The Exchange,

Chapter 10
The exchange part 10

Chapter Description: Sandy meets someone special

Sandy must have fallen asleep on the journey home because the next thing she remembered she was laying on a blanket in her playpen. She sat up and rubbed at her eyes, trying to wake herself up. It was strange that for a split second, that second where she was just waking up, she would forget what was happening to her. She would expect herself to be at her desk having fallen asleep whilst working late. She would expect things to be... normal, not being a foot and a half tall, surrounded by baby toys, and dressed in over the top cutesy clothing. Sandra looked down at herself. She was still in the yellow gingham dress, although she could also feel the fact that she had been changed, as she had certainly been wet before falling asleep. She grabbed her crotch. It felt thicker, she guessed she was back in cloth nappies. Shuffling her bottom a little she could hear the plastic rustle to confirm her suspicions. She pulled up her skirt, the yellow nappy cover was gone.

"Did you have a good nap sweetie? You were out like a light. It must have been quite a tiring day for you, and it’s not even mid afternoon."

Sandra looked through the bars of the playpen to see her mummy sitting on the sofa, putting down an electronic pad of some sort.

Sandra nodded still feeling a bit light headed, ’Was it from waking up, or was it something more sinister?’

"Mummy, that syrup stuff? Why did that carer do that to Becky? If exchange students were selected for specific abilities they possess, then what’s the point in making them forget their natural abilities? I mean Becky doesn’t know that she was even an adult!"

Anya walked over and hoisted Sandra up and out of the pen, then carried Sandra back over to the sofa and sat down with her in her lap.

"It’s possible that Becky, when she first became aware, was difficult to control..."

"...Wait, so if I was difficult to control you’d use that stuff on me?"

Anya shook her head, "No, I don’t believe I would, but some of the other carers just aren’t really that sympathetic to their little charges. They want either to make the process easier for themselves or want a real child. By regressing them mentally it doesn’t actually destroy their natural ability, it merely puts it into remission. It’ll develop all over again, and this time because we would know what that child is capable of, we can nurture that earlier in life and the usual result is that that child becomes more exceptional in that area of expertise than they had the first time round."

Sandra was quiet for a moment, thinking this all through.

"So if I were to allow my mind to be wiped, it would actually benefit me in the long run? Am I at a disadvantage because I’m not mentally regressed?"

Anya shook her head again and smiled warmly.

"No, not at all, and don’t think like that you silly thing! I’ve said before that you’re special and I meant that. I love you with all my heart, for the little girl you are. I promised you I wouldn’t feed you any syrup and I haven’t, and I won’t, unless, of course, you ask me to. That is entirely up to you."

Anya hugged Sandra close to her and Sandra sighed happily for a moment, feeling more at ease now that that question had been answered. Then asked another question.

"And Alice, Alice used to be a man. Why would the exchange program do that? As if being regressed isn’t difficult enough, what’s the purpose of the gender change?"

Anya hadn’t known Alice had been a man. She looked at Sandra who seemed to be more curious than angry with the situation.

"To be honest, we don’t actually choose what gender a student is going to be. When our DNA is combined it can overbalance the X or Y chromosomes so the process can change a student from one gender to the next. For some reason we have a higher rate of girls being created than boys. There’s about a 1 in 4 chance that you’ll be male, so unfortunately some men end up female, its rare that a female ends up male though. I must admit its all very experimental still even after doing this for over 20 years, we still haven’t managed to pinpoint why the ratio is the way it is."

Sandra listened to this carefully and filed the information away. It was then that her tummy rumbled and she looked up at her mummy, who without another thought simply unbuttoned her blouse and let Sandra feed. Sandy hadn’t realised she had been so hungry as she guzzled mouthful after mouthful until the edge of her hunger was taken off. Anya had stood up and was cradling Sandra to her breastfeed as she walked back and forth around the lounge humming serenely as Sandra fed. Then she re-adjusted Sandra onto her shoulder to burp her, patting her back in gently rhythmic motions, until she was rewarded by a gurgled burp.

