"So much for that." Blossom said, after watching the whole display from the floor.
"On the plus side, at least she's smart enough to see Major Man for a fake." said Bubbles.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Blossom replied.
* * * * *
Sandy walked to the door holding a squirming Buttercup in her right arm. She just barely managed to get the door open without dropping Buttercup to the floor. And Sandy nearly dropped her again when she saw the person on the other side.
Standing on the other side was a man with sky blue eyes and gray hair. He was rather large and muscular with large arms and a slightly bulging stomach where he'd obviously packed on a few pounds over the years.
"Dad!" said Sandy, "You're early...and shaved?"
Indeed, where her father had let grow a rather large beard was now completely hairless. Sandy probably figured her mother, Angela, was behind it since she was the only person on Earth who could make Jack Keane do anything he didn't want to do. And he really wanted to have that beard.
"Yeah, your mother made me get rid of the beard." Jack said, confirming Sandy's suspicion. He walked in and gave Sandy a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Then kneeled over to Sandy's arms and kissed Buttercup on the forehead, eliciting a small giggle from the child. Sandy handed Buttercup to him and they walked into the living room together. Utonium stood from the couch when he saw Jack enter.
"Jack! What a surprise." Utonium said as he shook Jack's free hand.
"I caught an earlier flight so I could get here sooner." Jack said, sitting down and setting Buttercup in his lap. Sandy sat down after picking up Bubbles and setting the child in her lap. Utonium did the same for Blossom.
"You came at a good time." said Sandy, starting up the conversation, "Buttercup said her first words today."
"Did she?" asked Jack, tickling the baby in his lap under the chin. Buttercup let out a laugh that brought a smile to the adults' faces.
"She can say 'Da-da'" said Utonium, a hint of pride in his voice, "and 'Maj-ma' which I think is supposed to be Major Man."
"So, our little Baby's a fan of Major Man, is she?" asked Jack, tickling Buttercup some more, this time on the stomach. Making Buttercup laugh even more from both the giggling and the special attention she was receiving.
"Buttercup," Utonium said, trying to get the little girl's attention, when she looked at him Utonium continued, "can you say 'grandpa'?" he asked her, repeating the word slowly so Buttercup would be able to imitate it. Buttercup tried a few times, but couldn't get past the "gr" part of the word.
"Come on, Baby," Sandy gently urged, "'gran-pa'."
"Gwa...gwa..." Buttercup struggled, everyone watched the child expectantly. Even Blossom and Bubbles were mesmerized by the display, but for different reasons.
"Ampa" Buttercup said, getting it as close as she could. She looked at the adults, proud of herself.
"Very good, honey." said Utonium, looking at Buttercup proudly. That was only the first of several praises, lavished on her by the three grown-ups.
Blossom and Bubbles watched Buttercup struggle to speak. They both felt a mixture of surprise and relief. Relief because the more at least one of them was able to say, the sooner they could tell the adults their problem. And surprise because Buttercup was sincerely struggling to speak and almost seemed to be enjoying all the attention she was being given because of her limited ability to speak.
"Wow, what's goin' on with Buttercup?" Bubbles asked, unable to contain herself anymore.
"Well, when's the last time Buttercup's ever had this much attention?" Blossom asked in reply. Bubbles thought about it for a minute and came up with a lot of examples of times Buttercup was center of attention.
"In a good way?" Blossom amended, when she realized where Bubbles's thoughts were heading.
"Never." Bubbles said quickly, knowing that all of the events she had thought were all instances where she was getting in trouble.
That explains things a bit. Bubbles thought. This was one of the few times that Bubbles knew of where Buttercup was being given a lot of praise and attention for being able to do something that, for the moment, the other two couldn't.
"So, are you going to take the kids to see Major Man?" Jack asked, "I heard he's doing an appearance at the Convention Center." Buttercup saw a renewed chance for Blossom's plan.
"MAJ-MA" she screamed. Gaining nothing more than a giggle from Jack, who tousled her hair.
"No." Sandy said, "We decided that it would just be a waste of time and money, besides, I don't trust him."
"I don't blame you." Jack said, unlike Utonium he had heard about the incident when Major Man was at Pokey Oaks and would have hunted the guy down if Sandy had convinced him not to, "But still, the girls do seem to like him."
