Baby Katrina By: Woggie Chapter 1 Thinking back now on it all, I suppose my childhood was a little out of the ordinary. My mother had divorced my father when I was only a few months old so I grew up never knowing him. Our household consisted of my mother and my older sister Beckie, who was seven years older than I was and of course myself being the youngest. Growing up as a child without a father and living in an entirely female household made me a little different in the eyes of other boys my age. Our mother worked as a hairstylist in a very expensive salon so hair was very important to her. She was never one to let the concept of societal `norms' dissuade her from raising her children as she saw fit, so she preferred to allow my hair to get longer -- even though I was a boy. Since both my mother and sister had longer hair, I didn't see anything wrong or different about it so I never really gave it much thought. By the time I was 4, my delicate shoulder-length hair and my small frame had the effect of making me look very girlish. My mother even dressed me up in one of my sister's older dresses and had a photo taken which is still in the family photo album to this day. Although I don't remember the event, it was apparently all in good fun and according to my mother and sister I didn't seem to mind. When my sister turned 14, she became the designated babysitter while our mother was working. We sometimes fought with each other as siblings are prone to do because I really didn't like the idea of having to do everything she said when mom wasn't home. As a result, I tended to keep out of her way as best as I could. That summer I kept pretty much to myself as far as other kids go. I was still smaller and thinner than other boys my age and if not for the fact that I wore boys clothes, I would have looked exactly like a small girl. This may have been one of the reasons that I only made a few friends among the neighborhood kids. Most other boys made me feel uncomfortable to be around (even if they weren't occasionally teasing me), so I didn't really mind. Beckie often had a few of her friends come over to hang out during the day so if I wasn't outside playing I usually stayed in my room to give them space. Our mother was usually home from work by late-afternoon when she would make dinner for us and then the 3 of us would usually do something together like go to the park or go out to a movie. One day, while I was upstairs playing in my room, Beckie came upstairs and knocked on my door and asked to come in. Until a short while earlier, she and her friends had been in the living room for most of the morning listening to music, laughing and having a general good time. She asked me if I wanted to come downstairs and play a game with them for a while instead of staying in my room all by myself. While I was pleasantly surprised by this, I was also a little confused since this wasn't normally like her. Although I didn't understand why 3 older girls might be interested in playing with a 7-year old (and a boy, no less), I agreed and went downstairs with her. When I got downstairs, I asked what sort of game they wanted to play and noticed that her 2 friends, Samantha and Jessica, had been looking through our family photo album and apparently had fixated on one photo in particular. They said that they thought the photo of me when I was 4 was so cute that they all wanted to dress me up like that again. I wasn't sure if that was such a good idea, but Beckie pressured me to play along or she might tell mom that I was misbehaving when she got home. I reluctantly agreed and we all went down into the basement recreation room. Beckie pulled a large box of her old clothes out of the closet and then she and her friends started going through it. It turned out that these were very old clothes of hers because they were mostly sun-dresses and party dresses that only little girls would wear. When they held them up against me they were quite surprised when it appeared that they would fit me. Before long, I was being dressed in one outfit after another with the three of them taking extreme delight at each one. They thought it was so cute and adorable the way that I looked and decided to fix up my hair to further enhance the image. Although all the attention was nice, I was getting concerned that they were getting so excited about dressing me up and started to wonder when this game would finally be over. They finished playing about with my hair and then brought a mirror over to show me what I looked like and I was shocked at what I saw. They had tied my hair into a high ponytail and fastened it with a long, pink ribbon that matched the dress I was wearing. While I was transfixed by my image in the mirror, Beckie announces that she wants to try to make me look REALLY cute and try a `slightly different look' on me. While I wasn't sure what she meant, I was pretty sure that I wouldn't like it too much judging by the knowing glances the three of them were giving each other. I began to feel a little uneasy and asked my sister if I could change my clothes and go back to playing in my room. Suddenly Beckie pulled a camera out from behind her back and quickly started taking pictures of me. I freaked out and tried to run for cover but her friends caught a hold of me and held onto me. Beckie then explained that everyone was having too much fun to stop playing and that I shouldn't be a spoilsport and try to ruin it for them. She also added that the pictures were only meant for fun, but if I gave her reason to she might start passing them around the neighborhood. While I didn't have too many friends in the area, there were many kids from our school that lived nearby and the thought of some of these photos ending up in class scared the hell out of me. I reluctantly agreed to keep playing their game and wondered how much worse it could get. Beckie and her friends told me that since I looked so cute and that she was still officially my babysitter then they thought it would be nice to see if they could make me look like a real baby. I didn't understand what they were getting at until Beckie pulled a box of old baby things from the closet. Even then, I didn't think that they were actually serious until Samantha fished out some cloth diapers and a pair of pink plastic pants. I saw them all giving knowing looks to each other when it dawned on me that they must have had this planned from the start. The dresses and the hairstyle were silly enough but there was no way that they were going to put me in diapers. I made a dash for the door but was easily caught by Jessica who, being the more athletic of the three, was quite strong. She pulled me back to the center of the room where she and Samantha held me down while my sister prepared the diapers. Beckie lifted up the hem of my dress, removed my panties and then slid the diaper under me with one hand while holding my ankles with the other. In spite of my struggles they were far too strong for me so there was no way I was getting loose. When I started crying and pleading with Beckie not to do this to me, she and her friends spoke baby-talk to me while Beckie was pinning the diapers in place. She worked the plastic pants up my legs, then they rolled me onto my stomach and pulled them into place over the diaper. I was then released and was not surprised when Beckie started to take more pictures of me. Not knowing what else I could do, I remember I just sat there and cried softly while they oohed and ahhed over me. They kept saying, "Don't cry, baby" and other assorted baby-talk to try to lift my spirits a little. Beckie told me that if I was a good baby for the rest of the day and did everything she asked, no one would ever see the photos and they'd even take me out for ice cream later. Since it was now lunchtime, Beckie and her friends decided to bring the baby upstairs and we'd all have lunch together. When I stood up, I immediately noticed that the diaper was so thick that I couldn't walk very well. In the mirror I saw that the dress was short to begin with, but with diapers on underneath there was no way that it was going to completely cover my behind. When I tried to follow them out of the room, the thickness between my legs forced a baby-like waddle in my steps which I was making as carefully as I could to maintain my balance. Beckie and her friends chided me and told me to hurry up but I kept losing my balance and frequently fell back to the carpet. My sister then said, "Maybe our little baby girl should try crawling if she's still too little to walk?" I was getting so frustrated in my attempts to stay on my feet that I decided it might be safer if I did just that. Samantha and Jessica then started giggling uncontrollably as I began to make my way across the floor after them. After a moment or two, Jessica then walked over to me, picked me up and then carried me up the stairs. "What a cute little baby girl you are!" she said. "My name is Peter! I'm not a girl, or a baby!" I said indignantly. "Well you sure look like one now," said Samantha, "and a very pretty one, too!" As much as I hated to admit it, they did have a point. They had made me up so well that I looked just like a cute little girl. The diapers that my little dress only partially covered made me look just like a baby and since I couldn't walk very well in them I had to be carried or crawl just like a baby. Beckie had made it clear that I was to be a baby girl for the rest of the day, so I was resigned to my fate and wondered what else they had planned for me. Jessica carried me into the living room and sat down on the sofa with me on her lap. Samantha came and sat down beside us and the two of them began to tickle me while Beckie fixed lunch for us. This attention certainly surprised me and it was quite a big change from how they'd been treating me in the rec-room. I was having a pretty good time with them and almost forgot the situation I was in until my sister walked in from the kitchen with a baby bottle full of warm milk. I didn't like the idea of having to drink from a baby bottle but compared to having to wear diapers it was only a minor embarrassment. Jessica passed me over to Samantha who laid me back in her lap and began to feed the bottle to me while she got up to help with lunch. After I had finished drinking the bottle, lunch was ready so Samantha carried me into the kitchen where they already had a high-chair set up. They lifted me into it, fixed the tray in place and then started serving lunch. While the girls were all eating sandwiches, I was presented with a plate of mashed potatoes which Beckie insisted on spoon-feeding to me. After lunch, Jessica took me back into the living room where she fed me another bottle of milk while my sister and Samantha went back down to the rec-room to `get the baby's room ready'. When I had finished it wasn't necessary to burp me, but Jessica still held me to her shoulder and gently rubbed my back. She kept this up for awhile and started humming softly to me. It felt really good and after the way this little adventure had started for me it was very comforting. So, I relaxed a bit in her arms. I began to feel pretty drowsy and I guess I must have dozed off a little because I wasn't aware of Jessica carrying me downstairs until we'd entered the rec-room. When we entered the room I saw that they had put my old crib together and obviously meant to put me down in it. "It's time for the pretty baby to take her afternoon nap," said Beckie. "If you lie down and go to sleep for a little while like a good little girl we'll take you out afterwards for that ice cream I promised." This was all starting to take its toll on me so I started getting upset again. "I don't take afternoon naps anymore! Even if I still did, I wouldn't sleep in a crib!" I started to squirm in Jessica's arms and began to yell for them to put me down and let me go back to wearing my regular clothes again. Beckie just smiled back at me and I felt Jessica's grip on me tighten. Samantha reached over and put a large pacifier in my mouth -- effectively muting my protests -- and then held it in place while my sister tied its ribbon securely behind my head. "You will lie down and take your nap in the crib or I will put you across my knee and spank the daylights out of you!" She said as she took me from Jessica and lowered me into the crib. "If you try to take that out of your mouth, we'll give you a severe spanking and then tie you up and leave you in there until mom comes home. Just behave yourself and take your nap like a good little baby." With that, she lifted the gate up into position and dimmed the lights. They all went into the next room and left the door slightly open so they could occasionally check on me. I was left alone in my crib feeling pretty miserable and wondered when all this would end. I didn't doubt that she'd make good on her threat of giving me a spanking so I decided it would be better to just do what she said. Shortly I began to feel a strong urge to pee. All that milk I drank earlier was starting to have an effect on me. There weren't any bathrooms downstairs and if I tried to leave the crib they'd catch me and probably spank me. The only thing I could do was wait until they came and let me out of the crib. As I waited, the urge was getting stronger and I was starting to get desperate. If they didn't come soon I was going to wet my pants. Then it dawned on me... I was wearing diapers! Surely they didn't really expect me to use them as well? The pressure got worse and I decided that, spanking or not, I had to try to get to a bathroom. Dressing me up and playing these silly games was bad enough but I didn't honestly believe that I would be expected to wet my diapers like a baby. I stood up and was in the process of crawling over the top of the gate when the door suddenly opened and the three of them charged in. "Just what do you think you're doing, young lady?!" my sister yelled at me. I tried to tell her that I had to go to the bathroom but the pacifier in my mouth was still stopping me from making any recognizable words. "I warned you what would happen if you misbehave! You are a naughty girl and you've just earned yourself a spanking!" At that moment my fear got the better me, I lost control of myself and started flooding my diapers. Samantha and Jessica held me still while Beckie brought a chair in from the next room. After she sat down in it I was dragged forward over her lap and held with my arms pinned behind my back as Beckie began to lift up my dress. She noticed my diapers were sagging and put one of her fingers up under a leg opening of the plastic panties. She immediately realized what had happened. "You really ARE a baby, aren't you? Is that why you tried to get out of your crib?" she asked. I nodded my head. "You should have waited for us to come and change you instead of disobeying us and trying to escape!" She then pulled my plastic pants down, unpinned my diapers and began spanking me. It was more embarrassing than painful to be spanked like that by her in front of her two friends, but I was crying hard just the same. The pacifier in my mouth muffled my cries as I tried to tell her to stop, but it was no use. Once she had finished, I was changed into dry diapers and then placed back in the crib. She kissed me on the forehead, wiped a few tears off my face and then raised the gate back up again. "I'm sorry that I had to spank you like that," she said. "I know you're upset but be a good baby and try to go to sleep for a while. When you wake up you'll feel much better and maybe we'll still take you out for ice cream." I was still pretty upset but I closed my eyes anyways and hoped that all this would go away. Jessica began humming softly to me again and I felt my back being gently rubbed once more. I began to relax and then drifted off to sleep. I had probably only slept for no more than an hour or so when they came back and gently woke me up. "There's our good little girl!" my sister said, "I'll bet you're thirsty by now. If you promise to behave we can take that pacifier out of your mouth and give you something to drink." I nodded my head and felt relieved as I felt them untying the ribbon. The pacifier came out and was quickly replaced by a bottle full of apple juice which I gratefully drank down. When I finished, Jessica lifted me out of the crib and carried me back upstairs to the living room. Not being sure what was to happen next, I just sat quietly on her lap and waited. Samantha sat down next to us and started to paint my fingernails with pink nail polish while my sister touched up my hair. "Since you are behaving yourself like a good baby," Beckie began, "we've decided to take you out like we promised". I panicked as I realized that they meant to take me out dressed as a baby but I didn't want to make them angry by resisting or they might do something worse. I only hoped that they did such a convincing job on my appearance that no one would recognize me. "Such a good little baby girl needs a name that sounds as pretty as she looks," said Samantha. "How about we call her baby Katrina or Katie for short?" "Katie it is!" my sister said. "Now let's get going so our baby girl can get some fresh air". Jessica carried me out into the garage where I saw that they had put a baby stroller together for me. Once I was settled in and the straps were done up, we were on our way. I was mortified that someone might recognize me but no one did. Once we were right outside the ice cream store, Beckie crouched down next to me and reminded me that I was a baby and babies aren't supposed to talk much. This was the ice cream shop that we normally went to with our mother and if I was recognized I was sure mom would find out about it, so I decided the less I said the better. Beckie already knew what my favorite ice cream was, so there wouldn't be any need to say anything anyways. Jessica took over pushing the stroller and we all went inside. The shopkeeper was a really nice old man whom we'd seen many times before, so he recognized Beckie and her friends but fortunately didn't know who I was. My sister explained that Jessica was babysitting her little cousin and they all decided to take her for some ice cream. "My my, what a pretty little thing she is!" he said as he came out from behind the counter. He crouched down next to me and said, "What's your name, sweetheart?" I gave him a nervous smile and said, "Katie" in the smallest voice I could while trying not to meet his gaze. "No need to be shy, child," he said as he handed me an ice cream cone. "I believe this is your favorite... try not to spill it on that pretty dress of yours!" My sister and her friends let out a large gasp and I turned beet red. He knew. My sister and her friends got their orders and we all started to leave the store when the old man looked down at me with a smile and then said to my sister, "Don't you worry about a thing. He looks just precious. Anytime you girls want to bring little Katie back, the ice cream is on me." With that, he held the door open for us and we left. I wasn't sure what to think at that point. He obviously knew who I was but he seemed to be pleasantly surprised. Was he going to keep my secret or would he tell my mother the next time we went in there? My sister told me not to worry about it, so I sat there and quietly finished my ice cream as we all went across the street into the park. Beckie spread a blanket out on the grass for us while Jessica and Samantha freed me from the stroller. The diaper still made walking difficult so, much to the girls' delight, I had to crawl onto the blanket. A few people passed by us and commented what a pretty little girl I was, but no one else seemed to recognize me. Samantha, Jessica and my sister took turns tickling and playing with me for the next little while until finally it was time for us to head back to our house. Our mother would be home within the hour so it was time to put all the baby things away and clean up the house. Beckie sat me in front of the TV with `one last bottle' to watch cartoons as she and her friends tidied up. When they were finished, Jessica and Samantha each gave me a kiss on the cheek and a big hug to thank me for making their day so much fun. Once they left, Beckie brought me up to my room where she helped me out of the dress and the diapers. After some quick work with a hairbrush and some nailpolish remover, I was pretty much back to normal. It felt good to finally have my own clothes to wear again but I realized that I sort of missed the secure feeling that the other clothes gave me. Beckie had already washed the diaper that I'd wet while I was taking my nap, so everything was back in its proper place when our mother came home. Everything seemed back to normal, and after dinner Mom took us out for a walk in the park, followed by a stop in our favorite ice cream store. Both Beckie and I felt a little uneasy as the old man greeted us with our mother, but he didn't say a thing about our earlier visit. As we were leaving, he mentioned to Beckie that he told his wife all about that adorable little girl that her friend Jessica was babysitting and wanted to know if she might have Jessica bring her in to meet his wife sometime. I paled as Beckie promised to pass on the message and gave the old man a wink as we left the store. "He's such a nice man," my mother said. "Rebecca, which little girl was he talking about?" "Jessica's little cousin, Katrina" my sister replied. "Jessie and Sam brought her by the house today". "What a pretty name... Do you think Jessie will let me meet her too?" "Well Mom, I think she's already gone back home with her parents, but you never know... she might come to visit again!" Behind our mother, I almost choked on my ice cream but Beckie gave me a reassuring pat on the back. In spite of everything that had happened it was good to know that Beckie drew the line at letting my mother in on it. Upon reflection, my day as Baby Katie wasn't quite as bad as I thought. In retrospect, I ended up having more fun than I'd ever dare admit to my sister. Knowing her as I did, I knew that she'd have me back in diapers and dresses as soon as she could because this game was even more fun for her and her friends. When the weekend came, the game took an unexpected twist. While we were seated at breakfast Mom asked my sister about Jessica's little cousin again. "I'm not sure when she's coming to visit Jessie again, Mom, but I'll ask her if you'd like," said my sister. "Oh don't worry about it, Rebecca... I'm sure that I'll get a chance to meet that little girl soon enough," my mother said with an enigmatic smile. She then placed an envelope on the table and told us to clear the dishes while she had her Saturday morning bath. As she was leaving the kitchen she said over her shoulder, "By the way kids, remind me later to buy more film for the camera." Beckie and I looked at each other with shock and then looked into the envelope on the table. Inside were various photos from last month's trip to the zoo and several pictures of a cute little girl dressed in diapers and a pink party dress. Chapter 2 -- `Mom meets Baby Katie' I couldn't believe it! Beckie had forgotten to take the film out of the camera and my mother went and had it developed. I could hear mom running the water upstairs for her bath and wondered what was going to happen when she finished. "We're in serious trouble, Beckie! Mom is probably going to ground us for the rest of the summer and it's all your fault!" "Don't be too sure, Peter," my sister said, "She doesn't appear to be angry about it, so just keep quiet when she comes back downstairs and let me do the explaining." We finished loading the dishwasher and then sat down to look the pictures over again. While I certainly remembered the photos being taken, it was still hard to believe that it was me dressed up like a little baby girl in the pictures. "I'm going to tell her that we were just playing a game, so just back me up and agree with everything I say," said my sister. "YOU were the one playing a game, not me!" I retorted. "I don't want Mom thinking that I wanted to be put in diapers and then dressed up like some kind of doll." My sister suddenly gave me a mischievous look and said, "It doesn't look like anyone was forcing you in these pictures. In fact, I'm sure that by the end of the day you were having as much fun as we were. Don't forget I'm still in charge when Mom's not home and if you don't go along with my story then you'll be sorry once she goes back to work on Monday". Although I couldn't imagine how she would be able to top what she and her friends did with me earlier in the week, I was sure that she wasn't kidding and she'd come up with something worse if I didn't go along with her. We went into the living room and watched TV for awhile until my mother finished her bath. My mother came into the living room a short while later, sat down in the big chair and said, "So, I assume you've looked at the photographs. I was quite surprised when I first saw them. Although Peter looked very cute and convincing as baby girl, I know that he couldn't have done it without some assistance. Would you two care to explain yourselves?" "Jessie and Sam saw the picture of Peter in the dress when he was 4 in the photo album," my sister began. "We asked him if we could try dressing him up again and he agreed. We were all having a lot of fun and when we found the box of baby things we got a little carried away, but Peter didn't mind." "So Peter," my mother asked, "You were just playing with your sister and her friends and they didn't force you in any way?" "No Mom," I said. I could feel my sister staring intently at me while I answered. "We were all just playing a make-believe game." "Well, I'm glad to hear that," said my mother. "You must have really been enjoying yourself if you would go all the way to Mr. Jensen's Ice Cream Store dressed up like that." I started to panic, not knowing what to say in response. Beckie immediately jumped in and said, "We all thought that he made such a convincing little girl that we wanted to see if we could get away with going out for a walk without anyone figuring it out." "And you went along with this too, Peter?" asked my mother. I could still feel Beckie staring hard at me so I nervously swallowed and just nodded. Beckie was right about Mom not being angry so it didn't appear that we were going to be in any trouble over it, but I had a feeling that this wasn't going to be the end of it. "Well, since it's okay with Peter then I guess there's no harm done," my mother said. "You did look so adorable in that outfit, so since it was all in plain fun, I have a small favour to ask." I began to feel very uneasy as I waited to hear what she wanted. Whatever it was, I knew it wasn't likely to be a `small favour'. "Rebecca, I want to meet the cute little girl that charmed everyone so well earlier this week. Would you two consider playing some more make- believe with me today?" "Sure mom," said Beckie with what sounded like excitement in her voice "We'd love to!" Great, I thought. Mom thinks that I liked the baby treatment and wants me to be dressed up for her now. She sent us downstairs to `get Baby Katrina ready' while she went upstairs to finish drying her hair. When Beckie and I got downstairs, she immediately pulled the boxes out of the closet and told me to start getting undressed. After she got all the necessary clothes out of the box, I notice that she had also included the diapers as part of the wardrobe. "Come on Beckie!" I said, "Mom didn't tell us I had to dress in diapers again too!" "We have to make it look convincing, Peter. You have to look as good as those photos we made of you and you'd better act like you're enjoying it." She didn't have to remind me of her previous threat of what might happen later this week, so I laid down on the carpet and let her pin the diapers on me again. She didn't make the diaper as thick as she had before, so once she pulled the plastic pants up over it, I was able to walk around without too much difficulty. Next came the little dress, which was still too short to completely cover up my diapered behind. We had to go back up to her room so she could finish styling my hair as it had been before, and told our mother not to peek until we were done. After my hair was touched up and tied into its high ponytail with the pink ribbon, Beckie decided to add a little bit of makeup to my cheeks to make them look a little rosier. The nail polish was once again applied to my fingers and after a few last once-overs I was ready to be re-introduced as Baby Katie again. Beckie called down to our mother that we were ready and we started to make our way down the stairs. I discovered that although the diapers weren't as thick as they were before, I still had difficulty walking down the stairs so Beckie held my hand to keep me balanced. Our mother appeared at the bottom of the stairs with the camera and took a picture of us. "Ohhh! He looks so adorable!" My mother shrieked with delight, "Come here sweetie, let mommy get a good look at you!" Once at the bottom of the stairs, I toddled over to Mom and she immediately picked me up and started spinning around the room with me. "You are so precious! It's been years since we've had such a beautiful baby in the house!" She told Beckie to start taking lots of pictures while she continued to move around with me in her arms. Beckie looked like she was REALLY enjoying the situation and was more than happy to comply. "You are just the cutest little thing! The photos are nice but it doesn't compare to having a real little baby to cuddle with!" my mother said while smothering me with kisses. "Would you like me to prepare a bottle of milk for the baby, Mom?" asked my sister with a sly grin. "Oh! That's a wonderful idea. Would you like some nice milk to drink, Katie?" I was still in a daze from everything so I nodded, not knowing what else I could do. Beckie fetched a bottle from the downstairs and was preparing it in the kitchen while my mother sat down on the sofa with me. "You know, Peter" she said in a more calmed tone of voice, "You really are something in that outfit. Your longer hair makes you look far more convincing as a girl than a boy. I can see why Rebecca and her friends had so much fun with you earlier this week!" Beckie brought the bottle in and my mother laid me back in her arms and fed it to me. Beckie took a few more photos and said, "She is so cute, Mom. Can little Katie spend the rest of the weekend with us?" Mom looked thoughtful for a moment and then said that it would be up to me, but she'd certainly love to have such a pretty baby in the house for the weekend. Since Mom was looking down at me while I was drinking from the baby bottle, she wasn't able to see the threatening gestures that Beckie was making at me from behind her. "Would you like that, sweetie? Would you be willing to be mommy's precious little baby girl for the weekend?" I didn't like the idea of being a baby for the entire weekend, but I knew I couldn't refuse. Mom seemed to be having so much fun that I didn't want to disappoint her. Besides if I had, Beckie would make sure I regretted it once Mom went back to work. Since I couldn't answer with the bottle still in my mouth I nodded. Mom seemed quite pleased with my answer and gave me a big hug. The rest of the afternoon went pretty much the same. Mom played with me a lot and occasionally she and Beckie would take turns tickling me. Later, she cuddled up with me on the sofa while we watched a Disney movie on TV. After the movie we had dinner and fortunately it wasn't as embarrassing an ordeal as it had been earlier in the week. Mom didn't have the highchair setup -- it probably didn't occur to her and for some reason Beckie decided not to mention it. I sat in my regular seat at the kitchen table, but for some reason Mom forgot to give me utensils. She gave a surprised laugh when I pointed it out, but then only gave me a spoon to eat with. As expected, I had a baby bottle full of juice instead of a glass to drink from and part way through dinner Mom wanted to try spoon feeding a little of my dinner to me. Fortunately she only did this for a few mouthfuls, but Beckie was quick with the camera to make sure it would be remembered. After dinner, Mom didn't have me help with clearing the table as I usually did and simply carried me into the living room to sit in front of the TV while she and Beckie did it. When they had finished, they told me to stay in the living room `like a good baby' while they took care of a few things in the downstairs. It sounded like they were moving a lot of things around down in the rec-room and I was curious what they were up to. Mom and Beckie made a lot of trips from the rec-room up to Mom's room and then they stayed in Mom's room for a while. When they came back downstairs, Mom announced that she wanted to go out to the park with us and told Beckie to go into the garage and set up my old stroller. Since I'd already had to endure this once before, the idea of it wasn't quite as scary as before. Mom put a little sweater on me to keep my arms from getting cold and then carried me into the garage where Beckie was waiting with the stroller. As before, I was buckled in and then we were on our way. On our way to the park, Mom and Beckie took particular interest in the baby clothes on display in a store window and made comments to each other about how cute certain outfits might look on me. Fortunately we didn't go in and we kept going. I wasn't surprised to see that we were headed to Mr. Jensen's Ice Cream Store. Since my mother now obviously knew about Baby Katie there wasn't much to fear this time. My only worry was that, it being a weekend, there might be a lot of people in there and possibly even some kids I knew. Fortunately luck was still with me and there was only one family in there and they were leaving just as we were going in. Upon entering the store, Mr. Jensen took notice of us immediately and was a little surprised to see our mother with us. He greeted us and then asked my mother how she liked meeting Baby Katie. My mother told him that she was surprised, but since she was convinced that the kids were just playing. she thought it was really cute. "I asked the kids if it was okay to have Baby Katie stay with us this weekend and I'm happy to say that they both thought it was a great idea," said my mother. "Well, she certainly is a pretty little thing. I was hoping that she'd come back again so my wife could meet her. Would it be alright with you if I called her down?" asked Mr. Jensen. My mother told him that she would be delighted and a few minutes later Mrs. Jensen was down in front of the counter, amazed at how I looked. "What a cute little girl!" She said as she tickled me under my chin. I giggled in spite of myself and was surprised by another camera flash by Beckie. "Yes, she certainly is" said Mr. Jensen. "As promised, ice cream today is on the house in honour of our special little visitor." Then, in spite of my mother's protests, he promptly served each of us a double- scoop of our favorite flavours. It came as no surprise that he didn't need to ask me what mine was. While the adults were talking about me, Beckie crouched down next to me and teased me about me being such a big hit