Sandra felt fairly satisfied, it was still strange to be fed in such a way, but she realised it was the only way she was going to be properly fed, so she had to put up with it. Sandra realised she was being carried through to the kitchen, and Anya threaded her into the high chair and sat down on the chair beside her. There was already a pot of some pale grey mush on the table and Anya had picked it up along with a small plastic spoon.

"I’ve got this stuff to try out on you. It’s baby food. You may or may not like it, but I thought it would give you some variety other than my breast milk. " Anya said as she popped the lid off. Sandra could see the goop and it didn’t look appetising at all. In fact breast milk looked like a feast in comparison.

"I’m not actually hungry any more. I’m sorta filled up" This wasn’t entirely true, Sandra could probably finish a pot twice the size of what Anya held, but Sandra really didn’t want to eat whatever that stuff was.

"Oh just a couple of mouthfuls sweetie, they wont kill you. This is designed for young children so it should be okay for your digestive system too. It’ll make you big and strong."

Sandra clamped her mouth shut, and Anya pouted.

"Aww baby doesn’t want to eat her din-dins."

Sandra shook her head.

"Poor mummy is all sad, mummy thinks the food is tasty. Mmmmmm" Anya faked putting a spoon of the paste into her mouth.

"Yummy" Anya grinned

Sandra looked at her, she might look like a baby but she wasn’t stupid she could see the whole thing had been faked

"you didn’t even eat tha...."

Anya had been quick as lightning in spooning the food into Sandras open mouth as she had complained, Sandra almost choked from the sheer surprise of suddenly finding her mouth full of food she swallowed it down and gagged. It tasted strange, not unpleasant but it left a weird tingly feeling on her tongue.

"Eurrgh! What was th..."

Another spoonful was expertly spooned in and this time Sandra spat it back out shaking her head violently.

"I don’t want any more peease"

She had no idea what it was made of but it tasted like sugary broccoli. Anya hovered with another spoonful of the goop.

"Just one more for mummy. Theres a good girl." Anya smiled cheerfully at her child. Sandra scowled back.

"No fankyoo, I want out now please" Sandra started to struggle against the high chair tray, but she couldn’t get out on her own.

Anya ignored her struggling and put the spoon closer to Sandras lips. Sandra moving around as she was, ended up getting a face full of the spoon contents, it dripped off her face and down her front. Both mother and daughter froze, then Anya burst into laughter.

"oh Sandy you mucky pup, I knew I should have put a bib on you."

Sandra looked down at the mess she had only been partially responsible for and felt the stuff all over her face. She suddenly burst into tears feeling ridiculous and stupid, a heightened moment of feeling like an adult who was now completely helpless.

"whoa whoa kiddo! Whats the matter?" Anya, perplexed by her daughters reaction, hoisted her out of the high chair and hugged her tightly.

Sandra continued to cry for a few moments as Anya carried her back through into the lounge and laid her down on the carpet, stripping her of her food covered dress, and leaving her in just her nappy and plastic pants,wiping her face off with a baby wipe. Sandra calmed down pretty quickly, realising crying wasn’t going to help the situation.

"I’m sorry, sometimes...I just still think I’m an adult I guess. It’s going to take a while to properly get my head sorted, to let everything sink in"

Anya nodded sympathetically feeling Sandra’s confusion.

Then Sandra noticed Anya’s eyes go blank for a second or two, Anya’s face then returned to normal. Sandra wondered if it had been another one of those psychic conversations.

"It looks like we’re getting a visitor who’s come to stay for the night, Sandy" Anya randomly said. This seemed to confirm with Sandra that one of those odd psychic connections had just taken place.

"... A... a... visitor?"

Anya nodded at Sandra’s question. "Yes sweetie, a good friend of mine, Arlie, is bringing his boy. He’s another carer but he’s already back at his work, you see he’s actually one of the best engineers we have on this ship, and when we choose to become carers we get three weeks from our child waking up to adapt, but because he’s one of the best engineers I guess they’ve convinced him to come back early, so I told him that I’d look after Lycian for him. So he’s coming to stay for Arlie’s shift. He’ll be staying the night."

