Kaitlyn sat in the restaurant, the bags of shopping surrounded her feet as she slowly drank her half-fat cappuccino.She appreciated every mouthful, it was good to be off of her feet after such a high intense morning of shopping.The remnants of her Caesar salad lay on the plate before her. Her 18th birthday was going pretty well so far, she had found multiple bargains at several high street stores and she was feeling rather pleased with herself.She brushed some of her long silky ebony hair out of her dark green eyes as she looked at her watch.Her sister was due to be picking her up soon.Elizabeth had promised to come collect her so that Kaitlyn wouldn't need to worry about getting home.

She leaned back in the chair feeling relaxed.It was amazing how a good shopping trip could improve her mood.School was due to be over in a week or two. Then it would be onto college.Kaitlyns heart skipped a beat.She was already eagerly anticipating college.Finally some independence.Her family practically smothered her, her Mom especially, so she was looking forward to going it alone.Proving to them that she didn't need molly coddling.That she was an adult, independent young woman.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the children screaming and laughing in the children's play area not so far from where she sat and she scowled over in the general direction as some boys pelted some other kids with soft balls from the ball pit.She stood, leaving a tip on the table and with difficulty gathered up all the shopping bags she had accrued.She needed to go to the rest room before she headed off to meet her sister, but she couldn't just leave all her shopping here.She turned round and bumped into a senile looking old lady."Watch where you're going you silly old bitch" Kaitlyn muttered, annoyed not only by the woman in her way but by the fact that her good mood had vanished with the clumsy act.

The old woman looked stung by Kaitlyn's words for a moment and then smiled a knowing sly grin of missing teeth and shrivelled lips.

"Girls your age should learn to respect their elders"the woman chided.

Kaitlyn rolled her eyes towards the ceiling.

"Whatever, get outta my way" Kaitlyn barged pass and into the rest room beyond, trying to wipe the woman from her thoughts.After a quick visit to the toilet she stood in the rest room and stared at herself in the mirror. Her perfectly trimmed eyebrows arched as she reapplied her eye liner.She took great pride in how she looked. She was one of those lucky girls who not only had a stunning body and looks, but seemed to also effortlessly glide through her school work.Great at sports, great and art, great at everything.Admired by everyone and she knew it.She blew herself a little kiss as she popped her make up back into her handbag and gathered up her shopping and headed back into the main restaurant.

The kids were still screaming in the play area and she could feel herself getting tense again.She looked over and stopped dead in her tracks.There were three teenage girls in there now, about her age.In fact she certainly recognised one of them as being a girl from her school.The girl was wearing the restaurant uniform so Kaitlyn guessed that she must work part time here, the other two she also recognised but couldn't work out who they were.They seemed to be messing around in the ball pit and throwing balls at a bunch of little boys.She heard the teenage girl with shoulder length black hair. shout in an overly childish way.

"He's such a stupid poopoo doody head. I hate him!"

Kaitlyn shuddered.She would never act so infantile in front of a restaurant full of people.The idea just really freaked her out a little, her reputation would be in tatters in moments.With her shopping gathered, she tore her eyes from the freak show in the children's play area and bustled out of the restaurant quickly, not even giving the scene a second glance.

As Kaitlyn came out of the restaurant she saw her older sister, Elizabeth, heading in her direction.Elizabeth was due to turn twenty in a couple of months and worked as a local veterinarian assistant. With dark green eyes to match Kaitlyn's that was as far as the similarities went.Elizabeth was blonde and certainly stockier than her younger sister.Not as pretty but still not into the realms of plain or mundane.She smiled as she saw Kaitlyn with all her bags.

"Successful shopping escapade then?" Elizabeth smirked, the expression faded as she saw Kaitlyn's dark mood.

"Sis?What's up?"Kaitlyn realised her bad mood was showing on her face and instantly she brightened it.

"Oh really it's nothing, honest.Just some jerks in the restaurant making fools of e on lets go"

They walked in silence most of the way to Elizabeth's car and Kaitlyn threw herself into the passenger seat, being careful to place most of her bags on the seat's behind her anda couple of the bags went in the foot well between her feet. She buckled up as Elizabeth got into the drivers seat and started the engine.Soon they were driving through the town centre as Elizabeth navigated the lunchtime traffic Kaitlyn stared out the window watching the throng of high street shoppers.

"So did you get anything nice?Anything I can steal?"Elizabeth giggled a little, knowing how much it wound her younger sister up when she went into Kaitlyn's wardrobes and helped herself. Squeezing into her slimmer sister's t-shirts and dresses.

Kaitlyn scoffed and manoeuvred herself a little so that her feet were protecting the bags in the foot well from her sister's prying eyes. She looked up at her sister

"keep your grubby mitts..."

Kaitlyn stopped mid sentence when she suddenly realised what her sister was actually wearing.Had she been wearing that earlier? She must have been, but why had Kaitlyn only just noticed?

"What are you wearing anyway?" Kaitlyn tried to keep the disbelieving disgust from her voice but failed by quite some margin.Elizabeth gave a quick glance down at her clothes before returning her attention to the road, they weren't far from home now.Elizabeth wore a pale yellow dress with awhite peter pan collar,It had short puffy sleeves and lace trim in white with small white bows dotted at equal distances along the hem.

"Why? What's wrong?Don't you like it?It's the latest trend.I think its cute.Although not as cute as what you're wearing.You always do have impeccable style." Elizabeth smiled broadly.

Kaitlyn looked down at herself just to admire her outfit of a blouse with a pale Burberry pattern and a pair of River Island pale blue tight jeans.Kaitlyn shrieked loudly in surprise, Elizabeth slammed on the brakes in response. Kaitlyn shrieked again and patted her body down in shock, her hands quickly exploring what she now wore, as if touching the fabric would suddenly make her eyes see something different.She now seemed to be wearing a pair of light green shorts that had brightly coloured polka dots and a white t-shirt that carried on the multicoloured polka dot theme.White socks that went right to her knees and a pair of light pink trainers that had Velcro fastenings and Dora the explorer motifs.

Elizabeth stared in disbelief as her younger sister freaked out.

"What's wrong?What's the matter?Is there a bug down your top or something?"

Kaitlyn continued to pat herself down, fixated on her clothing.

"This...This is impossible.This isn't what I was wearing a minute ago. How? I mean?What's going on?I...I don't understand?"

A look of annoyance flashed across Elizabeth's face.

"Oh for Pete's sake, stop messing around.I thought something serious was up.You nearly gave me a heart attack"

Kaitlyn's confused eyes flashed up at her sister.

"Look this is really STUPID!..."Kaitlyn clamped a hand over her mouth, she had tried to say 'fucked up' but for some reason it had come out as a different word entirely.She thought about some swearwords but the harder she tried to recall any, they quicker they started to disappear from her mind. She fell silent lost in the complexity of what exactly had just happened.

Elizabeth had resumed driving, her face a mask of anger at having been given such a large fright.A few moments later they pulled into the driveway of their house.Kaitlyn saw her mom's smiling face poke out from behind the living room net curtain as the car crunched up the gravelled driveway.Her Mom was bound to laugh when she caught sight of what the two of them were wearing.

Kaitlyn leaned over the back seat and pulled all her bags round the front, the moment the car had stopped Kaitlyn had thrown the door open, pulled all her belongings with her, and bolted for the front door of the house.She practically kicked the door down in her rush to not be exposed out in the open dressed in such a ridiculous way.

Her Mom said something from the living room and started to initiate a conversation but Kaitlyn wasn't having any of it, she ran up the stairs and straight into her room.She had to get changed. Tears were threatening to spill from her eyes.She threw her high street bags onto her bed and tipped the first one up allowing the contents to spill out.

It was as if time itself stopped at that moment.Kaitlyn stared in utter horror. As shakily her hand stretched out to pick up what had once been a beautiful dress from Gap. Now it was a overall dress with more Dora the explorer motifs. Quickly she rummaged through all her bags, visibly crying now as she realised that all of her purchases had somehow reverted into overly kiddie attire.

There came a gentle knock on the door. " Kait?Is everything okay?" Her Mom pushed open the door to see Kaitlyn sat on the bed surrounded by her new purchases. Seeing the tears on her daughter'sface instantly her Mom was sitting beside her on the bed.

"Oh Kaitlyn, what ever is the matter?"

Kaitlyn couldn't believe that her Mom couldn't tell what the problem was,She held up, what had once been a bra and panties set which was now a Dora the explorer pair of kiddie print pants and vest set.

"All my stuff has been sabotaged.It's for little kids.I don't even understand how this has happened."

She said between pitiful sniffles.

Her Mom sighed, Kaitlyn did have a tendency to get bent out of shape over the slightest of insecurities."Kaitlyn, if you don't like the stuff you've bought you can just go back with the receipts tomorrow. Personally, I think this will look really adorable on you."Her Mom picked up the overall dress and measured it up against Kaitlyn's slumped form.

"Look don't get upset.Dinner is ready.It's your birthday.Don't let this bother you okay."

Kaitlyn was confused, how could she just ignore this strange occurrence as if it wasn't happening.It wasn't even possible that this could be a prank, how had someone switched her clothes without her noticing?Something really really odd was going on, or perhaps she was even loosing her mind.

"Come down for food okay.I made fajitas and I know they're your favourite.There is chocolate cake for later as well"

Kaitlyn wiped away the snot from her face with the back of her hand."Okay Mom.I want to just get changed and i'll be right down"

"Okay sweetie."Her Mom got up, giving Kaitlyn one final concerned look and then left the room.Kaitlyn waited a moment and then got up, moved across her room to her wardrobe and opened it.Her knees felt weak as the power fled from her.Her whole wardrobe had been robbed of its contents and replaced by more children's stuff.This couldn't be happening.She dug around and found a pair of light blue jeans, quite loose fitting elasticated at the waist with daisies embroidered on them and a white t-shirt with a pink elephant on it.That seemed to be the least childish outfit she could muster up from what she had.Sighing and shaking slightly, she brushed her long black hair and went downstairs.She had no intention of leaving the house like this and she was just thankful that her birthday party wasn't going to be happening until tomorrow evening after school, so she at least had time to fix her clothing problem.

She slunk into the dining room where her sister was already sat eating, still wearing the yellowchild's dress.Her Mom and sister didn't say anything about Kaitlyn's outfit so Kaitlyn sulkily took her place at the table and dug into the food.The stress, rather than take away her appetite, had made her ravenous and soon she was concentrating more on eating than on her current dressed state.Her mood lightened a little as her plate emptied.

