Miss Honey slept uneasy that night, once again plagued by old childhood nightmares. They seemed to be filled with a small tinge of hope as her small frame stood in front of her bedroom window staring out with just a smidgen of expectation.

Someone would come for her. They had to. She had written the most honest detailing of her life in this hell and had given it to the largest and strongest looking man she had ever seen. He had to come for her. If not him, then the police.

Someone.

Anyone.

Jennifer could feel a tear begin to streak down her face. This false sense of hope was the cruelest of all because she knew the ending of this story in this lucid dream. No one was coming to save her. She began to sob before slowly coming back to reality.

It took Jennifer a moment to realize the sobbing hadn't been coming from her dream at all. Or from her. She willed her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She scanned the room, searching for the source. Her eyes fell on the lump on the couch, and she remembered all at once. Matilda! She struggled out of the armchair she had been sleeping in, flicked on the table lamp, rushed to her side and knelt beside her.

"Hey, sweetheart, it's alright. Are you in pain?" She felt little arms fling themselves around her neck. It had been a rough night in the recliner, but the moment she felt the trembling girl in her arms she knew she had made the right choice. Not even a child as brave as Matilda could be unfazed by waking up in pain in the dark, alone and in an unfamiliar place. "I've got you. I've got you. " Jennifer whispered.

Miss Honey let her calm down a bit before trying to get an answer from her, but even then it took her a few tries to make sense of Matilda's whimpered responses. Matilda was still disoriented either from the pain or the medicine, or both.

"Would you like something for the pain, dear?"

"Huh?" Matilda mumbled. She gave Jennifer a thousand yard stare.

"Are you in pain?" She slowly nodded her head and looked around the room with wide frightened eyes. "Do you need anything else while I'm up? An extra blanket, or a change?" She put a hand to Matilda's forehead, relieved at the lack of warmth.

"A change of what?" Matilda asked, before turning to look at her. Miss Honey gave her a sympathetic smile and wondered if Matilda would remember any of this in the morning.

"Are you wet?" Now Matilda looked more confused than ever. Instead of looking down, she looked up at the ceiling.

"Why would I be wet? Is it raining?" Jennifer was both concerned and amused.

"No, silly girl, let me take a look." She pulled the blanket off, but couldn't tell with the low lighting.

"I'm not sitting on the remote." Matilda mumbled.

"You're right, you're not on the remote, and you're still dry." Jennifer announced after feeling the padding for herself, something Matilda normally would have complained about. Now, she just stared at her curiously with a somewhat blank expression.

"Of course I'm dry; I'm inside. Why would I be wet?"

"Well, because I told you if you needed to go potty in the night to use your diaper, but it looks like you didn't need to."

"Oh." Matilda said. She looked down, seemingly noticing it for the first time. "I need to."

Jennifer let out a breath. Okay, this was good, she thought, her bladder must have woken her up. The muscle relaxant wasn't making her wet the bed. She didn't want to see Matilda getting discouraged about that again. Hopefully, she'd just have to pee a little more than usual, and that was it.

"Alright, I'll go get you some medicine while you go potty, okay?" Matilda's eyes were still staring at something far off in the distance, but she slowly nodded her head. "That's a good girl, I'll be right back." She gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head before turning to the kitchen to get the pills when she heard Matilda groaning. Jennifer quickly spun around. "No, Matilda, down!" Even drugged out of her mind she was still trying to get up. "You're going to hurt yourself even more, lay back down."

Matilda frowned at her in confusion. "But you told me to go potty."

"Yes, but I meant," Jennifer pointed at her waist. "You're supposed to be resting, remember?"

"Oh."

"Do you understand? No getting up, okay?"

"Okay." Matilda mumbled. Jennifer lingered a little longer this time to make sure she stayed put. Once she was sure Matilda wasn't going to go anywhere, Jennifer was about to turn and go when she noticed a peculiar expression on Matilda's face. Jennifer stared at her for a moment. It almost looked like she was strain-

"Woah! Woah! Stop! Stop!" Jennifer nearly shouted. Matilda stared up at her even more confused. "Not that! You didn't say you needed to do that!"

"But you told me to go potty."

"I know I did, just hold on a second." Jennifer searched desperately for the shopping bag. Where was it? She spotted it, sitting on the kitchen counter. She ran to it and produced her other purchase before coming back. Jennifer ripped the tapes off Matilda's now wet diaper, praying it wasn't too late. She breathed a sigh of relief. All clear. She lifted Matilda up by the legs as gently as she could before sliding the bed pan underneath her. "There, now you can go."

