In-Between Chapters 28 and 29 by Sofia Hammerstein

Cameron Sylvester has grown up always hoping he'll live up to the heritage of his mother's family height. She was a ten-foot-tall Big, after all, and his father was a tall Mid, which meant it shouldn't have been a question that he would grow out of the Little category of height early on. A bright student, he's been at the top of his class in science and math throughout his academic career! Looking toward his high school graduation and towards college, he's received scholarships to attend Emerson University. it's a question of inches if he'll be left to the fate of being a Little with a limited future or manage to make a future as a short 'Betweener.' Even as a Betweener, the question remains to be seen if he can be a normal adult or if he'll be left 'In-Between.'  (A Tale from the Diaper Dimension)

---

---

 

---

 

---

 
The Legal Stuff: In-Between © 2020-2026 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 

 
 

Chapter 28: Swirling
 

DAVID, KENDRA, AND I spent the next two months compiling everything we thought we needed to put together a case against Serendipity Industries and their parent company, SafeFoods, Inc. To my surprise, we were able to begin gathering several other plaintiffs to quietly join the suit. We presumed we were moving toward a Class Action status for the case.

David and Kendra focused on the clients, the witnesses, and most of the paperwork. I researched the science of what had been inside the products. Unfortunately, many of the cases lacked victims to examine because similar vans that had come for Beth and Ashley had also come for them – no one knew what happened to those victims! If it hadn’t been for home security footage, we wouldn’t have been able to fully link those cases with the Fehlers.

In other cases, they had left the victims with loved ones at home but claimed they had to return all of the products per the legal agreement... Fortunately, Beth’s dad had kept all the products in a sealed Ziploc bag as one of the few things he took out of their house. I got help from the university that housed the Harlan School to analyze them. My chemistry background came into full use as I studied what had been given to them, what each unique chemical caused, and agonized over just how much damage had been inflicted with the horrific plot.

Four years to the day that I had asked Beth to marry me, we filed the case in court. A summons was sent to both companies, and the media immediately picked up on the suit.

Things became a bit of a circus around the firm as we dealt with national news networks requesting interviews, a countersuit from the company, and the initial late summer court date soon approached.

I had asked Beth’s dad several times if I could see her… but he kept refusing, “She wouldn’t want you to see her like this, Cameron…”

“I was ready to say until death do us part,” I told him. “Please? So, I can remind myself who and what I’m fighting for!”

He finally agreed a week before the first court date, and I found myself driving carefully out to the safe house. I was let in by the security team, and Mr. Fehler met me in the living room. “Cameron, are you sure you want to see her? I’d rather you remember her like she was…”

“I have to… I… I love her!” I told him resolutely.

His shoulders fell, “Very well then, come upstairs to their nursery…”

‘Nursery’ felt like a stab to the gut, but I couldn’t help but note the ‘their’ in the sentence. His wife was just as wronged in this case as Beth was. He opened the door to a happy-looking nursery with two large cribs, a changing table, a playpen, and a… and a pair of adults wearing baby clothes laying on their backs with toy gym things hanging over them. I watched for a moment as Beth made a very uncoordinated effort to hit a suspended unicorn toy hanging on a string above her. She was distracted a second later by staring at herself in a mirror toy next to it and then attempting to kick her feet out. She and her mother looked to have put on forty or more pounds since I saw them last, ‘Probably from the lack of exercise,’ I knew.

My blood froze as drool ran out the corner of Beth’s mouth, forming some little bubbles with her spit, and we made eye contact.

I stared into her eyes and hoped something remained of the woman I loved.

Anything…

Even a glimmer of recognition…

After she was regressed, leaving Emerson, I could always see her as strong as ever inside her eyes. Now instead, all I saw was a blank stare. I started to hope when I saw her mouth change into a smile. I thought for just a second maybe it was the sign I needed that something was left! Right then, her body tensed, and a second later, I realized she was pooping her diaper and giggling about the sensation.