"Hey sis?Do you wanna watch a movie?I bought the latest Twilight film." Elizabeth smiled across the table as she popped the last fork full of food into her mouth.

Kaitlyn perked up considerably by the suggestion.She knew it was a bit immature to love the twilight series but everyone at school was into it and well, the guys in it were particularly tasty to look at.

"Yeah alright.I'm up for that."She said, trying to ignore what was going on with her clothing.She slipped off her seat at the table and began gathering the dishes together to put in the dishwasher.

Her Mom stood up and took over.

"It's okay Kait.I'll do that, you go watch your movie with your big sister."She said with a gentle smile.

"Oh.Thanks Mom."

Kaitlyn moved out of her Mom's way and was in the doorway between the dining room and the living room when she caught her Mom speaking to Elizabeth.

"Help your sister out okay before starting the movie."

The words didn't really make any sense to Kaitlyn and she was confused as she continued through to the living room and flung herself onto the sofa. She didn't need help with anything,sure she was a little distressed, but thinking about it was only stressing and confusing her.She needed to just think about it calmly.There had to be an explanation.Her sister came in shortly afterwards and went round the back of the sofa.

"Come on Kaitlyn, Mom says you need to try going potty before the film." Elizabeth held out a rather large red potty chair.

Instantly Kaitlyn's face matched the shade and colour of the chair.She scrambled up from her lounging position and stood in complete humiliation.

"What are you guys playing at.I'm not a baby!"She shouted her eyes prickling with tears again.

Elizabeth sighed in an over the top manner.

"What is it with you today?We go through this rigmarole every time Mom tells you you need to sit on this.If you're so intent on saying you're not a baby why don't you prove it by using this so you don't wet your pull-ups."

"My what?"Kaitlyn pulled at the waistband of her elasticated jeans and saw that her underwear was now puffier and white and had the distinct look of a toddlers pull-up. Complete with fairy princess patterns

"I'm...I'm...wearing... but...HOW? "She pulled at her hair frustrated by her circumstances, angered by the lack of understanding from her sister that this was not normal.Her stomach was in knots.

"I'm not sitting on that.I can use the toilet just like everyone else"She pointed at the chair then folded her arms stubbornly.

"Well Mom says you have to, so stop being a brat and just sit on it okay and do what you need to do"

Kaitlyn shook her head and was about to say something when she felt the temperature around her crotch getting warmer. She gasped and grabbed at her crotch in horror.Surely she hadn't.She couldn't have?She was 18 years old for goodness sake.

Kaitlyn's actions made Elizabeth sigh. It was obvious what had just happened to her younger sister.She had seen Kaitlyn do this a number of times.

"MOM!KAIT JUST WET HERSELF!"

"I..Havent! Kaitlyn muttered lamely, the fight leaving her as rapidly as her bladder emptied into her soaked pull-up.

Their Mom bustled into the room, drying her hands on a tea towel.

"It's okay. It's okay.No need to worry.Don't fret"

She said as she ploughed into the room, she knew Kaitlyn was being particularly sensitive today and she didn't want unnecessary drama.

She walked up to Kaitlyn and pulled Kaitlyn's jeans down in one authoritative tug.Kaitlyn squealed and used her hands to hide her soaked pull-up.

"Come on sweetie, the sooner we get you out of that mess the sooner we can get on with the movie."Her Mom pulled the easy tear strips and pulled the wet pull-up from Kaitlyn where she stood.Kaitlyn just stood in shock, her bottom half naked.Her Mom gently put a hand on each side of her younger daughters waist and gently pushed backwards.Kaitlyn didn't realise she was being manoeuvred until she found herself sat in the middle of the living room floor on the red potty she had refused to sit on moments before.She blinked, snapping herself out of her confused state and looked down at the shiny red potty.

"Mom?"She started to say but her Mom simply shushed her.

"Just stay on there like a good girl and see if you can tinkle any more okay.We don't want any more accidents do we sweetie."

Kaitlyn found herself shaking her head agreeing with her Mom. She sat there, a glazed look over her face, not sure what they were expecting of her.

"Can I start the movie Mom?"Elizabeth asked, as if what had just transpired was the most mundane of occurrences.Her Mom nodded and so Kaitlyn found herself watching the movie from her potty chair.10 minutes into the film there was an odd noise and it was only when her Mom paused the movie that Kaitlyn realised what was happening.

"Whose a clever girl? Kaitlyn are you going potty like a big girl?" Kaitlyn shook her head, blushing furiously, but she couldn't deny that she was actually going potty in the middle of the living room.She jumped up from her place, her Mom already up and advancing with a pack of baby wipes a large smile on her face.

"See that wasn't so bad was it.You'll be using the big girl toilet in no time whatsoever."She said as she wiped Kaitlyn clean and pulling a clean pair of pull-ups from the pack she opened them up for Kaitlyn to step into.

Kaitlyn stepped into them without any fuss.She was shocked that she hadn't realised she was even going in the potty and that suggested to her that for whatever reason things were happening, it seemed that she wasn't actually properly potty trained for the time being, so as much as she loathed to admit it, she actually needed to wear the pull-ups.She watched as her Mom pulled them up and over her 18 year old waist, They fit comfortably on her hips.She experimentally moved her legs a little and heard the quiet rustle.

"Ooh looks like you leaked a little on your jeans. Not to worry.It's warm enough without them. Come up on the sofa and we'll finish the movie"Her Mom said brightly, Kaitlyn found herself following her Mom's suggestion in an almost robotic fashion.The movie was restarted and the three family members watched the film.

Kaitlyn lost herself in the movie, trying not to think about what was going on.It had to be a nightmare or something.Just let it run its course and hopefully she would wake up.She found herself getting drowsy and she fought to stay awake, she lay her head on her Mom's shoulder and was, very quickly, asleep.Her Mom realised what had happened and she watched the rest of the moviewith Elizabeth.With the film finished. Elizabeth switched off the lights and TV while their Mom carried Kaitlyn up into her room and checking Kaitlyn's pull-up to find it still dry she tucked her younger daughter up in her bed.Smiling in a gentle serene way, Kaitlyn seemed so vulnerable today.Pulling the bedroom door closed Kaitlyn's Mom headed to her own room, letting her younger daughter sleep.

...

The morning came and with it, a scream from Kaitlyn's room. Elizabeth was the first one at the door and she barged in to see Kaitlyn standing in the middle of her room hugging her shoulders. Elizabeth could see that her sister's pull-ups were wet and sighed.

"Seriously sis, there's no reason to get so upset, it takes time to potty tra..."

"What have you guys done to my room?" Kaitlyn stalked the short distance to her sister and pushed her hard causing Elizabeth to stumble backwards.

"HEY! What are you talking about?" Elizabeth's concern quickly changed to anger and she shoved her younger sister back.

"Just because miss pissy pants can't keep her pants dry."

"MY ROOM! WHY DID YOU CHANGE MY ROOM?"

Angry tears were falling down Kaitlyn's face which caused Elizabeth's anger to disappear to be replaced by confusion. She looked around her sister's room. Everything seemed in order. The preschool toys on the shelves, the bright large story books, the large colourful butterflies, flowers and bugs Mom had painted all over the pale green walls. Even the butterfly bedding sheets were the same. She looked at Kaitlyn confused.

"I don't understand? Have you misplaced one of your toys or something. You should really take better care of your stuff Kait."

Without giving her crazy little sister chance to retort back, Elizabeth spun on her heels and left the room.

Kaitlyn watched her sister knowing with dreaded certainty that Elizabeth hadn't done this now. The shock at having woken up in her room only to find it completely toddler-fied had terrified her. Her sister seemed to be acting as if this was all completely natural. Kaitlyn would almost believe she was in some strange sci-fi movie where reality was altering for everyone except her. How could she stop it? And more importantly what if she couldn't? How far would this go? Yesterday she had been almost a woman and now today she couldn't even keep her pants dry. A sob escaped her. What if this continued? By tomorrow would she be back in diapers? What if she just blinked out of existence altogether. She crossed her arms and rubbed her shoulders, shivering at the thought just as her Mom walked into the room.

"Oh Kait, standing around in wet pull-ups no wonder you're shivering. Stop dawdling or we're going to be late for daycare."

Kaitlyn's Mom crossed over to the wardrobe and pulled out a red and white gingham dress. Then, after pulling a clean pair of pull-ups from a pack in the wardrobe she advanced on Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn was staring at her Mom with her mouth hanging open. Daycare? She was going to daycare? This really couldn't be happening.

"Come on, lay down on the bed sweetie so I can clean you up."

"Mom I can do it. I'll do it myself" She said quietly, not really wanting her Mom to touch her down there. Her Mom had cleaned her last night but Kait had been in shock. Today wasn't much better but if she was going to be stuck in these circumstances until she could work out what was going on, then she wanted things to be on her terms as much as possible.

"Hmmm I don't think you can do it by yourself swee..."

"MOM SERIOUSLY I CAN DO IT" Kaitlyn snapped, and sighing her Mom handed Kaitlyn the fresh pull-up and the wipes then folded her arms watching. Kaitlyn paused.

"MOM? Some privacy if you don't mind"

Her Mom shook her head. "Come on show me what a big girl you can be. You've got your own way in doing it yourself, so now I want to see you do it yourself." The tone of her mom's voice irked Kaitlyn. It sounded almost like her Mom was mocking her, as if she couldn't believe that Kaitlyn could dress herself. Realizing also that her Mom wasn't going to go away, Kaitlyn sighed and pulled down the wet pull-up stepping out of it but using her foot to fling the wet pull-up away from her. It still disgusted her that she currently couldn't stay dry.

"Kaitlyn-Susanna! Don't you ever let me catch you doing that again!" Her mom's angry barked order made Kaitlyn jump and she looked wide eyed at the stern expression on her mothers face. She hadn't been told off like that for years, she had almost forgotten her middle name it hadn't been used for a long time and instantly she was apologetic.

"I'm sorry Mom" She mumbled humbly. Her mom's face softened.

"I should think so too. Now go pick that up and dispose of it properly!"

Kaitlyn scurried over the where the wet pull-up had landed and gathered it up, rolling it into a neat ball and putting it in the bin in her room. She glanced over at her Mom, whose mood had brightened considerably.

"That's better young lady, now if you ever do that again, you'll get a spanking. Right back to the task at hand, it's getting late. Come on, get dressed. Now!"

