight freckles. This confused him a moment as he couldn’t remember looking this way as a teenager, but then he realized it was the serum changing his DNA for him to become his daughter’s twin. Indeed now he recognized these were features he had seen so many times in Maria’s face. As he starred in the mirror his eyes even turned from brown to blue!

As the regressing man still tried to come to terms with the genetic change, the transformation sped up again. His face’s features softened, became slightly rounder and the sudden lack of stubbles confirmed he had left puberty behind, now becoming a child instead of a teen. As he took the time to check his arms and legs he noticed indeed all body hair was missing now. A quick check under his boxer shorts now at least three times too large told him this included his private area ... where his best part had shrunk more than three times! Quickly the regressing man covered it again and instead looked back into the mirror. The hair on his head meanwhile underwent a radical shift from brown to blond. It did so strangely, from up to down, so that for a short moment he felt as if he had been crowned.

Stan didn’t get the time to wonder about this, as this effect quickly disappeared as his hair turned completely blond. Along with this he shrank further. Despite him knowing this, he felt like instead the room around him, including Dr. Meyer and the robot nurse were becoming bigger. The mirror helped to dispel this confusing trick of his mind trying to make sense of something nature hadn’t built it to understand. He saw himself as a confused looking elementary schooler, rapidly shrinking even now. His teeth suddenly ached and as he touched them one by one with his tongue he could feel them changing, molding into milk teeth, fitting his shrinking jaw.

Good I have no fillings, Stan thought, would they have fallen out or be absorbed?

As he looked into the mirror again an innocent looking kindergartner in oversized boxershorts looked back at him. It was nearly too much for Stan to bear. He felt fear crushing him. He wanted it to stop. Worse, a growing part of himself wanted to be held, as the world became even larger around him.

No, he told himself, holding back tears threatening to spill. It is nearly over.

Delivery Room

Maria’s cries of pain echoed through the room, only to be suddenly joined by other cries. A newborn’s cries. Dr. Bush held Emily safe in his arms, as the robot nurse had already cut the umbilical cord.

“Let me hold her,” Maria begged. “Please.”

Smiling the doctor complied, handing over the little, protesting bundle to her mother.

“Oh Emily,” she whispered, cradling the squirming newborn close to her breast. “Everything is okay, mommy is here.”

As much as Maria tried to cherish this very first moment with her daughter, she still felt an empty spot in her heart, knowing it had been robbed from her husband.

Examination Room

Stan starred in the mirror, unable to look away. He was now a toddler, hardly two years old and still he shrank. The examination table which had seemed small to him at the beginning of his journey, now seemed large enough to walk on … or crawl? Looking down the table he noticed that the floor was now nearly his new body length away, so crawling seemed the better option.

Stan knew too well in a few moments it would be the only option of movement really, for he still shrank. More than that, he also became downright chubby, as baby fat began to cover his body. His blond hair … though it seemed like Maria’s hair really … thinned as he turned one year old. His nose shrank, became pudgy as the nasal bridge shortened and flattened. His ears shrank, too, as he noticed when turning his head. Baby blue eyes became larger compared to the rest of his face, as they starred at the changes in the mirror. His teeth began receding and he could feel with his tongue, how they vanished one by one in the gum, until at last the central incisors of his jaw sank down, leaving soft flesh.

Stan was suddenly consumed by the fear it would not stop until all of him disappeared or until he was nothing but a clump of cells. It was irrational as he knew too well, but this knowledge couldn’t quell the panic washing over him. He tried to sit up, but already his limbs were too weak to lift him up on the gigantic plain the examination table had become. Still, unbelievable, he shrank a bit more, until it finally seemed to stop. He looked in the mirror only to see an infant with big baby blue eyes look back at him … the image burned itself into his mind.

Mobilizing all his will power, Stan tried again to sit up, but only managed to make his arms flail and his legs kick without him being able to control them. To top it, as he relaxed, his legs even took a curved position as if he just had come out of the confines of the womb. He felt another change, as months or just weeks left him. The regressed man looked in the mirror, finding his head nearly impossible to move. For the first time he noticed … or his mind let him notice his slightly bloated belly and his belly button having extended … and featuring a piece of umbilical cord. Not even dry but like freshly cut … or ready to connect him to someone. He was finally done, wasn’t he?

They said they would make me a newborn, Stan remembered. Did they make me even younger?

He looked up from the umbilical cord and saw Dr. Meyer, having become a walking mountain from his perspective, approaching and bowing over him.

“Mr. Lockney,” he began. “Can you understand me? Do you still want to proceed?”

Stan wanted to say yes, but the only sound which emerged the toothless mouth was the soft yelp of an infant.

