Chapter Thirty-Eight
Hailey slouched down in the recliner, her casted leg extended in front of her on the footrest parallel to its unbroken partner. She had trouble finding a comfortable position for her arm with the thin brace encasing her wrist, and the fact that the chair was designed for someone a bit larger than her didn’t help. As she sunk lower in her seat, she felt very small.
Her mental state was similar; she felt how she imagined a younger child would feel while waiting to find out what her punishment would be for some wrong she’d committed. The feeling wasn’t surprising, considering that she had performed some very stupid actions earlier that night, and they’d resulted in both injury and the revelation of her immature secret indulgence. Her parents had been kind to her, continuously giving her sympathetic looks as Erin explained why their daughter was sitting in a leaky diaper. Hailey suspected, though, that the niceness came from a desire to not want to make her feel any worse given the physical pain she’d already been in.
The treatment she’d received at the hospital combined with the pain medicine she’d been prescribed had made her feel a bit more comfortable, though. She could still tell that her body didn’t quite think all was well, but what pain she did feel was dull, and at the moment the unnatural feel of the cast and brace were more distracting to her than her injuries themselves. She was certainly feeling better physically than she had earlier in the evening, but that only meant that it was now time for her to face the music regarding the travesties she’d committed tonight.
Erin was now sitting on the couch, looking as if she were about to fall asleep, as Hailey’s parents talked with each other in the kitchen. As big as the chair was, there was no way the two of them would have been comfortable sitting in it together, and her parents had insisted that she sit in the chair because the couch didn’t have a footrest. Erin had thus stood next to the chair for a while, holding onto Hailey as best she could without interfering with the injured parts of Hailey’s body. That she was worn out from the evening’s events and the late hour on the clock was obvious, though, and despite Erin’s protests to the contrary, Hailey had eventually convinced her to go sit down. For that reason alone, Hailey hoped that her parents would finish their discussion in the kitchen and come to tell her how stupid she’d acted and how childish her secret was and give her some punishment, so that she and Erin could go to bed.
Her parents apparently wanted her to believe that they could read her mind, for they chose that moment to walk into the room. “How are you doing, Hailey?” asked her mother, as both of them sat down on the couch next to Erin.
“I’m okay. It doesn’t hurt as much anymore.”
“That’s good to hear,” replied Sue. “It’s getting late, so I’ll try to keep this quick, but we need to have a talk, and I think you know why.”
Hailey nodded. “Because I left the house when you weren’t home without permission and got hurt when I did, and because I was wearing a diaper.”
Sue’s expression changed slightly, but Hailey had trouble reading it. “Yes, we need to talk about both of those. Normally, if you’d pulled a stunt like this, I would have had to lecture you about how you could have gotten hurt. Given what happened tonight, though, I’m pretty sure you don’t need that lecture.”
Hailey’s voice quivered; she sounded rather humbled. “No, I pretty much figured out why it was a bad idea,” she admitted, patting her cast with her good arm.
“But you weren’t the only person your actions affected, right?”
“No,” said Hailey, lowering her eyes. “I made you two worried about me and I made you all come to the hospital… and I took Erin with me, and made her worried about me and made her have to get help and everything.”
Erin started to say something, but Martin put a hand on her shoulder to silence her before speaking himself. “You didn’t just make her worried; you put her in danger herself!” He didn’t sound angry, but his voice was very strong.
“I… yes, I did.”
“It could have just as easily been her as you with the broken leg, with the two of you running around the woods at night like that. I could have been carrying her out instead of you. And you’re lucky she didn’t get hurt when she went to get help.”
“I’m… I’m sorry, Erin,” said a now red-faced Hailey. “And I’m sorry, mom and dad; it was really dumb of me to run out like that.”
“It’s okay,” said Erin, but her uncle again motioned for her to be quiet before she said any more.
Sue spoke up this time. “You did something wrong, and you know that doing something wrong means there should be consequences.”
“Yes, I know,” said Hailey, sounding even more humble than before. “You need to punish me.”
“Well,” admitted Sue, “you’ve done a pretty good job punishing yourself this time, I’d say. That broken leg of yours will be a pretty good reminder of what you did for the next few weeks. But you also hurt the rest of us with your actions, particularly your cousin, and I think we need to do something about that.”
Hailey looked at Erin, who looked at her aunt and uncle and apparently decided that they weren’t going to let her say that Hailey didn’t need to be punished on her behalf.