Her mom's no nonsense order spurred Kaitlyn into action, for fear of being over her mother's knee. The mental image was quite absurd: an 18 year old woman sprawled over her mother's lap. Kaitlyn didn't want to make that a reality.

After cleaning herself with some wipes she managed to step into the pull-up without too much difficulty mainly because her Mom held the pull-up open. Then Kaitlyn tried to pull the dress over her head and thread her arms through the arm holes, but she struggled for quite some time before her Mom finally stepped in and helped thread her arms into the right place. Kaitlyn felt humiliated. It seemed soo much more complicated than it should have been. Maybe she was still really confused about her situation, causing her to be a little on the clumsy side. Kaitlyn pulled her own white socks on and her shoes were black patent slip on shoes so she just had to step into those, which she felt thankful for. She was concerned that laces or buckles might be beyond her capabilities at the moment.

She meekly followed her Mom downstairs after being praised for almost dressing herself entirely today. Kaitlyn didn't say anything, she also didn't say anything as scrambled egg with toasted soldiers was placed in front of her for breakfast. She hadn't eaten scrambled eggs since she was about five and remembered loving it as a child. It was almost nostalgic having it placed in front of her now and so she ate it without any fuss, being careful not to drop any down her front.

Elizabeth came into the room still glaring from Kaitlyn's little outburst earlier. Kaitlyn realized she would need to have her sister on her side if she was ever going to figure out what the hell was going on, so she swallowed her current mouth full of food and grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry bout earlier sis. I must have just had an odd nightmare and I hadn't quite woken up." Elizabeth grunted in acknowledgment. Kaitlyn smiled, she knew Elizabeth wouldn't stay mad at her for long.

There was a knock on the door and a flurry of activity came from her Mom and sister. As Elizabeth ran into the hallway and grabbed her jacket and bag, her Mom followed out into the corridor and came back with a white fleecy jacket with pink flowers on it.

"Come on kiddo, quickly quickly. The crocodile is here. No time to dawdle!"

Kaitlyn found herself standing at her mom's command and allowed her Mom to put her jacket on her.

She was being escorted towards the door and she shook her head.

"I feel sick. I am sick. I can't go" She found herself rambling and her Mom spun her round by the shoulders and looked her squarely in the eye.

"Look it's one of your last days of daycare until you go up to proper school. You don't want to miss playing with all your friends do you," her Mom asked soothingly. A shiver bristled up Kaitlyn's spin. Would all her friends be in the same predicament as her? If they were all like this then maybe together they could find a solution. Perhaps going to daycare would be a good thing. She sighed and turned herself towards the door.

"There's a good girl!" She heard her Mom saying before giving Kaitlyn a playful swat to her bottom.

Kaitlyn's Mom then handed Elizabeth a note.

" Be a good girl and give this to Kaitlyn's worker please."

Kaitlyn cringed at being talked over as if she wasn't capable of doing things for herself and headed out the door quickly. She stumbled on the front doorstep as she saw what awaited her. A line of teenagers headed by a lady wearing an orange jacket and tailed by someone wearing a similar jacket. All the teenagers between the two adults were from Kaitlyn's school and they were all dressed in childish attire. She whimpered a little bit but was snapped out of it quickly when Elizabeth took her hand and led her into the line.

Kaitlyn stood in silence her mind a whirr of unanswered questions whilst everyone else around her chatted animatedly about what the day's adventures at daycare would bring. Kaitlyn sighed, no one seemed to be aware that this wasn't normal.

"All right everyone, let's go!" The adult at the front called out and Kaitlyn looked up as everyone started walking forward. Kaitlyn saw someone up ahead that she recognized. Two of the girls from yesterday who had been playing in the ball pool. Had that been where the reality had started to change? Kaitlyn tried to remember the brown haired girl's name but it escaped her. She had seen the girl around school but she wasn't in the popular crown and she wasn't in the geek crowd either, she was in that grey area of forgettable nobodies. Kaitlyn wanted to curse but couldn't think of any appropriate swearwords. The brown haired one was looking thoughtful. Did she know what was going on?

The walking continued for a short while until the crocodile was led through some gates and all of a sudden all the teenagers spewed from the crocodile and out into the daycare playground. This was Kaitlyn's chance she should go speak to the brown haired girl, see if she thought this was normal. But before Kaitlyn could take a step Elizabeth grabbed her by the collar and pulled her towards the unoccupied see-saw.

"Come on sis. Lets play before I have to leave for big girl's school"

Kaitlyn looked in dismay as the brown haired girl went inside. She pulled herself away from her sister's hold.

"No. I don't want to. I want to go inside. It's cold."

Elizabeth's face fell into a pout. "Awww but we always play on the see-saw before going in. Look I forgive you for earlier for pushing me and stuff and I'm sorry I pushed you back, but just play a little bit please!"

Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. It wasn't as if she couldn't put off talking to the girl for ten minutes to keep her sister happy. She clambered onto the see-saw, and wasn't happy that to sit on the thing properly meant she had to straddle the seat, showing off her pull-ups underneath her skirt. She tried to fold the skirt fabric to hide her modesty but as she did so she was suddenly catapulted up into the air. Squealing with fright, forgetting all about her modesty she clung onto the hold bar for dear life as Elizabeth giggled. A shrill whistle sounded and a woman walked over.

"Not so rough with your sister Elizabeth. What have I told you before!" The woman sounded stern as she waggled a finger at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth simply grinned sheepishly and nodded towards Kaitlyn "Sorry Mrs. Miller. Kaitlyn likes it really. Oh OH. My Mom gave me this to give to you".

Mrs Miller took the note, then turned to look at Kaitlyn who was looking fairly queasy at the sudden up and down motions of the see-saw.

"Just be careful, the pair of you, or you won't be allowed to play on the see-saw again." Elizabeth nodded and Mrs. Miller left.

Kaitlyn quickly clambered off the see-saw in case her elder sister launched her again.

"I'm going in now okay?" She said before fleeing from her rather bemused sister.

Kaitlyn stepped inside the building and looked around the large open plan room. Brightly scribbled pictures filled the walls. There were shelves of books and toys and a large Wendy house with a dress up box. Kaitlyn didn't have many recollections of herself when she had been at this sort of point in her life, but it all looked strangely familiar and oddly alluring, or perhaps comforting was a better word.

A safer happy point in her life without exams, back when her dad had been alive. A distant memory of her dad letting her ride him like a pony swam up from suppressed memories. She didn't have many memories of her dad; he had been killed in a car crash when she had been about 4. She had learnt to get by without him but had always felt jealous of other kids who had fathers. The memory caught her by surprise and she just stood there dumbfounded by the mix of memories and chaotic activity of all the teenagers running around like small children.

She hung her jacket up in the cloakroom area and looked around for the brown haired girl. She spotted her and began weaving her way across the room where the girl was colouring in with her friends.

Suddenly she was knocked flying by a slightly younger girl running into her. Kaitlyn landed heavily on the carpet and grazed her knee. She sat up quickly and rubbed at her graze, breathing in sharply through clenched teeth.

"HEY! What did you think you were doing you little twerp" She snapped, annoyed that it seemed everything was conspiring to interrupt her from her goal

The younger girl jumped backwards grinning giddily.

"PWAYIN'" She said with a heavy toddler-like lisp, the happy expression suddenly vanished from the girl's face and she pulled up her skirt to reveal to Kaitlyn a rather large disposable diaper, the wetness striperapidly disappeared in front of Kaitlyn's eyes. Kaitlyn scrambled backwards, still sat on the floor she used her feet to push herself away from the teenage girl who was wetting herself.

"EWWW!" The sound of disgust was evident and the girl heard the tone of Kaitlyn's voice and promptly burst into tears.

"I HADDA ACCIDENT!" She wailed loudly causing a daycare worker to come over.

"Awww did ikkle Lulu have an accident? Come on sweetie let's get you into a fresh diaper okay? Then you can keep playing"

The worker looked at the dumbfounded Kaitlyn.

"It's probably time you had a potty break too miss. Hop to it." The worker pointed over towards a red door. It had words written on the door and Kaitlyn suddenly gasped when she realized she couldn't recognize what the letters represented. She prided herself on her impeccable school record, to suddenly find the basic alphabet gone from her mind caused her to just gape at the door.

"Come on missy before you have an accident" The worker called before heading for the red door and disappearing beyond it with the soggy younger teenager still cryingin the daycare worker's arms.

Kaitlyn got up and dusted herself down. She didn't want to go beyond that door when she knew that the girl was probably having her diaper changed. That would just be plain gross. She waited a few moments and took a deep breath. She looked back at where the brown haired girl had been and noticed she was gone. She looked around the room in panic. Where was she? Where was she? The worker popped her head round the red door and shouted across the room to Kaitlyn.

"Kait, do you want to go on the naughty step. I told you to come potty"

Sighing she headed over, not really wanting to go in for she was pretty certain it was a bathroom and she was pretty certain there were going to be diapers and all sorts beyond. She shivered thankful reality hadn't regressed her that far, yet. As she walked toward the door, she saw the brown haired girl she had been looking for, exit the bathroom. Something looked odd about her but Kaitlyn realized she would have to go potty or risk being severely reprimanded before she could talk to the brown haired girl. She took a deep breath and headed into the bathroom.

There were a few red potties, all vacant and the luckily for Kaitlyn the younger teenager from a few minutes ago was being lowered to the floor. The girl was smiling now as she toddled off Kaitlyn watched her waddle out and then headed over to the red potty. Sighing she was about to pull up her dress when she heard the worker chuckling behind her.

"Kaitlyn? Whatever are you doing?"

Kaitlyn turned her head, feeling somewhat confused. "I'm going potty, like you told me to." She was getting annoyed that everything seemed to be such a chore, keeping up with what was going on was highly tiring.

"But you're much too young for potty training you silly thing. Come on, pop up onto the changing table so I can change your diaper."

Kaitlyn's mouth went dry and slowly she lifted up her dress, refusing to believe exactly what she knew she was about to see. Sure enough the puffy unmistakable diaper greeted her gaze and she let out a sob when she saw she was sodden. The Carer cooed.

"Awww it's okay sweetie, don't be in such a hurry to grow up, you'll be potty training in a few months or so I'm sure"

The carer took Kaitlyn by the armpits and hoisted her up onto the changing table.

"You...you don't understand. I'm not supposed to wear these...these.."