as a baby girl. "Jessie and Sam are never going to believe this," she said, "They're definitely going to want to come back over this week to play with you, especially when I tell them you've had all weekend to get used to it". "Please, Beckie," I whispered back "I don't want to keep doing this. Someone from my school will definitely find out if we keep this up for much longer!" "Oh come on," she replied, "You must like all of the attention you're getting! Besides, no one else has to know as long as we're careful." Mom and the Jensens finished their conversation, then we all said goodbye and left the store. On the way home, Mom remembered that she needed to pick up some groceries, so we stopped in at the local supermarket. Whenever we go to the grocery store I always like to ride on the front of the shopping cart, but this time Mom decided to place me in the seat. I wasn't surprised to hear Mom and Beckie making a few playful comments when we passed through the baby aisle, but fortunately Mom didn't decide to buy anything. What was surprising was that among our other purchases, she bought twice the amount of milk that she usually does. I got a little nervous again when we got to the checkout line, but that went as it usually did and no one seemed to give me a second glance. The walk home was otherwise pretty uneventful. Other than the fact that I was dressed as I was and in a baby stroller, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Unlike earlier in the week, it was different this time. I guess not having to worry about Mom finding out made a big difference because I found it a lot easier to relax this time. When we got back to our house, Beckie let me out of the stroller and brought me into the living room while Mom put our groceries away. "You know Peter, Mom is REALLY having a lot of fun playing with you like this," she said, "She obviously isn't going to make you do this forever, so why not just play along with it for the weekend?" "Well," I said, "It isn't as bad as I thought it would be but I don't like the idea of having to wear diapers all weekend." "She isn't likely to make you use them unless for some reason she thinks that you need to. Just try not to wet yourself like you did earlier in the week and you should be okay," she said with a smirk. "That was YOUR fault! I had to go to the bathroom and you wouldn't let me!" Beckie just laughed at that and then suggested that I was just trying to put blame on her to avoid embarrassment. "There was no harm done though, was there Katie? If you hadn't been wearing a diaper it could have been much worse!" Just then Mom came in from the kitchen with a plate full of cookies for us and some milk to go with them. Not surprisingly, my milk was served in a baby bottle. After the cookies and milk were finished, Mom held me in her lap for a while and we watched some more TV. When the program was over, she announced that it was time for us to start getting ready for bed and then she got up and carried me with her up the stairs. When we got to the top of the stairs, I was surprised that she headed towards her own room instead of mine but I found out why as soon as we entered. It was immediately obvious what she and Beckie had been doing earlier that afternoon. They had brought my crib up from its storage in the basement and now it was fully set up in Mom's room. I was shocked, but I knew that I couldn't say anything because I was expected to play along. She sat down on her bed with me and asked if it was okay that Mommy wanted her little baby close to her that night. I guess it wouldn't be all that terrible so I told her it was okay. She started to help me remove the dress to get ready for my bath and then I suddenly noticed that she had slipped a finger under a leg band of the plastic pants. She looked a little puzzled when she saw me blushing and then she gave a little laugh. She apologized and explained that it was just a mother's instinct to check if her baby's diaper needed changing or not. Needless to say, the diaper was NOT wet so that probably brought her back to reality. She had me lie down while she removed my diapers, then brought me into the bathroom and started running the bathwater for me. She left so I could use the toilet and after I was finished, she returned and had me get into the tub. Mom didn't usually bathe me since I was 7, but once in awhile she would and that night she decided to. I always loved playing in the bathtub and Mom always made bathtime even more fun. After she washed me and played with me awhile, she wrapped me in a large towel and carried me back off to her room again. I noticed that there were some more diapers folded on her bed and in very short order Mom had pinned me into them and pulled another pair of plastic pants over them. I was surprised that she wanted to diaper me for the night, but since I had already used the washroom it was obviously only meant as part of Baby Katie's weekend visit. Beckie came in while Mom was patting my hair dry and handed mom one of her old nighties. As soon as I was dressed in it, I noticed that at least it was longer than the dress I was wearing that day so my diapers wouldn't be showing. Beckie couldn't resist one more photograph with the family camera and then she headed off to have a shower. After Mom finished drying my hair, she set it into a pair of pigtails and then set me down inside the crib. After she got me settled under the covers, she said she'd be right back and left the room for a few minutes. When she returned, she had brought a storybook from my room and a warm bottle of milk. I was starting to think that Beckie had a point earlier -- I really was starting to like all of this attention. By the time Beckie had finished her shower, I had finished the milk and was getting really sleepy. Mom had stopped reading to me at some point and was gently stroking my hair and humming softly to me until I fell Asleep. Chapter 3 - `Shopping with Katie' Although I slept extremely well that night, I awoke to a curious sensation the next morning. I opened my eyes and noticed that Mom was standing over me and pulling down my plastic pants. At first I thought that perhaps the baby game was over but that wasn't the case. I suddenly became aware that my diaper was WET and she was in the process of changing me! "Ah... So little Katie is finally awake!" she said. The reality of what had happened hit me and I started to cry. She thought that we were only playing some game for fun, but I ended up wetting my diapers in the night just like a real baby. "Ohhh... Don't cry Katie, it's okay," she said to try to soothe me. "I probably gave you too much to drink last night before bed, so try to cheer up a little" Mom had found the pacifier that the girls used on me earlier that week and put it in my mouth while she finished changing me into a dry diaper. I was so embarrassed, but also confused as to why Mom wasn't angry with me for wetting myself. In fact, she seemed quite cheerful as she was fitting a new pair of plastic pants over the diaper. "There, that's better! Now my baby is nice and dry and ready to come downstairs for her breakfast." She then lifted me out of the crib and carried me downstairs with her to the kitchen. Beckie was already seated at the kitchen table and had a bit of a smirk on her face as Mom put me down in my seat. I took the pacifier out of my mouth but didn't say anything while Beckie and our mother were talking about what fun things they should do with the baby that day. "I think we should do a little shopping this afternoon for some more nice clothes for Katie," said my mother. That statement caught me a little off-guard and before I could answer Beckie said, "That'd be GREAT, Mom! We should try to look into some of those stores that we saw yesterday!" While my sister and my mother chattered away about our impending shopping expedition, my head was spinning so much from this latest development that I practically had to hold onto the sides of the chair to keep myself upright. This was all so confusing. Although I wasn't all that normal a kid according to the few friends I had, I thought that being turned into a baby girl was just too bizarre to sink in. Yet, in less than a week that seems to be what has been happening. What started off as a one-sided game with my sister and her friends has so far turned into a full-time reality. Although they did say that it was only for the weekend. Why would they want to be going shopping for more baby clothes? I suddenly became aware of the fact that it was very quiet at the table. I focussed my attention back to my mother and my sister and noticed that they were both staring at me and smiling. I didn't understand why they were doing that until I realized that I had picked up a baby bottle full of juice that my mother had put down in front of me and had instinctively drank down half of it before I knew I was doing it. I blushed, quickly took it out of my mouth and placed back on the table in front of me. "What's the matter Katie," my mother asked. "Aren't you thirsty?" "Well... yes, I am I guess... but..." "Ohhh! You're just soooo cute! Don't be so shy about drinking from your bottle. You're our adorable little baby girl and you don't have to worry about anything!" Mom then lifted me onto her lap and gave me a big hug. At that point I wasn't sure which was bothering me more, the fact that I'd been drinking out of a baby bottle without realizing what I was doing or that I was starting to respond to a girl's name. I didn't even want to THINK about the fact that it was necessary for my mother to change me into a dry diaper that morning. Mom let me down off her lap, handed me the bottle and said "Go upstairs with Rebecca and she'll get you washed up and dressed for going out today." With that, she gave my diapered behind a quick pat to hurry me along and then went to the business of clearing the table. Beckie took ahold of my hand and led me upstairs to the bathroom. As she was helping me out of my nightgown she noticed that I was wearing different plastic pants over my diapers than those I'd had on when Mom put me to bed last night. "Did Mom have to change you this morning? Omigod... this is SO funny! Wait 'til I tell Sam and Jess about this!" "No! Please Beckie, don't tell them! I didn't mean for it to happen... honest I didn't!" "SURE you didn't, Katie. Just like you didn't mean to wet yourself when we had you in diapers before, right? I'll bet you really like wetting your diapers and are just pretending that it's an accident." "THAT'S NOT TRUE!! It was YOUR fault that first time and..." I was unable to finish as she had picked up my bottle and stuffed the nipple into my mouth. "Listen, you be a nice little baby girl and don't give your big sister any more trouble and maybe things will go a lot easier for you. All I have to do is tell Mom that you wet your diapers earlier in the week and she might decide to keep you in them for longer than just this weekend. Now, finish your bottle, be quiet and let me get you cleaned up." I got really worried that she might in fact have a point and thought it best not to argue with her. I sat down and watched quietly while she ran a bath for me. After I'd finished the bottle, my bath was ready and Beckie had me stand up while she removed my diapers. Usually I use the toilet before I get into the bath but for some reason I didn't feel the need to this time -- likely because I'd already wet during the night. So, I shook my head when Beckie asked me if I needed to go and then she promptly picked me up and put me in the tub. Beckie had given me a bath once or twice before when I was a little younger, but it felt really weird this time. I didn't dare say so with her recent warning still echoing in my ears, so I just stayed quiet and let her wash me. Just as before, my hair was taken down and carefully washed and then I was wrapped in a large towel and carried off into our mother's room. After putting me down on our mother's bed I wasn't at all surprised to see Beckie coming at me with the baby powder and some fresh diapers. She quickly pinned me into them and then covered them with the same plastic pants I'd been wearing at breakfast. As we headed back into her own room she said, "You are small for your age Katie, but you're still a little large for most of the baby things downstairs in storage. I think we'll have to buy some more diapers and plastic pants for you today." For some reason this didn't surprise me, but I still didn't want to say anything. The reality of the situation was that even if this baby game with our mother was only temporary, I knew that Beckie and her friends would have me dressed up and diapered a lot in the weeks to come, so angering her would definitely be a bad idea. Beckie had chosen a more complete outfit for me this time. Along with a yellow dress that tied in the back with a large ribbon there were also tights and shiny black shoes -- which I later learned were called `Mary Janes'. After I was dressed, Beckie touched up my nail polish and then put my hair into a `French Braid'. She applied a small amount of makeup to my face and then spun me around to face the mirror. Once again, I was absolutely stunned by the face that I saw. Although I expected to see the face of a girl in the mirror, at least this girl now looked a little older and not so much like a large toddler. I was thankful that my dress went down to my knees and did a far better job of hiding my diapers than the other dress did. Although I looked closer to my actual age (but not quite) I was still definitely female in appearance. I snapped out of my daze as Becky grabbed my hand and marched me back downstairs to show me off to our mother. I must've been getting used to having to walk with diapers on because I found the trip downstairs a lot easier than it had previously been. Mom complimented Beckie on her handiwork and told me to sit on the couch and watch TV for a little while while the two of them got ready to take me out shopping. They both came back downstairs a little while later and we were ready to go. Due to the fact that I was not quite as little a girl as the day before, they told me that I didn't have to ride in the stroller and that we would all walk. This was such a relief to me that the idea of going outside suddenly didn't bother me nearly as much as it had before. In fact, I was so relieved that I almost forgot that I was still in diapers. That in itself raised another question... if I was supposed to be a little more grown up now, why did I still have to wear diapers? The walk outside was actually more enjoyable than I'd thought it would be, all things considered. Since I'd spent all of the previous day being pushed in a stroller and otherwise carried like a baby, it felt really good to get to properly stretch my legs. The only problem was that every step I took kept reminding me of the diapers I was wearing under my dress. When we got to the first of the stores that we'd seen while window shopping the previous day, I started getting nervous again. Mom took ahold of my hand, told me not to worry and in we went. I'd never been in this store before because it seemed to only sell all ages of girl's clothing. Beckie separated from us and headed off into the teenager section, probably looking for things more to her own tastes. Mom took me to the young girl's section and started to pick out cute little dresses to try on. We entered a changing room and she had me wear a few of her selections and never once seemed to pay any attention to the fact that I was standing in front of her in no more than diapers under my tights. After my mother decided what to buy, I was dressed back in my yellow dress again and we met Beckie at the front desk to pay for our purchases. While the sales lady was ringing up our purchases, she kept sneaking quick looks at me and gave a little smile when she saw me blushing. "My she's a shy little thing, isn't she? What's your name sweetie?" "Katie", I answered in my small voice. "It looks like your mother's bought some very pretty clothes for you. I'll bet you just can't wait to get home and try them on, right?" I blushed some more and just nodded my head. While my mother was paying for all the clothes -- including a couple of skirts that Beckie wanted -- I thought a little more about my reaction to the lady's question. Although I did nod to keep up appearances and to avoid saying any more than I had to, a part of me really DID want to get home and try on those new clothes. That was a confusing thought... why would I be looking forward to trying on girls clothes? Because I made a more convincing girl appearance than the boy I was supposed to look like. This was a truth that was becoming more apparent to me in the last few days and I could no longer deny it. A girl... no one has any doubt that I'm anything other than a young girl. I remember there were a few times when I was mistaken for a girl even when I was dressed in my usual boy's clothing, but this is something entirely different. There is no mistake this time, I AM a girl in the eyes of everyone while I look this way. We headed off to the next store that my mother and sister wanted to visit and I quickly discovered that it was a store that specializes in all sorts of clothing for younger children and babies. It was definitely a bit unsettling to be in this place dressed as an `older girl' but still aware of the fact that I was wearing a diaper like a few of the other kids that were in this store. As soon as my attention was re-focussed on the diaper that I was wearing, I suddenly realized that I had a need to pee... and it was growing stronger by the minute. There was no washroom in this small store so I thought I could hold it until we left and then ask if they'd take me to a washroom once we get outside. In the meantime, Mom and Beckie were picking out all sorts of larger baby clothes and plastic pants for me. Mom had to talk to the Sales Lady for a few minutes and while she was gone Beckie must have taken notice of my squirming. She knelt down close to me and said, "So... it looks like someone's just about ready to have another `accident' in her diapers. Why didn't you go back at the house when you had the chance?" "I didn't need to then, Beckie!" I answered in a hushed tone. "Well then, I guess it's a good thing you're dressed the way that you are. There are no washrooms nearby and Mom said we aren't heading back home for awhile so you might as well just go in your diapers." Beckie had a real evil smile on her face and I knew that she was enjoying my predicament. I was determined not to let her gain any satisfaction though and decided to hold out until Mom came back so I could ask her to take me to a washroom. It might have worked, but Beckie had other ideas and seemed determined to further torment me. She started talking to me about anything that had to do with water... flowing rivers... running tap water, etc. It was getting REALLY difficult to concentrate but I was still sure I could hold on. Mom and the Sales Lady were slowly making their way back to where we were and I started to believe that I might actually make it, but it was not to be. Beckie saw our mother coming back so she quickly reached under my dress put two fingers in the top of my diaper and pressed down on my bladder. Instantly, I felt my bladder release and I started to flood my diapers. All the color drained out of my face and I started to cry. I had just wet my diapers for the third time in less than a week and this time in public. I was really scared what Mom would do when she found out. When Mom came back, she saw a few tears on my face and asked what was wrong. I bit my lip and was too afraid to answer, so Beckie whispered in her ear and then my mother picked me up and tried to comfort me. "Ohhh... sweetie... why didn't you say something earlier? Come on darling... We'll get you fixed up." She carried me over to the Sales Lady and asked if there was a room that she could use for a few minutes. The lady looked at me and didn't immediately realize what was wrong. She probably didn't know I was in diapers because my dress hid them pretty well. "Little Katie here just had a little accident and needs her pants changed," my mother whispered to her. The Sales Lady then smiled and said, "Oh... of course. We have a room at the back that is set up as a changing station." She led us to the room and then after she left my mother told Beckie to quietly ask the Sales Lady if they sold any diapers for larger babies. I could tell that Beckie was REALLY enjoying the situation because she practically danced her way up the aisle as my mother carried me inside the room. She may have been having a good time, but I felt absolutely miserable. "Don't cry sweetie," my mother said. "At least we were in the right store when this happened." I guess Mom was trying to make a joke to cheer me up, but it was pretty much impossible at that point. She laid me down on the table and started to remove my diaper. Becky appeared a minute later with some larger looking diapers and I was quickly pinned into them and had a new pair of plastic pants pulled over them... yellow this time, to match the dress I was wearing. "Well... this certainly caught me by surprise. I'd hoped that we wouldn't have to change you until we got back home this afternoon so I didn't bring any extra diapers for you." My Mom told me. "But Mom... I couldn't help it... I'm so sorry... " and I started sobbing uncontrollably. There would be no point in telling her that Beckie had cheated and forced me to wet my diapers when I did because it wasn't likely Mom would believe me. Besides, I had doubts that I would have made it to a washroom before it happened anyways. "Shhh... don't cry sweetheart. We'll talk about it later when we get home." Mom dried the tears on my face and gave me a kiss on my cheek. She then let me down from the table and we all went up to pay for the clothes, as well as the diapers that I was now wearing. While Mom was paying for everything, Beckie had a worried expression on her face. I guessed that she was feeling a little guilty that her prank had upset me so much because she gave me a hug and whispered to me that she was sorry. We went out for lunch at a restaurant that we only go to on special occasions like birthdays, so that really cheered me up. In spite of the things that had been going on that morning, we had a really good time. Nothing was said about my accident in the baby clothing store and we instead talked about more normal things like where we'd go for our vacation this year when Mom took her vacation time off work. After lunch, we made our way back home and upon arriving, Mom sent Beckie upstairs with the packages while she brought me into the living room to have a `little talk' with me. "Peter, I'm a little concerned about the accidents you've been having since we decided to have Baby Katie stay for the weekend. I love you and you know that you can tell me anything, so what I'm wondering is if perhaps some part of you wants to be Baby Katie for a little while longer?" I opened my mouth to immediately deny that was the case, but I stopped myself. I wondered, what if what she was saying could be true? I still didn't know why I'd wet my diapers while I was sleeping. "I don't know, Mom" I answered truthfully. "I wasn't sure if I liked being a baby girl at first, but now it doesn't seem so bad. I just wish that I wasn't having accidents too." "You will always be my precious baby and it won't matter if you're Peter or Katie, I will always love you just as much," she said and then took me into her arms and gave me a long hug. When she held me like that, I could really feel her love for me just flowing from her. It swept away all of my fears and any sadness I'd been feeling over the weekend. I didn't understand why, but I started to cry again, but this time because I was so happy. I felt a lot closer to her now and held onto her really tight. I loved her so much and as always she knew just how to send all the bad feelings away and make everything alright again. After a few minutes, she released me and wiped a few more of my tears off my face. "Now, I want you to do something for me okay?" she asked me. "I know that you don't normally take naps anymore, but I want you to lie down for awhile and try to get some rest. I think we should all go out to the movies tonight and I want you to be better rested for it, okay?" "Okay Mom." I said, even though I didn't really want to take a nap. She then picked me up and carried me up to her room again. She helped me change out of my dress and gave me a long T-shirt to wear instead of the nightgown I wore the night before. I wasn't at all surprised that she meant for me to sleep in the crib, but I honestly didn't mind at that point. As before she rubbed my back and hummed a soft tune to me and I quickly dozed off into a light sleep. Baby Katrina Part 4 - Secret's Out I don't really remember much of what I dreamt about during my nap, but I know that it must have been something pleasant. I didn't seem to want to wake up from my nap and found myself sort of fighting to hang onto whatever the dream was. Little by little I slowly awakened and became more aware of the surroundings. I thought that I heard hushed and excited whispering in the room and opened my eyes to see what was going on. When my eyes came into focus, I noticed Beckie and our Mother standing right next to the crib and looking down at me with big smiles on their faces. I was a little puzzled since one would think that their amazement of how I presently looked would be wearing off by then. They didn't say anything and their smiles seemed to get bigger the longer they stood there and looked down at me. "Does that taste really good?" my sister finally asked. Initially I didn't know what she was talking about until I suddenly realized that I had my thumb in my mouth! I could feel my face turning red as I quickly pulled it out. Mom covered her mouth with her hand to suppress a small laugh but quickly regained her composure and told me not to worry about it. She helped me stand up in the crib and performed a quick wetness-check on my diaper. I was quite relieved when it was determined that I was still dry. "Well that's a good sign," Mom said as she lifted me out of the crib and let me down to the floor. "Rebecca, take Katie with you to the bathroom and both of you wash up for dinner. We don't have much time before we have to leave for the movie so don't take too long." Beckie nodded and took me by the hand and led me off to the bathroom. "Peter, what's up with you?" she asked me. "How come you were sucking your thumb?" "I don't know," I said quietly. "I think that you must be enjoying this baby thing a LOT more than you're letting on. What surprises me is that you didn't try wetting your diapers during your nap as well!" I got really upset with her and pointed out that there was only ONE time that I wet by accident and the other times were HER fault. "Sure little sister, sure... so you keep saying, but how come you were sucking your thumb just now? There was also the baby bottle during breakfast this morning." I honestly had no answer to that question and just looked down at my feet while wondering what had caused those things. We finished washing up and went back downstairs for dinner. I took notice of the fact that Beckie seemed to keep insisting on holding my hand and leading me around like a toddler. Dinner was a quick affair of some spaghetti and juice. Not surprisingly, Mom served my spaghetti in a bowl and thoroughly cut it up for me as well as putting my juice in a baby bottle. After dinner she dismissed us to Beckie's room to get dressed and otherwise ready for going out. Beckie did a quick hairstyle on me and applied a touch of makeup for good measure and then sent me out of her room while she changed her clothes. While she was changing, I went into my room and sat down on the bed. I looked around my bedroom and for some reason the room felt a little strange now. Although it had only been for a day or so, it felt as if I hadn't been in my room for a week. I felt a little out of place in there now... maybe because I was sitting in there in a diaper and a long T-shirt and with my hair and face made up like a pretty little girl. Something was happening to me and I wasn't sure exactly what. Wetting my diapers in my sleep the previous night had upset me, but it wasn't as if I hadn't ever had such an accident in my sleep before. What was really worrying me was that I'd done that as well as drink from a baby bottle and sucked my thumb without realizing it. When we started this thing as a 'game' the previous day, it was supposed to be play-acting, but those things I did couldn't have been an act if I didn't know I was doing them, could they? Was I really starting to turn back into a baby? Just then Mom looked into the room and told me to follow her back to her bedroom. Once there, she again performed a quick moisture-check on my diaper and then asked if I needed to go to the washroom before Beckie came out of her bedroom and started to get me dressed up to go out. I told her that I didn't. "Peter, you thought that this morning as well but ended up having an accident in your pants. If you don't have to go right now then you certainly will later and possibly during the movie. We'll have to make sure that you'll be protected well enough in case that happens." She helped me out of the T-shirt, had me lie down on her bed and then pulled my plastic pants down my legs so that she could pin another diaper over the first one I was wearing. The plastic pants were then pulled back into place and I was quickly stood back up and sent back to Beckie's room. The extra thickness of the diaper was forcing me to waddle again and when I got back to Beckie's room she giggled when she noticed what was causing it. "I guess we can't take any chances at the theatre tonight, eh?" she taunted. As much as I hated the fact that my forced waddle would give away the fact that I was in diapers, the idea of having an accident in the movie theatre was a lot more unpleasant. There wasn't any question of me being able to go to the washroom by myself at the theatre -- even if I was dressed as a boy -- because Mom was always concerned that I might get molested by some pervert. Now, thanks to my accident in the Baby clothing store that morning, Mom is doubtful of my ability to maintain control of myself and now my diapers have to be thicker. Beckie decided to dress me up as a large toddler again since my thick diapers would be obvious no matter what I was wearing, so it was back to a short dress for me. She swept my hair back up into the familiar high ponytail with a ribbon to match my dress and then after the Mary Janes went back on my feet I was brought back downstairs. Mom came back down a few minutes later and after she made a few checks on me and my outfit, she gave a nod of approval and out the door we went. The theatre wasn't a very long walk from where we lived, but in extra thick diapers the walk seemed impossibly long. After seeing how much trouble I was having keeping up with them, Mom made a 'tsk-tsk' sound, handed her purse to Beckie and then picked me up and carried me the rest of the way. Once we were at the box office, while it was obvious that I was older than two, the lady there thought that I looked 'incredibly cute' and 'close enough' for her standards so I was admitted free. "Hmm... maybe we should have you come as baby Katie every time," my mother said once we got to our seats. "It certainly is convenient having one child admitted free as a toddler". "Please Mom, No!" I whispered. I'd been lucky so far that I hadn't run into anyone that I knew while dressed up like this over the weekend, but if Mom and Beckie kept bringing me out like this eventually my luck was sure to run out. "Oh don't worry, silly! I was just kidding," she said as she tweaked one of my cheeks. While we waited for the movie to start, Beckie used the time to keep teasing me and sometimes asked my mother in a slightly louder tone of voice if she should check the baby's diaper and change her if necessary before the picture starts. This was obviously for the benefit of anyone sitting close enough to hear it and made me flush bright red with embarrassment. "Rebecca! Stop that right now!" my mother said in a hushed tone of voice. She then gave Beckie a stern look and added quietly, "You'd better stop tormenting Peter like this or the next time we go out with a baby, the one wearing the diapers will be YOU!" Beckie had a shocked look on her face, but didn't say anything else after that. I was almost as shocked as Beckie about what Mom said and began to wonder if Mom would ever go that far to punish Beckie. If Mom knew half of the things Beckie had done to me in the past week, Beckie might very well get to find out if Mom was serious or not. As I was thinking about this, the film started and I settled into my seat to watch it. I don't usually like to eat popcorn when I watch a movie, but I do like to have a drink. Mom cautioned me to drink it slowly so that I wouldn't suddenly find myself in some 'discomfort'. About halfway through the movie I saw what she meant and had to pee really badly. Mom noticed me squirming in my seat and whispered to me to just relax and go in my diaper since it was thick enough to last until we got home. Although this was not unexpected from her, it still felt a little strange that now my mother was actually TELLING me to use my diapers. It wasn't an easy thing to deliberately wet my pants -- in spite of the fact that I had to go badly -- but I managed to relax enough to allow myself to do it. I sat through the rest of the movie in my wet diapers and by the time it was over I was anxious to return home so I could get changed. I caught myself on that thought... get changed? Into ANOTHER diaper? What was happening to me? As we were heading up the aisle, something that I was worried might happen finally did. Mom was carrying me again to make our exit a little easier and I was able to look back over her shoulder to see what was going on behind us. There were still some people sitting in their seats waiting for the crowds to thin out before heading out of the theatre themselves and I recognized one of them. Sitting a few rows down from the back of the theatre was my friend Jason -- one of my few neighborhood friends -- who was sitting with his parents. Jason knew my who my mother and sister were and kept looking at the three of us but obviously didn't recognize me. Suddenly while he was looking back at me again, his eyes widened with surprise but he didn't say anything. I felt my face flushing again and buried my face into my mother's shoulder as we made it to the end of the aisle and back into the theatre lobby. Mom and Beckie brought me with them into the Women's washroom and Mom did a quick check on my diaper while Beckie used one of the stalls. Mom knew I'd be wet, but she was satisfied that the diaper was thick enough to contain it and I'd be okay until we got home. Once Beckie was finished we headed back home and I was relieved that I didn't see Jason and his parents anywhere when we got outside. I didn't want to tell either of them that I'd been discovered, so I just hoped that I'd be able to meet up