“Your vocal cord and muscle control is on newborn level,” the doctor noticed. “Try to nod if you still want to proceed.”

Despite feeling like not one muscle in his body wanted to obey him, Stan managed to nod.

“Very well,” Dr. Meyer said. “I will bring you to the operation room.”

Delivery Room

Maria looked at Emily, trying to burn every detail of this little being into her mind. She touched each of the little toes and fingers, caressed the back and the little face framed by the lightest blond hair. How much she loved this little girl looking at her with big blue eyes was beyond description, but with each moment she felt her fear rise, too. According to Dr. Meyer, the Mykor Anomaly wouldn’t harm her until later but what if …  The new mother took a deep breath and suppressed the fear. Emily was safe for now and would be so for all her life, that was what she and most of all Stan were making sure now.

“You have a brave daddy,” Maria told her daughter and stroke the newborn’s right cheek. “The bravest in the whole wide world. And he loves you so very much!”

How soft the skin was!

“Mrs. Lockney.”

Maria looked up from her daughter to find Dr. Bush standing by her side, a robot nurse close behind him.

“We need to make the checkup now,” the doctor said. “Then we will bring her directly to the operation room.”

Instinctively she held her Emily tighter, suddenly feeling cold at the thought of ever having to let go of her.

“Already?”

“Everything is prepared,” the man explained with sympathy in his voice. “Doing it quick will reduce the stress for your daughter and husband.”

Maria thought of Stan and what he was willing to do for their daughter. How could she hesitate now, when it only meant to be separated from their daughter such a short time? She looked down at Emily and gently stroke her head, admiring the faint golden hair, the hair of her mother. Maria gave her one last soft kiss on the forehead and then handed her to the robot nurse, who cradled the newborn with perfect gentleness.

It pained Maria so much more than the labor had to watch the robot nurse vanish with Emily through one of the doors. Despite the doctor and the robot nurses still being there, she had never felt so alone since having felt her daughter’s first kick inside her. How much she wanted to hold her again.

Examination Room

Before Dr. Meyer could pick Stan up, the robot nurse intervened.

“Dr. Meyer,” she noticed. “The newborn will lose too much heat on the way. May I help?”

Briefly looking down at the regressed man, the doctor nodded and gave the android some room. To Stan’s surprise the first thing the robot nurse did was pulling a pillow slip from its pillow and placing it besides him on the paper covering of the examination table. The android then pulled down his now totally oversized boxershorts, easily half the size his body. Stan tried to stop her, to hold on to it as if it could still serve as piece of dignity, but the excitement let his hands turn into fists as his arms and legs flailed slightly. Not hindered at all by his wriggling, she pulled his underwear away and laid it on to the pile consisting of the rest of his clothes on the stool next to them.

Before Stan could do something … not that he could really do anything … she had gently picked him up. Cradled in one of her arms, he noticed how gigantic, soft, warm and strong her hands felt she held him, securely supporting his neck. Looking up, the blue light of the androids eyes shining over him as she concentrated on the pillow slip below. Stan realized she was using the techniques she would apply to any normal newborn on him. This hospital was using the newest android models, he remembered, constructed with everything a newborn or its mother might need in mind, obviously including a warm artificial skin if needed. Worst of all, he felt himself calming by the warmth and security of her arm.

Stan protested, but all that came out of his mouth was a newborn’s squeal, to which the robot nurse began to gently rock him. This made him look down. The ground was so insanely far away he couldn’t help but shudder. Trying to distract himself somehow, the regressed man looked into the mirror and regretted it instantly. He was just a newborn now, easily held by the android in the nurse’s gown with only one arm. Naked to reveal his chubby form, curved legs, fresh umbilical cord and the small stubble that was now his penis.

Stan opened his mouth for another protest. At least Dr. Meyer had to take him seriously! Yet, already the robot nurse laid him down again, with his head on the folded corner of the square pillow case. In precise but careful movements, the android first pulled the left side of the fabric over him, then the pulled up the corner to this feet and finally the corner to his right.

To his horror Stan recognized it as a swaddling technique, for he and Maria had learned them in baby-preparation courses and even practiced them on baby dolls … But he was no doll or baby! He tried to fight the process, but again all he managed to do was proofing that he was neither strong enough, nor had he enough muscle control to do more than weakly kick and flail. This hardly extended the fabric he was now firmly swaddled in.

“Shh,” the robot nurse cooed, picking him up and cradling him in her arms. “Everything is fine.”

Stan starred in the big blue eyes. Did she think him a real newborn?!

“It is only for the way to the operation room,” Dr. Meyer intervened, understanding the regressed man’s feelings. “There you can rest a bit until your daughter joins you.”