Kaitlyn couldn't bring herself to call them diapers. It was all just too humiliating. But the carer hummed a happy lullaby as she placed a pacifier in Kaitlyn's mouth. Kaitlyn, finding the pacifier strangely comforting, sucked on it quietly crying.She felt very sorry for herself as the carer cleaned her up slid a thick disposable diaper under her, and pulled it up between her 18 year old legs. Kaitlyn wanted to run from the room, but where would she go? The place was swarming with daycare workers and they would just bring her back here anyway. She moaned in despair as the worker fixed the diaper tapes on and Kaitlyn realized just how thick and padded it felt. She looked down to see Dora the stupid explorer on the diaper front panel. If there was one thing she had learnt from this whole ordeal was an inbuilt hatred for the stupid cartoon character. She would find a quiet corner and pull the diaper off when no-one was paying her any attention. At least she was wearing a dress so it would hide the majority of the bulk. She had to be thankful for small graces. The worker smiled and helped Kaitlyn to her feet where she wobbled momentarily, getting the hang of standing with such a large bulk between her legs. She cried out again when she realized that with the new reality change had come a second change in that her dress had for some unknown and completely sadistic reason become several inches shorter giving anyone who cared to look a cute peak of her heavily padded backside.

Kaitlyn snapped out of her misery when she was handed a sippy sup of juice by the carer. Kaitlyn pulled the pacifier out of her mouth and glugged back the juice, thankful for a drink. Her mouth had been bone dry since stepping out of the front door this morning, she didn't care she was drinking from a sippy sup. After all she was visibly diapered and currently being treated like a two year old, so it stood to reason she would drink out of the sippy cup. The carer was shocked at the speed Kaitlyn had knocked back the drink and she smiled at the teenager.

"Who's a clever girl for drinking all your medicine up."

"Medicine?" Kaitlyn felt queasy, she thought it had only been juice. What had she just drunk?

"What medicine?" She asked, her voice fearfully quiet.

The carer chuckled and ruffled Kaitlyn's hair. "Your Mom said you were having problems going number two's and asked us to help you out a little. It's a common problem for kids your age. Now come on, out you go."

Kaitlyn blushed crimson. She had just drunk laxatives? She was going to soil herself like a real little infant and she had done that willingly to herself. Her knees felt weak at the thought. She would just stay here, hide here, until it happened. She couldn't go messing herself in front of people. That was just disgusting. She wanted to vomit. She felt like she might.

Kaitlyn found herself being shoved towards the door that led back out into the main playroom, she tried to push back against the carer but the carer just picked her up and supporting Kaitlyn by her diaper she carried the teenager over to a playpen and lowered her into it.

Kaitlyn got back onto her feet with some difficulty and realized with distressing certainty that she was trapped in the playpen. Things were just going from bad to worse, she sat there checking off on her fingers everything that was happening to her and if the trend continued, how long before she would just loose her ability to talk and her mind completely. It was as if she had contracted some terrible disease but no-one was aware and no-one wanted to help. Her heart felt heavy and the tears flowed freely.

...

Kaitlyn sat in the playpen for what seemed like an eternity before a daycare worker noticed that she was crying.The worker threaded her arms through the bars of the playpen and softly stroked Kaitlyn's hair.

"Aww sweetie, what's the matter"

Kaitlyn hadn't even noticed the worker and jumped in alarm at the sudden contact,She rubbed her eyes vigorously trying to hide the fact that she had been crying.

"Are you soggy already?"

Kaitlyn blushed and shook her head her agitation getting worse.She wouldn't be able to explain to the worker that only yesterday she had been on the cusp of leaving high school and now she was god knows how many months away from graduating to kindergarten.

She tried to rack her brain for a plausible excuse as to why she was crying.

"Are you sleepy?"

Kaitlyn shook her head again and noticed something that was actually bothering her.Her teeth.It wasn't why she was crying but her mouth ached as if she was experiencing teething problems.She pointed at her mouth and was about to say that her teeth were aching when the worker's face lit up with realisation.She leant over the playpen edge and picked up a chew ring and handed it to Kaitlyn.

"Your teeth are hurting huh sweetie.Chew on this and it'll help.You poor thing"

The woman ruffled Kaitlyn's hair as Kaitlyn gingerly took the teething ring.How many other teenagers had randomly chewed on this.She looked at it as the worker continued to study Kaitlyn.

"Go on. It'll be all right.You'll see what I mean"

Kaitlyn, guessed that the worker wouldn't leave her in peace until she chewed on it,so she stuck it in her mouth and bit down.Surprisingly it did ease the ache in her teeth.Kaitlyn hadn't expected such an instant relief.She looked at the teething ring in disbelief for a second and then popped it back in her mouth, chewing on it thoughtfully. The worker pushed herself back up to her feet and wandered away content that her task had been done.

Kaitlyn sat in the pen, her dark green eyes studying some of the other teenagers running around the room playing.She had to find a way out of the situation.She noticed that girl she had been trying to talk to all morning,running around with two of her friends.Suddenly one of her friends ran into a teenage boy who was strapped into a baby walker. Even from here Kaitlyn could hear the winded girl shouting abuse at the boy.It was quickly ended when a daycare worker frogmarched the girl into the naughty corner.Kaitlyn felt herself blushing for the poor girl.How humiliating must it be, being punished like a little kid.Although Kaitlyn surmised that of course for everyone here, except herself, this was all normal.Kaitlyn watched the brown haired girl suddenly reach into her teddy bear and pull some sort of device out of her toy.

Kaitlyn squinted.What was that? She couldn't see it very clearly due to the distance and pulled herself up into a standing position to try and get a better look.She could see the girl talking into what looked like a Dictaphone.Why would someone who was at an infant level have a voice recorder?That made no sense.

Suddenly the girl and her two friends vanished.Kaitlyn squealed in surprise andfell backwards onto her padded behind.

Those three had just disappeared!She searched the room and was confused when she noticed all three of the girls back in a playpen not far from where Kaitlyn herself was.She wanted a better look so went to pull herself back up into her standing position and was halfway through doing so when her knees buckled. She fell into a heap on the playpen floor.

Her heart pounded in her chest, the noise deafening her in her panic, as she was already coming to the conclusion of what had just happened.She got to her hands and knees and tried to push herself up to her feet.With extreme concentration she found herself standing for a split second before she suddenly felt disorientated and collapsed again.

She had lost the ability to stand, to walk, to run.She saw the brown haired girl toddling around in an oversized baby walker.So the girl had lost the ability to walk as well?That was oddly suspicious.Did it have something to do with that device? Loathing the fact that she now had no choice but to crawl she shuffled her way over to the edge of the playpen and was about to call out when a worker came over and hoisted Kaitlyn out of the pen.

"Hey!" Kaitlyn squealed.She wasn't used to being manhandled like this and it went against all the personal boundaries she had gotten so used to, in being a young adult.The worker simply ignored her, draped Kaitlyn over one shoulder and stuck two fingers down the back of her now exposed disposable diaper.

"Ooh looks like Kait is still dry I see.How about you go for a spin in your walker.You always enjoy that don't you sweetie.You seem so grumpy today"

Kaitlyn couldn't find any words, she simply blushed several shades of crimson and stuttered syllables, embarrassed beyond belief that she had just had her diaper checked.At least she had been dry.She would have probably bawled the place down if she had discovered she had been wet without even realising it.

Kaitlyn was lowered into a baby walker, similar to the girl that she had been trying to talk to all day.She looked over and noticed the girl was toddling precariously close to Kaitlyn's sister Beth, who was playing on the floor with some overly large playing cards.From this distance Kaitlyn couldn't hear what was said between the two of them but Beth seemed to scramble to gather all the playing cards up and her body language suggested that she was in a huff.Maybe Beth could help.

Unsteadily Kaitlyn tottered towards Beth as the brown haired girl was plucked out of her walker and carried off by a worker.

"BETH!" She yelled as she got closer.

Beth's head snapped up and a surprised grin softened her glare.Beth got to her feet and walked over to Kaitlyn.

"Oooh Katie, look at you, almost walking by yourself.Mom is going to be super proud!"

Kaitlyn hid her blush behind her hands, she couldn't be distracted now.She needed to find out if Beth knew anything.

"Beth...that girl..."

"I will push you okay.We can go on an adventure together!"Beth giggled as she started pushing Kaitlyn's baby walker from behind.

"No.Beth.I don't want..."

"Look, you be the pony and I will be the rider okay?We will go over to the dress up corner"

"Beth!Look just answer my quest..."Kaitlyn was getting frustrated.She just wanted her sister to stop for one second but she was being as hyperactive as any preschooler would be, and Kaitlyn was trying desperately not to lose her patience.

"Awww Katie's cranky!" Beth chided as she stopped pushing her teenage baby sister around the room and walked round to the front of the walker."Is it cause you have a stinky bum?"She asked innocently."It's okay I will get a daycare worker to change you kay.She said helpfully without any hint of mockery.

Kaitlyn was about to protest, that she had only been checked a few moments ago when the smell actually hit her.

"I...I...Didn't.It wasn't me...I wouldn't..." she stuttered over her words feeling several mixed emotions. Fear, self loathing, confusion, anger, pity, disgust.How could she.She hadn't even noticed.She had been so focused on getting some answers that she just hadn't realised it was even happening.She buried her head in her hands and cried. Large infantile sounding wails.

A worker bustled over quite quickly at Beth's insistence. Kaitlyn barely heard Beth explaining the situation, not that Beth needed to.The aroma was well and truly permeating the air around Kaitlyn and her baby walker.

Kaitlyn made the mistake of peeking through her hands right up at the worker so simply looked down at her with a sympathetic smile.

"Awww poor baby KatieI'll get you all snug and dry little one.Don't you worry!"

"Can I help?Can I?"Beth jumped up and down clapping her hands.

The worker nodded as she plucked Kaitlyn out of the baby walker

"Of course you can Beth.That's what good big sisters do. Isn't it?"

Kaitlyn was being carried over to a changing table and she squirmed in the daycare workers grip.She didn't want her diaper changed.Even though she reeked, she couldn't bare the thought of her older sister helping her, seeing her in such a humiliating mess and she continued to cry.

"No.it's okay. I can do it!I'll do it!" She pleaded with the worker who just chuckled good naturedly.

"It's okay Katie, I'm trained to keep you children comfy and dry. It's my job. You're much too little to change your own messy diapers.You silly girl"She laid Kaitlyn down on the table and instantly Kaitlyn pushed herself into a sitting position and slipped herself off the table ready to make a run for it.The worker wasn't quite prepared for this, and equally in her rush to get away Kaitlyn had completely forgotten that she couldn't actually walk.Kaitlyn simply ended up in a heap on the floor. Landing heavily on her messy filled diaper.She cringed as she felt the mess splatter across her butt, and let out a long loud wail.