…

Matilda awoke to the sound of cackling coming from somewhere behind her. She opened her eyes and looked around. This wasn't where she last remembered being. She tried to think back. The last thing she remembered was being in the emergency room and then… nothing. How had she gotten here? And where was "here" exactly? She tried to sit up, but stopped when she was greeted to a world of pain. Matilda quietly groaned and grabbed her side. Ugh, Hortensia. No ten-year-old girl should be that strong. She tried to remind herself Hortensia had probably saved her life, but the pain in her ribs and side told her to curse her and all her descendants.

"Aww what's wrong Jen, don't want to change a poopy diaper?" a voice said before cackling again.

"It completely took me off guard. She throws a fit whenever someone suggests she pees in one. She's only ever done the other thing twice and both times it was because she was violently throwing up. I'm so glad I bought the other thing, I was queasy enough dumping that out. I don't think I could have handled scraping it all off her backside."

"You get used to it."

"Oh, are you volunteering?"

"Hey, I did my time. You're the one who tried to skip this phase and cheat."

"Mom?" Matilda asked.

"Uh-oh, looks like she's awake. You ready for an earthquake?"

"Shush."

Matilda heard a chair scrape before light footsteps began to approach. Matilda felt nervous for some reason. She scooted as far back as she could against the couch's armrest and away from the sound before throwing her blanket over her head. Why did she have the growing suspicion she was in trouble for something?

"Good morning, Matilda." She felt the blanket get lowered off her face. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I want to curse Hortensia." She grumbled back.

"My granddaughter might be able to help you with that." Mrs. Rodgers said coming into view. Matilda's surroundings finally clicked into place. She had been here before for Christmas. It was Mrs. Rogers' house. Why were they here now though?

"Don't give her any ideas." Ms. Honey said before turning back to her. "The doctor gave you some pain pills last night, I'll get you one. Do you need me to crush it into something, or can you swallow it?" Matilda wasn't sure. She had never tried to take pills before.

"I think I can swallow it."

"I'll bring you some water, and if that doesn't work, you can try some applesauce with it."

Matilda sat herself up as best she could. She debated asking Mrs. Rodgers what had happened after she fell asleep last night, but the thought of opening her mouth and talking sounded exhausting. What she really wanted was to go back to sleep, but she knew Miss Honey would be on her case about getting ready for school. She had never felt less like going to school than she did at that moment.

"Why are there three of them?" Matilda groggily asked once Miss Honey handed them to her.

"The doctor said you need to take one of each every four hours." Miss Honey said. "He said it will help you heal faster."

"It's big." Matilda said. She picked up the large white one in the palm of her hand and examined it.

"That's for the pain." Miss Honey explained. "Do you need me to cut it in half?"

"I don't know." Matilda mumbled, fighting to keep her eyes open.

"I can give you some Tylenol instead, but this will work much better." Matilda wrinkled her nose in disgust. Just the thought of the sickly tasting cherry syrup made her feel ill. She picked up the large pill and put it in her mouth before trying to flush it down with water. It took a few tries, but it finally went down, but not before semi dissolving in her mouth. She hurriedly drank more water in an attempt to flush the chalky bitter after taste from her mouth.

"Did you get it down?" Miss Honey asked in surprise. Matilda nodded with a grimace before moving onto the next pill. It took her just as many tries, but she was relieved the capsule left no trail of substance in her mouth or down her throat. The last was the easiest of all. She tried to hand the half full cup of water back when she had finished, but Miss Honey was adamant she drink it all. "It'll keep the pills from coming back up." Matilda scowled. One taste of that pain pill was enough for her.

"Give it about a half hour and you should feel better soon, but in the meantime, eat this and then we need to get ready to go."

Matilda ate her yogurt in silence while fighting against the urge to go back to sleep. She wondered if Miss Honey would let her sleep in class like the last time she had gotten hurt.

"All done?" Matilda nodded and handed over her half eaten yogurt. Miss Honey looked down at it and frowned. "You need to eat more than this."

"I'm not hungry." Matilda mumbled.

"Two more bites." Matilda stared at Miss Honey in mild disbelief as she scooped up a spoonful and held it in front of Matilda's mouth. "Open." Matilda opened her mouth to complain, but before she could get any words out, Miss Honey had taken the liberty of shoving a spoonful in. Matilda gave her a puzzled look before swallowing. This time when Miss Honey began to come forward with another serving, Matilda tried to take the spoon from her and feed herself, but Miss Honey ignored her outstretched hand.

"I'm glad to see you're more with it than you were last night. Are you sure you don't want anymore?" Matilda waved it away. She felt too full from the large glass of water earlier. She watched Miss Honey, now feeling a bit apprehensive, as she scooped up more yogurt onto the spoon in fear of getting force fed again, but relaxed as she watched her finish it off herself.