The robot nurse turned to the doctor.

“There might not be too much time for rest,” she informed him, having pulled an important information via WiFi out of the central server. “Emily Lockney has just been born. She will arrive in the operation room soon.”

In her arms Stan felt like his heart had stopped. Emily was there! For her he felt he could do anything.

“Then let’s make sure you two quickly meet,” Dr. Meyer suggested with a smile.

With this they left the room, Stan held swaddled, warm and secure in the robot nurse’s arm.

***

Still swaddled in the fabric of the pillow slip, Stan was carried through the hospital’s corridors. Looking at the floor below felt like looking down from the second level, but looking around was little better. People were eying him curiously and he had to muster all self-control not to bury his face in the robot nurse’s uniform. They were adults as he had been moments before, but now they seemed giants to him. Their gazes had something alien, a warmth he knew was reserved for little children, babies, infants … Vaguely thankful that at least he wasn’t naked he would have preferred to be invisible.

Concentrating on the way itself was little better, for the hospital had transformed into an impossible large labyrinth. A labyrinth he had no hope to orient himself in. This made him feel lost and smaller than he already was … he couldn’t even ask where he was! The robot nurse holding him seemed to sense this and began slightly rocking him … which helped as much as Stan hated to admit it to himself.

They waited in front of an elevator, when a slightly overweighed woman waiting next to them noticed him.

“What is wrong with him?” She asked Dr. Meyer.

“He is just going for a check-up,” the doctor lied.

“Oh, poor little thing,” she cooed, making a ridiculously sweet face. “Do you miss your mommy?”

Stan squirmed, he was thankful for the lie, as he felt that the shame of being recognized as an adult would have killed him, but this felt hardly less humiliating. The doors to the elevator opened and they entered, but the woman stayed close and tried to humor the newborn. Frustrated he tried to look away, this being hindered by the lack of strength of his neck-muscles. When he managed to do so, he almost regretted it.

What Stan saw was himself … he at once realized this on an intellectual level, yet the image of the swaddled newborn in the robot nurse’s arms made him want to reject this idea with every fiber of his being. So tiny and fragile, as if everything was a danger to him, so innocent looking with his round face, stubby nose and open, toothless mouth, as if there wasn’t one mature thought going on in the bald head …

Mostly bald, for there was faint blond hair, so different from his normal brown one that for a moment Stan thought he was looking at another newborn, until he remembered his DNA had been changed to make him genetically his daughter’s twin, mixed with Maria’s to which her blond hair on him was a testament now. The wide blue eyes, too, if they were meant to stay and not change color like in most newborns …

I won’t be this age long enough to find out, Stan reassured himself, just as the elevator doors opened again and he was carried out, away from the woman and the disturbing image. Just long enough so Emily is safe …

***

A bit later and still swaddled, Stan lied on a hospital bed in a preparation room. Everything seemed gigantic for him. Robot nurses and doctors wandered around, ignoring him, as they discussed things amongst themselves and brought in machines he couldn’t identify. He didn’t even know how long he was lying there, as there was no clock in his field of view!

Feeling the overwhelming urge to do something … anything to be noticed … to get attention, the regressed adult tried to call someone. Opening his toothless mouth the only thing he managed to do was cooing weakly. He knew he could try louder, but feared to sound just like a crying newborn needing attention … but wasn’t he? Wasn’t this why he was getting more and more agitated? Pushing this idea aside, Stan tried to free himself out of the fabric, but found as before he just was neither strong enough nor enough in control of his limbs, which seemed to flail on their own.

Suddenly someone did pay attention to him. A robot nurse approached him with a little bag it laid next to him. She wore a nurse uniform different from the others and her name tag identified her as Luna.

“Oh, who do we have here?” She asked, in a sweet, warm tone. “Is the brave little man looking what the grownups are doing?”

Stan opened his mouth to protest, but only managed an angry infant sound. Hadn’t the robot nurses been informed he wasn’t really a newborn? As the android began undo the swaddling, he guessed she was there to prepare him for the operation. Lying naked in front of her, he felt like he was becoming red from shame, even though he knew she was just an android and the human doctors in the room didn’t pay them any attention.

“Your umbilical cord isn’t clamped,” the android noticed. “Let us not waste precious blood.”

Before he could protest, the robot nurse had put a yellow umbilical cord clamp on the stump. Stan just starred at it. He didn’t feel anything, but …

“Time to get you safe and comfy,” Robot Nurse Luna announced.