Sandra realised she was going to have a guy come stay over. He was bound to poke fun of her and she felt her heart start beating wildly.

"A guy... can’t come here and see me like this. He’ll be mean... I mean how old is he anyway?"

Anya shook her head, "I’m sure you don’t have to worry sweetie. Arlie mentioned that Lycian was actually a very well behaved little boy. I’m sure you’ll be okay. I think he’s a few months older than Rebecca from what Arlie was telling me, so 4 or maybe 5 years old?"

Sandra’s heart sunk, that was a bad age for boys to be. She was suddenly reminded of her sister back on earth who had 3 sons aged 12, 9 and 7. Boys that age were tear-aways, boisterous, bullying, loud and obnoxious

"What if he picks on me. I won’t be able to defend myself."

Anya tutted. "Sandy, don’t be silly. I’ll be here. It’s not like I’m going to leave you all alone with him! They’re going to be here any minute, so be good."

Sandra’s heart leapt into her mouth.

"Wait they can’t be here in a minute I’m not wearing any clothes!"

There was a strange hum noise not dissimilar to a bee trapped in a glass bottle and Anya rubbed Sandras tummy before she jumped up from her kneeling position on the floor.

"That’ll be them now I guess. Stay put." Anya walked out of the room and as she did so, Sandra flopped over onto her stomach and began to crawl for her life. She had no idea where she was going, but she didn’t intend to be seen by random strangers in just her plastic pants and giant, oversized, terry nappy. She could hear talking at the front door as she crawled behind the sofa and cowered, as the talking grew louder. She peered round the edge of the sofa just as a man came into view, Anya was there too, and a young boy carrying a rucksack. The boy had light brown hair and deep brown eyes, and wore a blue and white t-shirt and a pair of jeans that had light denim turtles crawling across one of the legs and pocket. Sandra guessed that must be Lycian. He looked troubled, but he stood there quietly as Anya and the man, which Sandra guessed must be Arlie, talked about him.

Arlie ruffled the Lycian’s hair as he talked "Lycian will give you no trouble, if anything he’s more likely to try and give you a hand. He’s such a helpful little lad."

Anya smiled, and knelt down to Lycian’s height.

"Do you want me to take your bag?" Lycian shook his head, when he spoke Sandra could hear the nervousness in his voice, but he spoke politely, even if he had a lisp.

"No, is okay ma’am, I can look afta it."

Anya stood up impressed, "What a well mannered chap you are. We’re going to get along handsomely, but you can call me Anya, less of this ma’am nonsense, it makes me feel old." She chuckled. "If you want, you can put your bag down beside the sofa, and I’ll get you some juice"

He bowed his head out of courtesy and muttered a ’Fankyoo’ he felt bad that someone he didn’t know was running around after him.

Lyce complied as he walked over to the sofa, while Anya began ushering Arlie out back towards the door.

"Don’t worry about us. If I have any problems I’ll get in contact." She said happily.

"Thanks once again for saving my bacon Ans. You’re a lifesaver. I’ll pay you back somehow."

Anya simply chuckled as she shoved him out the door.

"Don’t be silly, you help keep this place running! You’ve paid back more than enough already! We need to get together for a drink some time though. We haven’t caught up in ages. See you in the morning." With that she gave him a quick wave from the doorway as he began to lightly jog down the corridor to get to his job on time.

Meanwhile back in the lounge Lycian had put his rucksack down by the sofa as he had been instructed to do. He worried that Anya would want to look in the bag, he’d prefer if as few people as possible knew that he had to wear nappies still, and if she dug around in his rucksack she would surely notice the disposables in there as they took up a large portion of the bag. He didn’t want her pitying him. He felt embarrassed just thinking about it. He viewed it as an inconvenience that he would get to grips with sooner rather than later. His current underwear was just a temporary measure. He contemplated his bag for a moment before catching something move out the corner of his eye.

He turned his head sharply and spotted the mousey brown haired baby girl, clad in only a thick terry nappy. His first thought was at least he didn’t have to wear nappies that thick, and mentally he thanked his lucky stars. Then his heart went out to her, she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

They stared at one another for what seemed like minutes but must have only been seconds as Anya bustled into the room.