with Jason when things got back to normal and try to explain it to him. I only hoped that Jason didn't mention it to anyone else before I had a chance to catch up with him. "You're very quiet, Katie. Is anything wrong?" my mother asked. I just shook my head and quietly looked back over her shoulder to see if there was anyone else I knew that might have seen me. "Maybe baby Katie will feel better after she's had her bath and gets ready for bed since it's almost her bedtime," my mother said. When we returned to the house, Mom sent Beckie in to draw a bath for me and then brought me to her room so she could undress me and remove my wet diapers. After the bath was ready, Mom decided to bathe me herself again since we were almost at the end of Katie's 'weekend visit'. As usual, bathtime was always more enjoyable with her there but in the back of my mind I was still thinking about how I was going to face Jason this week. After mom finished washing and rinsing my hair she wrapped me up and carried me back to her room. I was still thinking about what I was going to say to Jason and hadn't even noticed that she'd put me back into another diaper and plastic pants. Since I'd spent the entire weekend in diapers I wasn't really surprised but I asked her why I still had to wear the diapers since the weekend was over. "Katie's weekend visit doesn't really end until tomorrow morning, so if it's okay with you I'd still like my precious little baby girl to sleep here in her crib tonight. Besides, maybe it might be wise for you to wear them over the next few nights to see if you have any more accidents." Spending another night in diapers didn't bother me at all compared to being paraded around town in them so I told her that it was okay with me. I wasn't all that thrilled that I'd have to wear diapers overnight for the next few days but I guess the alternative -- waking up in wet sheets -- would be worse. Beckie came back into the room with another of her nightgowns for me to wear while my mother set my hair into pigtails again. After Mom had dressed me in the nightgown, I noticed that this was one of Beckie's current nightgowns so it was definitely very long on me. If I tried to walk too far in it I'd trip on the hem and end up falling on my face, so I'd have to resort to the familiar baby crawl to get around again. Knowing how much Beckie enjoys frustrating me with things like this, I guessed that she had done it on purpose. Mom had come back to the bedroom after talking with Beckie down the hall for a minute or two and she smiled when she saw me crawling on the floor in the nightgown. "You know, you are such a natural as a little baby girl that it'd almost be a shame to have you grow up as a boy tomorrow!" she said in a slightly teasing tone of voice. "Will you let me finish off the last of the film getting pictures of you like this? You just look so absolutely adorable!" I sighed and nodded. Mom really did enjoy all the baby stuff this weekend and except for a few incidents it really hadn't been all that bad. After she left the room to get the camera, Beckie came back in and giggled when she saw me on the floor. "My my, don't you look sweet!" she teased. "Come on Beckie! Give me a break," I said. "Admit it Peter, you look VERY convincing when we have you all made up." "Well, maybe I do but that's no reason to keep rubbing it in!" "See?! You're even sensitive like a little girl. I think that Jessie and Sam will be VERY impressed with you this week when they see how far you've gone to be a baby girl for us this past weekend." It wouldn't have done any good to ask her not to say anything. After all that had happened over the weekend there was little chance that Beckie would keep quiet about it to her friends. The best that I could hope for was that she wouldn't tell them EVERYTHING. In spite of the fact that I was actually having fun sometimes over the weekend, this entire baby-game stuff was getting out of hand. While I knew that Beckie and her friends were certain to make the upcoming week difficult for me, that was nothing compared to having to face Jason and try to explain why he saw me dressed as I was . Just then, Mom walked back in the room with the camera and a baby bottle full of milk -- I didn't have to guess who that was for. "Can I get some more pictures of you crawling like you were before?" she asked. Although I was really getting tired of this routine, it was easier just to do it and let her finish with her photographs. After that, she'd probably read me another story and then that would be it for the night. In the morning I'd be free to be myself again -- my boy self. So, while my mother took a few more pictures, I crawled around on her bedroom floor with a good portion of Beckie's nightgown trailing behind me. Beckie must really be enjoying all this, I thought. As if on cue, Beckie suddenly said, "Hang on a sec Mom.. I think the baby is missing something..." She then came over to me, bent down and stuffed the large pacifier in my mouth. Beckie REALLY made me mad when she did stuff like that, but Mom laughed and clapped her hands together and said that looked 'just perfect'. So, I just quietly sucked on my pacifier while mom kept shooting more pictures. I was lifted back into the crib and given the bottle of milk that Mom had brought for me. She finished off the film with a few images of me drinking from it, then the camera was finally put away and I was able to relax. Beckie went to fetch a bedtime story from my room and Mom spent those few minutes she was gone gently running her fingers through my pigtails. "You know, you have such beautiful hair, Katie. I'm so glad that we decided to let it grow longer... although this wasn't exactly something I thought we'd ever try to do with it!" "Mom, when can Katie visit with us again? I really enjoyed having my baby sister this weekend," Beckie said from the doorway. "I don't really know, Rebecca. It was a nice little game for us to play over the weekend but I don't think it would be a good idea to do that sort of thing too often." Mom then looked down at me intently and asked, "How are you feeling, sweetie? Did you have fun this weekend?" I had been rather absorbed in finishing off my bedtime bottle of milk so I didn't really give her question any thought. Even so, I was surprised when I heard myself automatically answer, "Yes Mommy". As soon as I'd said it, I was just as surprised as both Mom and Beckie were. "Oh darling! You haven't called me 'Mommy' since you were 5! What a sweet little thing you are!" She then leaned down into the crib and gathered me up into a nice, long hug. Beckie had a confused look on her face, but quickly shrugged it off and sat down on our mother's bed while mom let go of me and got me settled under the blankets. Beckie had selected 'Alice in Wonderland' for the bedtime story. Even though I felt that I was starting to outgrow that story, it was still nice to have Mom read it to me. It was one of Beckie's long-time favorites that she never got tired of, so she stayed in Mom's room and listened too while Mom read it to me. As the story went on, I got really tired and soon afterwards, I finally drifted off to sleep. I remember the dream I had that night was quite strange... I was in Wonderland and *I* was Alice. Beckie was in my dream too, as The Queen of Hearts. She spent most of the dream chasing after me so she could put me in diapers and keep me in the palace nursery. She must have caught me at some point because I remember being in the nursery dressed as a baby, but what was even stranger was that I remembered feeling very happy and I didn't WANT to escape after that! Baby Katrina Part 5 - Damage Control I woke up the next morning feeling wonderfully rested. I think I was actually finding it more comfortable to sleep in the crib than in my own bed. I noticed that Mom's bed was empty and I could hear the shower running so I guessed she was getting ready for work. She had left the gate for the crib up but even though I could have climbed over the top without too much difficulty, I thought I'd wait until she came out of the shower to let me out. In the meantime, I tried to think of what I was going to do about my friend Jason. The memory of the look on his face the previous night was still haunting me and I knew I had to talk to him as soon as possible before the problem went out of control. I really shouldn't have been surprised that someone I knew would eventually see me all dolled up like a baby girl. Over the weekend Mom and Beckie seemed so thrilled with having Baby Katie around that it seemed they wanted to show her off to everyone. Now that the weekend was over I could return to being my boy self again, but I knew that I'd better keep away from Beckie and her friends over the next few days if I wanted to stay that way. "Ah! I see my little baby girl is awake at last," said my mother as she entered the bedroom, "I guess it's about time to say goodbye to Katrina for awhile and bring Peter back." She lowered the gate on the crib and reached in to help me up. Before lifting me out of the crib, she did a quick check on my diaper to see if I was wet. Until she had done that I had completely forgotten that I was even wearing diapers. I found the idea that I might actually be getting used to them was a little disturbing. "And you're dry too! What a good little baby you are!" she said as she laid me down on her bed, "I was worried that we might have to keep our little boy in diapers just like our little girl over the weekend." Mom removed my diapers and then helped me out of Beckie's long nightgown that I'd worn to bed. She had brought in some of my own clothes from my bedroom and I changed into them while she finished drying her hair. Although it felt really good to be a boy again, for some reason my clothes felt sort of... different. It was hard to put my finger on it, but now it was almost as something wasn't quite right with them. Mom giggled when she saw me looking at myself in the full- length mirror. "You know Peter, you aren't quite finished yet. There's still a little bit more of Katie we have to say goodbye to," she said as she came and stood behind me. In the reflection, I saw her give my two pigtails a playful tug. "Oh wow! How could I have missed that?" I said, "I didn't even notice that my hair was still like that!" Mom chuckled a bit and added, "I think you'll find that your friends might notice it a lot sooner. We'd better do something about your nails, too." I looked at my nails, and of course they were still coloured with pink nail polish. I cringed a bit when I thought of what could have happened if I went outside like this. At least before I had really looked the part as a little girl, but now such things would be really out of place on me and I hadn't even noticed! Mom guided me over to her vanity table and sat me down in front of the mirror. She took a small sponge out of a container and after a few quick wipes on each of my fingers, all traces of nail polish were gone. Next, she let my hair out of the pigtails and brushed it out a bit to make it look more or less as I usually have it. "Oh, I see Peter's back," my sister said as she entered the room. "It's almost too bad... I really liked having my cute little baby sister to play with." "Rebecca, your little brother should be just as fun to play with. Katie was only here for a little while but Peter lives with us permanently so please try to remember that." "Well Mom... if it's okay with Peter will we ever have Katie visit again?" "We'll see," said my mother as she ushered us out of her bedroom. "Now, I have to finish getting ready for work. Go downstairs and have your breakfast". When we got downstairs, neither Beckie nor I said too much to each other while we had our usual cereal and toast. I ate rather quickly so that I could finish before her and make myself scarce. Just as I had finished and loaded my dishes into the dishwasher, Mom came down and was telling Beckie about the list of chores that she wanted accomplished that week. I saw this as the best opportunity to disappear and headed out the side door on my way to Jason's house. Even walking seemed a little different now. My feet felt a little different now in my running shoes. It wasn't just that this was the first time in a few days that I hadn't been in diapers, but I think I might have started getting used to wearing those girls' shoes as well. The feeling turned out to be only temporary because by the time I'd made it to Jason's house I was feeling pretty much like my old self again. Jason lived with both parents along with two older brothers. One of them was Beckie's age and the other was only a year or so older than Jason. Both of Jason's parents worked during the day so just as it is in our household, the oldest brother generally looked after things while the parents were gone. His parents had already left for work when I arrived so there was only the 3 of them just finishing their breakfast in the kitchen. I knocked at the door and was first noticed by the oldest brother, Brian. "Hey Jason, your friend is here," he said as he let me in the side door. "You know Peter, you really should think about asking your Mother to cut your hair. I know that it's the summer, but sometimes I almost mistake you for a girl." Tom, the other brother laughed at that and said, "Yeah! No kidding! Maybe you should just start wearing dresses, little girl!" I gave a nervous laugh and looked at Jason who seemed like he was trying hard to keep a straight face. Nothing else was said on that topic and his brother horsed around with each other before they headed off out of the kitchen to do whatever they had planned for that day. As soon as they were gone, Jason didn't say anything but simply sat and looked at me with what seemed like an expression of amazement. Finally, he spoke up. "Geez, Peter! What was with that getup you were wearing at the movies yesterday?! I saw your Mom carrying what I thought was a girl and I had to look for awhile before I realized it was really you! Were you really wearing DIAPERS too?!" I flushed with embarrassment as I said, "Believe me, it's a long story. Please Jason... you didn't tell ANYONE, did you?" "Well, no... but I don't think anyone would have believed me if I did. Maybe my brothers might after those jokes they were just making...," he said in a teasing tone of voice. "It started last week. I was playing in my room minding my own business when Beckie told me she wanted me to play a game with her and her 2 friends she had over. It started out with them dressing me up like a girl, but then Beckie suddenly took some pictures of me dressed like that and I was stuck. To make matters worse, she and her friends decided that me looking like a girl wasn't enough for them so they put me in diapers and made me their baby for the day." "And you went along with this? There's NO WAY that they could've gotten away with that with me!" he said. "That's easy for YOU to say," I replied defensively, "See how well you'd do trying to stop it if Beckie was YOUR sister!" Jason looked thoughtful for a moment but said nothing. "Anyhow," I continued, "Beckie and her friends did a total baby treatment on me for the whole day. At the end of the day everything was cleaned up and Beckie helped me look like myself again before our Mom came home. The trouble is that she forgot about the film in the camera that she'd been using to take a few pictures of me earlier in the day. Mom had taken the roll in to get developed and saw these extra photos of me in there." "Wow! I'll bet your sister got into trouble for that, right?" he asked. "No. Beckie made me go along with her story that we were both playing a game together so my mother wouldn't think that she'd forced me to do it. If I didn't go along with her, you know she'll get me back for it during the week while my Mom's at work." "So... what did your Mom think?" "Here's where the trouble started, my Mom thought that since I played the game with Beckie then maybe I could play it with her too. Beckie got me dolled up again -- diapers and all -- and my mother thought I looked so cute that she wanted me to be a baby girl for the whole weekend." I hoped that Jason would settle for this as an explanation and that he wouldn't keep looking for details. I didn't want to tell him about the trips to the Ice Cream store or the shopping for baby clothes. I CERTAINLY wasn't going to tell him about the fact that I had wet my diapers on a few occasions and started to do things like suck my thumb. "I don't believe it!" he said, "you spent the entire weekend in diapers and girl's clothes?! Wow! That must've been really rough!" "It was at first, but after I realized that they'd done such a good job making me look like a girl I figured I'd be okay unless someone I knew recognized me. So, now you know the story. You WILL keep it to yourself, won't you?" I asked him. "Sure, I guess. I have to say though, if I hadn't seen it for myself I'd never have believed it. I always knew you looked a little girlish, but once your hair was fixed up and you were wearing girl's clothes... there was NO WAY I'd have thought you were a boy." "Gee, thanks a lot!" I said and gave him a playful shove. "Listen Jason, I have a feeling that this isn't over yet. Beckie really loved it when I was dressed up like that and so did my Mom. Knowing Beckie as I do, she's going to try to use any chance she can get to turn me back into her little sister so I think it's safer if I keep away from my house for awhile." "No problem there, Peter. We can always hang out here." Fortunately, that seemed to be the end of the topic for awhile. Jason and I had a pretty good time hanging out and playing like we usually do, but once in awhile he'd start asking me questions about what it was like to be dressed up like a girl and how differently I was treated when everyone thought I was a girl. I didn't really want him to dwell on that topic for too long so I usually just gave some casual reply and then tried to change the subject. I'd managed to stay away from our house for the entire day and only returned home just before Mom was due back from work. Beckie was watching TV in the living room when I came in and didn't really say much of anything. We made a bit of small talk about when we'd finish the chores we were supposed to complete by the end of the week, but she didn't once mention anything about Baby Katrina. Mom came in shortly afterwards and then we had dinner. Unlike the last few days, it was a typical dinner in our household. It almost felt a little strange not to be drinking out of a baby bottle or only eating with a spoon, but I was relieved that things appeared to be back to normal. We didn't go out anywhere after dinner that night and just spent the evening in. I had my bath a little earlier in the evening and decided to spend the rest of the evening upstairs in my room. It was around bedtime when my Mother came and knocked on my door and told me I had to get ready for bed. I got up and did the usual preparations for bed -- went to the washroom, brushed my teeth, changed into pajamas, etc. -- and was waiting for her to come and tuck me in. When she came into my room, I was surprised to see her carrying some cloth diapers and a pair of plastic pants. "What are those for? I thought those were only for when I'm Baby Katie," I asked her. "It's just for a few nights to see if your nighttime accidents have stopped or not," she said. There wouldn't really be much point in protesting because either way it was quite clear that I'd be wearing diapers to bed anyways. Mom removed my pajama bottoms and explained that they weren't going to fit over the diapers so she'd have to look into to getting me something else to wear over them at night. She quickly pinned the diapers on me and then pulled the plastic pants into place. "There you go!" she said as she gave my bottom a little pat, "now you'll be all safe and dry for the night". Just then Beckie appeared at my doorway to ask our Mother something. She immediately noticed the diapers and giggled a bit. "I see the baby's all ready for bed. Should I bring his bottle of warm milk too?" she said with a grin. "Keep it up, young lady," my mother warned her. "You keep carrying on like this and maybe Peter will get to see what YOU look like in diapers!" Beckie had a strange look on her face but said nothing else and went back to her room. Mom read a bit to me from one of my books and then tucked me in and turned off the lights. I had pretty much forgotten about the diapers I was wearing and fell asleep almost immediately. The next morning when I woke up, I got out of bed and immediately remembered that I was wearing diapers. I nervously felt inside my plastic pants and was relieved that I hadn't wet during the night. Hopefully after another night or so Mom might let me go back to sleeping without the diapers, so I was determined to be extra careful about how much I drank at night. I had just started to pull down my plastic pants when my bedroom door suddenly opened and Beckie came in. "Just what do you think you're doing? You aren't allowed to take off your diapers yourself. Mom told me that I had to check you each morning for the next few days to see if you're wet or not." She immediately pulled my plastic pants back up into place and then pulled me out of the room with her. "First I'll make you some breakfast and then afterwards I'll check your diapers. IF you're dry, I'll let you out of them otherwise I may just change you into dry diapers and keep you in them all day." "But Beckie, the diapers ARE dry! Can't you let me out of them now?" I asked her. "No, not until I've checked myself and I'm not going to until after breakfast." I took a deep breath and followed her into the kitchen. I'd slept in a little later that morning so Mom had already left for work. Beckie must have started making breakfast before she had come to get me because it was ready to serve as soon as we'd entered. She made porridge for us but before I could start on mine she stood behind me and tied a bib on me! "Beckie! Take this off me!" I said. "Nope. You may not be Baby Katie right now but you're still wearing diapers. You know that when Mom's not home what I say goes, so I say that the baby wears a bib!" I didn't want to argue with her because if I wasn't careful she might decide to keep me in diapers all day anyways. Besides, Jessica and Samantha were probably going to be over soon and if I was still in diapers when they arrived then it was a sure bet I'd be transformed into Baby Katie for the day again. I quietly picked up my spoon and started to eat my breakfast. I was somewhat relieved that Beckie had served my morning juice in a glass and not in a baby bottle like I thought she might. Like the previous day, I was in a hurry to finish breakfast and then keep out of the house for the day so I ate rather quickly. This was a mistake because at one point I spilled a bit on myself and Beckie then insisted on spoon-feeding the rest to me. It was pretty obvious that Beckie was trying to make breakfast last longer than usual just to tease me, but finally we finished and she untied the bib. Beckie took my hand and led me back up to my room where she performed the finger-check on my diaper to see if I was still dry (which of course, I still was). She seemed satisfied and then had me lie down on my bed while she removed my plastic pants and unpinned the diaper. "Okay, you're free to go," she told me and took the diaper with her as She left my room. I got dressed as fast as I could, made a quick stop in the bathroom and then headed off to Jason's place. Jason was already hanging around outside of his house, riding his skateboard in the driveway when I got there. "How'd it go when you got home last night? Did your sister turn you into a girl again?" he asked me with a sly grin on his face. "No! She didn't have a chance to because my Mom came home soon after I did. I'll bet she wanted to, though!" I replied. "I still can't forget how you looked the other night when I saw you at the theatre. I wonder what would happen if anyone else ever found out about it?" he asked. There was something about the way he said that last part that made me raise an eyebrow. Jason can be a bit of a joker sometimes so I wasn't sure if he was getting at anything. "Jason... you DIDN'T tell anyone, did you?!" I asked anxiously "No... I haven't, but it's hard to keep such a great secret to one's self." He had a strange grin on his face and I knew that this meant he wanted something from me. It figures, but then if things had been the other way around I'd probably be giving him a hard time about it too. "Okay, what's it going to cost me for you to keep quiet about this?" I asked, feeling a little annoyed. "I'll tell you what... I'm curious to see up close how much like a girl you can be when you're dressed up so I've got a dare for you. If you do it, you're off the hook. If not, well... " He had a really big grin on his face at this point. Although he really was a good friend, I knew that these were strange circumstances we were both in. There's usually a normal code of behaviour that boys follow and my being seen in diapers and girl's clothes is quite a long ways outside of that code. That being the case, my friend had me in a bit of a difficult position and I figured I had to make some effort to save face. Whether one is a boy or a girl, it is always risky business to turn down another kid's dare so I had to be very careful. "Okay," I said defiantly, "What's the dare?" "I dare you to get dressed up like a girl again, go down to the store by yourself and buy two ice cream cones for us!" I thought for a moment and then said, "No diapers, right? Just an ordinary girl our age?" "No, not an ordinary girl... a very pretty girl! You have to look as cute as possible. Besides, if you tried to go dressed up like I saw you last time, you'd look too young to be out on your own and you probably wouldn't make it too far before some adult stopped you." This would prove to be an interesting dare, but it would be far easier than Jason may have thought it would be. Of course, he didn't know that I'd already been in that store twice in the last week dressed as a girl and Mr. Jensen already knew about it. The trouble would be that I'd be going in by myself and that might raise a few questions with Mr. Jensen. Also, I'd never tried dressing like a girl on my own and wasn't sure if I could do it without help. Getting Beckie's help would be out of the question, so I'd have to wait until she was busy with her friends to sneak into the house and try my best to dress up again. "Okay, a dare's a dare. I'll do it. You'll have to give me a bit of time to pull it off, though," I said. "Well, don't take too long. I think you should definitely do it in the next day or so." I had no idea how I was going to pull off turning into a girl again without Beckie knowing about it, but I knew it had to be done. I decided to put it out of my mind for the time being and that I'd work out a plan for it that night. Except for the occasional friendly teases from Jason, the rest of the day passed without much more being said on the subject. When I got home late that afternoon, Beckie was talking on the phone with one of her friends and all but ignored me as I came in. Jason and I had been playing about in the local ravine so I was a little muddy. Beckie paused from her conversation only long enough to tell me to have a bath right away instead of waiting until later that night and then went back to talking with her friend. Before heading on up to the bathroom, I stopped in the kitchen for a drink and listened a bit to Beckie's conversation. Apparently she was somehow talking with both Samantha and Jessica at the same time and the 3 of them seemed to be making plans for lounging about poolside in our backyard the next day. This gave me an idea for how I might be able to dress as a girl without being caught. I figured that once they started working on their suntans they'd probably stay out in the backyard for at least a few hours. All I had to do was make sure that Beckie knew I was off playing with Jason as I usually did and she wouldn't suspect that I'd be sneaking back into the house later on to get at some of the girls clothes I'd been wearing the previous week. I hurried to finish my bath as I heard Mom's car pull into the driveway and went downstairs to see her after I dried off. Mom never lets me dry my hair because she says it has to be dried in a special way so she usually does it for me. While she was patting my head dry, she commented on how she was pleased that I had gone through another night without having an accident. "If you can get through two more days of staying dry, then I don't think we'll need to send you to bed in diapers anymore... unless of course, it's when Baby Katie is visiting us!" I blushed a bit when she said that last part so she gave one of my cheeks a gentle tweak. Dinner was pretty much an ordinary family affair as it had been the previous night. After dinner, we all watched a movie on TV together and when it was my bedtime, I was sent upstairs to get ready for bed. This time, I wasn't surprised when Mom came in with the diapers and plastic pants. While she was diapering me, I kept thinking about Jason's dare that I had to satisfy and was convinced that now I had the perfect plan to make it work. After Mom tucked me in and turned off the light, I was too anxious about what I'd be doing the next day to fall asleep right away. It would certainly be a risky dare, but I knew I'd work it out somehow. I reached under the covers and felt the outside of my diaper. Before I finally drifted off to sleep I was surprised at how comfortable they felt. As long as no one outside of my family knew, maybe wearing them for a few more nights wouldn't be so bad after all. Baby Katrina 6 - The Dare The next morning, Beckie shook me awake and told me to come downstairs with her for breakfast. I guessed that she'd still make me wear my diapers through breakfast so I didn't even ask to be let out of them. Breakfast that day was a pretty straight-forward cereal and toast with juice. I was delighted that Beckie didn't make me wear a bib again or give me my juice in a baby bottle. She appeared to be in a bit of a rush this morning and had things on her mind other than making a baby out of me. When we'd finished, she hurried me up to my room and checked my diapers for wetness. Once again I'd passed the test and Beckie appeared satisfied. Instead of having me lie down this time, she just pulled my plastic pants down to my ankles and helped me step out of them. She then quickly released the pins and the diaper fell away. "Hurry up and get dressed, Peter. I guess that you're going to be out playing all day with Jason again, right?" she asked me. "Umm, yeah," I said, "I'm trying my hardest to remember what being a boy is like." She gave me an annoyed look as she gathered up the diapers and headed for my bedroom door but said nothing. I got dressed, quickly used the bathroom and then I headed out the side door as fast as I could. It was a really nice, sunny day outside so at least the weather wasn't going to make today's dare any harder than it already was. I was going to need some of Jason's help to make this work and only hoped that he'd try to stay serious long enough for me to get through it. Once at Jason's place, again I found the three of them having their breakfast in their kitchen. I casually knocked at the door and Brian got up to let me in. "Hey Jason, here's your little girlfriend again! Are you two going to play with your dolls today?" he said with a huge grin. "Very funny, Brian." I replied flatly. I then added, "I don't even own any dolls!" in a more joking tone of voice. "Awww... that's a real shame. Maybe if you're a good little girl your Mommy might buy you a few!" Tom said with a giggle. "C'mon guys... give us a break, okay?" said Jason as he got up to put his bowl in the sink. They didn't say anything else as they headed out of the kitchen but I could hear them still chuckling to themselves out in their living room. Jason quickly got his shoes on, grabbed his skateboard and we headed out of his house, once I was sure we were a safe enough distance away I decided to fill Jason in on the plan I had so far and see if he had any ideas that might help. "So, you're going through with this, then? Today?" he asked me. "I'd rather just get it over with. Besides, Beckie's going to have her friends over for a pool party today and that will let me sneak back into the house without her seeing me." The plan was for the both of us to sneak back to my house once Beckie and her friends actually started swimming about in our pool. With Jason keeping guard, I'd sneak in through the side door and get down into the rec-room. Once I'd changed into the dress and shoes I'd quickly sneak up to Beckie's room where I'd try to redo my nails and try to copy one of the girl's hairstyles that had been used on me the previous week. If any of the girls re-entered the house while I was there, Jason would ring the front doorbell to warn me and then hide. Assuming that wouldn't happen, all I had to do was make a quick trip to Mr. Jensen's to buy the ice cream for the both of us and then get back to change before the girls got enough sun and decided to go back inside. After some discussion, we were finally ready to head back to my house and put our plan into action. We hid in my neighbor's bushes to watch my house and after about a half hour, Samantha and Jessica arrived. After my sister let them in the side door, we moved a little closer and listened to them talking for awhile until they went out into the backyard and started swimming. It was now or never. I got into the house and quickly ran down into the rec-room. I got out the box of my sister's old clothes and searched through for a dress to wear. If I was to make it work, I'd have to make sure that the clothes looked right. Most of those clothes were still too `little girl', though. I realized that Beckie must still be keeping the ones I was thinking of in her room so I quickly ran upstairs and found them in her closet. I picked the yellow dress that I'd worn the previous week and realized that I'd have to have Jason tie up the bow behind my back for me. He'd probably be kidding me about that for awhile but since this was his idea to begin with I didn't think he'd bug me about it for too long. After I got the dress, tights and shoes on, I sat down at Beckie's bedroom mirror and tried to remember how they'd done my hair. After messing about with my hair for a few minutes I managed to get it back into a high ponytail and found the ribbon that matched my dress. The girls had made it look easy when they did it before, but I had to try it a few times before I was able to make it look passable. I finished off with the nail polish and took extra care not to accidentally dab any on my dress. My nails dried pretty quickly and then I was finally ready to go. I remember feeling my heart beating really fast as I crept my way downstairs to the side door. If any of the girls came in and saw me at that moment there'd be no way I'd ever be able to explain it. Fortunately they were still splashing around in the pool so I was able to slip out unnoticed. When Jason