Stan didn’t understand what this meant, until she reached into the bag and pulled out diaper cream, baby powder and a diaper. He starred at it in horror and instinctively his legs began to kick. The robot nurse easily grabbed them by the ankles though and gently lifted them. As his butt was thus also reachable, she skillfully put some cream onto it and began rub it in front and behind. The coolness and humiliation made the regressed adult whimper, a sound he hated nearly as much as the process itself.

“Hush,” the android told him. “It is cold, but we are nearly done.”

Next Luna used some diaper powder to perfect the protection. A bit of it reached Stan’s nose, making him sneeze, a sound being cute even to his ears. The smile on her face extended, but she didn’t say anything as she lifted his butt a bit more and placed the diaper under it. Gently she lowered his butt on it and then quickly closed it, fastening the tapes.

“All done!” Robot Nurse Luna noticed. “Who is safe and comfy now?”

Stan didn’t feel safe the slightest. Comfy though … the diaper felt soft. He knew newborn diapers were made especially soft and comfortable, even letting his navel and umbilical cord with its new clamp free. The smell of powder and cream coming from his hip was so sweet …

“This is enough,” a voice declared. “You can go back now.”

To his relief Stan saw Dr. Meyer approaching.

“Of course,” Robot Nurse Luna confirmed. “If you need something else just call.”

“We will,” the doctor said.

With this the android left.

“I’m sorry.” Dr. Meyer knelt to be on eye level with Stan. “She is a nurse of the maternity ward and quite … throughout with dealing with newborns. The internal network of the androids must have informed her that you needed help.”

Stan kicked his little legs. He couldn’t talk, but the older man understood his problem.

“Your muscle control is gone, this includes the bowel and bladder control, so this is a necessity for as long as you stay this way …” Noticing the shock in his patient’s face, he hurried to add: “Don’t worry, in a few days it will be safe to return you to your proper age. You will be able to go home with your wife and daughter.”

With this the doctor looked up, noticing something behind Stan he couldn’t turn his head around to see.

“Speaking of,” he noticed with a smile. “Someone wants to meet you.”

Stan thought he meant his wife and felt a sudden rush of shame by the idea she would see him this way. Then something was being pushed besides his bed, nearly on one level. At first he couldn’t identify it, but then he realized it was a transparent newborn crib, being pushed by a robot nurse dressed as Luna had been. The android gently picked up the small occupant and placed it besides Stan. It was a newborn baby girl with fair blond hair, just like the one he had now and just like him dressed in just a diaper, revealing her clamped umbilical cord.

“Your daughter wants to see her daddy,” Dr. Meyer revealed.

Overwhelmed Stan gazed at his daughter. Tiny, but now exactly his size as she lied besides him. Her head turned and their eyes locked. Baby blue eyes both, her looking innocently, him looking with emotions nearly overwhelming him.

Emily, he thought. Everything is fine. I’m here.

As Stan shared this precious first moment with his daughter, he knew they were looking like the newborn twins they now genetically were. Still, just now this didn’t feel like a priority. His daughter looked healthy and he would do everything to make sure she stayed this way. The regressed father tried to touch Emily, but his arm just didn’t want to obey him and extend completely. Emily watched him with interest, probably thinking him another newborn … if she thought anything at all.

“Mr. Lockney?”

Stan looked up at Dr. Meyer.

“We are ready now,” he noticed.

Stan looked at his daughter, who was mercifully unaware of what all these people were doing to makes sure she was healthy. Looking back at the doctor, he nodded weakly.

With this activity erupted around them. Dr. Meyer left to talk with his colleagues. Robot Nurses, human nurses and doctors working in strange harmony. A sensor was clipped on Stan’s right foot. He hated this feeling of pressure, but as he saw how the same sort of sensor was clipped on his daughter’s right foot, he smiled at her, trying to cheer her up, as she began crying in protest. Right now he understood her too well, the beeping of the machines showing their vital signs, the activity around them and the pressure was nearly too much for him in this state, too. It only stopped when they were pushed in the operation room … only to double!

It was sheer insanity. The light above him as bright and far away as the sun. His daughter looked fascinated at it, while Stan tried to identify the people around him, but catching little more than silhouettes rushing by. After what seemed like an eternity, Dr. Meyer approached them again, fully dressed with mask, plastic gloves and surgical gown.

“We will start now by administering anesthesia, then we will extract your bone marrow and insert it into your daughter,” he explained, showing a syringe, as the doctor besides him approached Emily. “You won’t notice a bit.”

Stan nodded weakly, thankful he had at least this illusion of control. While the regressed man looked at his daughter, the doctor let the needle enter his leg and applied the anesthetic. For a moment there was slight pain, followed by a feeling of warmth in his diaper. He believed he heard a baby cry and couldn’t say if it was him or Emily. Then darkness.

To be continued …