"I hope you two are getting aquaint- Wheres Sandy?"

Anya could see Lycian standing by the sofa, but Sandra wasn’t where she had been left. Without thinking, and trying to be helpful, Lycian simply pointed to behind the sofa where Sandra hid.

Anya beamed a giant smile.

"Is Sandy playing hide and seek?" Walking behind the sofa Anya picked Sandra up easily and brought her back round to the centre of the lounge, then laid her down on the carpet.

"I was just in the process of getting Sandy dressed, would you watch her for a second while I get her some clothes? Please Lycian? You’re carer mentioned you were such a helpful little boy, I’d really appreciate it, then I can get you your juice"

Lycian simply nodded, feeling a bit odd at being left to look after this little girl, but not wanting to let this woman down, specially seen as she was helping Arlie out of a tight spot.

Anya smiled appreciatively, and quickly got up and left the room. Sandra was still looking fearful at him, tears still threatening to spill onto her face.

Lycian cocked his head to one side and weakly smiled.

"Don’t cry please," He said kindly, "your carer will be back in a second." He didn’t know if she could understand him, he had already met one girl who had been completely wiped of any intelligence. Sandra perked up a little at Lycian’s words.

"You... You won’t be mean at me?" Sandra felt terribly self conscious. She was practically naked, and she wondered if being naked would have been preferable to being diapered in this instance.

Lycian felt his heart break. Had people been mean to her before? He had heard that there was a baby girl on board, everyone seemed to be in a excited buzz about it, he hadn’t expected her to be this cute though. It must be tough being regressed that young. He had struggled at first to come to terms with what had happened to him, and every day was tough trying to do things for himself, but he recognised that at least he had some motor functions with which to work with. He wondered if she could even walk. It bothered him as to why she thought that he would treat her badly. He shook his head violently. And sat down beside her as she lay on the carpet.

"No... I won’t be mean. I’m Lycian, but you can call me Lyce." He gave her a weak grin, seeing her predicament reminded him of his own.

Sandra looked up at Lyce, he reminded her of that Gliph in the forest yesterday. There was some feeling of kindness in his eyes,as a result, her fear subsided ever so slightly.

Anya came back into the room carrying a pink t-shirt and booties. She knelt down and before either of the kids could blink had managed to pull the two booties onto Sandras feet. Lyce took a couple of steps backwards to give Anya room to move. He didn’t want to get in the way.

Anya pulled Sandra into a sitting position and pulled the t-shirt over her head, smoothing it out, the t-shirt read, ’Mummy’s little angel’ in white lettering.

"There! All done! Cute as always sweetie. You’re going to have all the guys running after you when you’re older." Anya touched sandra lightly on the nose and then turned her attention to Lycian.

"Okay Lycian, Would you like some juice?"

Lycian nodded, "Yes peese" and then as an after thought added, "yoo can call me Lyce if ya wanna." This seemed to please Anya greatly and she stood up.

"Alright! Lyce it is! Be right back with the juice." And with that, she headed back out into the kitchen. Anya was now in a bit of a quandary. She had plenty of baby bottles and plenty of normal crockery, but would Lyce, being 5, be big enough for a proper cup or would he need a non-spill cup? She rummaged around and found a plain plastic cup. She couldn’t give him a baby bottle, since that would surly damage his pride in himself, specially from what Arlie had told her about his frequent wetting accidents. She was worried about that too. She would feel more comfortable changing him than letting him change himself. Arlie had been quite specific in detailing the fact that Lycian seemed to be trying to hard to be a bigger boy than he actually was. Perhaps spending time with Sandra might let him enjoy his second childhood a little bit more. Arlie had said that Anya could deal with Lycian in any way she saw fit, so long as she didn’t feed him any syrup. But then, Arlie knew Anya’s view on syrup. She had no intention of using it ever.