"Last night? In the hospital?" Matilda asked. Miss Honey's sunny disposition faltered for a moment.

"Do you remember waking up in the middle of the night?"

"No." Matilda said. Had she? She racked her brain trying to remember, but all she could recall was their time in the emergency room.

"For the best. You weren't acting yourself."

"What happened?" Matilda asked suspiciously. Mrs. Rodgers let out a snort of laughter.

"It's…nothing, don't worry about it." Miss Honey said with a fake looking smile. Matilda forced herself up a little more, her desire for sleep now forgotten.

"What did I do?" Matilda said horrified.

"You didn't do anything, sweetheart." Miss Honey said. Matilda narrowed her eyes and looked to Mrs. Rodgers.

"It's more what you tried to do." Mrs. Rodgers said.

"Carol!"

"What did I try to do?!" Matilda asked looking from Mrs. Rodgers to Miss Honey.

"You were trying to leave your mom a present." Mrs. Rodgers said with a snicker.

"Carol, don't tease her." Miss Honey said before turning back to Matilda. "It was my fault. You woke up needing to go potty, so I told you to go ahead and use your diaper." Miss Honey said before averting her eyes. "I didn't realize you meant you needed to…"

"I didn't!" Matilda said horrified. She looked down, only now realizing for the first time she was wearing one.

"You didn't, don't worry." Miss Honey said. "I just noticed you were making a funny face, so I stopped you and got you situated in time." Matilda stared at her horrified.

"Why didn't you just take me to the restroom in the first place?" She got another sad look in return.

"Honey, if I set you on the toilet last night, you would have just fallen right off. You could hardly even make eye contact with me."

"Well obviously I didn't since you had to take me there anyway." Matilda frowned when Miss Honey avoided her eyes. "I didn't, did I?"

"No, you didn't."

"See? Now can I take this off and go to the bathroom?" All the water inside her was making her front and sides ache.

" Because I didn't take you to the restroom last night." Miss Honey said. "And no," she added before taking a deep breath. "You can't take the diaper off." Matilda stared up at her at a loss for words.

"Okay, I'm sorry." Matilda said before taking a deep breath of her own. "Can I please take this diaper off and will you please take me to the restroom?" Matilda frowned. There was that pitying look in Miss Honey's eyes again.

"No." Matilda gritted her teeth. She wasn't in the mood for puzzles and mind games. The building pressure was beginning to throb. She winced and held her stomach. If Miss Honey was looking for the right phrase or wording, she was cruel to use now as a teaching moment. She racked her brain, but she only had one idea left.

"Will you please take this diaper off and-"

"No." Matilda gaped up at her. "I'm sorry, sweetheart." Matilda could feel tears begin to sting her eyes.

"Why?"

"Matilda, please go so I can get you ready. I need to go to work."

"Mom, why?" Matilda croaked out.

"Jen, if you plan to go through with this, maybe you should call out today?" Mrs. Rodgers suggested. "Hell, let's all three of us play hooky."

"Carol, I can't, what about the kids?"

"Jen, I think this kid needs you more." Mrs. Rodgers turned to Matilda. "Do you want to go to school today?" Matilda adamantly shook her head. "See? Why don't you explain what's going on, and I'll talk to Mr. Trilby." Jennifer looked back between the two of them before reluctantly nodding.

"I've missed so many days though." Jennifer groaned.

"Jen, have you ever considered going out on maternity leave?"

"Maternity leave? Since when have we ever had maternity leave? And it's not like I had a baby."

"We've always had it, but Agatha just terrified everyone too much to use it. Remember Rachel Davine? Agatha forced her to stay until the moment her water broke in the middle of class, then tried to bully her into coming back the next day. No wonder she quit." Matilda watched as she picked the phone off of the wall and began dialing the school's number. "You don't need to have a baby, it's also available if you adopt so you can bond with the child."

"I never thought about it." Miss Honey said.

"Please," Matilda said in a desperate voice as Miss Honey turned to look at her. "Please can I use the restroom? I'm not going to hurt myself and neither will you. You're not as rough as Eve, please?"

Miss Honey had indecision written all over her face. Just another push and Matilda was sure she'd give in.

Mrs. Rodgers seemed to have the same suspicion though. "Stick to your guns, Jen. Don't half ass this."

"I'm sorry, Matilda, but no." Miss Honey finally said as she knelt beside her. "You'll have to pee in the diaper."

"But why? I need to go to the bathroom anyway to brush my teeth! You're just making it worse for yourself."

"No, Matilda, the only one making this worse for themselves is you. The sooner you stop arguing and pee, the sooner you'll feel better."