Shocked by Kaitlyn's speed the worker gathered the teenager up and popped her back onto the changing table in a sitting position. Checking the teenager over for cuts and scrapes.

"oh ooooh You silly thing.What were you trying to do?"the worker was worried, but after a thorough examine found that Kaitlyn hadn't actually injured herself.It was probably more from the shock of falling that had caused the teenager to cry so much.

"Katie!Katie don't cry"her sister stood at the table side and stroked Kaitlyn's hair.

"It's okay sister. You can play again soon, once your bum isn't stinky any more" Beth giggled.Her reassurances didn't seem to have an impact on Kaitlyn as the worker unfastened the dirty diaper and began clearing Kaitlyn up.This was all just such a shock for the teenager.Why was this happening to her?It wasn't fair, she'd done nothing to anyone to deserve such humiliating experiences.Beth began playing with Kaitlyn's toes, making the teenager squirm and let out a small giggle.The worker looked up from her cleaning task and smiled.

"There.That's much better.We like happy girls here.Not sad grumpy ones."

Beth encouraged by the small giggle attacked Kaitlyn's feet more energetically and Kaitlyn squealed and tried to get away, but the worker had buckled her onto the changing table so as not to repeat the little fall.Kaitlyn was helpless to get away and as she giggled and squirmed the worker managed to pull the soiled diaper out from under the teenager and with a liberal dusting of powder she slid a fresh disposable underneath and taped up the sides.

"All done!That wasn't so bad now was it.Your mommy is going to be so proud of you for going poopoos."the worker said with a smile.

Kaitlyn just panted heavily from the exertion of laughing so much, she was red in the face and the workers comment topped up her blush quite nicely.She looked down at her heavily padded crotch and let out a loud sigh.Nothing seemed to be going her way. She seemed completely helpless.It appeared that everyone here was bigger and could do what they wanted with her, and that made her feel insignificant.It made her feel scared.

"Well. It's about time for your dindins little lady."the worker said."Thank you Beth for helping me with your sister.I'll make sure to tell your mom what a good little helper you've been.You can go back to play now"Beth puffed out her chest and skipped off as Kaitlyn was unbuckled from the table and picked up.She lay her head on the workers shoulder. Feeling pretty exhausted by the days events.

The worker carried her through into a large expansive kitchen and threaded the teenager into an oversized high chair before Kaitlyn had realised what was even happening.She groaned as the worker clicked the dinner tray into place effectively trapping the babyfied teenager in. Kaitlyn put her elbows on the table and put her head in her hands.She had a feeling she wasn't about to be getting any adult looking food.The fact that she couldn't walk and couldn't keep her pants dry meant it was likely going to be baby food.She was not disappointed in her assumption when the worker moved a seat close to the high chair and sat down, holding a bowl of light brown mush.

Kaitlyn clamped her mouth shut as a spoonful was brought close to her lips and she shook her head.She wasn't eating it.Not a snowballs chance in hell.Her stomach grumbled and she glared down at it, accusing it of selling out on her.She couldn't eat baby food.She just couldn't. A sandwich, even cut up small would be preferable, or some soup, but not baby food.Her stomach grumbled louder and the worker pushed the spoon closer but Kaitlyn folded her arms and glared at the worker.The worker put down the spoon.

"My my. We are little miss grumpypants today aren't we?Where's the happy bubbly Katie that we all know huh? You must be really teething badly" Kaitlyn ignored the comments.

"Just one mouthful sweetie. And I'll let you out.You don't have to eat it if you don't want to."Without hesitation Kaitlyn opened her mouth.If one spoonful would get her out of this high chair then that was a deal she was prepared to make.The spoonful went in, Kaitlyn's mouth clamped down and she swallowed.She expected to hate it, to find it revolting, but despite her intentions she was actually loathed to admit that she really quite liked the stuff.Her stomach rumbled the loudest yet as the worker began to move away with the bowl.

"WAIT!" Kaitlyn hadn't meant to sound desperate, but she realised her voice had sounded a little too eager.The worker looked expectantly at the diapered teenager as the girl mumbled something into the high chair feeding tray.

"I'm sorry sweetie?I didn't quite hear you."

Kaitlyn was blushing as she clutched at her short dress, hot tears were prickling her eyes.

"Can...Can I have...some more.Please?"

The worker positively beamed back and settled back down in the chair.

"There I knew you would like your tasty numnums."the worker spooned another two mouthfuls in and Kaitlyn gladly gulped them down then made a grab for the spoon.

"I can feed myself thank you."She said rather curtly.The worker handed her the spoon and got up to walk over to afridge.Kaitlyn felt glad that she was able to feed herself and she plunged the spoon into the goop, almost knocking the bowl clean off the high chair tray.She looked alarmed for a second then giggled. "err...clumsy me"She muttered under her breath, then slowly she tried to move a spoonful of the mixture to her mouth.By the time the spoon was at her mouth the spoon was near enough empty.Spatters of the food were all over the feeding tray.She glared at the spoon.It couldn't be her, there must be something wrong with the utensil.She tried again and again the spoon dropped all the food.This was supposed to be simple, why was it proving so difficult.

"Here, let me help you sweetie"the worker gently spoke as she extracted the spoon from the teenagers baby food covered hands. And effortlessly gathered some food onto the spoon and spooned it into Kaitlyn's mouth.Kaitlyn felt defeated but at least she was getting the food IN her, rather than ON her now. With the bowl empty, the worker put a bottle of formula on the feeding tray and ruffled Kaitlyn's hair.

"Who was a hungry baby huh.Drink up your baba and then it's nap time young lady!"The worker was in bright spirits now that Kaitlyn had finished her dinner.Kaitlyn picked up the bottle and looked at it suspiciously, remembering the laxatives in the juice she had drunk earlier.She took a tentative suck and found that the formula was also to her liking, she began to suckle fairly rapidly as the brown haired girl was carried in along with her two friends, all three of them were strapped into high chairs too.Kaitlyn smiled shyly at the three who all watched her briefly as she suckled nosily on the bottle teat.

She looked over at the brown haired girl when the girl began to fuss cause her teddy bear had been removed from her in order so that she could be fed.Kaitlyn looked at the teddy bear and her eyes widened.She caught the smallest glimpse of that strange voice recorder peeking out from a pocket in the plush toy.

Kaitlyn pulled the bottle from her mouth to ask if she could see the teddy bear, and suddenly hiccuped.She clasped her hands over her mouth shocked by the sudden hiccup.She hiccuped again and for a third time before she found herself being lifted out of the high chair

"Uh-oh!Looks like someone has some windy-pops.Here I'll make that better for you. The daycare worker chimed in a perky manner as she draped a towel over her shoulder and thenpopping Kaitlyn over her shoulder, the daycare worker began patting the teenager's back and rubbing it in large circular motions.Kaitlyn continued to hiccup.

The worker persevered, suddenly Kaitlyn was aware that her pants had become rather warm and she heard the worker chuckle."Oh, have we just had an accident!I only changed you ten minutes ago you soggy little thing"Kaitlyn wanted to cry but the pain from the trapped wind was making it hard to concentrate on anything else, and as the worker simply jiggled the diapered teenager up and down, continuing with the patting motion Kaitlyn unexpectedly belched and threw milk up all over the workers shoulder.This was the final straw for Kaitlyn and she burst into loud tears.

"Oh, someone is certainly a cranky one today, definitely time for your nappy time Missy"The worker removed the soiled towel and threw it into the laundry and she carried Kaitlyn out of the kitchen, the teenager still sobbing.

"Lets get soggy baby all nice and dry in a fresh diapee shall we? Then you can nap.Hmmm?Won't that be nice?" The worker cooed returning to the changing table they had used only 10 minutes previously.

"I'm not tired!" Kaitlyn wailed."I'm not a baby! I'm a young adult.This shouldn't be happening to me.I'm supposed to be going to college!"She was sick of it all, just shouting all her pent up feeling out into the main room really helped and her angry crying lessened in intensity.The worker simply smiled at the teenager as she was lowered back onto the changing table and strapped in quickly.

"Katie. What a vivid imagination, don't be in such a hurry to grow up.There's plenty of time for boys and school, enjoy being a kid okay, you only get to be one once."

Kaitlyn shook her head and was about to dispute that fact for she was living evidence to the contrary, when the daycare worker popped a pacifier in her mouth.Kaitlyn automatically began to suckle on it and she felt the fight flee from her tired and stressed body as the worker peeled back her sodden diaper, cleaned and powdered the teenager and put her in a thick nap time diaper.Kaitlyn moaned in additional despair.This diaper was about three times thicker than the previous one had been and it really made her legs bow out.Even if she hadn't lost the ability to walk she doubted she'd be able to with this amount of padding between her legs.

The worker carried her over to a crib and lowered her in.Kaitlyn didn't resist, what was the point.She was pretty much doomed and most of the fight seemed to have left her, also the fact that her eyelids were getting incredibly heavy and she thought that perhaps a nap would be a good idea, better yet when she woke up perhaps it would transpire that all of this had been some hideous nightmare.

She snuggled under the blanket sucking the pacifier thoughtfully as the worker switched on a cot mobile above Kaitlyn's head.Little toy ponies slowly rotated round in circles playing twinkle twinkle little star.Kaitlyn found herself dozing, but she could hear other teenagers being put into nearby cots.She didn't open her eyes, she was floating on a sea of comfort, succumbing to the days stresses.

Kaitlyn heard soft words spoken but she had slipped so far off into dreamland that she didn't understand the words as she heard them.She didn't even recognise the voice of the brown haired girl as she whispered into her voice recorder...

"For the next 18 hours girls my age won't have learnt how to talk yet"

Kaitlyn was already lightly snoring.

...

Kaitlyn woke and for a split second she recognised the fact that she felt more refreshed and relaxed than she had felt in a long time. She vaguely remembered a dream as it swam out from her memory.It gave her a warm, safe and loving feeling. Then she opened her eyes.

She was in a car, strapped into a baby's car seat.It was odd being 18 and in a scaled up version of infant accessories.She noted that the fabric had Dora the Explorer on it again and she scowled.What was her mother's obsession with that blasted cartoon?She didn't like the 5 point harness pulling her diaper up more than she would usually be aware of it and exposing it to anyone who cared to look.She was still in the night time diaper she had been put in at the daycare and she poked it, relieved that she was still dry, unless of course she had been changed whilst she had been asleep.