I walked over to her and said, “Hi, sweetheart…”

She smiled, but it was the look of a baby looking at someone who looked friendly and was paying them attention. Not the look she gave me the last time we spoke via video chat… or the last time we passionately kissed.

I sighed, “Beth, I don’t know if there’s anything left of you in there, but I want you to know I have always loved you and will always love you no matter what. I will get you justice, my love, and somehow I’ll find a way to cure you and your mom.” I leaned over, gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead, and stood to walk back out.

“Cameron, I have something for you before you leave…” her father told me. “Let me go get it, and then I’ll change her after I show you out.”

I nodded. Then, I looked at Beth’s older gray-haired mom in nearly the same state on the other side of the room. She had managed to grab one of the toys hanging above her. She had it in her mouth, where she began slobbering and sucking on it, leaving a glistening mess of slobber when she pulled it out a second later. With a sigh, I turned from the room and closed the door. Mr. Fehler handed me a white envelope.

It felt oddly heavy in one corner of it. I looked curiously at it, “What’s this?”

“Her engagement ring…”

“But…” I tried to hand it to him.

“No, Cameron… Obviously, there’s no way she can get married to you the way she is… I highly doubt we ever cure her and her mom, but… Cameron, if we do somehow manage to cure her… I don’t know if she’ll ever be able to legally stand on her own again.”

“She’s still emancipated, right?” I asked.

He shook his head, “I had to adopt both of them in case someone tried saying they weren’t adopted to take them from me.”

I groaned, “That means even if…”

“They’ll both have to go through that emancipation process. I don’t honestly know that Beth could do it again, Cameron. My wife…”

I found myself hugging him, “I’m sorry,” I told him.

“I am, too,” he sighed, “Take the ring. If we ever get them out of it, you can ask her to marry you again.”

I nodded. “I’m going to hold you to that, sir,” I told him.

I soon found myself back in my car, heading to the city. For the second time in my life, I had an engagement ring returned to me.

I would have usually called Dad to talk about something like this… but he was gone. I pulled up Aunth Ruth’s number… but couldn’t quite bring myself to dial her. I feared bringing her in because I didn’t want her to have to recuse herself if this case made it up to the Supreme Court at some point.

Driving home, I had never felt more alone in all of my life…
 

WE HIT OUR first roadblock right away when we went to the first court date. We’d filed in the District Court that the injury had occurred – a standard practice. Their lawyers somehow convinced the judge, I presumed by bribery or blackmail, that it needed to be moved to the District Court in Ames instead. We decided it wasn’t worth fighting the jurisdiction battle for a couple more years. Instead, we were at least fortunate that I had joined the bar association back in Ames, too, when I graduated. We fast-tracked applications for David and Kendra, but it seemed likely that we would be held up on David’s because he was a Mid. I remembered my application had taken a full six months, so I wasn’t holding my breath on his making it anytime soon. Kendra’s was fortunately approved the week we began the trial there. Otherwise, it would have only been me presenting our case.

The three of us found ourselves sitting at a table with all our resources for the first hearing in Ames. Across from us, their attorneys were doing the same. Just about five minutes before the hearing was to begin, Addison’s mother, Aubry Harris, entered the courtroom and sat next to the attorneys for her company. She looked at us and glared. ‘I wonder if she recognizes me?’ I couldn’t help but think. ‘I’m sure she does.’ I watched her lean across the railing and make a comment in her lawyer’s ear.

My hand brushed across my shirt collar, and I reassured myself that the necklace Addy had given me hung suspended with Beth’s engagement ring on it. As far as I was concerned, Addy’s mom had taken both of the loves of my life away from me, and I was wearing them as a symbol of what I was fighting for! Before long, the bailiff cried, “All Rise, District Court Fifty-Two is now in session, the Honorable Justice Lynn Taney presiding!”

I watched a tall woman with short and obviously dyed blonde hair approach the bench in her robe. From my research, I knew she was fifty-seven, healthy, and had three Littles sitting at home with their nanny.

“You may be seated,” she said.

The bailiff introduced our case, “The first case on today’s docket is Case number 384459322 Fehler and Others vs. Serendipity Industries and SafeFoods, Inc.”