She poured a small juice out into the plastic cup and made Sandra a bottle full of juice, then headed back out into the lounge. She could hear giggling as she entered the room, and Lyce and Sandy were playing on the carpet with Sandra’s dragon toy. The children had discovered that the dragon squeaked when his head was squeezed, and every time Lyce squeezed the dragon making it squeak, it would send Sandra into fits of laughter. Quietly, Anya pulled her camera from her pocket and took a couple of snapshots. Her heart swelled with happiness at seeing the two children play so contentedly.

Sandra couldn’t stop laughing, she didn’t even know why it was so funny. She liked Lyce a lot already, she had been mortified when she had been dressed in only a t-shirt. She had hoped for a sleeper suit or a pair of overalls to hide her nappy, and instead she had been dressed in the most revealing outfit possible. But Lyce hadn’t made any rude comments or even looked at her in the same way Alice had done, with that half pity, half disgusted expression. Instead he had come over and tried to keep her entertained while Anya had been out of the room.

She couldn’t believe she hadn’t discovered that Pea, her dragon, squeaked. Lyce had accidentally squeezed him as he had helpfully fetched her dragon from the playpen. The squeak had shocked both of them and Lyce had dropped the dragon. Sandra had found this amusing, and laughed , so Lyce had picked the dragon up, squeezed a squeak out of him, and then faked surprised on his face and dropped the dragon for a second time. Well, that had just brought Sandra to tears of laughter. Awash with childish glee, the action was repeated a few more times each with the same effect. Sandra didn’t understand why she found it so amusing but she didn’t care, she just let the laughter roll out, and Lyce was chuckling too, being infected by the baby girls giggling. It made him feel good that moments ago she had looked like she was about to cry, and it had been something he had done to cheer her up.

He noticed Anya staring at them both and quickly gathered the dragon up from the floor and handed it to Sandra. Sandra held the dragon happily, grinning from ear to ear, trying to squeak the dragon herself, but lacking the strength in her hands to push down hard enough to get the desired effect. At least she now knew why she hadn’t figured it out before.

Anya handed Sandra the baby bottle full of juice then hesitated with the cup.

"Will you be alright with this?" Anya didn’t want to offend him but equally she didn’t want unnecessary accidents.

Lyce looked at the plastic cup. He would probably manage if he was careful and he nodded enthusiastically. "fankyooo I’ll twy an’ be carefull" he added, hoping this was enough of an effort to display his maturity, although part of him wondered if he was capable.

Anya gently handed him the drink and the three of them were quiet as the two children drank some of their juice.

Anya looked around trying to think what would keep a boy Lyce’s age occupied, she couldn’t expect him to put up with playing with Sandras toys, they were too basic.

"Did you bring anything to play with?" She asked Lyce hopefully.

The boy stopped drinking and shook his head. "I don’t mind playing with Sandy though. She’s fun." He gave Anya a shy but large smile to show that he meant what he said. This seemed to put Anya at ease a little.

"Well would you mind playing with her in the playpen so I can do some work?"

Lyce shook his head again, "I don’t mind Ma’am, I mean... Anya." He felt foolish for forgetting Anyas name already and he mentally chastised himself. He looked over at the pen, saw the blocks and other soft baby toys in the pen, and felt himself flush red at the thought of playing with such babyish toys, then he calmed himself down. there wasn’t much point in worrying about what was happening, it was beyond his control, he just wanted to try and make the best out of a bad situation. He also realised that he’d be playing with Sandy. He had taken a liking to the little girl, having been an only child in his adult life he felt a kindred spirit in Sandy and felt like she needed protecting.

Anya, confident that Lyce wouldn’t throw a temper tantrum at being put in the playpen, carried Sandra over to the pen and plopped her inside, then Grabbed Lyce by the armpits and hauled him over the bars too, setting him gently on his feet.

"I’m going to tell Arlie all about how helpful you’ve been, its nice having a well behaved little boy around the house."

Lyce seemed to puff his chest out in pride at that and Anya retrieved the baby bottle of juice and Lyce’s drink and handed it to each respective child. Both of them polite enough to say thank you.

"I will just be in the kitchen. If you need anything, just yell."

With that Anya left the room leaving the two kids in the pen together.