saw me, his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. He had to cover his mouth with both hands to stifle a laugh, so I gave him a dirty look and led him quickly down the driveway. "Omigod! I can't believe it's really you!" he exclaimed once we had gotten to a safe distance. "Well, it isn't perfect but it's the best I could do by myself. Speaking of which, help me do a proper bow on the back of my dress." I turned around and waited as he slowly tied the bow for me. "Man, this is sooo weird! I feel like I'm doing this for a real girl!" "I wouldn't be doing this at all if you hadn't stuck me with that stupid dare! There isn't much time so let's hurry down to the Ice Cream store so I can settle the dare and get back before someone recognizes me. On the way down to the store, we passed a few people that didn't really seem to take much notice of us. To them, we probably appeared like a brother and sister off to play somewhere. When we got to Jensen's, Jason told me that he wanted to go in first and pretend to look around so he'd be able to see the whole thing when I came in to buy the ice cream for us. He then picked up his skateboard and went inside. I didn't want to wait too long so I only gave it a minute or so before I went in myself. Once inside, I got a bit of a shock when I saw three girls together that had been in my class that year. They all took a quick look at me when I entered and then went back to ordering their ice cream. I was really nervous as they passed by me on their way out, but I guessed that they didn't see anything out of the ordinary because nothing happened. I heard Jason reply `just looking' when Mr. Jensen had asked him what he could get for him. "How about you, Miss?" Mr. Jensen said as he walked over to where I was. There was no doubt that Mr. Jensen would know who I was, but I still had to try to keep up appearances or Jason might figure out that this part of the dare was rigged. "Can I have a single scoop each of French Vanilla and Chocolate, please?" I asked in my small voice. Mr. Jensen figured that I was putting on an act for the benefit of the other boy in the store so with a quick wink to me he simply completed my order. I handed him the money I had been carrying (I didn't have a purse) and He decided to try and make Jason feel a little embarrassed. "Hey young man, are you going to help your girlfriend here carry these? One of them is obviously for you and you wouldn't want her to spill any on her dress, would you?" he said with a smile. Jason swallowed and looked very uncomfortable. "No sir, I guess I wouldn't," he answered nervously. I tried my hardest to keep from smiling as he came over and took the chocolate cone from me. As we left the store, I could hear Mr. Jensen softly chuckling to himself. Mom always did tell us that Mr. Jensen was really sharp and nothing gets by him. "I can't believe he thought you were my girlfriend!" Jason said. "It's really weird how you're able to fool everyone into thinking you're really a girl." "Yeah, well... see how much it sinks in after YOU'VE tried spending a weekend as a girl." I replied. "Now, let's get back to my house as fast as we can before anyone else sees us. I thought I was caught for sure when those three girls from our class were in there!" Satisfied that the dare was completed, Jason nodded and we headed back to my house. While we're finishing our ice creams we made casual conversation about what else we'd do that day. With the tension of the trip to Jensen's now behind us, we were both much more relaxed and after a few minutes I wasn't even self-conscious about the clothes I was wearing. It would probably be quite truthful to say that I'd completely forgotten what I was wearing until we had arrived back at my house and I suddenly remembered why we went back there. I had to change back to my boy's clothes before Becky and her friends caught me! We snuck up the driveway to see if the coast was clear, and I got quite a shock to see that the girls weren't out there anymore! "They must have gone back inside the house!" I said in a panicked whisper. "Now what am I going to do?! I can't spend all day looking like this and if I try to go inside to change they'll see me!" "I've got an idea," Jason said. "Let's go back to my place. Brian and Tom have been playing a lot of table-tennis lately so we could probably sneak you into the house. You can put on some of my clothes and we can stash the ones you've got on in my room for a few days." I thought about this for a few minutes and realized it was the only safe option I had at the moment. Besides, Jason was the one who had gotten me into this mess so he'd have to help me get out of it. I hoped he was right about his brothers being busy because after the teasing they'd been giving me lately I'd really be in for it if they could see me right then. We headed over to Jason's house and he had me hide in his backyard while he went into the house to see where his brothers were. After a what seemed like a really long time, I wondered what was taking him so long? All I needed was for either of his brothers to come out into the backyard and there'd be no way to get past them without been seen. I was getting really nervous. What was Jason doing in there?! I carefully crept up to the side of the house and looked inside the kitchen. I didn't see or hear anyone inside so I decided to quietly open the door and let myself in. I had a definite sense that something weird was going on and figured I'd sneak up to Jason's room and get changed anyways. As I entered the dining room on my way to the stairs, I got quite a surprise. Jason was sitting tied to one of the dining room chairs and looked up when he saw me enter. "Watch out!" he hissed quietly to me, "My brothers will catch you! Get out of here fast!" Jason told me before that once in awhile his brothers would tie him up as part of some game but I never really thought he was serious until then. I moved towards him to untie him when I suddenly heard Brian's voice behind me. "Who the hell are you?! Jason, is this girl a friend of yours?" At that very moment, Tom entered from the opposite end of the room and looked straight at me. At first, Tom had a confused look on his face but as he stared a little longer, I suddenly saw the recognition in his eyes. "Hey Brian! That's not a girl, that's Jason's little sissy-friend Peter!" "Peter, we were only kidding before about you being a girl! If you're dressed up like one then you must really be a sissy!" said Brian. This was NOT good -- I was in a REALLY bad situation and I knew that I had to get out of there. I tried to make a break for the doorway but Brian easily caught me and pinned my arms to my sides. "Not bad," he said as he looked me over, "You make a really pretty little girl. Your sister's really pretty so I guess it makes sense that you should be too. Tell me sissy-girl, what does your sister think about you going around the neighborhood dressed like this?" I was too frightened to answer him, but the look in my eyes told him what he needed to know -- that Beckie clearly didn't know I was outside dressed like that. I knew that Brian had a crush on my sister and was always looking for excuses to talk to her. Now that they had me there dressed like that, Brian had a GREAT excuse to go talk with her. "So... I guess she doesn't know. That's too bad, you'd think she'd love to have such a cute little sister like you in the house," he paused for a moment as he seemed to consider something before continuing, "where is she now?" he asked and gave my shoulders a little shake. "She and her friends are just hanging around at my house using the pool and lying in the sun," I answered quietly. "Please, let me go! I promise I'll never do this again! Let me go home and change!" Beckie was going to find out about this for sure one way or another, so I had nothing to lose now by going home to change, whether they saw me or not. I only hoped that she'd understand when I told her about how I was seen by Jason on the weekend and he dared me to dress like this again today. "I don't think so, little girl," Brian said with a chuckle, "your sister might get mad at me for allowing you to walk home like this so we'll have to keep you here until she can come and get you." He turned to Tom and said, "Get me some more rope so we can make sure our little princess here doesn't run off and get herself into more trouble." I really started to struggle to get free but Brian held me easily and forcefully pushed me into a chair opposite from Jason. Tom came back with a few lengths of rope and tied my hands behind my back while Brian held my arms. I was getting really upset and started to cry as he was tying my ankles together and begged them to release me. "Please don't do this! Let me go!!!" I started to shriek. My shouts were cut off as Brian suddenly clamped his hand over my mouth. "Wow! The little princess can even scream like a girl! We can't have you disturbing our neighbors with all this noise!" He removed his hand from my mouth for only a second before a dishtowel flashed before my eyes and was pulled into my mouth. "Now," he said as he tied off the knot behind my head, "You sit here and be a good little girl and I'll be back soon with your sister." He gave a wink to his brother Tom and simply said, "Watch 'em," as he let himself out the side door. I figured that the only reason he was walking over instead of calling her was because he knew she was at the poolside with her friends. He obviously wanted to go and see Beckie and the girls in their bathing suits, so I would have to stay tied up in their dining room until they came to get me. As soon as Beckie sees me dressed up and tied up like this I'd be in a world of trouble. The ropes were too well tied and no matter how much I twisted my hands behind me I wasn't going to be getting free. "Relax, princess," said Tom when he noticed my squirming, "you're only going to hurt your wrists if you keep struggling like that." He then turned to Jason and asked him, "so, what do YOU know about your little sissy friend being all dressed up like this for? I'll bet you had something to do with it, didn't you?" Jason definitely didn't want to get himself in trouble but he knew that he had to say something or else it'd be worse later as soon as I was able to tell my side of the story. The gag in my mouth meant that I wouldn't be getting that chance anytime soon, so Jason tried to play down his involvement in what had happened. "After you guys kept telling Peter how much he looked like a girl, Peter wanted to try it to see if he could fool everyone. He snuck into his house while his sister and friends were swimming out back and got dressed up. We walked around for awhile to see if anyone could tell he was really a boy and no one could. When we got back to his house, his sister and her friends had gone back into the house and Peter wasn't able to get inside to change back. I told him that he could borrow some of my clothes and came in here to get some for him when you and Brian jumped me!" Jason was certainly playing down his part, alright. He left out the fact that he was the one making me do this to start with, as well as the part where we went to the Ice Cream store and Mr. Jensen made him believe he thought I was his girlfriend. The gag reduced my protests to this version of the story to muffled grunts which were ignored by Tom. "So... you thought you'd just help your little sissy friend here change back into a boy? She looks so good as a girl I don't see why you both didn't decide to have her stay this way," Tom said with a smirk. Tom left the room and went upstairs to get a book. While he was gone I glared at Jason. He could tell from the look on my face that I was REALLY angry with him. If he hadn't stuck me to that stupid dare I wouldn't be sitting here all tied up by his older brothers who would very likely NEVER keep this to themselves. Now, thanks to his `version' of the facts they'll all think that I dressed up like this because I wanted to and not because I had to. It was too bad that they hadn't gagged him as well as me! "Peter... give me a break! If I told them about the dare we'd both be in a lot of trouble. My brothers don't know that your sister already likes to dress you up like this so you won't really get in as much trouble as I would if they knew I had something to do with it!" Jason hushed up as Tom entered the room with his book and sat down in one of the far chairs. We sat there like that for what seemed like an hour before I heard voices coming up the driveway. I heard the side door open and a moment later Brian, Beckie, Jessica and Samantha all entered the dining room. "Well, here she is," Brian said as he waved his hand in my direction, "she wasn't cooperating and got pretty noisy so we had to make sure she kept quiet." "So Missy," Beckie began "I guess you loved being Katie so much that you wanted to go out and become her all by yourself, huh?" "You mean, this has happened before?" Brian asked, a little puzzled. "Well, sort-of," my sister answered, "Katie is short for Katrina, but usually we call her Baby Katie. It's a little game that Peter likes to play at home with my Mom and me." I immediately started grunting into the gag in protest, but there wasn't really much point to it so I gave up and just sat there quietly. Beckie took a closer look at me and commented, "Nice job, Brian. I think baby sisters are much cuter when they're quiet." Tom relayed to them the story that Jason told them and I wished I could just shrink out of sight. Beckie had a funny look on her face but didn't say anything until Tom suddenly asked, "What do you mean by `baby' sister? Baby 'cause she's younger or what?" "Jason knows exactly what I mean by that, don't you Jason?" Beckie said as she turned suddenly to face him. This surprised Jason and caught him off guard. He didn't know what to say so he just looked at her with a shocked look on his face. "Jason has already seen Baby Katie over this past weekend. At the movies on Sunday with your parents, remember Jason?" Beckie said as she leaned in close to him. "It's really interesting that you didn't mention that in your story to your brother, so what else are you not telling us?" "You little liar!" Brian said from the other side of the room. "So, you've seen the little princess dressed up before and didn't want to tell us, huh? I'll bet the reason you didn't say anything is because you hoped that you and your little girlfriend there could play dress up together." "That's not true!!" Jason shouted angrily. At the theatre on Sunday night he'd spent the whole time staring at me and hadn't even noticed if Beckie saw him staring or not. This meant that Beckie knew this whole time that I'd been discovered and didn't say anything about it to our mother. I guessed that if our mother knew about it then she might have put an end to Baby Katie's visits permanently and Beckie was obviously having too much fun with me to allow that to happen. "So Jason, how did you get Peter to go out like this, hmm?" she asked him. "Did you make him do it somehow because you saw him as Baby Katie on Sunday?" Both Brian and Tom were still in the dark about what Beckie meant when she referred to me as `Baby Katie' so Beckie told them that maybe it would be best just to show them, but first she'd have to go back to our house to bring some of Katie's things over. She had a quick whispered conference with Jessica and Samantha and then turned to Brian with a mischievous look in her eyes. "Brian, have you ever wondered what having a little sister might be like? Even for just a day?" she asked coyly. Brian and Tom weren't exactly sure of what Beckie and the girls had in mind but they smiled and told her that they'd love to find out. Jason, however, knew exactly what they had in mind and started shouting for them to let him go and that there was no way that would happen to him. With a big grin on his face, Brian tossed another dishtowel to Beckie and asked her to `do the honors'. Within seconds, Jason was just as silent and tightly gagged as I was. "Much better!" she said as she turned to Samantha and Jessica. "Can one of you come back to the house with me? I think we'll need to bring a lot of things back and I'll need some help getting it all over here." Samantha volunteered to help and the two of them took off out the side door. While we all sat there waiting, Brian and Tom decided to go back downstairs for another table-tennis game and left Jessica to keep watch on us. She picked up a magazine and flipped through it while she waited for Beckie and Samantha to get back and every so often she'd come over and make sure that we weren't working our ropes loose. Beckie and Samantha returned after another half hour and were carrying some large bags with them. Beckie went down to see Brian and Tom and asked them to stay in the downstairs until they were called for otherwise they'd spoil the surprise. She and Samantha both went upstairs to the bedrooms to put the bags down and then came back to the dining room. Both Jason and I had a pretty good idea what the girls were about to do with us and just looked nervously at each other. "Okay girls, I'm taking Katie... you take the other one. We'll come up with a name for our new little baby afterwards" Beckie said as she lifted me off of the chair. Jason started to struggle and fight while Jessica and Samantha carried him off to the room they were going to use to transform him. I knew better than to fight Beckie -- even if I wasn't still tied up. She carried me into what appeared to be the guest bedroom and plopped me down on the bed. I was pretty much ignored by her as she started to remove the things from the bags that she'd brought from our house. Among the diapers and plastic pants that I wasn't surprised to see, she also pulled out a really frilly little girl's dress that would make me look MUCH more like a baby girl than I would in the yellow dress I had on. Once she had everything laid out, she finally untied me but warned me not to try to pull my gag out. After she had removed all my clothes, she then pinned me into REALLY thick diapers. An extra-large pair of pink plastic panties went over them and after she'd tucked all of my diaper in she then pulled a really frilly set of panties on me that completely covered my diaper. Next came the dress that matched the panties and some frilly little socks to go on my feet. She then took the gag off me and replaced it with the large pacifier and told me not to spit it out while she worked on my hair. Not surprisingly, I was given pigtails again and as a final touch she even put a little girl's hat on my head to complete the o outfit. "Now you look REALLY cute!" she said as she pulled out the camera and took a couple of snapshots. "I'm going to check to see if your friend is ready yet so sit there and be a good little baby until I come back for you". She then let herself out of the room and pulled the door shut behind her. While she was gone, I got up on all fours and tried to see what moving around in such a thick diaper was going to be like. This was the thickest diaper I'd ever worn, so walking was going to be next to impossible. In the next room I could hear them all giggling and knew that Jason was probably dressed as I was now. After all the trouble he'd just gotten me in, I was glad that he was going to get a taste of what it was like to be dressed up like a baby girl. I was getting pretty used to it by then, but I knew that Beckie and her friends had only just begun with us. It was a sure bet that it was going to be a long afternoon! Chapter 7 --`Baby Katie Meets Baby Susie' In the few minutes I waited in that room alone, I sat there on the bed looking myself over. There I was, dressed up like a cute baby girl again and awaiting yet another episode of this little `game' at the hands of my sister and her friends. Although the morning's events had been somewhat upsetting to that point, I found myself starting to feel comforted by this role I was put into -- and that disturbed me a bit. While I always knew that I wasn't the same rough-and-tumble sports-type boy like most of the other ones in the neighborhood, I never thought of myself as being too girlish either. The events of the past week or so certainly changed my point of view. Now I found myself in this situation because I had gone out dressed up as a girl that morning to settle a stupid dare with Jason. I found out that I really could pass for a girl on my own if I had to, but then everything blew up in my face when Jason's brothers caught me. At least this time I wouldn't be alone in this predicament since Jason was also being given the total baby treatment in the next room. From the sound of all the commotion in that room I knew that Jason certainly wasn't taking his transformation very well and I wondered how he'd look when they were finally finished with him. I looked over my own outfit and was actually quite impressed at the job Beckie had done on me. I crawled over to the side of the bed to look at the mirror on the bedside table and saw that my appearance was probably the most babyish so far. Wow... what would Mom say if she saw me now? Would she be angry or would she be so thrilled that she'd make me dress up like this all the time? Beckie came back in the room after a few minutes and pushed me back onto my thickly padded bottom and sat down next to me. She made some final adjustments to my dress and then gave me a few last minute words of instruction before I was to be paraded around as her little baby doll again. "Okay Missy, here's the deal...," she began, "I want you to do everything we tell you to when we take you downstairs. You are going to be a complete baby until I tell you otherwise so you aren't allowed to talk at all. You will keep that pacifier in your mouth at all times or else we'll spank you so hard you won't be able to sit down for days! You aren't going to force me to do something like that because you're going to be a good little baby girl for us this afternoon, aren't you?" I shuddered a bit at the thought of having a spanking to add to my current embarrassment in front of Jason's brothers. I was in enough trouble already so I had no intention of making things any worse by disobeying her. I nodded my head and then she picked me up and carried me out of the room. I noticed with some fascination that my diaper was so thick that I could barely feel her hands supporting my bottom as she carried me. On the way to the stairs, we paused briefly at the closed door to the room the other two girls were dressing Jason up in. Beckie gave a couple of quick taps on the door and asked what was taking them so long in there. "This one is a little harder to handle than little Katie," Samantha called from the other side of the door. "We've finally got the little darling dressed properly but we'll need some help with the hair and final touches." Beckie rolled her eyes a bit and then said she'd be back to help them after she put me downstairs. When we entered their living room, I saw that they'd cleared a large space in the center of the room and laid out a large blanket on the floor. There were a few baby toys that were scattered on the blanket including a few stuffed animals from my room back home. Brian and Tom were sitting on a sofa against the wall and looked at me with amazement as Beckie gently put me down on the blanket. "I can't believe it!" Tom exclaimed, "he looks so different! It's hard to believe that's really a boy." "Today, she ISN'T a boy! She's my baby sister Katie. Her little playmate isn't quite ready to come down yet so you two keep a close eye on my baby sister while we finish getting YOUR new baby sister ready." Beckie gave me a gentle pat on the head and told me to play quietly like a good little girl and then she headed back upstairs. Brian got up off the couch and came over to get a closer look at me. He whistled softly to himself as he examined Beckie's handiwork. "Wow... and I thought you made a cute little sissy before in just that yellow dress." He gave my behind a quick pat and confirmed what he had already expected to find. "Diapers too, I see. You need a change yet, little girl?" he taunted. I blushed deep red with embarrassment and shook my head. Brian chuckled to himself and went back to sit down with Tom on the sofa. While we were waiting for the girls to come down with Jason, they would give me little instructions to do a few things for them. After a few minutes of having to crawl, hug stuffed animals and shake a baby rattle once in awhile, we finally heard the upstairs door open and the girls came down the stairs. I turned around curious to see how Jason now looked and was quite surprised at what I saw. He obviously didn't make things very easy on the girls because they had tied him up again after getting the clothes on him. In spite of still being tied up, he was struggling so hard that he had to be carried by both Jessica and Beckie. They had stuffed another pacifier in his mouth to keep him quiet, but unlike the one in my mouth his was actually tied in place with several layers of blue ribbon that matched the dress he was wearing. Since Jason was bigger than I was, they had put him in another one of Beckie's older dresses. Although not nearly as babyish as the one I was currently wearing, it was short enough on him so that his diapers easily showed. His diaper looked smaller on him than mine did, but that was probably because he was bigger than me. His hair was not nearly as long as mine was but that didn't matter too much since they had put a little girl's hat on him to match the dress. He only had some frilly white socks on his feet, but since he was tied up there was no need for shoes as he wasn't going to be doing any walking. "Here she is boys," Beckie said, "your new baby sister is quite the naughty little girl so we had to keep her tied up just to get her down here." Brian and Tom were trying hard not to laugh at the sight of their little brother now dressed as their little sister. Brian decided to play along a little more with Beckie's game and put a stern look on his face. "So... you gave these nice girls a hard time upstairs, eh little sister? I think it's time for a little lesson in manners, young lady!" Brian motioned for the girls to bring Jason over to the couch and Jason stopped struggling as he tried to figure out what Brian was going to do. Brian pulled Jason face down over his lap and Tom proceeded to take down his plastic pants and unpin his diaper. From where I was sitting I could see the look of confusion on Jason's face and I could tell that he really didn't believe his brother was going to spank him until the first swat landed on his bare butt. Jason struggled wildly to get away but with his hands tied up behind his back it was a wasted effort as Brian continued to lay a pretty authentic spanking on him. I had a flashback to the previous week where I was in a similar situation over Beckie's lap in the basement of our house. I felt sorry for Jason, but I knew that he was better off learning to cooperate right from the start rather than inviting all sorts of punishment on himself. Brian finished after a minute or so and handed Jason back to the girls so they could re-diaper him. Except for the tears running down his face and the muffled sobbing noises he was making, Jason looked as though he was practically in a daze or something. He gave no resistance at all while the girls fastened his diaper again and straightened out his dress. He was then carried over to the center of the room and deposited next to me on the blanket. "There! That's much better," Beckie said, "I guess you won't be such a naughty girl now, will you sweetie? If you're a good little girl like Katie then maybe we'll be able to untie you in a little while." "Speaking of which," Samantha spoke up, "what are we going to call our newest addition to the nursery? We'll need a pretty name for her, won't we?" Brian and Tom both hadn't really given it much thought and told the girls that it was alright if they chose a name. After a few names were tossed around, they finally settled on Susan. Now it was official. Baby Susie was now a member of my sister's little `babysitting club' and would soon see the sorts of things I had been putting up with so far. Jessica sat down on the edge of the blanket and pulled Jason into her lap to wipe some of the tears from his face and to try to lift his spirits a bit. Samantha sat down to play with me while Beckie got Jason's brothers to follow her into the Kitchen. I figured since it was just after noon, Beckie would be back with some bottles of milk for us and I wondered how `Baby Susie' would react to his first bottle feeding. He seemed to have calmed down quite a bit but I knew that he hadn't given in yet. The instant they let him loose he'd probably take off and I doubted that they'd be able to catch him since he was one of the best runners in our school. He wouldn't likely be able to run too far outside in those clothes, but that wouldn't matter to Jason as long as he could get away from this situation. After a few minutes Beckie and Jason's brothers returned from the kitchen and, sure enough, they brought baby bottles with them. Jason's eyes widened with surprise and he started to struggle again as Beckie approached and handed Jessica one of the bottles. "Stop squirming, you!" Jessica said, "it's lunchtime and you've got to be hungry by now from struggling so much." "Behave yourself baby sister," Brian added "or you'll get another spanking to remind you of what happens when you give these nice girls any trouble." Jason froze at the those words from his brother and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he grudgingly decided to cooperate for the time being. Beckie handed the other bottle to Samantha who then pulled the pacifier out of my mouth and started to feed the bottle to me. I was used to this routine already so I was somewhat comfortable with it, but I couldn't help looking over at Jason to see how he'd handle it. "Here's how it's going to work, little Susie," my sister said to Jason. "We are going to take the pacifier out of your mouth so we can feed you, but if you say so much as ONE word when it comes out you get handed to your brothers for some discipline. Do we have an understanding?" Jason meekly nodded his head and she then gave a nod to Jessica who started to untie the ribbon which was holding the pacifier in place. Beckie then returned to the kitchen and left Brian and Tom to watch with fascinated looks on their faces as Jessica pulled the plug out of Jason's mouth and gently placed the bottle to his lips. "Come on sweetie," Jessica cooed to him. "It isn't so bad. Look how much Katie is enjoying her bottle!" She looked over at me with a grin as I blushed a crimson red. After a quick glance at me, Jason gave a quiet sigh and then slowly started sucking on his bottle. "Awww.... isn't that cute!" Tom taunted from the corner of the living room. "Hey Brian... we've GOT to get some photos to remember this special moment by!" "Not while our baby sister is tied up," said Brian. "It definitely spoils the look... but don't worry, we'll get some later once we're sure she'll behave herself and we'll be able to let her loose." Jason winced, but continued to drink from the bottle while Jessica held him across her lap. I soon finished the one Samantha was feeding me so she replaced the pacifier and was content to just hold me and play with my hair. Jason finally finished his, after which Jessica replaced his pacifier. She turned and called over her shoulder to my sister in the kitchen, "Ready for round two in here, Beckie!" My sister re-entered the living room with two more bottles full of milk and Jason groaned when he saw them. I wasn't quite sure what Beckie was up to as I'd never been fed two bottles in a row before. Since Jason was really new to all this baby stuff, he was definitely not happy to see another one coming. "Okay Susie," my sister began, "you've been a good little girl so far, but it can't be too comfortable for you to have to stay tied up. Since you now know that being bottle fed isn't so terrible, if you promise to behave we can untie you so you'll enjoy this next one a lot more. Deal?" Jason slowly nodded his head, but I knew that once he was free it would only be a matter of time before he'd attempt to escape. Once again Jessica was given a nod from Beckie and a minute later Jason was free. After he rubbed his wrists for a moment or two, he was stood up and walked over to the couch and presented to Brian. "Care to have a try feeding your baby sister, Brian?" Jessica asked. Tom covered his mouth to stifle a laugh as Brian said, "Sure! Why not? It's been a few years since I last bottle fed this particular baby... but I'm pretty sure she was a boy then!" Jason fumed at that comment but didn't resist as Brian pulled him onto his lap and laid him back. Beckie came over and handed him one of the bottles, then came back to give the other to Samantha. While Jason was clearly relieved that he was no longer tied up, he didn't look very comfortable with his older brother bottle feeding him. While he was drinking from it, Tom had gotten up and retrieved a camera from another room in the house and started taking pictures of the scene in the living room. Beckie pulled our camera from her purse and took a few as well. When she got over to Brian she said, "You know Brian, a girl is usually very impressed when a guy shows he isn't too macho to care for a baby." Now it was Brian's turn to blush as Beckie gave him a quick wink and then turned back to Samantha and me. "Can we trade places Sam?" she asked. "I wouldn't mind getting some photos of me with MY baby sister!" She sat down next to us and whispered something in Samantha's ear as Samantha passed me over to Beckie. The bottle was then put back in my mouth and I continued to down it and wondered how much longer this was going to last. Samantha took a few photos of us from a few different angles and then collected the empty baby bottles and disappeared into the kitchen with them. "Tom, I'd like a photo of Brian and myself on the couch together while we both feed our baby sisters. Would you mind taking them?" Brian raised an eyebrow, but then simply shrugged his shoulders as Tom complied with Beckie's request. She carried me over to the couch with her and then sat right up next to Brian -- a little too close, in my opinion. I'm sure that the four of us made quite a `cute' picture on the couch like that, but I was sure that I wouldn't want anyone I knew to see such a photo. I was surprised that Brian was allowing it, but since he had a crush on my sister I guess it never occurred to him to say `no' to her. We sat that way for a bit while Beckie made the odd comment to Brian about how a girl could get used to this sort of situation. He blushed a lot but didn't really say much in response. Once again, I finished my bottle ahead of Jason to which Beckie commented that was to be expected since I was such a natural at being a little baby and I'd also had a lot more practise at it than little Susie had. Again I had to chew on the pacifier some more until Jason finished his bottle. Once he did, Beckie asked Brian to `trade babies' and then shouted, "Round Three, Samantha!" to