“Mrs. Stein, I believe you are the lead counsel for the plaintiffs?”

“Yes, Your Honor, along with my co-counsel Cameron Sylvester. Also joining us is my law partner David Benson who is waiting for recognition from the Ames Bar Association.”

I heard a hiss from Addy’s mom, and I guessed if she hadn’t recognized me before, she certainly did now.

“Mr. Johnson, you are the lead counsel for the defense?”

“I am, Your Honor,” he told her. I already knew that Henry Johnson was a piece of work. We’d actually faced each other in a few cases back in Hartford that I had come out the better on. “On behalf of my client, we wish to request a summary dismissal for this farce of a lawsuit; there is no basis, in fact, for this slander.”

“Objection, Your Honor,” I found myself saying. “We have evidence, witnesses, and hundreds of victims of a so-called ‘Product Testing’ scheme. There is clear criminal intent, or at the very least gross negligence, on the part of Serendipity Industries and SafeFoods.”

The judge glared at me, making me remember Aunt Ruth staring people down. I also looked straight at her, and she said, “The motion is denied; it would be a serious miscarriage of justice to at least not hear the facts of this case, Mr. Johnson.”

“Then, Your Honor, we would like to request a continuance until we have further prepared?”

I worried the judge would be fully in their pocket, but she shook her head, “No, I don’t think that will be necessary. Let’s begin these pre-trial motions…”

We had long debated about a jury trial or a non-jury trial. We couldn’t help but worry that the judge might be more crooked, but ten jurors might be a stretch out of the twelve. Ultimately, we flipped a coin and went for the jury trial.

The not quite hour-long hearing dealt with many details and set a date for choosing our jurors in five days on the following Monday. The class action motion was presented, and she said she would rule on it at the next hearing.

“We’re going to go ahead and fly back home for the weekend, Cameron; sure, you don’t want to come back with us?” David asked me.

I shook my head, “No, I never have done anything with selling our house here… I need to spend some time cleaning it out and getting it ready to go on the market. I will also see some friends I haven’t seen since I lost my dad.”

He grasped my shoulder, “Let me know if you need anything else!”

“Will do, and why don’t you both just plan to stay at my house here when you return? There are two extra bedrooms not being used,” I added.

“We’ll take you up on that,” Kendra said.

Right then, all of our attention was dragged over to the defense attorneys, who were accosted by Aubry Harris. “What the Hell are you doing letting that Little get away with objecting to your motion? Why didn’t you fight that objection?!?” I could hear her hiss.

“Mrs. Harris, Mr. Sylvester is a fully credentialed attorney recognized by the Ames Bar Association…”

“Watch your back,” Kendra said as we walked out to the front of the courthouse together.

“Same to you guys,” I told her.

I was just about to get inside my rented car when I heard, “Cameron!”

I turned to see Addy’s mom walking toward me. “What can I do for you, Mrs. Harris?”

“What can you do for me?” She snorted, “Drop this ridiculous lawsuit before I have you put into diapers like your client… Or should I say your fiancé?”

I gritted my teeth but said, “So you’re threatening me? Just to make sure you know, that would be something I would have to bring up in court.”

I stared up at her imposing form, knowing if this got physical, there wasn’t much I could do.

“Of course, I’m not threatening you, Little Man. Just stating a fact that you are probably in danger of wetting your pants in court. I believe a case of Maturosis by the plaintiff’s counsel would probably not bode well for the suit?”

“It probably wouldn’t help, but that would be part of why I have partners who can take over if something happens to me, huh?”

“This isn’t going to end well for you if you keep pursuing this.”

“Kind of like how the three cases I’ve already won against SafeFoods in the last two years went?”

She gritted her teeth then, and I knew I was really getting under her skin. “You watch yourself!”

“I would also remind you that the security cameras here are watching too,” I said, pointing directly to two that happened to be pointing at us.”

She huffed, “Well, at least my daughter had better sense than to marry a baby like you.”

With that, she turned around and left.