"MOM!Kaitlyn's awake"

Kaitlyn jumped as her sister, who was sat in a booster seat beside her, alerted her mom.

"You didn't have to yell at..." Kaitlyn stopped talking, her mouth just fell slack.Her words:They were gone.In her mind she knew what she was saying but she had just spouted baby babble and drooled down her chin.She pulled at her tongue, as if touching it would break the spell.

"Hello?" She tested her voice but it came out as a cheerful "Buuuh" She began to shake, she was now trapped:Properly trapped.She wouldn't be able to communicate at all. She was at the mercy of her family.She slipped off into a nightmarish daydream where she would spend the rest of her days being fed and changed and put down for naps, never amounting to anything, never having boyfriends or a house or a job.She rubbed at her shaking hands.She was practically a woman for goodness sake. She had all the right curves in all the right places and now everyone just thought of her as cute.Not sexy, not alluring.Cute. Adorable. Babyish.This was all just too cruel.Maybe she should pray to lose her mind too, being stuck aware like this would surely drive her to insanity.

"Mom?When will Kaitlyn say her first words?"Beth asked curiously as she swung her legs back and forth from her booster seat.

"Well sweetie, you started talking when you were Katie's age, so any time from now I guess."Beth smiled and turned her attention to Kaitlyn.

"Katie, can you say ma-ma?Can you? Can you say Bethie?"Kaitlyn looked wide eyed in horror at her situation.Her sister was trying to coax her into saying her first words, but Kaitlyn just didn't know if she was capable. Ma-ma had to be an easy bet though and she licked her lips, steadying herself for an attempt.

"Gaaahbaaa thrrrr" She blew a spit bubble at her sister and her sister giggled as more drool dribbled down Kaitlyn's chin.Kaitlyn looked away from Beth.She couldn't stand humiliating herself like this.She looked out the car window. It sure was hot in the car.It must be about 3pm but it felt like the middle of summer, Kaitlyn hoped that her mom would dress her in something a bit cooler.

"Mom, Can I help blow out Kaitlyn's birthday candles.She told me I could."

Kaitlyn squealed in alarm.Today!Today was the day of her 18th birthday party.If she had any profanities left in her head she would have tried to utter them all at once, but now she couldn't even say mama so she just started to cry.Her mom just spoke louder over the sound.

"I'm sure Katie would like that sweetie. I've got all the barbecue stuff ready to go when we get in, and everyone should be arriving pretty soon. So when we get in, your job is to keep Katie happy while I get things ready"

Kaitlyn continued to wail.She didn't want a birthday party. She had been so looking forward to seeing her friends. But now?Now she really just wanted to hide from the world, not be the one in the spotlight.

The car pulled into the driveway and after unbuckling Beth, her mom unbuckled Kaitlyn and carried the still crying teenage baby inside the house.

"Sweetie whatever is the matter?Come on now hush hush.I do hope you're not coming down with anything."Her mom stroked Kaitlyn's hair trying to calm the teenager down.

"Beth.Can you get me the thermometer and Vaseline from the bathroom please?"

The was a muffled "okay"from upstairs where Beth had gone to gather some toys to play with KaitlynA few moments later there was the distinctive rapid thudding as Beth ran down the stairs carrying some chewable building blocks and the things her mom had asked her to fetch.

She handed the requested items to her mom then Beth scampered over to the large playpen and chucked the toys in.Kaitlyn's mom sat down on the sofa and laid Kaitlyn face down across her knees as if Kaitlyn was about to be spanked.

Kaitlyn suddenly realised what was about to happen and she feebly kicked her legs out as her mom tugged off Kaitlyn's dry diaper, lubricated the thermometer and carefully inserted it into Kaitlyn's bottom.Kaitlyn froze. Scared now that struggling would make the thermometer go deeper or break it.She quietened instantly as the shock of having her temperature taken like an infant actually made her forget to cry.She wasn't a baby.She wasn't.She wasn't.She held this mental mantra in her head, trying to be someplace else entirely.

A few moments later it was gently removed and her mom studied the reading, leaving Kaitlyn exposed across her mothers lap.

"Well looks like your temperature is fine so at least we don't have to take a trip to the..." Suddenly Kaitlyn started to wet herself and her mom jumped up holding Kaitlyn out by her armpits.She ran over to where Beth's red potty was and hung Kaitlyn over it until Kaitlyn finished relieving herself.She had just peed all over her own mother.The hot wee still trickled down her slender teenage thighs and dripped off her ankles, causing her to feel disgusted and itchy.Fearfully she looked up expecting to see a scowl on her mother's face but there was just a bright smile on the woman's face, as Kaitlyn continued to drip.

"You little widdler. Who's a wittle widdler, who is?You are.Yes you are.I should have expected that really, shouldn't I?Silly mommy.Now Mommy has to change her skirt."her mom rubbed noses with Kaitlyn and moved back over to the sofa, she cleaned her daughter with afew baby wipes. Then she collected the dry diaper she pulled it back on Kaitlyn.

"That's why ikkle Katie wears diapers isn't it.So you don't weewee on mummy.Can you say mummy.Ma-ma.Ma-ma!"

Kaitlyn just crammed her fist into hermouth, whether it was to stop her crying some more or whether it was to stop her attempting to speak, she wasn't sure.She was carried over to the playpen and lowered in.Beth was then picked up and lowered in too.Beth was positively beaming.

"I'm almost outta pull-ups now huh mom.I'm almost a big girl."She was practically standing on tiptoes with pride in herself.Their mom chuckled.

"That's right sweetie.You've been really good at keeping your pull-ups dry and using the potty.You are a lovely example to your baby sister.Now be good and play nice.Mommy has a lot she needs to do."With both her children safe in the playpen their mom bustled off to do the things she needed to do.

For almost an hour, Beth played with Kaitlyn.Kaitlyn just wanted to be left alone. She would crawl to one corner of the playpen, her thickly padded bottom wiggling cutely as she tried to escape her attentive older sister, but Beth persevered and followed her no matter where she was in the playpen.Kaitlyn just wanted some peace.She wanted to be left alone, to have some personal space. "Look Katie, stack the blocks with me?" Beth said happily as she showed Kaitlyn how to do it.Kaitlyn didn't want to play, mainly because she didn't want to discover yet another thing she was incapable of doing.At least by not playing she could fool herself into thinking it was a simple task.

The doorbell rang, causing both girls to look up towards the hallway.Their mom suddenly appeared in a nice floral summer dress, then ran to the door.Kaitlyn couldn't see who it was but she could hear her mother's voice. "Come in come in. Yes,straight through to the back garden.I've got the barbecue going already.I've just got to get the little one dressed for her party and we can start."

Her mom reappeared with two parents one holding a teenager, the other leading one by the hand.They all had brightly wrapped presents.

Kaitlyn recognised her friends James and Linda. Linda had a short summer dress on her blonde hair in bunches. The way her mother was carrying her showed that Linda was heavily diapered.

James stood by his father wearing swimming shorts and had a pair of Ben 10 sunglasses propped up on his head.James had been her boyfriend. He was a year older than her and dashing.If it wasn't for the children's sunglasses he'd look normal.But he was scowling with his arms folded across his chest. "Don't wanna go to no stupid baby party."He stomped his foot and his dad gave him a gentle cuff across the back of his head.

"I'm warning you, behave son." His dad said sternly.Kaitlyn's mom clasped her hands together,

"Thanks for coming. Kaitlyn's so happy to see you"Kaitlyn's mom gushed as she pulled Beth from the playpen and lowered her onto the carpet then collected up Kaitlyn and carried her through the kitchen and out into the back garden.

Kaitlyn could see that there had been a large paddling pool set up and a barbecue was already smoking away with food on it.She drooled a little.Real food.She looked longingly over at the burgers and sausages.

"Let's get you dressed kiddo."her mom cooed as she laid Kaitlyn on the grass near the paddling pool as both Beth and James ran and threw themselves into the water, squealing happily.Her mom began to pull her dress off of Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn tried to struggle but she didn't have the co-ordination now and soon found herself just laid in the middle of the garden in just a diaper.Not A diaper.HER diaper.She poked at it miserably, realising she was now perfectly on show to everyone.Her chest exposed to her former boyfriend and her boyfriend's father.The father was watching but he wasn't leering at her, he was simply looking at her as if she was just an innocent baby. She tried to cover herself up but her mom suddenly started blowing raspberry bubbles onto her exposed tummy, causing Kaitlyn to squeal happily and the teenage baby squirmed, her boobs flopping to the side as she tried to roll over and crawl away.

"Uh uh!No you don't stinky.Mommy has to get you ready for your party."Kaitlyn was pulled back into a laying position as her mom got some suntan lotion and began massaging it all over Kaitlyn's body.Kaitlyn squirmed, feeling embarrassed as her older sister and James continued to play in the pool.Linda was sat on her mother's lap watching the proceedings chewing on the corner of the present that they had brought with them. Kaitlyn's mom pulled Katie into a sitting position and put a pink sun hat on her daughter."There,all done."

"What?!You have got to be kidding me!"Kaitlyn yelled indignantly but she just babbled out loudly and blew a raspberry, causing her mom to mimic the raspberry right back at her and then laugh happily.

"Awwww what are you trying to say sweetie. Wasawa?Wasawa?Mommy doesn't know what you're saying.You like your hat don't you sweetie.It keeps the nasty sun away."

Kaitlyn couldn't believe that her mom was just going to let her be out here in the garden topless.It wasn't fair.It was degrading and just plain sick. She pointed at her chest. "That's right sweetie.You're Kaitlyn.Can you say Katie?"

Kaitlyn scowled and pointed more at her chest, not even attempting to humour her mom.If she could only get it across that she wanted a t-shirt on at least that would be something.

Kaitlyn's mom looked at her for a moment, confusion furrowed her brow momentarily and then she got the hint.

"Oooh.I know what wittle Katie wants."Kaitlyn sighed with a feeling of relief as her mom plucked her up off the grass."Excuse me a moment.Derek could you watch the barbecue? I need to attend to this one's demands."She chuckled.James father nodded and he wandered over to go flip some burgers.

"I'll join you if you don't mind."the mother of Linda spoke as the other parent fell into step with Kaitlyn's mom as the two adults with their teenage babies went back into the house leaving Derek tending the barbecue and watching James and Beth play.

Kaitlyn's mom moved into the living room and sat on the sofa.The other woman did the same.