the kitchen. She couldn't possibly mean to feed us each ANOTHER bottle, could she? Both Jason and I moaned through our pacifiers when Samantha returned with two more. Brian found it very easy to hold me since I was smaller and weighed less than Jason did. He looked me over some more before he stuck the new bottle in my mouth and shook his head in amazement. "You know Beckie, this will sound weird coming from me, but she really DOES make a cute baby like this," he said, "I can't even stop myself from calling her `she' because she's so convincing. You really did quite a good job on her!" "Thanks for saying so, but I really can't take all the credit. Peter's always been delicate and never made a very convincing boy. As a little girl though, he is absolutely precious!" Beckie then reached over and gently tweaked one of my cheeks. "Very cooperative too," he noted. "She has her moments from time to time but she's generally a very good baby," she said. "This one, on the other hand," she said as she patted Jason on the head, "was quite the little wildcat. I was concerned that little Susie here would never settle down enough to be untied but I'm glad she decided to behave herself." She then gave Jason a quick kiss on the forehead which caused him to blush a bit. Beckie and Brian stayed like that on the couch for a little while longer and exchanged some small talk while I could hear Tom and the Other girls playing table-tennis down in the basement. By the time I had finished the latest bottle of milk, I was feeling very bloated. I was also starting to get really tired and it was difficult keeping my eyes open. Brian kept staring at me with that same look of amazement as he replaced my pacifier and continued to hold me on his lap. "It looks as though this little baby needs a nap," Brian commented, "Is she just pretending or is she really falling asleep on me here?" "Oh, I'd say she'll probably be out like a light in a few minutes," my sister quietly replied. "All that warm milk is making her sleepy and she won't be able to stay awake for much longer. Wait until your baby sister finishes her bottle and we'll put them both down on the blanket for an afternoon nap." "It doesn't look like my little sister is tired yet," Brian noted. "Well... she's certainly shown to have a lot more energy than Katie does," my sister replied. She gently patted Jason on the head as he finally finished his bottle, "Also she's bigger than Katie so perhaps she hasn't had enough milk to drink yet. What do you say, Suzie? Do you need another bottle to help you sleep or will you lie down for your nap with Katie right now like a good baby?" Jason had probably started to feel quite uncomfortable from all the milk that he'd drank. His brother was right that it wasn't making him As tired as it was me, but Jason definitely didn't want to have to drink any more. He nodded affirmatively to my sister and she let him off her lap so she could walk him over to the blanket on the floor and lie him down on it. Brian carried me over and gently placed me on the blanket next to Jason. Beckie asked him to remain in the living room to keep an eye on us while she went to the kitchen to prepare lunch for the rest of them. I remember looking at Jason while I was lying next to him and noticed he was looking at me with concern in his eyes, but finally I couldn't stay awake any longer and dozed off. Chapter 8 - `Katie - More Fact than Fiction' I don't think that I slept deep enough to dream of anything in particular. As I slowly started to wake up I could hear quiet laughter in the room and `Baby Suzie' being mentioned a few times. I opened my eyes and saw that everyone had returned to the living room and were seated on the couch and some chairs while giving instructions to Jason. They were making him crawl about and play with toys and stuffed animals just as Jason's brothers had me do earlier that afternoon. Jason was only a few feet away from me and hadn't noticed that I was now awake, but it was plain from the look on his face that he wasn't having a good time. Jessica was seated closest to me and noticed my stirring so she pulled back the blanket that I'd been covered with and lifted me up into her lap. "Look who's finally awake!" she said to the others. "Our good little girl must be well rested from her nap now." She couldn't resist squeezing me in a big hug before she deposited me back on the blanket with Jason again. "Seriously, Beck... she's just so adorable! You've got to let me borrow her sometime so I can play with her at my house. My folks would be so thrilled!" "That might be a little difficult to explain to my mother," Beckie replied. "Give me a bit of time to work it out and we'll see." Beckie wanted pictures of both Jason and myself playing together on the blanket -- no doubt to force our cooperation at some point in the future. After several had been shot, she decided that since both of us were behaving she'd let us talk with each other for awhile, but we'd have to be VERY quiet since none of them wanted to hear a peep from either of us while they were in the kitchen cleaning up the lunch dishes. Samantha and Jessica tied long ribbons through the loops of our pacifiers and then told us we could take them out but we still had to wear them around our necks. The five of them then got up and moved to the kitchen, but every so often one would take a quick look through the doorway to make sure Jason and I weren't up to anything. "Your sister and her friends are out of their minds!" Jason whispered to me. "I can't believe that they've done this to us! Well, maybe on you it doesn't look so unbelievable." "Thanks a lot!" I said indignantly. "You forget that YOU are the reason that we got in this mess in the first place. Now you have an idea what I've had to put up with over this past week." "Those girls are a LOT stronger than they look, that's for sure!" he said quietly. "They sure did a number on me, but that's nothing compared to what they've done to you! I thought you were convincing as a girl earlier today but now there's NO WAY anyone could mistake you for anything else." "Like I said, I've had a lot of practise lately," I said with a sigh. I noticed that Jason had a pained look on his face and he appeared to be in some discomfort. "Are you okay? Why are you twitching like that?" "I've REALLY got to go to the bathroom! It must be from all that milk they made us drink!" He stopped and looked at me curiously. "Hey wait a sec, you don't look like you're having the same problem. Don't you need to use the washroom too?" Until he'd mentioned it, I hadn't even thought about it. I wasn't feeling at all bloated as I had before I fell asleep earlier and I wasn't in any discomfort. It only took me a second before it dawned on me why that might be. "Oh no!" I whispered in dismay as I reached down and checked what I knew I would find. Sure enough, my diaper was wet! "I can't believe it!" I said miserably as tears started forming in my eyes. "I don't believe it!" Jason whispered. "What's going on with you? They've sure done what they could to make you look and feel like a baby girl, but are you really starting to turn into one?" "I don't know what's happening to me, Jason" I responded quietly as a few tears rolled down my cheeks. I didn't want him to know this wasn't the first time I'd wet my diapers, but I think he knew anyways from the look in my eyes. To his credit, he didn't dwell on the topic and we tried to think of what to do next. "I was going to try to make a break for it while you were sleeping, but they kept such a close eye on us I didn't get a chance" he said. "You didn't have a nap too? You were awake the entire time?" I asked. He looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face and replied, "Of course not, I don't take afternoon naps! I did feel kinda weird from drinking all that milk but it wasn't enough to make me want to sleep. Speaking of which, you fell asleep right away after drinking it all. Does that always happen to you when you drink milk?" "I don't know... I don't remember ever having so much at once," I looked thoughtful for a moment and added, "maybe it's also because of all the added running around we did this morning. You're more athletic than I am so you're more used to it". "Maybe. One thing's for certain though, you've DEFINITELY settled the dare!" he gave my shoulder a playful shove then added, "if I'd known how far this was going to take both of us I'd never have made you do it." "Speaking of that dare, you jerk!" I said as I glared at him, "thanks a lot for making it look like it was all MY doing when your brothers had me tied up in the dining room!" He gave a small laugh and replied, "Hey, somebody had to say something and you sure couldn't thanks to that gag Brian put on you. Maybe if you hadn't started to shriek like a little sissy he wouldn't have had to." I frowned at him and then softened a bit as I quietly asked, "I didn't REALLY sound like a girl, did I?" "He shut you up pretty quick, but from what I'd heard...," he paused for a moment and then gave me a funny look. "You know Peter, you've got this girl thing down so well that I don't think you'll ever have to worry about what to wear for Halloween ever again!" "Once a year I could probably take," I replied "but this has been going WAY too far -- not to mention the fact that they keep insisting on putting me in diapers!" Jason groaned at my mention of the diapers which served to remind him that his current predicament was no different from my own. He was looking like he was actually in some pain trying to resist nature's call but he still managed to hold on. I knew that he wasn't going to wait much longer and since this was the first time that either of us had been given a small amount of freedom he was going to take advantage of it. "Listen Peter, we have to make a break for it. I know that you've sort of solved your problem but I'm going to try my best to make sure it doesn't happen to me! If we get up together and run in different directions we'll probably get away from this gang of kooks." "I can't risk it, Jason!" I whispered urgently to him. "You know what Becky and her friends will do to me if I even try it. Besides, this diaper is so thick that I can barely walk in it, much less run. If you're going to take off, make sure you get away because I know my sister and her friends will make sure you regret it if they catch you." He looked at me and then slowly nodded. While making careful glances to the doorway into the kitchen, he reached down and pulled off the frilly socks on his feet. He then carefully removed the pacifier from around his neck, took off the hat they'd put on him and then he took off like a shot. He bolted to the front door and was through it and outside like a track star. He must have doubled back up the side of his house because I suddenly heard Tom yell that 'one of the babies was `escaping'. In an instant, my sister and her friends charged into the living room and were both surprised and relieved to see that I was still there. Brian had run out the side door to join Tom. Jason must have headed into the wooded ravine behind their place because Brian and Tom came back in without him to talk to my sister. "Don't worry," said Brian, "we'll catch that naughty little baby. Do you three want to wait here with that one while we go after him?" Jessica had picked me up, replaced my pacifier in my mouth and was holding me in her lap. "Our little baby girl here needs her pants changed so we'll stay here and look after her." Both Brian and Tom rolled their eyes and started chuckling as I tried to bury my face in Jessica's shoulder. "It looks like you were right Beckie," Brian said as he turned to my sister. "All that milk they drank definitely caused them some problems. We'd better catch the other one before someone sees him dressed like that." He and Tom fetched a few pieces of the rope that was used on Jason and myself earlier and then ran off out the side door. I hoped that Jason would get away because he'd really be in for it if they caught him now. "Let's bring her back upstairs," my sister said to Jessica and Samantha. "I brought some of Katie's extra diapers for just such an emergency." Jessica stood up with me and then she carried me upstairs to the guest room with Beckie and Samantha following behind. Beckie had even thought to bring a changing pad in amongst all the things from our house so it was pretty clear that it was their intention to make me wet myself again. She laid it out on the bed and then proceeded to change, powder and then pin me into dry diapers. After the plastic pants and frilly diaper cover were pulled up into place, my dress was straightened and the 3 of them took turns holding me and bouncing me on their knee. I didn't really take much notice as I was distracted by my thoughts of Jason. I knew that he couldn't go too far dressed as he was and eventually he'd have to come back. If he could stay away until his parents came home, he might be able to get his brothers back by showing his parents what they'd help do to him earlier that day. The girls decided to return to the living room with me and start to pack things up in preparation for the return to my house. Beckie had made up a bottle of apple juice for me and gave it to me to suck on while she and her friends went about the house packing all the baby stuff away. Surprisingly enough I was actually thirsty again in spite of how much I'd drank earlier that afternoon and sat quietly with my bottle on the blanket while the cleanup went on around me. "It's too bad your friend took off right when he did, Katie," my sister said to me. "We figured he'd learned his lesson and were getting ready to let him change back into his regular clothes when he took off. Now it looks as though he's going to enjoy being a baby girl awhile longer." Samantha bent down and gave one of my cheeks a gentle tweak as she Said, "But not our precious Katie! She stayed right here like a good little baby while her naughty friend ran away from us!" Jessica nodded in agreement but also pointed out that my diaper was so thick that I probably wouldn't have made it out of the room before they noticed and caught me anyways. About 10 minutes after everything was packed up, Brian and Tom entered from the side door with Jason slung over Brian's shoulder. His feet were muddy so it looked as though he'd given them quite a run in the ravine. I was actually surprised they'd managed to catch him since few people knew that ravine as well as Jason did, but then Jason wasn't exactly dressed for playing `hide and seek' at the moment. "Well, we caught the little darling but she's all dirty now so we're going to take her upstairs and rinse off her feet before we set her down anywhere," Brian said as he walked past us. They'd certainly caught him alright. Jason looked all flustered and out of breath from the chase. His brothers were obviously not risking him taking off on them again because he'd been tightly tied and gagged and was looking quite frustrated. "Listen Brian," my sister began, "we really have to get Katie back to our house so we can put everything away before our mother gets home. You can keep my old dress here in case you decide you want your baby sister visiting again." Brian reached up to pat Jason's diapered bottom and replied, "That's very nice of you, Beckie. I think we'll take you up on that. As for Suzie here, she's probably going to need these diapers too since we've decided not to let her loose until after she's used them." Tom added, "Yeah... if she's going to act like such a baby by running off like that, she may as well be a baby for a little while longer." Jason got a panicked look in his eyes and I could tell that he didn't get a chance to relieve himself during his brief escape. I hoped that I'd be able to see the look on his face when it finally did happen because then he'd REALLY know what it's been like for me. Beckie told Brian and Tom that was fine with her and even offered to head back over a little later to show them how to change a baby's diaper. Brian obviously would welcome any chance to spend some time with my sister, so he told her that little Susie would be in those diapers for a few more hours so she was more than welcome to head back over after she got me settled at our house. Jason clearly didn't like what was in store for him and started to struggle again as Brian and Tom headed off to their upstairs bathroom with him to get him cleaned up. As he was being carried out he was looking desperately at me and kept trying to say something through his gag, but all that came out were a few `mmphs'. I felt bad for him, but what exactly did he expect me to do? Although I wasn't tied up like him it's not like they were going to suddenly change their minds and release him just because I asked them to. If I tried to say anything Beckie would probably spank me right there in front of everyone and then she might even tie me up like Jason was to make a point. Beckie and Samantha gathered all the bags up while Jessica wrapped me up snugly in the blanket that I'd spent much of the afternoon on. I'd finished off the apple juice so the pacifier was back in my mouth again and I quietly sucked on it while Jessica carried me out of the house. On the walk home, the three of them exchanged some talk about what they figured would happen with Baby Susie. Samantha and Jessica agreed to watch over me at our house while Beckie went back to see Brian and help him with his new baby sister. Although I had hoped that I might be allowed to change back into my regular clothes once we got in, I didn't think it would be as bad to remain Baby Katie for Samantha and Jessica. Jessica really loves to play with me when I'm dressed up as Katie and Samantha loves to keep doing different things with my hair. I figured it was because neither one of them had a younger brother or sister at home so having a `baby' to play with was a lot of fun to them. Beckie clearly liked it too, but it was obvious that her friends got a much bigger kick out of it. Jessica loved carrying me and while I was all wrapped up in the blanket she'd occasionally lean down and kiss me on my nose, forehead, cheek, whatever. I giggled at this in spite of myself. In some ways, she reminded me of how my mother was treating me over the past weekend. Jessica would probably make a terrific mom herself one day because she really seemed to have a feel for handling babies. When we got back in the house, Jessica stayed on the couch with me while Samantha and Beckie put everything away. Afterwards, Samantha fixed up some cookies and milk for the three of us while Beckie headed back to Brian, Tom and Jason's place. They put a Disney movie in the VCR and stayed on the couch to watch it with me. They even told me that it was alright to talk now if I wanted to as long as I kept my voice really quiet. Although I felt a little relieved that I didn't have to hold my tongue for fear of a spanking anymore, I really didn't have all that much to say so I just continued to suck on my pacifier while they took turns cuddling with me during the movie. I was REALLY starting to like all this baby treatment now -- especially when Samantha and Jessica were alone with me like they were now. I wondered about what Jessica had asked my sister earlier that day -- about `borrowing' me for a while sometime. That was something that I thought I'd probably really enjoy if it ever happened. Halfway through the movie my sister returned. She'd been carrying a plastic bag with her when she'd first come in that was immediately brought into the laundry room. She and her friends gave knowing looks to each other and giggled a bit, but said nothing as she joined us on the couch to watch the rest of the movie. When it was over, Beckie told me not to worry about my friend ever telling anyone about how he saw me that previous weekend at the movie theatre. She was pretty sure that at this point he'd be more than willing to forget it ever happened. In a sense, it WAS a bit of a relief that part of the problem was now behind me. Jason had been through at least as much baby girl treatment as I had AND there were pictures to prove it. I felt a bit sorry for him since now he had a bigger problem with his two brothers who were no doubt going to use today's adventure to torment him in the future. It was unfortunate that he'd gotten caught by them that morning or Jason and I might have pulled off our little scheme and no one would ever have been the wiser. Except for the part about being held captive by his brothers... and the fact that now THEY knew about Baby Katie as well, that day wasn't really all that different than any of the other days that I became Katie. I knew now that I was definitely getting used to being Katie and I was starting to regret having to switch between being her and being Peter. Now it really was time to become Peter again. Jessica and Samantha each gave me their usual big hug and kiss on the cheek and then retrieved their bathing suits and towels from our laundry room. They each blew a kiss to me on their way out the side door and then they were gone. Beckie sat down next to me on the couch and didn't say anything for a few minutes while she just simply looked at me. "God they're right... you are SO cute as Katie," she finally said. "It isn't just your looks, but the way that you move and even how your voice sounds too. Peter, do you realize that you automatically start behaving like a girl as soon as we get you dressed up?" I hadn't given it too much thought up to that point, but I had been starting to suspect as much. "I guess", I replied quietly. "Maybe Katie is becoming a real part of me now. Sometimes I can't help being her." "I've noticed. You have yet to explain yourself for why you got dressed up today all by yourself. I know that Jason had somehow put you up to it, but you still did it, didn't you? Not many boys would do it or even COULD do it if they wanted to. I think that maybe we should talk to Mom about Katie having a more permanent home here with us." A week ago I would have told my sister right off that she was nuts, but a lot had happened in that week. Katie's personality was starting to develop and I wasn't kidding when I told my sister that sometimes I couldn't help being Katie. I didn't say anything for a minute, but then I looked at my sister and quietly asked, "Do you think Mom will be mad at me?" Beckie smiled then, it was a warm kind of smile that I don't often see from her. "Mom LOVES you Peter, and so do I. You've always been a good little brother but you've also proven to be a beautiful little sister that I'm just beginning to get to know. There's NOTHING that you can't tell Mom, or me either. We're family and that's the way it will always be". I didn't know what to say at that point. In a rare display of affection I seldom saw as Peter she gave me a hug and then lifted me up off the couch with her. "C'mon kiddo. It's time to let you out of these baby things. Mom is expecting to see Peter when she gets home -- do you think you'll be okay with being him again?" I giggled a bit -- a bit of a girlish giggle, I thought -- and told her I thought I could manage that. She brought me into her room and sat me on her bed so she could get me undressed. "Beckie, did you mean what you said about me being able to talk to you about anything?" I asked as she was undoing my pigtails and straightening my hair. "Sure, I guess. As long as it isn't any gross kind of boy-thing." "I know you like me being Katie, but why do I have to be a baby too? I'm not sure that I like being kept in diapers all the time." She didn't say anything for a minute and then replied, "You're even cuter looking as a baby, so why deny the world such a precious little baby? Besides, the diapers are actually starting to become necessary with you." "But I never have any of those accidents when I'm Peter!" I protested. "It only seems to happen when I'm Katie." I saw Beckie's thoughtful expression in the mirror of her vanity table as she thought about that for a moment. "That's true, now that you mention it. Maybe that's also part of Katie's personality." Beckie finished straightening my hair and then finally let me out of the diaper. Just then we heard our mother entering through the front door so Beckie told me to hurry off to my room and dress as Peter. Once again I felt a little strange back in my room. This time it was an even stranger sensation to dress in my `real' clothes again. Mom called us both downstairs to help her put some groceries away and then she started on making dinner for us. We stayed in after dinner and spent a quiet family night at home. Mom came to my bedroom when it was close to my bedtime to tuck me in and to put me in the now-familiar nighttime diapers. She read to me some more from one of my bedtime stories and then kissed me goodnight. After she'd gone, I reached down and felt my diaper again. It wasn't nearly as thick as the one I'd been made to wear most of the day so I hardly paid any attention to it. I wondered about why I only seem to have accidents when I'm Katie. Maybe Katie really IS a baby and she'll grow up in her own time. In the meantime, I was Peter and Peter doesn't need to wear diapers. I figured that this was probably the last night I'd have to wear them to bed as Peter so I didn't give it any more thought. I can't WAIT to go and see Jason again tomorrow, I thought to myself as I smiled and drifted off to sleep. Chapter 9 ----`Katie, Peter or both?' I remembered some of my dream from that night. I had dreamt about doing a lot of fun things and traveling to all sorts of places... but I did them as Katie. In the dream the world felt so real and all of my senses just seemed to be much more alive than they ever were when I was Peter. Smells were richer and colours were much more vibrant (years later I recall reading that people supposedly always dream in Black & White -- it obviously can't be true all the time because even now I distinctly recall vivid colours in my dreams). I was slowly brought back from my dream when Beckie gently shook me awake the next morning. I opened my eyes and was surprised to see that she was smiling this morning. "Good morning, sleepyhead!" She said as she swept some of my hair off of my face. "Are you ready to come downstairs for breakfast?" Although it was definitely a good sign to see her in such a good mood, as Peter I'm usually suspicious of this as it often meant she wanted something from me or had something planned for me. "Umm... yeah, okay Beckie" I said as I slid out from underneath the covers. We both went downstairs where she'd gone ahead and made up some soft- boiled eggs with bread strips to dip in them. She didn't make me wear a bib this time and she even gave me orange juice in a regular glass. It was almost as if treating me any differently had never occurred to her. The suspense was getting to me so I finally had to ask why she was so happy this morning. "Because I just am. Maybe it's because I've seen you in a completely different way that makes me appreciate how special and unique you are." "As Peter or as Katie?" I asked as I raised an eyebrow. "Both, actually," she simply said. She was starting to worry me now. This wasn't the same sister that I was used to. I still wasn't sure if it was all some sort of act or not and the moment I least expected it I'd probably find myself her baby prisoner again. I didn't want to press her on it so I didn't say much else through the rest of breakfast. After we were finished, she and I cleared the table and then she led me back to my room so she could do the morning check on my diaper. Until she'd reminded me, I had honestly forgotten that I was even wearing one. We got into my room and she quickly checked to see if I was wet. She gave a satisfied nod when she saw I was again dry this morning and had me lie down on my bed so she could unpin and remove the diaper. "Well, that settles it then. You obviously don't have a wetting problem, but Katie is still another matter" she said as she was unfastening the diaper pins. "Maybe I shouldn't try to be Katie any more," I said nervously. "I don't want Mom thinking that I can't control myself." "But Peter, YOU can control yourself. Katie is just a little girl and probably needs a little more time before she can too. Besides, you remember what we talked about last night? Can you really just stop being Katie anymore?" My memories of the previous day certainly hadn't gone away. Combined with the few things of my dream I could remember I knew that Beckie was right. Katie was too real now and I couldn't shut her off any more than I could shut Peter off when I became her. I didn't know how much longer we'd be able to keep this from our mother and I was worried how she'd react when we finally did tell her about how I'd changed. "You're right, she's me and I'm her. I'm scared Beckie! I think I'm going crazy!" I said with a bit of a tremor in my voice. "Don't be scared. We'll talk to Mom tonight about it, but we'll have to tell her about yesterday too or she won't completely understand what we'll be trying to tell her. Don't worry... we'll be sure to leave some parts of yesterday out." Beckie then gathered up the diapers and told me it'd be a good idea if I was Peter today so I should try to go out and play like I usually did. She then left the room and I got dressed in my usual `Peter' clothes. I made a brief pit stop in the bathroom then headed downstairs. Beckie advised me to check back in with her around lunchtime and then I took off and figured I'd go see how Jason was holding out. I was a little uneasy as I approached his house with all the memories of the previous day still fresh in my mind. Facing his brothers wasn't going to be easy, but it was likely that they'd be more interested in teasing Jason this time instead of me. I felt pretty sure that it was safe to go up and knock on the side door. Brian ran the show here during the days and he wouldn't do anything to me that he thought Beckie might get mad at him for. I wondered how long it was going to take him to actually ask Beckie out on a date. "Whoa... look who's here Brian!" Tom said as he let me in the side door. "Katie?" Brian asked. "I'm sort of surprised to see you back here so soon after yesterday." "I'm Peter today, thanks" I said a little indignantly. "Katie's taking the day off. Where's Jason?" "Ah, you mean Baby Susie. Come on in, we're just finishing giving her her breakfast." Brian said over his shoulder as he beckoned me to follow him in the dining room. Jason was sitting bound to one of the dining room chairs again. He was still wearing Beckie's old blue dress and frilly socks on his feet. They had tied a bib around his neck and there was quite a mess on the front of it that looked like oatmeal. His eyes widened a bit as I entered, but he wasn't able to say anything to me at the moment since there was a pacifier stuffed into his mouth -- no doubt put there by one of his brothers when they heard someone walking up the side of the house. "It's too bad Katie isn't here to play with Susie today, but maybe it's time that Jason came back too," Brian said with a smirk. Brian pulled the pacifier from Jason's mouth and told him that if he behaved through the rest of breakfast that they'd untie him and let him change back. Jason didn't say anything and cooperated fully with them as Brian finished spoon-feeding him. Afterwards, Tom untied his bib and then freed him from the chair. He handed Jason a baby bottle full of grape juice and told him he had to finish it before he could change back. He then shooed us both into their living room while he and Brian cleaned up. I couldn't help but notice his diaper peeking out from under the dress as we walked over to the couch. I wondered if there was anything else that Beckie had left there for Baby Susie. "Well, this is a switch" I said to Jason with a smirk as we sat down together. "Don't you look precious this morning, what a lucky baby you are to get to drink grape juice too. I usually got apple juice... way to go Susie!" He glared at me and said, "Very funny, Peter. I won't have to stay stuck in this dress much longer and thanks to your sister there are some extra diapers here and my brothers definitely know how to change them. If you're so envious, maybe I should just tell them that Baby Katie wants to play after all and then they'll give you all the grape juice you want!" I frowned at him but then shrugged it off. "Finish off your bottle then so they'll let you change and we can get out of here before they decide to do something weird to us. You drink those things way too slow, you know!" "Oh, I'm so sorry! Excuse me for not being such a pro at these things as YOU obviously are" He gave me an annoyed look but did try harder to drink it faster and a few minutes later he was done. "I'm finished guys!" he shouted to the kitchen. Brian came out and took the empty bottle from him. "Okay, go upstairs to your room to get changed but wait for Tom to help you out of that dress. It still belongs to Peter's sister and I don't want you throwing it on the floor like you do with every other thing you wear." Jason took off to his room and Brian called to Tom and told him to go up and help his `little sister'. "Are you sure you don't need diapers today?" Tom taunted me as he passed through the living room. "We have extras here in case there's any more accidents like yesterday!" I blushed but didn't say anything and simply stared at my shoes. Five minutes later Jason was sprinting down the stairs and into the living room. I quickly got up and we both figured it was safer for us to make ourselves scarce so we took off through the side door and ran for the safety of the ravine behind their house. After running for a few minutes, we finally stopped to catch our breath at what we figured was a safe distance from Jason's house. "I am SO glad to be out of there!" Jason said. "I think it's going to take a while before my brothers stop tormenting me with all this baby stuff. I'm starting to wish that it was time to go back to school so they'd have other things on their minds." "So what happened yesterday?" I asked. "How'd they catch you after you took off and what did they do with you after the girls took me back to my house?" "There were some people hiking around in the ravine yesterday and I had to weave around to avoid being seen by them. Unfortunately that gave my brothers time to catch up with me and even I can't outrun them in there when they're wearing shoes and I'm not." "So that's obviously when they tied you up again and hauled you back to the house. Do they do that tie-up stuff with you often? They sure seem to be pretty good at it!" I said while remembering how I'd been secured the previous day. Jason groaned and said it had been going on for awhile but more often lately. He added that in the past he'd be able to escape them without too much difficulty but it gradually got tougher as his brothers became more skillful with ropes -- and the previous day he couldn't escape at all. "If that wasn't bad enough," he continued, "They knew I was desperate to use the washroom and kept me tied up until I was forced to finally use the diaper. They washed all the mud off my feet and left me sitting in that wet diaper until your sister