Now Matilda could feel a tear escape and slowly fall down her face. "Why?" she tried to ask, but all that would come out was a squeak.

"Because, sweetheart, starting today, you're grounded."

Matilda's mouth fell open. She had expected "for safety" or for "ease", but punishment? Punishment for what?

"Y-you put me in diapers to p-p-punish me?" Matilda asked, flabbergasted. She didn't understand. This had to be a joke! She couldn't be doing this to her! Miss Honey had always been reasonable and level headed, but this was anything but!

"Don't cry, baby, it's only for a week."

"A week!?" Matilda nearly shouted. "I don't understand why you're doing this! Where's the logic?"

Miss Honey tried to grab her hand, but Matilda yanked it away.

"You deliberately disobeyed me, Matilda. I told you she was dangerous. I told you not to rile her up, but you went behind my back and did it anyway. As a result, you got seriously hurt."

"B-b-but that was weeks ago! The Trunchbull had to be stopped, how could you expect me to sit back and not do anything when she's killing kids. I know who Billy Reyes was, he was Hortensia's friend. She killed him, didn't she?"

"We are not talking about that, we are talking about you using your mind and powers to purposefully hurt other people. That's why you're grounded. I know what you think you did was right, and I appreciate you wanting to stick up for me, I really do, but Matilda, if what you told me was true, that's manslaughter, or worse, first degree murder."

"I-I-I just wanted to scare her!" Matilda said, breaking down into sobs, "I wasn't trying to kill her!"

"What if instead of driving off a cliff, she drove onto the sidewalk and seriously hurt someone? Or crashed into another car? What were you thinking? That was very irresponsible of you. I expected better."

"A-a-are you going to call the cops?" Matilda asked tearfully.

"No, Matilda, I'm not going to tell anyone, but I want to impress upon you the seriousness of what you've done. I've given it a lot of thought, and I've decided the best way to let that message sink in is to take away the thing you value most. Your independence. You're going to have to learn to trust the adults in your life to take care of things from here on out. I understand you've never had a good example of that, and I know I myself haven't stepped up when I should have, but that's going to change."

Matilda scowled. She knew she deserved it; the guilt inside of her had been almost as unbearably painful as the pain in her side, but to ground her from the toilet?! What was Miss Honey thinking?!

"Couldn't you take away my books or something?" Matilda mumbled.

"I thought about it, but I decided that would be too cruel. You don't have many options to pass the time and I'm not about to take away your one escape."

"You could ground me from the telly, that's what Eve does to Hortensia." Matilda offered. Miss Honey gave her a puzzled but amused look.

"Nice try." Miss Honey said.

"Please, not this, Jenny, I'll do all the arts and crafts you want! I won't even use my powers! Please!" Matilda begged, but this only seemed to make her frown.

"I thought we were passed calling me Jenny."

"Fine, mom, mommy, whatever you want; I'll do all the laundry, the dishes, I'll cook all the meals…" Matilda pleaded. Miss Honey sighed before standing back up.

"You're missing the whole point. I'm not trying to make you grow up. Making you take on more responsibility is the last thing I want."

"But…"

"The answer is 'no' Matilda, end of discussion." Matilda silently seethed.

"What kind of parent grounds their kid from the toilet?" Matilda spat. She could see Miss Honey stop in her tracks.

"Do you want a time out on top of everything else?" She asked without turning around. "Because that's what you're going to get if you don't drop this attitude right now."

"No, Miss Honey." Matilda said through clenched teeth. She could see Jennifer stiffen in place before slowly turning around to face her. Matilda was expecting her to be angry, but instead she just looked sad. Matilda watched apprehensivly as she walked to the edge of the couch, grabbed something out of a bag and headed to the back of the house. A few seconds later she was standing in front of Matilda.

"Sit up." she ordered.

"No."

"Have it your way." Without another word, Matilda felt hands dig underneath her and lift her up.

"Stop it; that hurts!" Matilda yelled. "Put me down!"

"Then you should have listened to me the first time." Matilda struggled to get out of Miss Honey's grasp, but it only made the woman grip her tighter. "Stop moving, do you want me to drop you?"

"If it gets me away from you, then yes!" Matilda yelled back. She tried to turn to see where they were going, but all she could see was the ceiling. It wasn't until she had been deposited on a disposable mat on the bed did she realize she was in the bedroom Mrs. Roger's granddaughter had been staying in during the Christmas holidays.

"You can come back out when you learn how to be a good girl." Miss Honey said.

"You can come back in when you learn how to be a good mother!" Matilda yelled back. Miss Honey turned and left, slamming the bedroom door behind her and leaving Matilda alone with her thoughts.