I was shaking as I got into my rental car and started the engine. I put the coordinates into the GPS for my home and let the self-drive system navigate the garage and the streets. I took a moment to start uploading the video from the camera I was wearing as I dialed David.

“You okay?” David asked on the video screen on my dash.

I shook my head, “That may have been a close one. I’m uploading the confrontation to you, but you might also subpoena the courthouse parking cameras if anything happens to me.”

“You think something will?”

“I’ve never had someone look at me like that before… I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t try something.”

“Are you really sure that you don’t want to fly home? We can still get you a seat on our flight?”

I nodded, “I need to be here for a bit to take care of things. I should be safe enough…”

“Watch your back, Cameron,” Kendra said over the video from beside him.

“Always do…”

In the time it took to drive out of the city and to my nearby hometown, I thought about needing supplies in the empty house. I ended up detouring for some essentials I knew I would need at a grocery store. Soon after that, the car pulled up to the garage of my childhood home. I activated the garage door and pulled it manually inside, looking at all the tools and miscellaneous items in the dusty garage with a sigh.

When Dad died two years ago, I hadn’t had the heart to clean out things then… We had just done that with both of my grandparents’ houses the previous year… That had sucked, but doing that with my childhood home would be so much worse! I took the steps to my bedroom and was startled to see a screen lying on the bed. ‘That wasn’t there before?’ I thought back to when I left after Dad’s funeral.

Just as I approached it to check it out, the screen turned on, and a vivid swirl of colors began swirling on the screen…
 
 

Chapter 29: Tails
 

IN MY HEAD, I shouted ‘NO!!!!!’ as I flipped over the tablet onto its screen. I had seen just enough to realize there was a weird filter color with words somehow overlaid above the moving video. Still, I didn’t keep looking long enough to figure out what it was.

“Shit!” I exclaimed, “That was close!”

I found a pair of gloves in the medicine cabinet. I placed the tablet inside a manila envelope before calling the police. I called David and Kendra and let them know about it before meeting the police at the door a short while later. They looked suspicious about it when the screen was black but took it in for evidence anyways. There was absolutely no sign of forced entry into the house, which made me even more nervous! I paid a locksmith to come out and rekey my locks and add physical deadbolts onto each door. They were contracted to return and put in an alarm system the following week. David and Kendra told me to expense it all when I got back…

It was late that night when the dust finally settled, and I found myself lying in my childhood bed. ‘They gave it a solid attempt to use hypnosis on me…’ I thought as I tried sleeping. ‘I’m guessing they’re hoping I’ll pee my pants in court on Monday, and they can get rid of me and the case with a Maturosis ruling…’

I had no way of knowing how long ago the tablet had been planted, though… I hadn’t been inside the house now in about twenty months. My only hope was that there were fingerprints or some sort of digital fingerprint associated with whoever planted it inside my house.

At some point in the evening, I must have finally dozed off, waking to my cell phone going off the next day.

I looked over and saw it was Aunt Ruth, “Hi, Aunt Ruth,” I told her sleepily.

“Hi, yourself,” she said.

“Umm… am I in trouble?” I asked sleepily.

“A little… How come you didn’t tell me that you are involved in that big case against SafeFoods on behalf of Beth?”

I sighed and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, glad this was an audio call only. “It’s been in the news? I figured you already knew?” I paused, “Honestly, I didn’t want to create conflicts of interest if the verdict gets appealed to your court?”

“That big, huh?” She asked.

I sighed, “Big enough, they tried getting me last night,” I said, instantly wanting to take back those words.

“What do you mean?” She asked like a mother worried about her kid.

“I shouldn’t have said anything…” I sighed, “I came home to my dad’s house last night and narrowly evaded a hypnosis trap set for me.”

“You’re okay?!?” She asked, “You’re sure? Hypnosis doesn’t always appear immediately?”

“I’m sure… I’ll tell you why some other time.” I thought, ‘Thanks, Stacy.’

“What exactly is this case?”

“I’m not wanting to create a conflict…” I insisted.