"You know Joanne, it always amazes me how even though they can't yet talk, they still have us jumping through hoops for them." Kaitlyn's mom chuckled.

Kaitlyn was confused.Her mom didn't seem to be getting her any clothes. What was she up to?She looked over at the other woman, Joanne.

"Tell me about it.I mean, don't take this the wrong way Caroline, but at least I have my Tim to help me out.Linda would be lost without her daddy.It's impressive that you manage to hold down a job and to look after two young children by yourself.You're an inspiration to us all"

The woman's words stung Kaitlyn as she was forced to remember she had no dad. But her lamenting lasted seconds as she suddenly found her mother guiding Kaitlyn's head away from looking at the other mother.When Kaitlyn turned her head to look at her mom, she saw that the blouse of her floral dress had been unbuttoned and one large exposed breast, complete with leaking nipple, was right in Kaitlyn's face.

"There you go sweetie, tuck in." Kaitlyn's mom pushed Kaitlyn's face into her boob and suddenly with utter disbelief Kaitlyn found herself suckling as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do. "There we go.There."Kaitlyn's mother quietly cooed and slowly rocked as Kaitlyn nursed.Kaitlyn's eyes were wide.Disbelieving. Disturbed.Yet still she was unable to resist. Still she suckled down her mothers breast milk.The two adults continued to talk, although in hushed murmurs as both Linda and Kaitlyn suckled.Soon Kaitlyn was full and, as she pulled herself from her mom's teat she was settled over her mom's shoulder and her back was patted until she gave out a large belch.Thankfully, this time at least she didn't spit up anything.

She was carried back out into the garden where plates of food had been dished out by Derek.The two older kids were sat cross-legged with plates in their laps comparing sizes of potato chips.Kaitlyn looked at the food as her sister wolfed some down. She was so full of milk now though that thought of food was not her priority.She was still topless and that bothered her, but it seemed there wasn't anything she could do about it.She sat on her mother's lap as her mother ate a burger and a hot dog with one hand.The other one was wrapped tightly around Kaitlyn to stop her falling off of her lap.Once food was finished the presents came out.

Kaitlyn wasn't interested.It would only be boring baby stuff. No chance of the MP3 player or new make-up that she had actually asked for.Kaitlyn's mom guided the teenager's hands, helping the now incapable girl, unwrap the gifts.

"Oooh James and Derek, thank you for the new baby monitor."Kaitlyn's mom sounded happy.

"And look Katie, a pair of new onesies, with duckies on.You like duckies don't you.Duckies go quack quuaaaaaack!"Kaitlyn's mom tickled Kaitlyn's tummy, causing the girl to giggle and blush at having her nakedness so easily taken advantage of.Still, as much as she hated the diapers at least they kept her from being completely exposed.She had seen pictures of herself when she had really been a toddler, toddling aroundthe garden with no clothes on at all so she could count her blessings this time, regardless of how small those blessings actually were.

"This one is from your sister"Her mom said as she pulled open the wrapping and showed Kaitlyn a new teething ringshe gave it to Kaitlyn who actually took it and began to chew on it, simply because it did relieve her sore teeth and it gave her something to concentrate on.

The afternoon dragged, much more than she was expecting, but after a whole afternoon of playing in the garden, it was time for James and Linda to go home and be taken to bed.Kaitlyn, despite not wanting to feel tired, felt absolutely shattered.She was struggling to keep her eyes open as her mom carried her upstairs and into the bathroom.She settled Kaitlyn down on the floor as she ran a lukewarm and fairly shallow bath with bubbles.

"BETH!BATHTIME!" her mom yelled, causing Beth to scamper into the bathroom and start tugging off her own clothes happily compliant.

Standing in just a pair of oversized huggies pull-ups she pointed down at the cartoon characters that were still intact on her crotch.

"Look mommy,another whole day dry.I really am big aren't I?"The teenage toddler fished for compliments.Her mom just chuckled and ruffled Beth's hair.

"You sure are Sweetie.And thank you for all your help today.Tomorrow, how about we get you some ice-cream as a special treat?"Beth danced from foot to foot excitedly happy.She kicked off her pull-ups and allowed her mom to pick her up and place her in the bath.Then her mom turned to Kaitlyn and stripped her of her hat and peeled off the now very sodden diaper.Kaitlyn hadn't even realised she was wet.Picking the baby teenager up, she put her in the bath with Beth.

Kaitlyn didn't struggle.She didn't do anything. She just let her mom wash her hair.She was mentally exhausted from having humiliating experience after humiliating experience that she could barely muster up a whimper.She had cried herself into oblivion and now she just felt numb,stuck as an unintelligible infant.Was this permanent?Would she ever grow up again? She felt empty, all her hopes and dreams dashed as her mom delved into every last crack of her body with a soapy sponge cooing baby babble at her.Kaitlyn hated having her mind stuck in a body that was too weak and incapable of performing even the most basic of tasks.

Soon she was plucked from the bath and towel dried, then liberally sprinkled with talc, which Kaitlyn had to admit did smell soft and sweet and not like the perfumes and deodorants she was used to.Then she was effortlessly bundled into a fresh thick night time disposable diaper and a pink footed sleeper with fluffy sheep on it. The sleeper had poppers in the leg area so that she could be easily changed.Kaitlyn felt small and helpless and her eyes looked up at her mom's pleading with her mentally to see beyond everything that was going on and to recognise that there was actually a young adult trapped in this teenage baby body.

Their gaze locked and the mom smiled tenderly. Stroking Kaitlyn's cheek. "You're positively adorable. Kaitlyn.I see your father in you more and more every day.He would have loved you to pieces."Kaitlyn felt her heart growing heavy.Her mom never talked about her father.Never.She was plucked from the changing table and soon lowered into her cot.Her room of course had been transformed from the toddler room she had left it as this morning, to a full blown nursery in varying pastel shades of green.The crib was a white oak variety and much more ornate than the ones at the day-care.

She could see that her mom had tears in her eyes and Kaitlyn reached up, trying to wipe the tears away. "Don't cry mom?"Kaitlyn said forgetting that she couldn't talk, but serendipity shined on her when her baby babble produced two distinct syllables, Mama.

Her mother froze above the cot, "Did you say ma-ma?" Had that been a fluke?"Can you say ma-ma sweetie?"The tears were still visible in her eyes.Kaitlyn gulped.She wanted to communicate but more importantly she wanted to cheer up her mom.She prayed that she could repeat the noises.She took a deep breath.How hard could it be?

"mAmAMAMAMAAMA"She said as she was whisked out of the cot and into her mother's arms.Her mother hugged her ferociously.Tears that had, moments previously been of sadness, miraculously transformed into tears of joy.She cried into Kaitlyn's newly washed hair, breathing in that baby fresh smell. They stayed there, mother and teenage child for the longest of times. It was a tender moment, a special moment.

Kaitlyn felt many mixed emotions. She had always said her mom coddled her too much as a teen, but in retrospect, her mom was just a woman doing a difficult yet wonderful job of raising kids by herself.And her sister was always on her case about needing to keep up with studies and to not be out late, but Kaitlyn now saw that Beth was more of a second mother than a sister.Beth had filled the role where her father should have been. As a teen, Kaitlyn had always thought of Beth as their mother's favourite, but she now saw that it was because the two of them needed one another.

Soon she found herself being lowered back into the cot and a mobile with little toy sheep on it, revolved around her head.She felt so drowsy that her mom had barely made it out of the nursery before she was sound asleep.

The next morning, as Kaitlyn woke she floated in a sea of comfort.She felt loved and cherished and she seemed to be able to smell old spice, an aftershave her dad wore.The way he smelt was one of her strongest memories of him. As she woke more fully, the smell distorted and twisted to smell really rather pungent. She knew without doubt that she had completely messed herself in her sleep.She looked up at the sheep mobile as sunlight streamed through the curtains.It hadn't been a dream.She was still stuck like this and she had no idea how to fix it or if it was even fixable. She squirmed on her back, already aware that the smell was coming from her.She began to whimper, not wanting to lay in her own mess, but unable to do anything about it.No one came as she whimpered.She began to fuss a little louder. Not intentionally, but that's just the way things panned out.Soon she was red in the face and crying loudly. Her mom stumbled into the room rubbing her eyes, still in her bathrobe, and looking dishevelled.

"Ooh sweetie, someone's done a big stinkie in their diapee hasn't she?"Her mom caught sight of the time on the nursery wall clock and all traces oftiredness vanished.

"Oh no.I slept in!BETH!"She shouted out loud enough for her to be heard around the house.Beth came running, already dressed in a pair of shorts and t-shirt.

"Oh.You're already ready?" Kaitlyn's mom was surprised at Beth."Beth you should have woken me up.Kaitlyn will never be ready in time for the daycare crocodile now."

"Sorry mommy.You just looked super tired.I wanted to help, but Kaitlyn was so smelly and still sleepy so I didn't wake her up either.I...didn't mean to let you down."Beth's eyes were shiny as if she were about to cry and her mom let out a big sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Okay sweetie, you go get your shoes on and get ready for the crocodile."Beth scampered from the room, not needing to be told twice.Kaitlyn was lifted out of the cot.

"You really did a load in your diaper today huh.You reek, you little stinker."She sighed as she popped Kaitlyn down on the changing table and went through the process of cleaning her teenage daughter up: a pair of pink overalls with a seaside theme embroidered on the front pocket, and poppers in the legs for easy access changing.With her hair tied into two cute pigtails, Kaitlyn was dressed for the day.Kaitlyn hadn't struggled the whole time. What was the point?This was her life now.She still felt empty from that realisation.Still felt at a loss with what to do with herself.Her mom had picked up a cordless phone in the nursery and was dialling a number.

"Hi.Donna.Could you do me a huge favour?You're taking Molly to Day-care aren't you? Great! Could you swing by and pick up Katie too.Uhuh.Yes. Yes.No.Great, thanks soo much I owe you big time.Yeah, I guess I need to get to bed earlier.I know.Great, see you in ten minutes. Bye."She hung up the phone and breathed a sigh of relief.It was all going to be okay.

Suddenly the doorbell rang and Kaitlyn was quickly gathered up and her mom ran down the stairs.

"Beth, the crocodile is here!" she yelled as she flung open the door and smiled at the day-care worker on the doorstep as Beth ran past.

"Wait sweetie."Beth paused and looked up at her mom. As her mom bent down and gave her a kiss on the top of her forehead. "Be a good girl and have fun at daycare okay?"

Beth nodded and hugged her mom and then kissed Kaitlyn on the cheek.