“What’s the punishment?” Hailey eventually asked.
“Your father and I talked it over, and we decided that for the next three weeks, you’re going to be doing some of Erin’s chores in addition to your own. You at least owe her that much for what you put her through.”
Hailey looked up at her mother and nodded slightly. It was a token punishment, and she realized it; in a way, she was very thankful. Her parents were right; the broken leg she now possessed would be a better reminder to her to never do something like that again than any punishment they could possibly come up with. And she did owe Erin after all Erin had done for her tonight. “That’s… fair enough. Which of her chores?”
“We haven’t decided that yet,” said Sue. “We’ll sit down tomorrow and figure that out when it’s not so late.”
“Hailey, I can tell you know what you did was wrong,” said Martin. “Part of being grown up is taking responsibility for the consequences of your actions, and I trust you’ll do the extra work without complaint.”
Hailey looked up suddenly, startled. They still consider me grown up? How could they, after I was caught not only wearing a diaper, but also one that was so saturated that it leaked?
Apparently her father noticed the expression, for he asked, “Hailey? What’s up?”
She collected her thoughts and replied, “You still think I’m grown up after what… what you saw I was using?”
Martin looked over at Sue, who began to speak to her daughter. “Hailey… I’m not going to lie; we still find it very strange that you’ve not only decided to wear diapers when you don’t have to, but that you also like to use them. But no, I don’t think that using the diapers makes you any less grown up.”
“Really?” said Hailey, her voice tinted with an optimistic tone.
“Really. Hailey, you’ve taken on more responsibility over the last few months than most people your age could ever be expected to do. You’ve been an incredible help with your cousin when she needed it most. We’ve asked a lot of you, but you were able to keep up just fine.”
Hailey nodded, blushing, but said nothing.
Sue continued. “Your interest in the diapers doesn’t change that. From what Erin told us, you realize that it’s unusual, but it’s also pretty harmless. You seem to know enough to keep them concealed when they need to be, and to clean up after yourself. Even Erin, who does need them sometimes…” she looked over at Erin, who gave the slightest frown but continued to remain silent. “…she’s made it clear that it doesn’t bother her for you to do this.”
Erin nodded, finally breaking her silence. “I really don’t mind.”
“So given all that,” admitted Sue, “your father and I can’t really come up with a good reason for why we shouldn’t let you keep using them if you wish. But there is a catch.”
“A catch?”
“We were fine with buying extra diapers for you to use, even though you didn’t need them, because it was for the purpose of helping Erin feel better about herself. While I really do believe that you were wearing them to help her feel better, you were also wearing them to have fun. And because of that, I’ll continue to buy diapers for you in addition to Erin, but when I do, your diapers will come out of your allowance. Does that sound reasonable?”
Hailey nodded, almost happily; she’d been expecting to be banned from diapers entirely, so having to pay for them seemed like nothing in comparison. “That’s… fine. But how will you keep track of which are mine and which are Erin’s? We’ve just been using the same pack.”
“I talked about this with your father too. From now on, I’ll buy separate packs of diapers for you and Erin, and your packs will come out of your allowance when I buy them. So the more you use, the more you spend. I know you both are the same size, so it would be easy to cheat and use some of Erin’s, but I think I can trust you not to do that, right?”
“You can trust me. I can pay for my own.”
“Then that’s settled,” said Sue.
Erin leaned forward and began to move her lips, but Sue noticed before any sound could come out.
“And no, Erin, we’re not going to let you pay for yours,” Sue said. “Don’t try to argue with us on this one.”
Apparently that was what Erin was intending to ask, as she leaned back in her seat with a slight frown and a barely audible sigh.
“Hailey, as your mother said, we really don’t think that the diapers make you any less grown up,” said Martin. “To be honest, I’d say that the little stunt you pulled with running out on your own tonight made you seem much less mature than the diapers ever could.”
The conversation had been going much more in her favor than she’d been hoping, but that only served to make the sudden switch back to her father’s disappointment in her all the worse. She should have known better, and she’d failed them! Her face dropped. “I… I guess so.”
“But I can recognize that it was a mistake, and I also know you’re aware of what you did wrong. Part of being an adult is learning from our mistakes. If you can prove to me that you can accept the consequences that your actions caused, and if you know you’re not going to pull a stunt like this again, I don’t see any reason to let this incident make us treat you any younger.”