“If the case involves you, it automatically probably reaches that anyway, Cameron.” She paused, “Besides, it’s my call if I have a conflict of interest, no one else’s.”

“Well…” I hedged, “I guess I’ll give you the overview. A few months ago, now Beth’s dad showed up at the office wanting to file a suit against Serendipity Industries. He didn’t realize I worked at the firm… It was a bit rough,” I admitted.

“How rough?”

“Well, I didn’t kick his rear like I wanted to…” I shook my head, “Honestly, in the end, I would probably have mostly done the same thing he did other than finding a way to at least get in touch with me. Beth and her mom signed up for some sort of product testing service as a part-time job. That Thanksgiving, she disappeared; they had just tested something that made them both… Well… they show no signs of cognition,” I told her sadly, “I don’t know if anyone can ever do anything for her or her mom. Her mom was actually the one who signed them both up to test stuff… With her larger body mass, she lasted just long enough to tell her husband what happened before she ended up in an infant state too.”

The tears I felt going down my face reminded me this nightmare was far from over, “We’re suing Serendipity and their parent company SafeFoods for them and one-hundred-and-thirty other clients so far that have signed on. We motioned to make the case a Class Action suit and will begin jury selection on Monday.”

“You think the attack last night?”

“I’m sure it was them. Mrs. Harris confronted me by my car too. I already have a video of the exchange in David and Kendra’s hands.”

“You have to be careful, Cameron…” she told me worriedly.

“I will… as much as I can.” I wiped another tear away, “Honestly, with Beth like she is now, my whole family is gone… I sometimes wonder if there’s anything more I can really lose.”

“I wish I could hug you right now… Hang in there, kid!” she told me. “And your whole family is not gone; you know I’m there for you anytime you need something! And I expect a call at least once a week, so I know you’re okay!”

I smiled, “Yes, Mom,” I told her.

I heard her suck in a breath. “You know I really do think of you as another one of my kids at this point, right?”

“And honestly, you’re as much of a mother as I’ve had since I was little. Thank you for caring about me,” I told her.

We hung up soon after, and I couldn’t help but think I wanted to tell her I loved her as I did, so… it was really true!

I showered, got to work on our current case, and did some prep for several others. I spent an hour on a video conference with David and Kendra about things before beginning to work around the house on making headway on keep vs. give away/throw away. I started in the last place I wanted to, Dad’s bedroom, so it would be available for David to sleep in. Kendra would get the larger bed in the guest room that my grandparents used to use.

Going through his stuff was an emotional minefield. I cried for about two hours as I frequently encountered something that reminded me of him. His clothes were boxed up for charity since they were too big for me. I kept his watches, tie clasps, and other jewelry he had. Mom had left some jewelry that should have gone to my baby sister if she had lived… That made me cry again, but I couldn’t throw that out. That all got carefully boxed to fly back with me, as I knew there was a lot of value inside her jewelry boxes. “Maybe someday I can give them to Beth…”

Some trinkets from my grandparents and their families were of sentimental value that I also kept. By the end of the day, I’d packed about twenty boxes, filled trash bags, and emptied his room out of everything but the furniture. I closed the door, so I wouldn’t have to look inside on my way to my bathroom to shower. I was meeting Megan and Meg at Amanda and Fred’s for dinner, and I didn’t want to smell bad from all the sweating I’d been doing.

I’d last seen them when they came for Dad’s funeral… Meg and I used to speak a couple times a month, but living on the other side of the country practically made it hard to keep up my friendships as well as I’d like. Losing Beth had only meant I’d closed myself off more too…

Once dressed, I checked that everything was locked up tight and climbed inside my rental car. I had sold Dad’s car since I couldn’t legally drive it within a month of his passing. I wished my car was back with me, though, as the seats in this car were not nearly as comfortable! I set the navigation on the car’s computer and headed towards Amanda and Fred’s house, wondering what might have changed with them in the time I’d been gone.

I was stopped at a stoplight with the car signaling to turn when I looked back and noticed a blue car with a couple of large men. They seemed to be staring intently at my car, but I just assumed it was probably one of the annoyed groups of people who hated the rule-following self-driving vehicle. I knew many Bigs who complained about being unable to speed with more and more of them on the roads blocking them!