Each girl briefly felt a small shudder at the thought of actually liking Major Man. Fortunately, it went unnoticed by the adults. Though Sandy turned up the heat a bit thinking they were simply cold. Still, Buttercup tried again to let them know they wanted to go to the appearance, for the moment she had to at least pretend to like the big jerk.
"Maj-Ma" she yelled.
"Oh, she's sweet. Just like you when you were little Sandy." Jack said, tousling Buttercup's hair more, her hair was now frizzy and sticking out in every direction, "I'm glad I got here early."
"We are too," Sandy said, though with a wry smirk on her face, "but ironically you're a little too late, it's the girls' bedtime. But you can help get them ready."
Blossom was a little confused, their bedtime was 8:00pm, it was only 7 o'clock. The only time they'd had a 7 o'clock bedtime was for about a week when Ms. Keane, worried about the Girls, convinced Utonium to institute a curfew for them. But after about a week, Utonium had decided it was impractical and made a compromise with Ms. Keane for eight. She agreed with that and the Girls were okay with it too, though they did grumble a bit since their original bedtime had been 9 o'clock.
"They can't stay up a little longer to spend some time with their granddaddy?" Jack asked, the look in Sandy's eyes told him all he needed, Just like her mother, he thought.
"Okay, okay. I'll help you get them ready." Jack said.
* * * * *
The adults took the girls upstairs and prepared them for bed.
First, the adults gave the girls a bath. Followed by their being taken by the adults to their bedroom, now their nursery, and dressing them all in baby doll nightgowns of their respective colors of light blue, light green, and pink.
Each child was then handed what was, to the adults, their favorite possessions. Blossom was given the Blarney doll she had woken up with. Bubbles got Octi, and Buttercup got her green blankie. This preceded the girls being placed in their cribs for the night. Buttercup, however, stood up, using the crib rail for support and watched the adults leave. But Sandy noticed her and laid Buttercup on her back and tucked her in for the night.
"So, how did you like being everyone's Little Baby for a day, Buttercup?" Blossom asked, unable to resist teasing. "What're ya talkin' bout?" Buttercup said, in her 'tough-girl' voice.
"They were tickling you and playin' with you an' saying what a 'good girl' you were." Bubbles said, smiling. The adults had played with Bubbles and Blossom too, but just about all of their attention had been focused on Buttercup, "And you were loving every second of it." she said.
"I was not!" replied Buttercup in what her sisters knew to be a futile attempt at denial.
"Oh, come on! It was obvious! Don't even try to deny it." said Blossom, "You usually don't get that kind of attention, so it's no big deal."
"I wasn't likin' it!" said Buttercup, almost shouting, "I hate being a baby, we have to eat baby food, drink from bottles, wear diapers..."
"...get the highest praise for the smallest accomplishment," said Blossom, who continued, "get adults all but waiting on you hand and foot, have no responsibilities, get to grow up like a regular kid..."
"Okay, okay, maybe I like it a little." Buttercup finally admitted. Partly to get Blossom and Bubbles to be quiet. Though it was true, and that fact surprised even Buttercup.
"Well, at least you're adjusting." said Blossom, a resigned tone in her voice, "Which is probably a good thing since we can't get close enough to Major Man to find out about what happened to us."
"Yeah, Ms. Keane and the Professor won't take us." Bubbles said, in the same tone as Blossom, "'Sides, what would we do even if we did get to Major Man?"
"Yeah, he won't be able to understand what we said to him until we could talk for ourselves." Buttercup pointed out.
"And by then," Blossom began, "HIM would probably have done whatever it is he plans to do. He's bound to do something before we can talk and tell people what happened, even if nobody'd believe us. He's not one to take dumb risks."
"So, no matter what, we have to get back to normal." Bubbles said.
"Either that, or get Mommy and Daddy, to take off these restrainers and let us be superheroes again." Buttercup said.
"Yeah." Blossom said with a yawn, "Well, there's nothing we can do about it right now. Let's go to sleep."
"Okay." said Bubbles.
"G'night." said Buttercup.
It wasn't until just before sleep overtook Blossom that she realized Buttercup had called Ms. Keane and the Professor "Mommy" and "Daddy" without even thinking about it. Blossom would have mentioned it but she drifted off to dreamland before she could wake either of her sisters.
* * * * *