came back a while later. She brought back some of the baby stuff with her and decided that she'd show my brothers how to properly change Baby Susie's diapers. They finally untied me and she changed me right there on the bathroom floor! Man... that was SO embarrassing!" I nodded in agreement. He knew that I would definitely understand where he was coming from. "After that, they hauled me back down to the living room and had me do more baby acting for them. The three of them made me suck on that stupid pacifier again while they sat on the couch together and laughed about all the stuff they'd done with us yesterday. I sat there and quietly listened to him complain about how much he hated being made into such a sissy while at the same time trying to sort out how I felt about everything. Upon reflection, Beckie and the girls had been VERY nice to me -- after all, I didn't even get spanked as Jason had. I was certain that Beckie would've been mad at me for becoming Katie behind her back as I had, but for some reason Beckie was a LOT nicer to me when I was Katie. That went double for her two friends -- Jessica in particular. This wasn't to say that I was at all happy about how that entire ordeal began yesterday, nor with Jason's part in it, either. His brothers finding out about Katie wasn't part of our arrangement and I knew that now that they DID know it was no doubt going to cause me a lot of embarrassment in the future -- even if they actually kept it to themselves. Beckie had made certain that Jason would keep my secret, but his brothers were a different matter altogether. I wondered what the price of THEIR silence was going to cost me this time. I must have been sitting there immersed in my own thoughts for longer than I had realized because Jason suddenly started to wave his hand in front of my eyes. "Hey... is anyone in there? Hello?" he asked. "Sorry Jason," I said absently. "What was it you were asking me?" "I was asking if that's what it's like for you all the time when the girls turn you into their baby" he said a little impatiently. "Now that you mention it, yes." I nodded slowly and then quickly added, "but they've never involved anyone else in it like they did yesterday and they likely wouldn't have if you'd kept your stupid mouth shut and not try to lie your way out of it." "Geez... what do YOU have to complain about? You didn't get spanked in front of everyone yesterday and YOU don't have 2 older brothers that will never let you forget it, either. At least you're used to being treated like a baby girl -- you were even good at it!" I opened my mouth to offer some sort of denial but it never came and I just looked down at my feet. Jason was right, I WAS good at it. Whenever I was put in that role, everything about being a baby girl came naturally to me. The truth was that it wasn't just all the attention that everyone poured all over me when I was Katie, it was also BEING her that was thrilling. Still, this presented all sorts of problems to my Peter lifestyle and Jason was very aware of that. "Look Peter," he began, "I've known you for awhile and although you've never been quite as into boy things as other guys are, I've never known you to ever make such a convincing girl as you did yesterday. If I hadn't already known you, I'd have NEVER guessed you weren't a girl... you can even move and sound exactly like one!" None of what he was saying was exactly new to me, but it was a bit unsettling to hear one of my few friends say it to me. "So what is it you're trying to say? Are you asking me if I'm really a girl?" I said as I gave him an annoyed look. He looked at me for a few moments before replying. "Well, not exactly. Obviously you're a boy," then he added much more quietly, "at least at the moment." I gave him a quick shove. "I wouldn't talk if I were you! I wasn't the one still in diapers and dresses this morning, was I?" He rolled his eyes and then explained that he hadn't been kept in those clothes all night. His brothers had released him and let him change back to his usual clothes shortly after Beckie had left yesterday. He thought that was to be the end of that nonsense until his brothers pounced on him while he was still sleeping. They'd waited until their parents had left for work and then grabbed him out of bed and quickly turned him back into Baby Susie again. Although they told him it was only for breakfast, he wasn't all that eager about it and they decided to tie him to the dining room chair so they could spoon-feed him. "My brothers will eventually get bored with that routine, but until they do I'll never know when they're going to grab me and dress me up like that again. Hopefully if I just avoid them and keep away from the house I won't have to worry." He looked at me and then smirked as he added, "Unlike YOU, I'm not all that good at being a baby or a girl and probably couldn't do it very well even if I wanted to". "Fair enough," I said as I sighed heavily. "The truth is that I don't know why I can do it so well. What really bothers me is that when I'm in that role I can't help but to be the way that I look. It comes so naturally to me that sometimes it's hard to remember what it's like being a boy." "Wow...," Jason whistled softly, "That must be pretty hard to deal with. Are you going to be okay?" "I'm not sure but I hope so. Beckie has also noticed these changes in me and she's suggested that we talk it over with our mother tonight. I'm not sure how Mom's going to take it, but I hope that she can help sort this out." On that thought of my sister, I remembered how she had suggested I check in with her around lunchtime so I suggested to Jason that he come back to my place with me. We could hang around and swim in my backyard for a while and I assured him that he'd be safe from his brothers there. He was a little concerned about being safe from my sister and her friends, but I convinced him that he had nothing to fear today. For some reason that I couldn't even understand myself, I knew that Beckie wouldn't do any baby girl stuff to either of us that day. It felt weird that I knew that for certain without knowing why since I'd never been able to understand her like that in the past. My feelings were correct and Beckie was quite friendly to both of us that day. Apart from teasing Jason every so often by calling him `Susie' and asking if `she' was in need of another diaper change, things were quite relaxing for the day. Beckie made lunch for the three of us and even played about in our pool with us before then retiring indoors to her room to read more of her magazines. Jason was quite relieved that she seemed content to leave us alone because he still felt a bit embarrassed around her -- no doubt due to the recent diaper changes he had been subjected to. We tried not to talk anymore on the subject of the previous day and went down to the rec room to play some video games. We played that way for the rest of the afternoon until it was time for Jason to go back home. He deliberately waited 'till he knew his parents would be home just to be on the safe side and then he headed off after wishing me luck that night for my impending talk with my mother. I stayed down in the rec room for awhile longer after he'd left and thought about how everything had started in that same room the other week. A lot had certainly happened to me since that first day and I wondered how I was going to be able to talk about it with our mother. She's a great Mom and was always very understanding, but then I'd never had to go and tell her THIS sort of thing before. Almost on cue, I heard her voice upstairs as she came in the front door. It sounded like she had brought some more groceries home with her so I went upstairs to see if I could help with anything. A little while later, we settled down to dinner and the casual table conversation was pretty much as normal as it usually was. Becky and Mom did most of the talking and although that isn't all that unusual, for some reason Mom kept looking at me now and then with a bit of concern in her eyes. "Peter, is there anything wrong? You've been awfully quiet tonight" she finally asked. "Uh, not really. Sorry Mom... I was just thinking about something" Beckie met my eyes and gave me a subtle shake of her head to caution me not to bring up the subject right at that moment and then she spoke up to change the subject and suggested that maybe we could all go out for a family walk to the park after dinner. For the rest of dinner and through the remainder of the evening I tried to act as I normally did - * but it wasn't easy. After the visit to the park we stopped by Jensen's again for some more ice cream. At first I was a little nervous considering how he'd last seen me in there, but he didn't mention it and only gave me a knowing wink as we were leaving. When we finally got home it was coming up on bedtime for me so Mom was in the process of telling me to go upstairs to have my bath when Beckie decided now would be as good a time as ever to talk about Katie with her. "Mom, Peter and I need to talk to you about something and I'm not sure how to say it because it's kind of.... well, out of the ordinary" Mom had a thoughtful look on her face for a moment or two and then nodded as she sat down on the couch and beckoned us to come and sit with her. "Hmm... I suspected there might be something," she said as she looked at me. "Would I be correct if I guessed this has something to do with Peter?" I gave a loud gasp and was too shocked to reply. How did Mom know that? She sat quietly and listened while Beckie talked about some of things from my Katie visit from the previous weekend. She made a lot of emphasis on how adorable and convincing a little girl I had been and then how, in spite of my near-perfect performance, that I'd finally been recognized by one of my friends at the Movie Theatre. Beckie gave me a quick nudge and told me to tell Mom about the `deal' I'd made with Jason so he'd keep quiet about it. I wasn't sure how much of the story I should be telling Mom, so I just kept to the part about the dare and having to get dressed up by myself and then go down to Jensen's Ice Cream Store. I had just gotten to the part where Jason and I had returned home to find that Beckie and her friends had gone back in the house when Beckie quickly interrupted me and then altered the story from there. "Me and Sam and Jess had just finished hanging up our bathing suits to dry in the laundry room and caught Peter sneaking back into the house dressed up as Katie" she began. "We were surprised, to say the least, so we wouldn't let Peter change his clothes back until he told us what was going on. After he'd told me, I was a little annoyed with him so I made him stay dressed as Katie for the rest of the day. That was when we had a chance to really watch Katie in `girl mode' and it was stunning how convincing she really is." Mom didn't say anything for a moment or two while she thought about what Beckie just told her then asked me if I thought my friend would keep quiet about it or did I want her to speak to his parents about it. "Oh no Mom!" I said quickly, "Jason won't tell anyone. He thinks it's kind of neat that I'm so good at being Katie. He promised me that he'd keep it to himself." Mom looked a little skeptical, but appeared to be satisfied with my answer. "Mom, what we needed to talk to you about is about WHY Peter is so good at being Katie" Beckie said. "If look at all of the little things that you noticed during that Katie weekend and you add these other things... there's a lot more going on here than just playing dress up." Mom drew me over to her and sat me in her lap. She looked at me carefully and asked, "Peter, how do you feel about pretending to be Katie? Is it just a game or is it much more than that to you?" This was it. This was the moment to finally come out and tell her, but I couldn't seem to make any words come out of my mouth. Everything was such a jumble in my head and I didn't know how to put what I was feeling about everything into words. I could feel my lower lip quivering a little and my eyes started watering as I looked at her. "I... I don't know, Mom! I'm so confused! I know I that I'm a boy, but when I'm Katie I feel... different. It's not that I think I'm a girl either, but... " My voice gave out at that point and the rest of what I had tried to say had dissolved into sobs. Mom gently held me and stroked my hair while I cried my eyes out. Neither Beckie nor my mother said anything for awhile and for the longest time it seemed as though the only sound in the room was me crying on my mother's shoulder. My mother finally lifted my chin up and spoke very softly to me, "Peter, tell me honestly, if I was to tell you that you never had to be Katie ever again, how would you feel about that?" I looked down nervously at my hands while I quietly answered, "I don't think I'd want Katie to go away, Mom. Even if I did, I don't think she could. She's part of me." Mom was quiet for a moment and then nodded her head. "That's pretty much what I suspected. I have known for quite awhile that you were a bit different from other little boys, but I wasn't sure how deep those differences went. What would you say about coming with me to see a special friend of mine to talk about Katie? She may be able to help us find some answers." Beckie, who had been quiet this entire time (and other than sleeping it was probably one of the longest periods she'd gone to date without talking!), suddenly spoke up, "Do you mean, like, some kind of doctor, Mom?" I got a little worried as soon as she'd said that. Doctors always made me feel a little nervous and Mom could tell from looking at me what I was thinking. "She's a special kind of Doctor, Peter," she said gently. "She helps children with problems that are difficult for them to talk about. She has a nice, comfortable office and all you do when you see her is talk... so you don't have to worry about getting needles or anything like that." That last part was the real clincher for me seeing as how I was really scared of needles. If all we were going to do was talk and maybe find some kind of answers to my problems then that would be fine by me. Mom said she'd make me an appointment and then decided that we'd best let the matter rest for the time being. It was now past my bedtime and I still needed to have my bath. Mom kept Beckie downstairs with her to talk a little more and sent me upstairs to the bathroom. While I was having my bath, I felt as if a giant weight had been lifted from me. I was so worried about how Mom was going to react to my Katie situation that I had made myself really tense all day. It looked as though Mom really seemed to understand and it made me feel better to know that she'd be going with me to talk to this special doctor. After awhile, Beckie came and knocked on the door to get me to hurry up and finish up so she could have her shower. I suddenly realized that I'd spent much longer in the tub than I normally do and wondered how I could have lost track of time so badly. I got out and quickly dried myself and then headed off to my room to get dressed for bed. Mom came by shortly afterwards to tuck me in and she confirmed that she was satisfied that I didn't need to wear diapers to bed anymore since I'd gone the last few nights without any accidents. While I was relieved, there was still the thought in the back of my mind that although I didn't need them, Katie probably still did. I hoped this was something that this special Doctor would help me work out. Mom read some more to me from my current bedtime story and then kissed me goodnight. As I was drifting off to sleep, my thoughts turned to my experiences as Katie. I remembered that I didn't like it at first, but it seemed that I was now starting to look forward to the next time I might become her again. I started to dream that it was the end of summer now and I was back at school again -- only this time I went back as Katie... but Katie as she would be at my proper age. Part 10 -- Peter's First Appointment By the time the weekend came, I looked back upon that week and was quite surprised by how much had happened to me and how much had changed within me. I had a distinct awareness of my `Katie' side now and whenever I allowed that side to come out, it was getting harder to stop and go back to being my `Peter' self. I had been a bit concerned about what would happen that weekend due to the manner in which I'd spent the previous one. However, much to my surprise and even a little to my disappointment, it had turned out to be just a normal weekend at our house. It almost seemed as though Mom and Beckie were going out of their way to avoid any mention of Katie or even my upcoming appointment to see that Doctor friend of Mom's. By Sunday evening I'd even forgotten about it until Mom reminded me about it at bedtime that we'd both be going the following morning. I don't think I managed to get very much sleep that night due to my worrying about the appointment and the next morning I was so tired that I caught myself dozing off a couple of times at breakfast. The funny thing is that by the end of that day I'd found that I'd ended up getting all worked up over nothing! Although I was a bit uneasy at first when we'd first gotten to her office, Dr. Carla was very pleasant and her office was really neat -- not at all like the kind of office our family doctor has. Her office was more like someone's living room and had a very comfortable feel to it. Although there were a lot more bookcases in there then I'd ever seen in anyone's living room, she did have very comfortable chairs and a couple of sofas to sit on. Her desk was even positioned in the corner of the room, far away from everything else and gave the impression that she didn't use it that much when she was talking to her patients. She also had a lot of really cool-looking pictures on her walls (I discovered many years later after studying a bit of art in school that they had been some of Salvador Dali's works) and I was always fascinated by them. In spite of the very pleasant atmosphere, I was still a bit nervous because of the reason that I was there in the first place. I had sort- of expected her to get right down to it and sit me in a chair across from her and talk about Katie. Instead, she and Mom sat down at a table with me and the three of us played a few card games! That caught me completely off-guard and so I thought that this Dr. Carla might not be so bad after all. After a couple of different games, Dr. Carla suggested the 3 of us play various word games of sorts. Although they weren't quite as enjoyable as the card games were, I still had a bit of fun even though some of the word games seemed a bit strange at the time. Before I knew it, our time was up. While Mom and Dr. Carla were having a short discussion about a second appointment, I'd wandered about her office and looked closely at all those pictures she had on her walls. Finally, we were ready to leave and I politely thanked Dr. Carla for the fun time we'd had together as Mom and I left her office. While we were driving back home, I was a bit confused about the time we'd spent at Dr. Carla's office. I had thought that we were supposed to be going there to talk about Katie, but she wasn't mentioned even once the entire time we were there. I really did like Dr. Carla, but I couldn't help feeling that there was more going on at that session than I was aware of. When we'd gotten back to the house, Mom ushered me inside and had a quick talk with Beckie about the usual household stuff she was supposed to look after and then she headed off to work. As soon as she'd gone, Beckie was extremely curious about what had gone on at my appointment and was a bit disappointed when she'd heard what had happened. "I thought that Mom's friend was supposed to talk about Katie with you," Beckie said. "Instead she and Mom just sat around playing a few games with you? That doesn't make any sense." I shrugged and simply replied that I was just as surprised as she was but I did point out that I was supposed to have another appointment and maybe that one would be a bit different. Becky looked thoughtful for a moment and then simply nodded her head and went back to the laundry room to finish whatever it was she'd been working on before Mom and I came home. "What were you planning to do for the rest of today, Peter?" she called from the laundry room. "I dunno... I thought I'd just head out to play with Jason again," I replied as I poured myself a glass of water in the kitchen. "Jessie and Sam are coming over this afternoon, are you sure you don't want to stay and play with us? They really miss Katie, you know." I choked a bit on my drink when she'd said that but I relaxed a bit when I could hear her giggling in the laundry room. She was probably just joking with me, but the past few weeks had given me cause to be concerned just the same. I politely declined her invitation and took off out of the house as fast as I could. During the walk over to Jason's place I kept thinking about the visit with the Doctor that morning. Katie hadn't been brought up at all then -- or over the past weekend either, come to think of it. Beckie's casual teasing just before I'd left was the first mention of Katie in days and now that I had a chance to think a bit more about it, I'd almost felt relieved that she'd been mentioned again. Maybe the Katie side of me was getting a little restless since she hasn't been allowed out for a few days. I shivered at that thought. I was one person, not two -- I knew this, but it was almost as if I couldn't figure out which one I was supposed to be. "Hey Peter, wait up!" Jason shouted from behind me as he rode his skateboard to catch up with me. I suddenly noticed that I'd walked about a half a block past his house without realizing it. I turned and watched Jason come to a stop beside me. "What's with you today Peter? You walked clear past my house like you forgot where I lived or something. Did that Doctor really freak you out this morning, or what?" "Nah... nothing much really happened. We played some card games and some word games, but that was about it. My problems with Katie weren't even mentioned." Jason was a bit surprised when I told him that but quickly shrugged it off and suggested we hang out at his place for a bit and play some video games. His reaction was pretty much what I suspected it would be since although he was my best friend, this Katie business is still pretty freaky to him and he'd much rather prefer not to dwell on it if he didn't have to. No doubt his recent adventures as `Baby Suzie' were still fresh in his mind and to him the less that was said about little girl alter-egos the better. I wasn't all that eager to encounter his brothers for pretty much the same reason, but I figured it'd probably be okay and the worst I could expect from the two of them would be a bit of harmless teasing. We walked back to his house and just as we approached the side door I started to notice a strange smell that got stronger as we entered the house. Brian and Tom were loading their dishwasher as we entered and immediately started in with on me with their usual banter. "Heyyy... look, it's that pretty little girlfriend of Jason's again!" Brian said with a chuckle. "You really should try to wear girls clothes more often or someone might mistake you for a boy, Katie." I gave him a dirty look but didn't say anything. Jason simply rolled his eyes and told them we were going to play some video games down in their rec-room. As we passed through the kitchen, the mysterious smell was REALLY noticeable now and I stopped so suddenly in my tracks that Jason practically plowed into me. "What's wrong? Why'd you stop?" he asked. "Can't you smell that?" I asked as I sniffed the air a little deeper to try and determine what direction it was coming from. Brian and Tom suddenly stopped what they were doing and looked over at us with strange expressions on their faces. Jason looked back at them and simply shrugged. "Smell what? I can't smell anything," he said as he gave me a strange look of his own. "Are you joking with me, or what?" "No, really... I could smell it outside and even more so in here. It almost smells like something's burning." I ignored the jibes from Brian and Tom as I tried to locate where it was coming from. I followed the scent to the cupboard under the sink and when I opened it, a smokey vapor of some sort started to drift out at me. "Holy shit!" Brian yelled as he dove at the cupboard and pushed me out of the way. He yelled for Tom to throw him the flashlight and then looked inside to see what was causing the vapor. After a moment or two, he got up and filled a bowl with water in the sink and then poured it out somewhere underneath the sink. "It wasn't exactly a fire," he said as he came back out from under the sink. "I must have accidentally knocked some of the cleaning bottles over under there when I was putting the dish soap back. A couple of the lids weren't tight and where they had spilled a bit was causing that vapor." He paused his explanation and looked at me really strangely. "How did you know, Peter?" "I told you, I could SMELL it!" I replied a bit indignantly. "It was really strong too, I'm surprised that you didn't notice it yourselves. Maybe you were too busy making fun of me and weren't paying attention." Brian and Tom simply looked at each other and for once they actually had nothing to say. Jason gave a quick tug on my arm and motioned for me to head down to their rec-room with him. Jason was very quiet while we were setting the game up and I finally had to ask him what was bugging him. "C'mon Peter, level with me... how did you know about that spill under the sink? Are you like, psychic or something?" I sighed deeply as I tried again to convince him of the truth. "Honestly Jason, I smelled it from the side of the house and then it was really strong in the kitchen. Are you trying to say that you didn't notice it either?" "No," he quietly replied. "I couldn't and neither could my brothers who were standing a couple of feet away from it the entire time." He didn't say anything else for a few moments and just stared at me. The look in his eyes was indicating that he was getting a bit freaked, but then it was gone almost as quickly and he suddenly laughed. "Well, if you aren't a psychic you must be part bloodhound! Maybe we should see if you can start tracking people by their scent and stuff like that!" he said with a smirk. I gave him a playful shove and then we started our game. After a little while, Brian called us to the kitchen for lunch. I was expecting more teasing from him and Tom while we were all having lunch but was quite surprised that neither one of them even so much as called me `Katie' the entire time. Every so often I thought I could see Brian staring at me out of the corner of my eye, but whenever I'd look over at him he'd suddenly look somewhere else. After lunch, I was starting to think that with Jason's brothers acting so weird on me that it might be a good idea for me and Jason to head out of his house to play somewhere else. I didn't say so to Jason, but I almost felt like Brian was trying to study me or something and the feeling was really creepy. Jason agreed it would be a good idea and we headed out to play in the ravine behind his house. We ended up spending all afternoon there and by the time I had to head home, both Jason and I were covered in a fair share of mud. This was certainly not unusual for either of us as we often go home a bit dirty after playing down near the small creek that runs through the ravine. We'd had a really good time playing together down there and I felt as if it'd been quite awhile since we'd had that kind of fun together. All that Katie business had certainly cramped my Peter style and I hadn't realized how much I missed a good afternoon of playing outside like that. I had been fortunate to have arrived home before our mother, because she probably would have been less than pleased to see how dirty I managed to make myself. As it was, Beckie was a little cheesed off to see the state my clothes were in and had me strip them off in the laundry room so she could start washing them right away. She sent me off to the bathroom immediately to have a bath so I wouldn't be so filthy when Mom came home for dinner. "But Beckie," I protested, "I don't have my evening bath until before bedtime!" "Yes, that's normally true but sometimes dirty little boys need more than one! I'll bet Katie wouldn't ever come home like that because little girls are much better behaved and take better care of their clothes than boys do." As she made those last remarks about Katie, I got the message and the underlying threat that if I didn't do as she said right away then it could very well be Katie joining her and Mom for dinner that night instead of Peter. While the idea of being Katie again wasn't so terrible, I wasn't particularly keen on the possibility of having to wear diapers at dinner that night. Without another word, I quickly scurried off to the bathroom to get cleaned up. While I was washing up, I thought back to how I'd felt earlier in the day on my way to Jason's house. I did miss being Katie and when Beckie had implied turning me into her again I almost wanted to defy her just enough so she'd actually do it. It wasn't just a feeling or a want... I NEEDED to become Katie again. I was pretty sure that I couldn't come right out and ask Mom if I could become Katie again. She seemed to want me to be Peter as much as possible while this doctor friend of hers was doing whatever it was she was doing. Mom had mentioned that I had another appointment with Dr. Carla in a couple of days so maybe after that one she might let Katie come back again for a little while. Mom came home shortly after I'd finished my bath and immediately noticed that I'd had an early bath. Beckie explained how I'd come home earlier and Mom simply chuckled a bit and said nothing else about it as she and Beckie started making dinner together. A little later on while we were all eating dinner together, the conversation seemed pretty ordinary and almost noticeably lacking in any mention of my Katie-side. I was pretty sure that Mom was deliberately trying to avoid that topic for some reason, but I couldn't quite understand why. Beckie tried to bring up my session with Dr. Carla that morning but Mom simply told her that there wasn't much to talk about until after my next appointment and then she quickly changed the subject. During mealtimes, the table conversation is usually dominated by Beckie and Mom -- with me sometimes joining the conversation for brief periods of time. That evening, however, Mom seemed very interested in how I'd spent my day and asked me to tell her as much as I could about every little detail I could remember. It seemed a bit odd, but I told her as much as I could about that day's adventures. I talked about the ravine and the frogs that we caught (we let them go shortly afterwards), playing video games and all the other usual boy-things that Jason and I did when we played together. I was kind of amused by the fact that Beckie seemed to be really uninterested in the kinds of things I did when I was out playing and she seemed to be trying her hardest to tune out of the conversation. I didn't really believe that Mom was all that interested, either but she smiled just the same and kept encouraging me to keep telling her things. When I'd casually mentioned the spill under Jason's kitchen sink and how Jason's two brothers were too dumb to notice even when they were standing right next to it, Beckie suddenly perked up a bit. She obviously had a bit of an interest in Brian and probably didn't like me calling him `dumb' in front of her. "I've been over at Jason's house too you know, Peter," she said with a quick wink. "Just because Brian didn't happen to look under his sink before you did doesn't make him dumb. Maybe someone should ask why you were so nosey and poking around under there in the first place." I quickly denied that I was being nosey and explained what had happened and how I thought it was really weird that none of them noticed it but me. I changed the topic and tried to talk about other things but I stopped when I noticed that both Beckie and Mom were sitting quietly and just staring at me with odd looks on their faces. I looked at each of them questioningly and for about a minute or two no one said a thing. I got the impression that something I'd said had definitely got their attention but I couldn't figure out what was so important. "Peter," my mother asked me slowly, "what you're telling me is that none of the other boys could smell the spill but you could, is that right?" "Well, yeah... it was really hard to miss. I can't believe that they didn't notice it," I replied casually. For some reason, Beckie had an astonished look on her face and Mom just sort of smiled and gave a quick shake of her head. She then changed the subject and we went back to a more normal level of conversation at the table with Beckie and Mom doing most of the talking. After dinner, Beckie and I cleared the table while Mom went up to her room for a few minutes. When she came back down, she suggested we have an evening in and watch TV together. I was feeling a bit tired by that point since I hadn't slept very well the night before, so that was fine by me. I was excused from having to take my bath since I'd already had one before dinner, so I stayed downstairs with Mom while Beckie went up for her shower a little later in the evening. When it was time for bed, Mom sent me off to my room and told me she'd be along a few minutes later to tuck me in. The moment I got upstairs to my room, I immediately smelled something out of place in there. It only took a moment before I recognized Beckie's perfume. I went across the hall to her room and knocked on the door. "Ha ha, very funny Beckie!" I said from outside her room. "Yes, what is it Peter?" she asked as she opened her door. "You KNOW what I'm talking about!" I told her. "I know you're mad because I came home all dirty, but why did you have to spray your perfume on my clothes? Now I'm going to smell like a girl tomorrow and Jason and his brothers are going to make fun of me!" "That's enough Peter," my mother said from behind me. "Rebecca didn't put the perfume in your room... I did." I spun around and looked at her with a very confused expression on my face. "Huh? What'd you do that for Mom?" "I wanted to do a little test to see how sensitive your sense of smell was. I used the smallest amount of Rebecca's perfume that I could and you were able to notice it immediately." I still didn't know what she was getting at, but Beckie seemed to clue in right away and covered her mouth with her hand and mumbled `amazing' to herself. I was starting to get a little annoyed by all this and asked to be let in on whatever it was that was such a big deal, since I still had no idea what they were talking about. Much to my frustration, Mom told me that it would have to wait until she could bring it up at my next appointment and then perhaps Dr. Carla would be able to explain it to me. I didn't want to wait that long but Mom made it clear that I was to drop the subject for now and shooed me into my bedroom so she could tuck me in. That night, I again found myself dreaming in a world of rich sights, sounds and smells. I looked down and saw myself dressed in a simple, yet elegant sundress and pair of sandals. I was standing out in a grassy meadow with flowers growing everywhere and, oddly enough, a full-sized mirror seemed to be standing out there with me to show me my reflection. My hair on the sides of my head had been swept back and braided about my head almost like a crown, while the rest of my hair hung free down to my shoulders and moved with the gentle breeze that was present. I spun around a few times in front of the mirror and glanced over my shoulder to watch my dress billow slightly and relished the feeling of the hem of my dress sweeping across my legs whenever the breeze moved it. "It's not really so bad, is it?" a cheerful voice suddenly spoke out of nowhere. I stopped and caught my balance as I looked about to see where the voice had come from. Even though I knew I was dreaming, it felt as though there was someone else out in that meadow with me. "Who's there?" I asked and noted the girlish sound of my voice. "There's no one here," the voice said with a giggle. "There's just you." I noted that time that the voice seemed to be coming from the mirror. I walked up to it to take a closer look and immediately noticed that my reflection wasn't mimicking me anymore, it appeared to be sitting down and smelling some flowers down near the base of the mirror. This is a pretty weird dream, I thought as I sat down in front of the mirror. "Who are you?" I asked. "I'm you, silly," my reflection answered. "You're me, we are two and we both are one." This was starting to freak me out a little. I never talked like that, so why was my reflection doing it? "Um... okay, what should I call you then?" I asked her. "Well," she said as she stood up in front of me and did a little pirouette, "I'm Katie." She spun around one or two more times and then suddenly before my eyes she changed as she continued in a slightly different tone of voice. "I'm also Peter." The reflection now looked as I did when I'm Peter and when I looked down at myself, I saw that I was still dressed as Katie. "Why are you here? What do you want?" I asked while starting to feel very nervous. "I want what you want," he simply answered. "We want to be one again." I nodded and stood up so I could look at him from eye-level. "I'm afraid... I don't know how," I said as a single tear rolled down my cheek. "Of course you don't. Neither do I. But I do know that we can find out together." He smiled at me and then looked down at his clothing. He spun around again and he was Katie once more, but when I looked down at myself I saw that this time I had become Peter. "What does this mean?" I asked her. "We can't be both, can we?" "Says who?" she asked me as her image began to fade from the mirror. "We ARE both. We are two and we both are one." I remember that I sat there for a while longer and tried to make sense of what she'd said and then I found myself slowly waking up in my bed the next morning. I usually find it difficult to remember much of my dreams after waking up, but that one had remained VERY clear in my memory -- and over the years it certainly wasn't the only one, either! Chapter 11 -- Katie's Mystery Revealed When I woke up the next morning, I was still reeling a bit from what had been up to that point, the weirdest dream I'd EVER had. How often does a person come face to face with himself in a dream? As both a girl AND a boy? It seemed as though this was the kind of thing that I should be telling Dr. Carla about, but I hadn't quite been able to figure her out yet. I was still lying in my bed thinking about the previous night's dream when Beckie knocked gently on my bedroom door. "Peter? Are you awake yet?" she called softly from the other side of the door. "Um... Yeah, sorry Beckie, I'll be downstairs in a minute," I answered as I threw back the covers and jumped out of bed. I was anxious to get into the bathroom to see how I looked in the mirror this morning as I was still so freaked out about that dream that I was sure I'd look like Katie again. I waited until I heard Beckie making her way back down the stairs and then quickly dashed into the bathroom. I approached the mirror cautiously -- almost as if I were afraid that something was going to jump out of it and bite me. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw my normal reflection staring back at me. I suddenly felt a bit silly, I mean... what was I REALLY expecting I'd see? It was only a dream after all and there was no reason for me to be feeling so tense. I decided to take care of my usual morning business in the bathroom while I was there and then headed down to have breakfast with Beckie. "Good morning!" she said cheerfully as she placed a bowl of cereal in front of me. "Did you sleep well?" In spite of my self-assurances I'd made in the bathroom just before coming downstairs, I was a bit startled at her question and for the briefest of moments wondered if she knew about that dream. I shook my head and almost laughed out loud when I realized I was just being paranoid. Still, it isn't like Beckie to be in such a cheery mood with me for no reason at all. Maybe Jason's brother Brian finally asked her out on a date or something. "I'm okay, thanks," I responded quietly and started to eat my cereal. Beckie's good mood continued to remain a mystery to me through the rest of breakfast. Normally this would be enough to make me really nervous that she was about to pull something on me, but for some reason I couldn't explain I somehow knew that she was just in a feel-good sort of mood and there was nothing for me to worry about. I decided that I'd make the most of the situation and get out of her hair quickly before her mood changed and she made me stay home and do chores with her or something like that. After breakfast, I went back upstairs to get dressed for the day and for a moment accidentally walked into Beckie's room by mistake. I was really surprised that I'd gone and done that without even realizing it and I was grateful that Beckie hadn't been upstairs at the time to see me do it. Good mood or not, that was the sort of thing that older sisters REALLY hate when done by their younger brothers and I didn't want to start the day with Beckie on the warpath. Needless to say, I quickly retreated to my own room as silently as I could, got dressed and then headed over to Jason's place. When I got to Jason's house, I was a little surprised that Brian didn't greet me with one of his usual teases about being a girl when he let me in. Tom, however, could always be counted on to be a jerk and was never one to let an opportunity to prove it pass him by. "What, no dress today little girl?" he said with a stupid looking grin on his face as I entered their Kitchen. I refused to take his bait, so I just sighed deeply and shook my head. Jason, who was finishing up his breakfast opposite from Tom, grunted and shot him a nasty look. "What's the matter Jason? You don't like me bothering your little girlfriend over there?" Tom teased. "Maybe if she'd dress like the girl we know she is more often we wouldn't keep confusing her with some boy named Peter." "Can it, Tom." Brian ordered from the doorway. "Lay off the kid for now." He gave Tom a bit of a stern look, which kind of surprised him for a moment but then Tom simply shrugged it off and carried his plate over to the sink. "Catch you later girls!" he said to Jason and me as he headed down with Brian to their rec-room. No doubt another table-tennis championship was awaiting them so at least Jason and I could be reasonably sure that his brothers would be preoccupied enough with their game to bother with us. "Your brother Tom can really be a Jerk, you know," I said to Jason after they'd left the room. "This is exactly the kind of thing I was afraid would happen after those two caught me dressed up as Katie last week." "Yeah, yeah... I know," Jason said despondently. "He says the same stuff to me sometimes as well. Being turned into `Baby Suzie' by your sister and her friends didn't make my life any easier around here either, you know!" I conceded his point and suggested that we get out of here and head down to the park or something for the rest of the morning. He also seemed to be quite eager to get away from his brothers so he put his dishes in the sink and we took off to the park. There was a larger than usual group of kids gathered at the park that morning when we arrived. It looked as though they were trying to get a game of baseball together and were arguing over teams and the fact that they were a few players short. As it turned out, with Jason and my's arrival it seemed that was all they needed and they asked to play. Normally I'm not terribly eager to engage in play with larger groups of kids, but for baseball I'd make an exception. It was one of the few sports I could do where my limited physical ability wasn't as noticeable so I wouldn't get teased quite as much by other kids. On top of that, it was a lot of fun to play even if I wasn't the best athlete on the team. As soon as we'd agreed to play, I was a little disappointed when Jason and I had been assigned to opposing teams. It only took a moment to realize why, though. As is typical behaviour for kids under the age of 14, games are often grouped along gender lines. No doubt the phrase `girls against boys' has been a common childhood saying for generations. This game was no different and I was surprised to see that I was now on the girls' team. Even though I often get mistaken for a girl regardless of how I'm dressed, I was unsure if I should try to point out the error to the girls or not. I discovered later on in life that some questions are often better left unasked. It would be quite humiliating to discover that they knew I was a boy, but thought to be far too girlish to play on the boys' team. As it turned out, I found out. I had been chosen by the girls, as opposed to being rejected by the boys and they knew exactly who I was because the team's `captain' was a girl named Nancy, who had been in my class at school that year. "Thanks for playing on our team today, Peter," Nancy told me as our team walked to our side of the baseball diamond to decide what field positions we'd each play. "I know it must seem a bit weird to you to have to play on a girls' team, but we really need an extra player and we'd much rather have you than any of those other boys, right girls?" she said to the rest of the group. There were a lot of shouts of agreement from the rest of the girls so I simply shrugged and told Nancy I was okay with it all. I started to think that maybe this wouldn't be so bad since it seemed that the girls really wanted me as a player and weren't simply tolerating me as they would otherwise be a player short. The boys' team took to the infield first, so our team went to bat first. As to be expected, the boys would shout all kinds of comments to our players as each girl had her turn at bat. We didn't get any runs in that first inning, but at least we got a couple of base hits. The girls had me play the shortstop position when we went to the infield -- which earned me a lot of teasing from some members of the boys' team as I was ironically also one of the smallest players on the girls' team. Any other time I've played baseball I'm usually stuck playing an outfield position since most boys don't think much of my abilities to play any of the infield positions. The girls obviously had more confidence in my playing ability than even I had, so I crossed my fingers and hoped I wouldn't end up letting them down. For most of the game, it was pretty even between the two teams. For all of their arrogance and teasing, the boys' team weren't really dominating the game in runs as much as they'd been bragging they would before we started playing. They did have a couple of runs more than we did, but a good effort at bat by our team could easily put us in the lead again. This was putting a certain amount of pressure on me because each time I'd been at bat so far in the game, I'd been struck out easily by their pitcher. By the time we were coming down to the final few innings of the game, our team was running out of chances so we needed to get some runs in. We'd managed to get a couple of players on base when my turn at bat came up again and I started to panic, thinking that I'd blow it again and then everybody would think I wasn't even good enough to play on a girls' team. I was so nervous that I was trembling and I hoped it wasn't too noticeable. "Peter," Nancy said to me gently as she came up beside me and laid her hand on my shoulder. "Just try to relax. You're doing fine, you know. You aren't the only player on our team who hasn't had a hit in the game so far. You look as though you're going to fall down or something!" I looked at her and gave her a nervous smile. I promised her that I'd try to relax a bit and then went to take my position at bat. The players on the boys' team immediately started with the teasing as I was walking over. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to try and calm myself as I kept reminding myself that they're just trying to pressure me so I'll blow my turn at bat. "Hey Peter," their pitcher shouted to me, "Why don't you just take your three swings right now and save me the time of having to strike you out?" Most of their team laughed and shouted similar things to me. "C'mon Peter," said another "we thought that you'd at least be able to play on a girls' team, are you trying to make us believe that you can't even do that?" I glanced over at Nancy and the rest of the girls and was a little surprised to see everyone looking back and giving me the `thumbs up' for encouragement. I felt an incredible wave of calm flow through me then and I realized that I'd gotten myself all worked up for the dumbest of reasons. Who was it I was trying to impress, anyways, all the guys on the other team? They'd made it clear from the start that they didn't think much of my playing ability -- or the abilities of any of the girls on our team. They were so arrogant that they'd even brought all of their outfielders closer while I was up at bat to show me they figured I'd never get a hit and if I did, they doubted it would go very far. The girls, on the other hand, were completely supportive of me regardless of how I'd been playing up to that point. To them, I was a valued member of their team and they stood by me no matter what. This realization completely eradicated the trembling in my limbs and I was able to focus on the pitcher with complete clarity. I wanted to hit that ball now, but not just to show up the boys. I wanted to do it for my teammates and for some reason I knew with absolute certainty that this time it was going to happen. The first pitch that came in narrowly missed bruising my ankle -- which earned the pitcher a lot of angry shouts from my teammates. Needless to say, I didn't swing at it or the next 2 pitches either as it was obvious that the pitcher believed me to be desperate enough to swing at anything. He was starting to draw some negative comments from his own teammates at that point and was told to `quit screwing around', lest he should accidentally walk me to base. Whatever levels of pride or arrogance was driving this guy, he'd finished toying with me and the next throw was dead-on fastball, or at least... that's what I was told it was later on by the rest of my teammates. When he'd thrown that pitch, for some reason everything appeared to me to be going in slow-motion as I tracked the ball coming towards me. From my perspective, the ball was going so ridiculously slow that I couldn't possibly miss it, so I swung and clobbered it. There was a resounding crack immediately followed by the entire boys' team simultaneously sucking in their breath. No doubt at that point they'd regretted being so cocky and pulling their outfielders so close -- not that it would have helped them much if they'd been in their regular places because that was a serious home-run hit. I was absolutely stunned by what I'd just done, but was snapped out of my daze by my teammates cheering me like crazy, so I did the per functionary jog around the bases. Jason, who was playing third base, gave me two thumbs up and congratulated me as I passed by him, but he was the only one. Thanks to my home run, we had caught up and were leading the boys' team by a single run. Our next batter was our last out and sent our team back to the field to try and defend our lead. If we could do it, we'd win -- a fact that was definitely not lost on the boys who were determined not to be beaten by a `bunch of girls'. The euphoria of my surprising success at bat was now starting to fade as I was back out playing shortstop. I had fumbled a few times on a couple of plays earlier in the game that had prevented our team from catching runners out as fast as we should have, but none of the girls blamed me. I crossed my fingers again as the first batter went up to the plate and hoped that I wouldn't let the girls down when we were so close to victory. The first batter got a hit right away and made it to base, as did the second batter. If they got a decent enough hit in, they'd get at least one runner in to tie the game and then they'd probably wear us down to get the winning runs in. There were no more innings left in that game so we had to shut their team down before they could make a single run if we wanted to win. Their next batter was, unfortunately for us, one of their best hitters so our chances were not looking very good. He got his hit all right, and it came straight at me! Once again I experienced that strange sensation of time slowing down and the ball seemed to crawl towards me to the point where I could just reach up and snatch it out of the air. I caught it and threw it immediately to our third base and that runner was nailed. I couldn't believe it! I'd just been responsible for a double-play! My teammates practically went crazy and they all charged me at once and caught me in a huge group hug. It probably would have been safe to say that even if we'd lost the game after that, it wouldn't have mattered to us. There was still a runner on second base, but by that point the boys' team was pretty demoralized and started to make a few slip-ups. I figured the runner would at least try to steal a base, but for some reason he was afraid to try running past me. We got their final out by striking out the last batter and then victory was ours. If I'd thought that the girls were all crazy and excited before, it couldn't compare to how they'd reacted after the game was over. "Peter, that was AMAZING!!" Nancy said while trying to catch her breath, "Maybe the boys won't be so quick in letting us have you next time!" "Well, they can try but Peter is OURS," said another girl. There was a lot of gleeful hugging and high-fives going on as the boys' team captain came over with the rest of his team to congratulate us. Even though we'd pulled off some outstanding ball-playing by even their standards, they still were quick to try and make as little of it as possible. Boys!! "Good game, girls," he said. "You got a few lucky plays in there, but you won't be so lucky next time." "It isn't all luck, you know Jeff!" Nancy said as she stepped out of our group to face him. "We beat you because we played as a team and we supported every member of our team, even when things didn't go as well as we would have hoped they would." Jeff, who was probably more irritated that his team lost to girls then at me in particular, shot me a dirty look. "Say what you want Nancy, but next time we'll see if the little sissy over there manages to luck out like that again," he said somewhat spitefully. Hearing him say those words felt as though someone had just slapped me across my face. As I looked from Jeff's face to those of the other boys I saw a lot of similar looks coming from them. I couldn't understand why they were blaming me for their loss and they weren't being very subtle about it, either. I had hoped that my performance in that day's game would earn me a little hard-won respect in their eyes for a change, but that wasn't to be. It seemed that no matter what I did, most boys would never accept me. I felt tears forming in my eyes as the last of the enthusiasm I'd felt about our victory was swept away. "Look... the little sissy's gonna start to cry now!" said one boy as he pointed at me. "It looks like he's on the right team after all. Maybe you girls should dress him like the rest of you so there'll be no doubt where he belongs!" The rest of their team all laughed at me as they turned and left the field, except for Jason who said nothing and stayed behind with me. By then, a couple of tears finally did roll down my cheeks as the rest of our team crowded around me to comfort me. "Don't let it bother you, Peter," Nancy said soothingly. "They're all just a bunch of jerks anyways. You're not like them at all... why do you think we wanted you for our team?" I sniffled a bit. "Maybe because you thought I was a sissy just like they're saying I am," I answered miserably. "That's not true! You're not a sissy to us! You're... well, I don't know ... much gentler than they are. You're not like any of them. You're more like us." Nancy had said that last part accidentally but by then it was too late to take it back. She looked at me a little guiltily, fearing that she might just have upset me even more. She was surprised when I gave her a weak smile and simply told her, "I know." "They're right you know, Peter" Jason finally said. "You aren't like the rest of us, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. The guys are all just sore because they figured you couldn't play ball very well and you ended up making them all look dumb." The rest of the girls, who were impressed that Jason stayed with me, agreed and encouraged me to forget about all those other idiots. We'd won the game, after all. Not only had we out-played them, but in the end we'd out-classed them as well. There really wasn't anything to be sad about. By then it was just around noon so everyone broke up to go their separate ways for lunch. I invited Jason to return home with me and he accepted -- although a bit reluctantly as he was still a little nervous around Beckie. When we got back to my place, I was glad to see that Beckie was still in the same pleasant mood from that morning so I was able to confidently reassure Jason that he'd be okay. We made casual conversation over lunch and got into discussing the baseball game of that morning. In truth, most of the talking had been between Beckie and Jason as he seemed to think a lot more of the game than I did. Beckie was a bit amused when he'd told her I was picked for the girls' team and was especially interested in how I'd performed in the game, and in the last inning in particular. "You shoulda seen it," Jason told her, "Not only was it an incredible play, but it was Peter of all people that did it!" "Gee, thanks a lot Jason," I said sarcastically. "No, really Peter... you did VERY well in the game today. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen you move as fast as I saw you move today. The same for when you got the home run that put your team in the lead. I had no idea you had it in you!" "Well, to be perfectly honest I was just as surprised as everyone else was," I replied, "I was really nervous at first, but then I suddenly felt really calm with all my teammates cheering me on and then I wasn't nervous at all. What's really funny is that it almost felt as if everything else around me had slowed down and that was how I was able to play so well then." Beckie said nothing, but looked at me thoughtfully as Jason continued to rant about my `outstanding playing'. After we'd finished lunch, I felt as if I'd had enough of playing outdoors for the day and wanted to stay in and play some video games. We offered to help clean up but Beckie told us she'd be fine doing it by herself and told us to go down to the rec-room and enjoy ourselves. Not being one to take such an offer for granted, I headed downstairs with Jason in tow. We played for the rest of the afternoon until Jason had to go home. I went back up to my room to lie on my bed and stare up at the ceiling while I thought about the day's events. Things could really be confusing sometimes, that was for certain. The day had started with me waking up from that strange dream where I'd met myself in it as both a boy and a girl. That got me thinking about what my reflection had told me. `We are two and we both are one'. Well, it seemed as if it was certainly true today. My girlish qualities had definitely been more obvious lately, but today I discovered that I still had boyish qualities as well. I hadn't exactly been truthful to Beckie and Jason during lunch. I was MORE surprised than anyone else about how I'd performed. I couldn't figure out why I was able to do it then when I was never able to find that kind of ability before. Maybe the Katie side of me had something to do with it. Mom came home from work a little while later to start preparing dinner for us. Lately Beckie had been taking a greater interest in cooking and such so she did most of the cooking while Mom seemed to be offering her pointers here and there. At the time, Beckie wasn't as experienced as our Mom at cooking, but she still made a pretty good dinner that night. During our meal, Beckie told Mom about the baseball game and how I'd won the game for my team practically single-handedly. I protested that it wasn't entirely true and insisted it was a team effort and I'd only gotten a bit lucky, but Mom and Beckie wouldn't allow me to be modest. Mom was so proud of me that she insisted that we all go out for ice cream after dinner to celebrate. Well, what can one say to an offer like that? Ice cream was ice cream, after all. We casually walked down to Jensen's parlor after dinner and upon arriving, Mom couldn't resist telling Mr. Jensen about how we were there celebrating my outstanding baseball playing earlier that day. I was a little embarrassed by all the fuss she was making but I didn't say anything. There hadn't really been too many days like this where I'd out- shined other kids as dramatically as I had today and Mom was extremely proud of me for it so I saw no reason to spoil it for her. Mr. Jensen was impressed by the tale as well and he gave me an extra scoop of ice cream for free as a treat. Just as we were leaving the store, a couple of girls that I'd recognized from our game that morning came in with their parents. They'd recognized me immediately and excitedly pointed at me while telling their parents "That's him! that the boy we told you about from the game!" Their parents looked over at us and then looked at me curiously for a moment before they all came over to us and introduced themselves to Mom and Beckie. "Our daughters have been ranting about their team's exciting win over the boys' team this morning. You're quite the fine lad and a good sport for offering to play on the girls team," their father said to me. I was a little uncomfortable with all this praise I was getting as I felt it wasn't entirely fair to the rest of the girls who'd played. Besides that, I hadn't offered to play on the girls team, the girls had specifically picked me when they'd seen Jason and myself coming to join the game that morning. I decided it'd probably be better to keep that to myself and just smiled and shook his hand. We all exchanged some small-talk for another minute or so and then we politely excused ourselves and headed out for a detour through the park on our way back home. By the time we got back home, I was quite relieved that Mom and Beckie seemed to have gotten tired of talking about my `surprising' athletic ability that day. We finally settled into our usual `winding down' evening routine and spent a bit of family time together watching television. By the time I'd had my evening bath, I was more than ready for bed. That day's events had been much more vigorous for me than they usually were and I was physically and even a little mentally exhausted. After Mom tucked me in and kissed me goodnight, I wondered momentarily if I'd have another odd dream like the night before but decided I was too tired to worry about it. As it turned out, I'd slept VERY deeply and very peacefully that night and I couldn't remember anything out of the ordinary that I'd dreamt about during the night by the time morning came. The following days until my Friday appointment with Dr. Carla were surprisingly normal -- although I do admit that my idea of `normal' had certainly been shaken up quite a bit over the past couple of weeks. Just as it had been with the first appointment, it appeared that both Mom and Beckie were making some effort to not mention my `Katie' side at all. I figured that it was probably some kind of instruction from Dr. Carla, but since we'd never discussed Katie at that first meeting either, I was a little confused as to what the point of it all was. So, I'd spent those in-between days playing with Jason and doing the sorts of things that the two of us normally did together when we had a lot of free time. Beckie wasn't all that pleased to see me return each day covered in a noticeable amount of dirt, but surprisingly she didn't make a big deal out of it either. By Thursday evening, I was feeling a lot more relaxed than I had been for my first appointment. I guessed it was because for the second appointment I thought I had a better idea of what to expect. By the time I'd finished my evening bath, I soon discovered just how different things were going to be this time. Mom had come into the bathroom near the end of my bathtime and spent a few minutes playing with me before she helped me out of the tub so she could dry me off. "Are you looking forward to your visit with Dr. Carla tomorrow, sweetie?" she asked as she was gently patting me down with a big fluffy towel. It was a simple question to answer, but for some reason I had this strange feeling that Mom was leading up to something, so I hesitated before I answered. "Sure, I guess... I mean, all we did was play some games last time. Is that what we're going to do tomorrow?" I asked her. "Yes Dear, something like that," Mom answered carefully. "What will be different this time is that this appointment is for Katie, not Peter." Her answer caught me a bit off-guard, so I stayed quiet for the time being as I wasn't quite sure what to say next. Mom gathered me up in the towel and carried me down the hall to her room, where I noticed that there were diapers and a nightgown laid out on her bed waiting for me. She gently put me down on the bed and then proceeded to powder and then pin the diapers on me. "Why do I have to become Katie for this appointment... and why now if the appointment is for tomorrow?" I asked sullenly, finally breaking the silence. "Dr. Carla asked me to make sure that Katie has a proper start to the day and that includes the night before," she replied as she worked the plastic pants up over my diaper, "Besides," she said as she gently tweaked my nose, "I haven't seen Katie for awhile now and I miss having my baby in my room with me." I giggled a bit in spite of myself and felt my apprehension start to melt away while Mom finished dressing me for bed and started to set my hair in pigtails. I was still a little nervous about showing up to see Dr. Carla dressed up like a baby girl when she'd already met me as a boy, but I resigned myself to the situation. I took a lot of comfort in the fact that when I become Katie I'm completely unrecognizable as a boy, so at least I wouldn't have to worry too much about anyone else figuring it out. After Mom had finished setting my hair, she lifted me into the crib that was still set up in her room and was tucking me in under the covers just as Beckie entered the room with a baby bottle full of milk for me. I had expected Beckie to try and have a little fun with me at my expense as she normally did, but instead she quietly sat down on Mom's bed and watched me drink my bottle as Mom went to fetch a book to read to me. She stayed for a little while as she sometimes does when Mom reads me a bedtime story but eventually left without a word to have her evening shower. Although it was a pleasant change to not endure any of the usual teasing from her, it was almost a bit unnerving too. I guessed that Mom had probably said something to her earlier about it. I fell asleep not too long after that and enjoyed a very restful sleep that night. The next morning, I was a bit unhappy but not altogether surprised to find that I needed to be changed when Mom woke me up. Mom gently reassured me that was one of the things that Dr. Carla was going to help me with, so there was no need to be upset about it. She quickly changed me into a dry diaper and got me dressed up in my yellow dress (`my yellow dress'? Hmmm...) with matching socks and the Mary Jane shoes I normally wore. Beckie had prepared breakfast for us ahead of time, so it was already waiting for us when Mom brought me downstairs. Beckie couldn't resist telling me how adorable I looked when she saw me and somehow I knew she was being sincere and not trying to tease me. I blushed a little but didn't say anything. I was a little concerned that Mom or Beckie might try to spoon-feed me during breakfast, but fortunately that didn't happen. Except for having to wear a bib and drink from a spill-resistant cup, I got through breakfast relatively painlessly. After breakfast, Mom carried me over to the living room sofa and set me down on it with a baby bottle full of juice and asked me to wait there for her `like a good little girl' while she quickly went back to her room to get properly dressed. Out of habit, I got off the couch and started to head towards the kitchen to help Beckie clear the table as I normally did, but Beckie shooed me back into the living room, telling me to stay put and she'd take care of it by herself. That was certainly ONE advantage of being a baby, I suppose. About 15 minutes later, Mom came back downstairs and carried me out to the car where she carefully buckled me into the backseat and then we headed off to Dr. Carla's office. In spite of my earlier confidence that my `disguise' was nearly perfect, I still felt a little self-conscious after we arrived at the Doctor's office. As we waited in the reception area, Mom could tell I was a bit nervous from my fidgeting about so she held me in her lap and gently bounced me on her knee a bit. If nothing else, that added to my overall disguise and no one else in the reception area gave us a second glance, although I was pretty sure that the receptionist had to have known something was amiss since I'd been there as a boy only a few days earlier. When the receptionist told us that Dr. Carla was ready to see us, I felt my pulse quicken and I found myself hugging my mother tightly as I tried to bury my face against her shoulder. This was it... now Dr. Carla was going to meet Katie, but how would she react? Mom gently patted me on my padded behind as she carried me in to the office and whispered softly that everything was going to be alright. Dr. Carla directed Mom to sit down with me in one of the larger chairs while she pulled