The car navigated out to the area where their house was, and I jumped a bit when I realized that the blue car was still behind me!

I breathed a sigh of relief when the car went past me as I turned into their driveway, but I couldn’t help but think it might not have been a coincidence!

I was soon buzzed in and parked in front of their large house. Meg and Megan were standing out there alongside Bella, who was dressed more like an adult than I’d ever seen her! Meg was dressed in a puffy blue gingham romper with a large butterfly embroidered as if their roles had been reversed. It was appropriate apparel for a year-old baby… not really for a twenty-eight-year-old. ‘Did Megan go off the deep end?’ I wondered.

Meg ran up to me and hugged me, “Cameron!!!”

I squeezed her tightly, enjoying the physical contact with another human being. I pushed her back and asked, “So what’s with the attire?”

She blushed, “I came from daycare… Mo… Megan got a new job, and I have to go there during the days.”

I looked at her, “Are you okay?”

She nodded, “It was embarrassing at first… I got picked on a lot because I dressed how I normally dressed. I took some advice from a new friend there, though, and started dressing babyish and adorable… All of a sudden, I was treated a lot better by the staff and other kids!”

“Well, you do look adorable,” I told her with a smirk. “Glad to know Megan hasn’t lost her mind, though…”

She came up to me then and gave me her own hug, “It’s good to see you, Cameron! I promise I wouldn’t send her there if I had another option… As it is, I have Mom watch her one of the days, so she’s usually only at daycare four days.”

“Today just happened to be one of those,” Meg said sourly. “I was running late, so we didn’t have time to get other clothes.”

“How are you doing, Bella?” I asked as she stood by. We’d never really grown to be close friends… she was so much older than I was, and I’d been there to see Stacy more.

“Good,” she said and hugged me, to my surprise.

“It’s good to have you back, Cam,” Meg told me.

“Thanks,” I said. “I should say ‘hi’ to Amanda and Fred.”

“Amanda’s inside; Fred is out at the grill,” Meg told me.

“Let’s go see them,” I said, following them inside.

Amanda hugged me tightly, “It’s good to see you, Cameron!”

“You all as well… it’s been a while!”

We walked outside, and the four of us sat on one of their picnic benches after I greeted Fred with a handshake and a brief conversation. “So, how are you doing?” Meg asked me, “Really doing?”

I sighed, “I saw Beth last week finally…”

“How… how is she?” Meg asked.

I shook my head, “Not good…” I found myself looking at Bella, “I think… she might be further gone than Bella was.”

Bella started slightly but nodded, “I’m so lucky I had Stacy on my side. It was horrible...”

I nodded, “Yes, you were… We all were…”

“We were?” Meg asked.

I looked for Fred and Amanda, but not seeing them, I said quietly, “She injected me with nanites freshman year but never told me. She tweaked them before she left… If she hadn’t, I would probably be in a world of hurt right now.”

“What happened?” Bella asked.

“When I made it to my dad’s house last night, I found a tablet sitting on my bed. It activated when it detected me… Nothing happened to me, probably in part because I flipped it over quickly. Still, I’m pretty sure it was one of those intensive hypnotic video setups.”

“You’re sure it didn’t get you?” Amanda said behind me, making me jump.

“Yes… I looked at a clock just before I looked down and again after I flipped it. The numbers hadn’t changed over, so it was definitely less than a minute, but I’m sure it was only about three seconds…”

“That should have been more than enough if it was one of the advanced types,” Fred said, overhearing us and joining in with a plate of food he placed on the table.

“It probably would have been if it wasn’t for some help Stacy gave me.”

Amanda’s eyes widened, “You’re the one she told about what she did before she left!”

I shrugged, “Maybe?”

“What did she tell you?”

“Well… I don’t think we should talk about it outside?”

She nodded, “Inside later; we need to talk.”