Hailey was in a mild state of shock. After everything that she’d done tonight to lose her parents’ trust, they were still willing to treat her nearly as an equal. She’d punished herself more than they would ever punish her, and they seemed to recognize it, but it was still surprising that they were still willing to trust her. In a way, that made her feel even worse about her parents’ disappointment in her judgment; that they were willing to accept her repentance so easily indicated just how high of standards they expected her to be capable of meeting.
At the same time, having her parents know about her like for accidents was a relief; at least she would no longer have the worry that they’d find out her secret. What was incredible was that they seemed to accept this aberrant behavior, and they were going to allow her to continue to use the diapers! Although the guilt she felt for disappointing her parents prevented her from fully enjoying the situation, she did feel a little bit of happiness begin to well up inside of her.
“Thank you, mom and dad,” she finally said. “I’m really sorry for what I put Erin and you guys through, and I know I deserve worse than you gave me, but thanks for being lenient.”
“Hailey, you already got worse than you deserved,” said Martin. “No matter what you did, we would never wish a broken leg on you.”
“And you’re really okay with me using the diapers?”
“If you want to continue to use them, Hailey, that’s fine. I’d ask you not to make them obvious if we have company over or you’re out in public, but I know you’re already smart enough to avoid that.”
“Right.”
“Other than that, you clean up after yourself and let us take the purchases out of your allowance, and you can use them as often as you want. We won’t stop you.”
Hailey allowed a small smile to creep over her face in spite of herself. “Thank you!”
[hr][/hr]
An eleven-year-old and a 12-year old girl stood in front of a bathroom sink, both watching the other as they scrubbed their teeth, the foam buildup in their mouths ever increasing. The older of the girls seemed to be having a little more difficulty than usual, not quite used to balancing against a crutch while brushing. Both were smiling, though, as they counted together through foamy lips, trying not to spray as they spoke.
“One… two… three!”
The sink was suddenly filled with two girls’ worth of toothpaste foam, and they both giggled as the younger girl turned on the sink, washing it down the drain. Each rinsed off her toothbrush and placed it in the holder, then turned to the bathroom door to head back to their bedroom.
If anybody had been in the hallway watching them carefully, that person would have noticed the two girls’ thin pajamas didn’t quite hide the fact that both girls were more padded than their peers normally would be. One of the girls was dressed as such because she’d managed to accept that she’d need the protection. After all, she’d woken up wet the last two mornings; she had no good reason to believe that the next morning would be any different.
The girl limping along on a crutch, though, was now wearing hers with pride. Although this evening had been horrible for her, and she had no desire to ever go through something like it again, one positive outcome had resulted. Her life had gotten better several months earlier when she’d admitted to her cousin that she liked having her accidents, and her cousin had turned out to be supportive. The same had just now occurred with her parents. Although it still appeared that they didn’t quite understand why she liked it, they seemed to accept that she did like it, and for now, they were making no effort to put a stop to it.
The younger one flipped off the light and shut the bedroom door behind them, and both girls climbed into their respective beds in the darkness. The room wasn’t silent for long.
“Hailey?” a very tired voice asked.
“Yes, Erin?”
“I just wanted to let you know… I know your parents were hassling you for making me come with you since I might have got hurt, but… I forgive you for it.”
“That means a lot to me, Erin. What I did was dumb, and we both know it, but I am really sorry.”
“It’s…” Erin paused to audibly yawn. “It’s okay. Are you going to be alright?”
“I’ve still got a lot to think about,” said Hailey, “and there’s a lot I want to talk about too, but I think we can save that for tomorrow. Okay?”
“Okay.”
The room was silent for about a minute; both girls could hear the other breathing and shuffling around in bed, trying to get comfortable.
Erin finally broke the silence. “Hailey… I love you.”
“I love you too, Erin.”
Both girls knew that the other was being completely sincere.
“Goodnight!”
four years later
Quite a journey, over a rather short span of time. Even shorter for me, as I chewed it up in about three and a half hours this evening. This is a piece I’d love a number of would-be writers on several other forums to read, if only for the style: It’s completely and utterly focused on the two girls wetting and messing themselves, far more than I would normally tolerate reading, but there is a significant story going on in the background, one that is engaging and endearing, which is such a crucial element for this particular style of ABDL fiction. Yeah, there are plenty of people out there that would just drool and squeak with delight at a wall of wet-mess-change-wet-mess-change-wet-mess-change, but the rest of us really appreciate Calliope’s artistry in building a tale around it, and I can’t imagine this winning a much-deserved story of the year award without that investment.