"I will mom. Promise."She said as she ran out onto the front porch and the crocodile of children went off to daycare.

The house was silent for a few seconds, then Kaitlyn's mom turned and walked back into the kitchen. "Just enough time to get you some breakfast young lady before it's your turn out to go to day-care."Kaitlyn was threaded into a high chair and a large bib was tied around her neck.

"Don't want to get your clothes all messy do we?" Her mother cooed as Kaitlyn just sat there.She didn't want this for the rest of her life.She had been half expecting to have her mind melted to mush by now, everything else had regressed to a point of sheer infancy. It seemed cruel that her adult memories and dreams had been left intact. "Someone is awfully quiet this morning.Are you still sleepy sweetie?"

Kaitlyn huffed.

"There's not much point in talking is there."She said. Her sentence getting faster as she realised with sheer elation that all of a sudden she had words again.

"I can talk?I CAN TALK!!"She threw her arms up into the air in victory, her heart hammering in her chest. For the first time since this whole ordeal she felt positive.Perhaps everything that had happened to her was now slowly being reversed. In a couple of days she could be back to normal.By the end of today she should at least be back to training pants status, if the reversal happened as quickly as the initial change.Suddenly she had a fresh wave of hope and life didn't seem quite so cruel.Her mom was chuckling.

"Of course you can talk sweetie.You are a silly little thing."Kaitlyn didn't understand what had changed or why.She didn't care, she could communicate again and that was all that currently mattered.Her mom started feeding her some oatmeal and Kaitlyn gulped it down with renewed energy and happiness.She should be able to walk within a couple of hours.Everything was going to be okay.The food was finished and she happily let her mom clean her oatmeal splattered face.Then she looked at her mom, seriously.

"Mom?"Her mom looked up from wiping the high chair tray. "Mom. I love you, you know.I don't say that a lot and, well I'm really grateful for everything you've ever done for me.Even when I don't show it.You're a great mom."

Her mom just stared at her baby teenager.It wasn't like Kaitlyn to be so open with her emotions, and Kaitlyn very rarely said she loved... anything really. So this little speech was a bit out of the blue. "Oh Kaitlyn..."There came a knock at the door and her mom stood to answer it.

"That'll be Donna come to collect you.We'll talk later tonight okay."Her mom lifted Kaitlyn out of the high chair and kissed her daughter's cheek then removed her bib.Kaitlyn was carried to the front door. Her mom opened the door and smiled. "Donna!Thanks ever so much for doing this for me.I really messed up by oversleeping."

"Oh it's really no trouble.I was taking Molly to day-care anyway and your house is on the e here little one!"Donna said as she lifted Kaitlyn from her mother."Say buh bye to mommy.You and Molly are off to day-care"

Her mom waved from the doorway as Kaitlyn was buckled into a car seat of Donna's car, right next to Molly, the brown haired girl with the device. Kaitlyn positively beamed with happiness.Today was going much much better than yesterday had.The car took off and Kaitlyn seized the opportunity.

"Molly. That device you have.It alters reality doesn't it?You've done this to everyone."Kaitlyn whispered in a hushedway so that Molly's mom wouldn't hear. Molly looked at Kaitlyn and opened her mouth, then blew a rather wet raspberry at Kaitlyn causing the Kaitlyn to flinch as spittle flecked her face and molly laughed "Eeeewww.Stop messing around.This is serious."

Molly just babbled as she chewed on her own fist.Something wasn't right here.The teenage girl didn't look like she was acting.She had a vacant happy expression.Her mind just wasn't there.

"Errr...Molly's Mom.What's wrong with Molly?"Kaitlyn asked nervously.Molly's mom didn't take her eyes off of the road.

"Nothing's wrong with Molly.Unless she's leaked again.Those store brand disposable diapers are just useless I tell you. The tabs aren't even that sticky"Kaitlyn shrank back down into her car seat.That was a bit of a letdown. She had been trying so hard to talk to Molly and now that she finally had her cornered, the girl couldn't string a coherent sentence together.Suddenly something caught her eye.On the dashboard of the car.Kaitlyn almost wet herself in excitement.The device! Right there, Plain as day.

"Mrs Molly's mom, Mrs Molly's mom.Err...what's that on the dashboard."

"Ooh that.It's something Molly brought back from day-care yesterday.I originally threw it away but then I thought maybe it was something that belonged to one of the workers, so I've decided to bring it in just in case anyone is missing it.I don't know how Molly even got hold of it."

"It's mine." Kaitlyn quickly chipped in.Molly's mom laughed.

"It most certainly is not.It doesn't look like any kind of toy a baby girl like you should be having."

Kaitlyn thought quickly.

"It's my daddy's.My mom kept it, cause it was his before he died.I took it to day-care with me.My mom doesn't know I have it.She will be really upset if she finds it missing." The driver's seat was silent for a moment.Kaitlyn could hardly hear, the adrenaline was pumping so hard in her head.Molly's mom had to believe a story like that surely.

"If that's the case I will give it to your mom when I get back from dropping you two off at day-care." Kaitlyn shook her head frustrated, that wouldn't work.Kaitlyn's mom would know it hadn't been her father's voice recorder.She tried one last tactic.

"Can ...Can I hold it just for a second.It's kinda like a security blankee of mine, and I've been really worried about it since losing it." Again there was an excruciatingly long wait, and with a leap of her heart Kaitlyn watched the woman reach over to the dashboard and throw the voice recorder round the back to where Kaitlyn sat.She grabbed at the little machine, her fingers trembling.She had done it.She just hoped that her theory was correct in assuming that this little machine was the cause of all her worries.She held onto it tightly.She could go back now.She could be happy again.How did it work?She looked at it.It just had a red button.And a little grid that she guessed was where the microphone picked up your voice.

The car pulled to a halt in the day-care car park.It was now or never.Kaitlyn closed her eyes. Pressed the button and spoke into the device. "I want to be happy again." Kaitlyn's eyes snapped open as something odd happened around her.The air seemed to grow heavy, like it had become denser. Her vision swam and she felt like she was going to hurl. But as fast as the sensations had begun, they stopped.Kaitlyn looked around.She was still strapped into the five point harness car seat; Molly was still blowing spit bubbles.Had she not done it right?Had her theory been flawed somehow?But then that wouldn't account for the strange experience she had just witnessed.She looked at the voice recorder as it was suddenly without warning plucked from her grasp.

"Let me take that sweetie.I'll give it back to your mommy when I get back."Molly's mom unbuckled Kaitlyn's car seat and Kaitlyn threw herself at the grown woman desperately trying to get hold of the device again.

"No.I need it, PEESE!" Kaitlyn hadn't noticed her new found lisp in her agitation to get the device back.Molly's mom was so shocked by the outburst that she only just managed to catch the flailing Kaitlyn.Unfortunately dropping the device where it smashed on impact with the parking lot tarmac.Molly was wailing at the sudden unexpected activity and Kaitlyn joined her in crying as she looked at the shattered voice recorder.That was it, game over. GAME. OVER.

"My goodness Katie, whatever came over you?" Molly's mom sounded stern and Kaitlyn just bawled.The mother's expression softened, realising the child's father's Dictaphone was now broken."It's okay, we can get you another one.I won't tell your mom,"Molly's mother said soothingly, trying to reassure the inconsolable Kaitlyn.Molly's mom unbuckled Molly and carried the two screaming teenagers inside the day-care.

She carried them both over to a playpen and put them down.Molly crawled away but Kaitlyn simply sat there sniffling.The blasted thing hadn't worked.Her one possible shot.Now she would just have to wait and hope that her regression undid itself over the course of the day.If it didn't,well, she'd be screwed.Still at least she could talk again.She wondered if she could walk yet.She experimentally pulled herself up but she could tell that her legs were too weak to hold her so she just flopped down and idly started playing with some blocks, bashing them off the bars of the playpen.It was actually quite good fun and she found herself enjoying the little game she had made for herself.Once she had her feet and balance back, this toddler thing would be more bearable.

The day passed by quicker than the previous one, full of diaper changes, bottle feeds, naps and playtime.She was even read a rather enjoyable story called "Beegu", which was about a little lost alien who had lost her parents.

Soon kids were being picked up from the day-care, and Kaitlyn felt frustrated.Throughout the entire day she had tested her legs and throughout the day, they had consistently failed her.She hadn't gotten her balance back and she most certainly had not regained any of her potty training.But why had her voice come back?Although her voice now had toddler mannerisms and a lisp to boot, making her sound much younger.Still the fact that she could string a sentence together was still a small mercy she guessed. But now she was still back to square one.

"There you are."A man spoke and Kaitlyn swivelled her head around and instantly fell backwards onto her back, winded not by the small fall but by the shock.She didn't have many memories of her father, but she would recognise his face anywhere.She burst into tears as her daddy plucked her from the ground and cradled her close to his chest.Instantly she was surrounded by his distinctive aroma: that mixed smell of male sweat and old spice aftershave.A smell she thought she would never smell again.She clung to him, not daring to believe it was him, that he was here.That he was alive.

"Aww pipsqueak, wassamatta?"He used his affectionate name for her and she tingled and sobbed louder, the joy was almost overwhelming as she buried her head into his chest.

This was it.This was what that voice recorder had done.She knew it with every ounce of her heart. And her heart swelled with pure untainted happiness.He would be here, with her, with mom, with Beth.He would be there for her. He would teach her the alphabet and read her stories.He would come to school for parents day and listen to how well she was doing, and he would be there to support her through her childhood.This was what she wanted. This was what she had missed her entire life and dreamed of on countless nights. Mom and Beth would never realise he had even been missing.

Suddenly the bitterness of being in this predicament seemed to vanish. The bitterness of never having a father to be there to wipe away her tears and reassure her that things would be okay was now gone.Her life had changed completely and she could happily trade off the bad stuff, like the diapers and relearning everything if it meant he was going to be there to help.

"Are you cranky today Pipsqueak?I know what always cheers you up."Her daddy lifted her from his chest and plopped her on his shoulders.She rubbed at her eyes trying to dry her happy tears.She was so tall up here on her father's shoulders. Her heart felt like singing.

"Daddy?"She whispered into his ear.

"Yes pipsqueak?"He asked softly, she couldn't see his face, but she knew he had that wonderful sparkle in his eyes.

"Don't ever leave okay."

Her daddy chuckled."Oh Katie, Sweetheart.I'm not going anywhere, ever."

And together the two of them left the day-care. Ready to begin their new lives together, in one big complete family.