Our table conversations moved onto more mundane matters, and Meg ended up being more than slightly embarrassed as she became a topic of discussion. Megan and Amanda seemed to be trying to outdo each other with stories of blowouts of their adopted daughters’ diapers for some reason… We were just getting ready to eat dessert when a loud alarm sounded.

Amanda shouted, “Get inside!”

I followed them inside as they ran and noted that Amanda seemed panicked! The second we were all inside the door, I watched the unique door turn into a solid piece and heard heavy locks slam closed.

She was looking at a tablet, “Looks like they were just approaching the perimeter; they didn’t make it to the wall even.”

I looked over and saw a video of a man I recognized. “They were following me,” I found myself saying.

“Who did?” Fred asked.

“Those guys! They were in a blue car that tailed me leaving the city. I thought it was suspicious, but they passed me when I turned.

“Well, this seems like a problem,” Amanda said. “Let me call Dad.”

I ended up being at their house until later that night than I had planned, as her dad worked with some police officers he trusted. “I don’t see these guys in any of our files,” the officer told him. “I do, however, think they probably work for some sort of private security group…”

‘Probably for SafeFoods,’ I thought to myself.

When they left, Amanda asked, “Can you come talk to me in my workroom?” Once inside, I watched her do something that I assumed scanned the room, and she asked, “What exactly did Stacy do with you?”

I sighed, “She injected me with nanites to disable the effect of breastmilk freshman year when I accidentally had some of Addy’s when we were making out.”

“Oh…” she said. “That was nice of her!”

I nodded, “Not sure why she never did it for Meg, but I think since she seemed determined to just give up, she didn’t want to be cruel to her if she got adopted… Stacy seemed to think there was some value in not noticing using diapers.”

“Sounds like her,” she agreed. “Did she do anything else to you?”

I shrugged, “She said she did something that would block any of the hypnotic videos and sounds out there. Last night was the first time I’d encountered one since she did that. I saw some sort of filter color at work, so I think it must have helped…?”

She nodded, “Stacy did something like that to herself before being kidnapped. What you saw is what she described it as.” She looked thoughtful, “Didn’t she tell you of anything else she did?”

“Did she tell you about anything else she did?”

She shook her head, “We can’t talk privately over the dimensional communications. She did allude last year that someone here knew, though. Meg didn’t, Megan didn’t, Bella didn’t, Fred and I didn’t… My dad doesn’t know anything else, either. That leaves you?”

I shrugged, “She was trying for something to help with the abusive parents here. Something to increase the desire to be loving instead of cruel? I’ve seen some reports that may be the case?”

She nodded, “Some crueler medical procedures have finally been banned here. A few other things for rights protection to ensure Littles are treated as real babies in their treatment. Something that would be abusive to a baby or a child is now considered abusive towards Littles. Unfortunately, it seems like the adoption rate may have rapidly increased though. Fewer free Littles are going to decline their population in a hurry...”

I nodded, “Sounds like it might have worked, but caused some side effects?”

“Maybe…” she said. “You want to stay here while you’re in town for the trial? You won’t have to be alone in that empty house?”

I smiled at her, “I appreciate the offer, but I need to get the house cleared out to sell. Kendra and David should be returning Sunday night, too, and will stay with me.”

“If you change your mind…?”

“I know where I can come,” I told her with a smile.

I hung out with Meg and Megan for another half-hour before it was the former’s bedtime, and I needed to get back home too. It was almost a familiar feeling as I stopped at a grocery store after being at their house.

Unfortunately, I noted the blue car was back on my tail again!

 
 

Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment if you did so and press the Kudos button! I should be posting a few times a week until this is fully posted here on BC. The full novel is complete (65 chapters plus Epilogue) and published on Amazon if you wish to be impatient though!

All of my published works have AI read audiobooks available for them. I’ve spent some time tweaking pronunciations, and they’re pretty good when you can’t afford thousands to pay for audiobook creation! They’re a $1.99 addon to the $5.99 price on Kindle. If you’ve already purchase the book it should come up as only $1.99. They’re also available on Audible directly, but that’s $9.99 versus the cheaper price! https://www.amazon.com/author/babysofia