up a smaller one to sit opposite us. "My my, this has to be the adorable little girl that I've heard so much about!" she said with a gentle but friendly tone, "Hello Katie, I'm so pleased to finally be able to meet you." My nerves were still a bit on edge because when I tried to respond, it came out sounding a bit like a gasp. Dr. Carla smiled at me and simply told me it was all right to be a little nervous at first and that I should just try to relax. She then suggested we try more of those card games to try and take my mind off of things. I perked up a bit at that and soon the 3 of us were seated around a small table playing some more of those games. After a few rounds, I had completely lost all of my apprehension and forgot all about how I was dressed. In spite of my attire, it appeared as though this was going to be the same kind of meeting as the last one. Dr. Carla wanted to try me out on some more word games which seemed to last a little longer than they had before, but I didn't really mind all that much. Finally, she showed me to a corner of her office where she had an assortment of toys and books set out and told me I could play with whatever I wanted while she and my mother had a little `grown-up' chat. I noted that there was a significant amount of `girl stuff' amongst the toys and books. I immediately sensed that it was some kind of test to see which toys I took an interest in, so I ignored the obvious and picked out some stuff that my `Peter' self would normally play with. After awhile, it seemed that Dr. Carla and my Mother weren't really watching me at all and were engaged in a quiet conversation with each other. I was almost disappointed that they hadn't noticed me avoiding Dr. Carla's `bait', as I looked over some of the things again. There were some stuffed animals and play-jewelry and a fair amount of dolls. On a second glance, I found something about one of the dolls in particular caught my eye. I looked carefully out of the side of my eye to make sure that the adults weren't watching and I started to examine the doll in question, wondering why it seemed almost... familiar somehow. Suddenly, it hit me... the doll was wearing clothes similar to what I remembered from my dream the other night and the hairstyle was almost identical as well! I felt an odd shiver run through me as I recalled the odd conversation my reflection in the mirror had with me. It was obviously a coincidence as the doll wasn't EXACTLY the same, but it was close enough to throw me for a bit of a loop! I looked at the doll and then down at the clothes I was wearing and absently wished that I'd be able to wear `bigger girl' clothes soon. I caught myself in that thought and nearly laughed out loud as I realized what it was that I'd just wished for, but I still had to press one of my hands over my mouth to suppress a girlish giggle. I carefully set the doll down and found that I was starting to take a real liking to some of the stuffed animals that were in amongst the other toys. I had been stroking a stuffed cat on my lap for a little while and pretending it was a real one when my mother called me back to join her and Dr. Carla. "So Katie, did you have a nice time playing with the toys?" Dr. Carla asked me. I looked at her expectantly, as though I was waiting for her to ask me something else. I assumed she'd make some mention of how I didn't take much notice of the girls' toys, but she didn't. "Yes, they were kinda neat" I said quietly, noting how small and shy my voice seemed to sound. "You did look like you were having fun," she said. "I noticed that you paid extra attention to one of the dolls. Was there anything special about that one that you liked?" I caught my breath in a bit of a gasp and turned a little red. So they HAD noticed after all! I was too embarrassed to answer and found myself instinctively hugging the stuffed cat I was holding closer to me. Mom and Dr. Carla giggled a bit at this and then they both reassured me that there was nothing to be embarrassed about. Dr. Carla asked again about that doll and I got a strong sense that she seemed to know that there was much more involved. At first I was reluctant to tell her about the dream I'd had but eventually after some gentle coaxing by her and my mother I told them everything. There was something about Dr. Carla that made me want to trust her and I desperately hoped that she wouldn't think I was too weird for revealing that to her. While I was telling them both about the dream, Dr. Carla made some notes in her small notepad and would occasionally look over and give my mother a nod as if something unspoken was passing between them. When I'd finished, there was a minute or so of silence in which the only sound was Dr. Carla's pen scribbling away in her notebook. Finally, she closed it up and set it down in front of her as she regarded me thoughtfully. "Katie," she began, "what do you think about Peter?" I was a little puzzled by that and wasn't quite sure how to answer. That was kind of a strange question to ask me. "He's... I mean, I'm okay," I answered hesitantly. "And what does Peter think of you?" She asked. "Umm... I'm not sure, I think he likes me okay... I mean, I think I like being Katie sometimes" I was starting to get a little confused. It was as if she was talking to me as though I was two people -- Peter and Katie. It was true that sometimes it sort of felt as though I was two people, but I knew that wasn't possible. I wondered if that was what she was trying to tell me -- that I was two people instead of just one. It immediately brought into mind the strange thing that my reflection kept repeating in my dream. "Well Katie, after meeting with Peter the first time I wanted to be sure to have a personal meeting with you to see how different the two of you are. In a sense, to see if the two of you are VERY different. Do you understand what I'm trying to say to you?" I looked at my mother to try and get some sort of indication of how I should answer but it seemed as if that was exactly what she was trying NOT to do, so she merely sat quietly and waited for my response. I was really nervous and confused all at once. I could sense that we'd arrived at something very important and I was frustrated that I didn't know what to do now that we were here. I closed my eyes for a moment and silently hoped that what I said next wouldn't make things worse. Finally, I took a deep breath and replied quietly, "I think you want to know if I'm two people or just one, right?" "That's a very good guess, Katie," she said with a knowing glance at my mother. "While that is what your Mommy and I first thought, I don't believe that's entirely the case. After having the chance to spend time with both you and Peter, I've come to believe that you are yourself -- one person with two sides instead of two persons in one body." It was a little hard to follow how she'd said it, because at first it almost sounded the same both times. I thought it over several times while she turned her attention to my mother and explained in a more difficult language what it was she'd determined was going on with me. I listened quietly as the two of them talked and heard all kinds of terms that I'd never heard before, but I eventually caught the jist of what was being said. It was kind of a relief, actually. What Dr. Carla was explaining to my mother in more detailed terms than she had to me was that usually everyone has both a girl and a boy side to them, with one side being stronger than the other. In my case, my girl and boy side seemed to be perfectly balanced. The `games' that we'd played together on each visit turned out to be tests she'd designed to measure certain things about the different ways that girls and boys thought and my results showed that I was just as much a boy when I was Peter as I was a girl when I was Katie. There was also a significant amount of `mixing' of the two sides -- which actually made a LOT of sense to me. I felt as if my mind was a bit overwhelmed from trying to absorb what had just been revealed to me so I shut my eyes for awhile and tried to drift a bit as my mother and Dr. Carla continued to talk. At some point I must have dozed off because I suddenly became aware of being carried by my mother out of the office and Dr. Carla seeing us out. She gave me a quick kiss on my cheek when she noticed I was awake and thanked me for coming to visit her. There was some brief talk at the reception desk about having some more `tests' set up for me and then we waved goodbye and headed out to the car. On the drive back to our house, Mom didn't say too much but I could sense that there was a definite feeling of relief coming from her. I suspected that she was afraid earlier that there was something more serious going on with me and now she was glad that it wasn't anything really bad. Beckie was eagerly awaiting our return to the house so she could hear about whatever it was the doctor had to say about me. Once Mom had brought me into the house with her, she sat down on the living room sofa with me and did a quick wetness check on my diaper. She seemed quite pleased that I was not wet, but not anywhere near as pleased as I was. I quietly asked if she'd let me out of the diapers so I could at least feel a little more grown up, but she declined and told me that it was best that I keep wearing them for a bit longer. I was a little disappointed because although I didn't mind being Katie, I didn't particularly enjoy being kept in diapers. Mom held me on her lap as she explained everything to Beckie and in doing so, revealing a few things that I'd missed either when I'd been playing by myself in Dr. Carla's office or when I'd dozed off that morning. Dr. Carla was pretty certain that my `duality' as both Katie and Peter was more of an emotional thing than a mental one. She'd also found the recent incidents of the baseball game as well as my apparent `heightened' sense of smell suggested that there might be physiological factors involved. That would be better determined after a series of tests she'd arranged for some time in the next few weeks. I didn't like the sound of that at all and when I asked Mom what she meant by that she'd dodged the question and changed the subject. "So this doctor thinks that Peter is a boy and a girl at the same time?" Beckie asked. "Something like that, Rebecca. Peter is obviously a boy, but emotionally he can be either one. When he's Katie, she can be just as much a girl as any girl her age." "Exactly what age would that be, Mother?" Beckie asked as she lifted me into her lap and started to tickle me a bit. Until that moment, I hadn't even been sure if either of them was aware that I was still in the room. Although I was a little put off from being ignored by the two of them, I still giggled a bit in spite of myself. Mom had an odd smile on her face as she answered, "That brings me to the next point that I'm sure you'll enjoy, Rebecca. Dr. Carla believes that our little baby girl here needs her own chance to grow up so that she'll be able to be more emotionally matched to her Peter side." I wasn't all that surprised to hear that bit of news and sighed quietly as I guessed it meant I'd be spending more time in diapers instead of less. Beckie was beside herself, though. To her, the news probably couldn't have been any better. "Mom! Does this mean I'm going to have a baby sister for awhile?" she asked hopefully. "Not quite, Rebecca," Mom replied carefully, "Dr. Carla suggests that we allow Katie to start spending weekends here until she'll be able to grow up a bit. Peter will be living here the rest of the time since he's as much a part of the family as Katie is." That wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be because for a moment I'd feared I'd be spending the rest of the summer in cribs, strollers and playpens. Beckie looked a little disappointed for just a moment - perhaps that was what she'd been hoping for - but was still happy with the news and gave me a big hug to show it. "Ohhh... this is going to be AMAZING! I get to have my precious baby sister every weekend from now on! Jessie and Sam are going to be soooo jealous!" "Well, try not to get too carried away Rebecca," Mom advised her, "We're supposed to be helping little Katie grow to be a bigger girl, not try to keep her as a baby." Up to that point, I'd been quiet the entire time that Mom and Beckie were talking. Whenever I was in my Katie persona, I always felt shy and never said too much. "What happens once I grow up a little more, Mommy?" I asked quietly. Beckie handed me back to Mom who cuddled me next to her as she answered "Well, for starters... you wouldn't have to wear diapers anymore. You'll be a bigger girl and get to wear big-girl clothes. Wouldn't that be nice, sweetheart?" "Uh huh," I nodded, "but what happens when I finally reach the same age as when I'm Peter? Will all the strange stuff stop happening to me then?" Mom looked thoughtful for a moment before replying, "I'm not sure, sweetie. Dr. Carla thinks that when both Peter and Katie are the same age, it'll be a lot easier for you to control both sides. Until then, we'll just have to take things slowly." With that, Mom decided that we'd give the topic a rest for the time being and we'd all sit down for lunch together. Since I was still in baby-girl mode, I knew I had to get used to being treated as the large toddler I appeared to be. I didn't have to sit in a highchair that time, but that could have been because it was still out in the garage from the last time it'd been used and neither Mom or Beckie wanted to bother bringing it in just then. If I was to be spending every weekend like this, however, it would only be a matter of time before I would be seated in it once again. We had stew for lunch and although they let me eat most of it by myself, they still would occasionally take turns spoon-feeding a few mouthfuls to me. Aside from a few things like that, I got through lunch without too much difficulty and I didn't even complain when Mom insisted on feeding me a bottle of milk afterwards before putting me down in the upstairs crib for an afternoon nap. As I lay in my crib that afternoon, I wasn't tired enough to fall asleep right away so I thought a little more about what Dr. Carla had told us about me. Although I wasn't entirely happy that I'd be doing mandatory `baby-time' every weekend until further notice, I didn't really see that I had too much choice in the matter other than to just accept it. All the attention I got from everyone was really nice, but the rest of the baby treatment could be really annoying sometimes. Beckie had been right before when she'd guessed that only Katie seemed to need to wear diapers, because that was pretty much what Dr. Carla told Mom. Hopefully before too long, my Katie side will grow up enough not to need them anymore. When that finally did happen, things were bound to be easier but I knew there would still be some issues to work out. Although I would still be a 7 year old boy physically, would I also be a 7-year old girl too? I finally began to doze off into a light sleep wondering if I'd be able to meet my reflection again. This time, there was much to tell him/her and perhaps it would be as he/she told me last time -- we'd find the answer together. Part 12 - And Another Baby Makes Three [i]Author's Foreword: To allow the storyline to progress more in the direction I'd originally intended, it was necessary to `push the envelope' a bit in the plot. Although some parts may be a bit unsettling, they create the required tension for the next chapter. In essence, things had to get a little worse before they could get better. After this chapter, things will undoubtedly never be the same around Peter/Katie's household. Brace yourselves and proceed at your own discretion...[/i] The following week, everything was pretty much back to normal. I was still wondering about what Mom had said about my having to undergo some tests in a few weeks, but she told me that it wasn't anything to worry about. In spite of her assurances, I got a definite sense that there was something she wasn't telling me. Beckie was curious too, but even she couldn't get Mom to talk about it, so we dropped the subject. I supposed I'd find out when the time came, but I had an uneasy feeling about what was to come. Mom's only concern about Dr. Carla's plan for me to be Katie every weekend was how it might affect my relations with neighborhood kids as Peter. Beckie quickly pointed out to her that Jason was pretty much the only friend I spent time with and he already knew about Katie. Of course, she didn't mention that Jason's brothers knew about Katie as well. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be to now have regularly scheduled times that I would live as Katie. The past weekend was a bit more subdued than the last time I'd spent a weekend as a baby girl. Other than being put down for afternoon naps and some tedious baby treatment during mealtimes, it was a very relaxing weekend. I supposed since Katie was to be living at home every weekend now, Mom and Beckie didn't make as big a deal out of it as they had that first time. Although I really could pass quite well as a little girl, I was still a bit relieved that we hadn't gone out anywhere while I was dressed as one. In truth, I wasn't really nervous about being Katie anymore. Whenever I became her, everything I did just came naturally to me. Ordinarily, that upcoming weekend wouldn't be too much of a problem for me to spend as Katie, but we were expecting a special visit from our mother's two sisters. At first I'd thought it meant that Katie wouldn't be expected to make her usual weekend appearance while my Aunts were here, but it seemed as though Mom wasn't going to make an exception. I was a bit worried that they might think I was really crazy or something when they saw me as Katie. Mom had been spending a lot of time on the phone with them lately, though, and I guessed that she must have told them some of the things that had been going on. Maybe this was why they were suddenly coming to visit. I didn't really know Aunt Janet or Aunt Patty all that well, as I couldn't ever remember meeting them more than a couple of times. What I did remember about them is that they seemed very kind and had a certain way about them that made you feel that they understood a lot of things. When I woke up on Friday morning, I could already smell breakfast cooking -- Oatmeal. Certainly not my most favorite breakfast, but Mom insisted that we try to vary what we have in the mornings. I was fortunate to have awakened before she had to leave for work so I could actually eat breakfast with her for a change. Lately I'd been feeling especially close to her and being able to see her off in the morning was a good way to start the day. After breakfast, Mom gave Beckie a list of quick tidy-up chores to do around the house to make ready for our Aunts visit the next day. There wasn't all that much to the chores other than a little vacuuming and dusting, since we usually kept our house pretty clean. Mom gave us each a quick kiss goodbye and then she headed out the door to work. I had already made plans to spend the day hanging out with Jason. This was my last day to be Peter for the next few days so I was hoping to make the most of it. Mom usually didn't insist that I split all the household chores with Beckie, since there was a lot of stuff that she only wanted Beckie to do, like laundry and anything to do with the kitchen. She gave Beckie extra allowance money for taking on most of the chores and to baby-sit during the week, so it wasn't really expected of me to help out that day but for some reason I thought I'd make the offer to Beckie anyways. She was pleasantly surprised, but told me I didn't have to and should just go out and play with Jason all day. After we loaded the breakfast dishes into the dishwasher together, I went back up to my room to change and to take care of my morning business in the bathroom. Just as I was ready to leave the house, Beckie stopped me and asked if I thought I'd be out of the house until later in the afternoon or if I'd be back for lunch. I told her that I'd already been invited to stay for lunch over at Jason's place, but if she wanted me to I'd come back to our place. "No, that's okay Peter" she said quickly. "I have a lot of things to do today and it'd be easier if you weren't here so I can get them done faster." For a moment I thought I'd sensed something a little odd about how she'd said that, but I quickly put it out of my mind and told her I wouldn't be back until just before Mom came home. For a moment, she almost looked a little relieved when I'd said that but she just simply told me to have a good time playing and went back into the kitchen. Jason was already outside of his house waiting for me when I got there, so I was able to avoid running into his brothers again. We decided to head up to our school and play around in the playground for a while. Fortunately, there was no one else there that early so we had the entire place to ourselves. "So... you're going to be a girl again for the entire weekend?" Jason asked me. "Yeah, today's my last day to enjoy being a boy for a little while." "This is all really hard to take, you know Peter," Jason said with a quick shake of his head. "I know that you didn't start all this stuff with being a girl by choice, but you tell me this lady doctor is telling your Mom that you need to be one a bit more often now and it doesn't even seem to bug you at all." "I guess it doesn't bother me as much as it should," I admitted. "I'm actually kind of liking it now, but I'm still not sure how I'm going to handle this weekend." "Why? What's special about this weekend?" he asked. "My Aunts are coming to visit and I have a feeling that they already know about Katie. Even if they do, what are they going to think when they actually SEE me in dresses all weekend?" Jason simply shrugged, as he couldn't think of anything to say. Yep... this was sure to be an interesting weekend. After we left the playground, we went exploring through the ravine that runs behind Jason's house for a while and then went back to his place for lunch. I was sure that Brian and Tom didn't know about how my next few weekends were going to change, but they kept calling me Katie all the time anyways. Fortunately, that was the extent of the teasing I had to endure from them that day. Brian and Tom seemed more eager to get back out to their basketball hoop in the driveway to continue with their one- on-one competition, so lunch was pretty brief. That worked out well because my stomach had started feeling a little weird and I didn't feel like eating all that much. It was probably the oatmeal I'd had for breakfast -- it sometimes had that effect on me. We decided to head down to the park after lunch and see if any of the other neighborhood kids were there. Except for a few rare occasions -- like last week's baseball game -- I don't often play with larger groups of kids, but Jason was pretty out-going and thought maybe we could all play a large game of hide-and-seek or something like that. That was something I thought would be really fun if the other kids wanted to do it, because I'm really good at hiding and some say almost impossible to find. On our way to the park, I noticed that my stomach was feeling worse and I started to have second thoughts about playing in the park. Jason noticed that there was something wrong and suggested that since we were closer to my house than his, I should head back and make a quick trip to the washroom. This sounded like a good idea to me and he even offered to come back and wait with me, but I told him to go on to the park and try to get a game together and I'd catch up with him a little later. When I got to my house, the first thing I noticed was that the all the blinds were closed. I went up the side of the house and saw that the side door was locked as well. I figured Beckie had gone out for a bit and since I'd said that I wasn't going to be back for a while she'd locked up the house. I was starting to get very uncomfortable and needed to use a washroom soon, so I went to the secret hiding place where we kept our spare key to the house and let myself in. Mom never lets me stay in the house alone so I figured I'd just use the washroom and then leave again before Beckie came back. As I headed to the bathroom upstairs, I passed by Beckie's room and noticed that the door was open a crack and I could hear music playing softly in the background. Out of curiosity I took a quick look through the door crack.... and was COMPLETELY surprised by what I saw! Beckie hadn't gone out at all. She was lying on her side on the bed and reading one of her magazines, but it was what she was wearing that was so shocking. Beckie was dressed in what looked like a large cloth diaper, a T-shirt and was sucking on the same large pacifier that I'd used a few times when I became Katie. Her hair was also done up into poodle bunches on either side of her head, which combined with everything else made her look VERY babyish. I had to hold my hands over my mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Beckie had no idea I was there -- her stereo must have covered the sounds of my coming in. This had to have been why she'd been acting funny that morning about making sure I didn't come home for a while. She wanted to stay at home by herself and dress up like a baby! I was about to push the door open and scare the heck out of her when I thought of something MUCH better. I remembered how she took pictures of me that first day she and her two friends dressed me up as Katie... and how she had threatened me with them to get me to go along with what she wanted. This was the perfect opportunity for me to even the score with her and there was no way I'd pass it up. I silently tiptoed into my room to get my camera and checked to see if it still had film in it. My camera wasn't as nice as the regular one that we used for family stuff. It was an older camera that took film cartridges instead of rolls and the pictures weren't really all that great... but it had a built-in flash and would be more than enough for what I was about to use it for. I snuck back to Beckie's door and waited for the camera to charge up. As soon as it was ready, I took a couple of deep breaths and then suddenly pushed the door open. Beckie immediately looked over at me with a look of complete shock on her face! I quickly took a picture and then RAN LIKE HELL. Behind me, Beckie SCREAMED and I could hear her charging after me. Normally she was a lot faster than I was and I'd never be able to outrun her, but I knew she wouldn't be able to run as fast in that diaper she was wearing. Once I got to the side door I quickly bolted out and ran back down the driveway, knowing that she wouldn't try to chase me outside dressed as she was. I was safe for the moment, but I knew that as soon as she'd changed back into her regular clothes she'd be after me again. The safest thing for me to do would be to hide the camera, because as soon as she got her hands on that film I would be in MAJOR trouble. I quickly turned around and crept back up the side of the house to the backyard and hid the camera in the back of our tool shed. With the camera and its film safely hidden away, I finally had some power over Beckie for a change! That sudden running about reminded me of what I had come back to the house for in the first place. I was feeling quite uncomfortable and needed to get to the bathroom... SOON. With my bargaining chip hidden away, I was confident that I could go back in now and Beckie wouldn't be able to touch me if she didn't want the picture I just took to get seen by anyone else. I carefully made my way back to the side door so if I was spotted it wouldn't look like I had just come out of our backyard and then I opened the door. Before I could take a single step, I was quickly grabbed by my arm and pulled inside so hard my shoes nearly fell off. I was fortunate that I'd hidden the camera when I did, because Beckie had changed her hair and clothes and was just about to come out after me when I came back to the door. "WHERE IS THE CAMERA, PETER?!!!" she shouted at me. "If you know what's good for you, you'll give it to me right now and don't even THINK about telling anyone about what you saw!" She was a little more shaken up than I'd thought she'd be and it made me feel a bit uneasy. I knew that she'd be mad, but now she appeared to be beyond that -- frantic would be a better word for it. She was gripping my arm so hard it was starting to hurt. She probably wasn't aware that she was holding me that tightly because when I winced at the pain she was causing, she abruptly let go of me. I took a deep breath and tried to speak calmly, but I think the nervousness I was feeling could be heard in my voice. I told her that the camera was hidden where she wasn't likely to find it, but I'd be willing to give it back to her IF she would be willing to trade off on a few things in return. First off, I told her that I needed to use the bathroom and that was why I'd come home when I did. I took off my shoes and tried to walk to the stairs but Beckie suddenly grabbed me by the arm again and pulled me back to her. "You're not going anywhere until you give up that camera, Peter" she said with a hard edge to her voice. "I'm NOT fooling around. There won't be any deals except for you giving me the camera and then MAYBE I won't spank the daylights out of you!" When she'd said that, I got a little angry and stubbornly refused to give in. SHE was the one that had been all dressed up like a big baby and although I may have surprised her, it wasn't ME that made her get dressed up like that in the first place. Now she was trying to turn it around and make it seem as though I was the one who was being a baby and she'd even threatened to spank me. I told her that since she wasn't willing to be reasonable that I'd simply tell Mom everything when she got home and she would certainly believe it once she saw that picture developed. Beckie only glared at me for moment then she abruptly headed up the stairs with me in tow. Instead of going to the bathroom, however, she pulled me into her room and flung me onto her bed. "This is your last chance, Peter. Either tell me where that camera is or I'll make you VERY sorry and I mean right now!" I figured she'd probably go through with spanking me if I didn't do what she'd asked, but I was feeling angry and defiant. I'd been spanked by her before and although it wasn't pleasant I would endure it again if I had to. There was NO WAY I was going to give in to her this time and anything she tried to do to me right now she'd have to answer to Mom for... and I told her so! "Okay, fine Peter... we'll do this the hard way" she said as she started pulling a couple of things out of one of her dresser drawers. "Since you aren't going to cooperate, you've forced me to have to go and look for the camera myself. You weren't gone long so I know it can't be too far. In the meantime, you're going to stay RIGHT HERE while I go looking!" I told her that I didn't care if she wanted to confine me to the house for the rest of the day because I would be happy just to wait for Mom to come home and then I'd tell her all about my big baby sister. Beckie gave me a small smile and told me that I'd be staying in HER room until she decided otherwise. Then, I saw what she had gotten out of her drawers. She had a couple of her bandanas that she normally used in her hair and she immediately started to tie my hands behind my back with one of them. "Whoa!! Wait a sec, Beckie! You don't have to do this! Besides, I've REALLY got to go to the washroom!" "Yes, I'll bet you do" she said in a casual tone of voice as she finished tying my wrists and bent down to tie my ankles. "Think of this as encouragement for you to make up your mind and do the right thing. I want that camera, you need to use the washroom. Your choice is very simple. I'm going downstairs to look around, but I'll be back in 10 minutes to see if you've changed your mind." She then took the last bandana and blindfolded me with it to make it less likely that I'd try to hop out of the room or find something to cut myself loose with. I listened to her leave the room and close the door... and then everything was quiet. I was starting to feel a cramp below my stomach that told me I'd be answering nature's call very shortly whether I wanted to or not. I would try to hold on for those 10 minutes and when Beckie came back, maybe she'll have calmed down a bit and she'd let me go. When she returned, I was getting desperate and it could be heard in my voice. Beckie refused to give in until I gave up the camera, so I told her that if she didn't let me go to the washroom that I was probably going to go right there on her bed. She didn't respond, but I heard her step towards me and I felt her untying my ankles. "Thanks Beckie... I'm glad you decided to.... what are you doing?!" I asked as I felt her undoing my shorts and pulling them down my legs. "I'm surprised you haven't guessed, Peter. I'm just making sure you don't mess up my room while we wait for you to cooperate and give me that camera." I thought she was going to walk me to the bathroom, but instead she shoved me backwards onto her bed and worked my underwear down and off my legs. I suddenly felt her lift my ankles and then I knew what she had in mind -- she was going to diaper me! "Beckie!! Please don't! Only Katie wears diapers... I don't need them! Please let me go!" I continued to plead with her but she just ignored me as she continued to pin me into a thick diaper. She slipped a pair of plastic pants over them and then tied my ankles together again with the bandana she had used before. "This is nothing new to you, Peter. You've wet in your diapers before so I just made things easier for you. You should be glad I didn't decide to bring you in the backyard and make you go in your pants!" "But Beckie...," I pleaded, "...I don't just have to pee!" Beckie chuckled a bit and said, "Well... then I guess you DO have a problem! You had your chance to get out of this, but you wouldn't take it. Now, you're going to stay in that diaper until you've used it and for a while afterwards until I decide that you've learned your lesson. Now, I think I've heard enough from you for awhile..." Then, she stuffed some sort of wadded cloth into my mouth and then she tied another cloth in between my teeth to keep me from spitting it out. She decided against leaving me in her room on the bed in case the diaper leaked and she didn't want to risk my smelling her room up. Instead, she carried me into my room and set me down on my own bed. She gave my diapered behind a couple of pats and told me to try to behave myself as she went to look for my camera. I heard her leave the room and pull the door shut behind her... then, nothing. I knew then that it wasn't a joke and she'd meant what she said. I desperately tried to hold back and keep from messing in the diaper, but I knew it was futile. Beckie had really screwed me good this time. I'd made a huge mistake when I thought that I could bargain with her about the camera. I hadn't guessed that taking her picture would upset her so much for her to do anything like this to me, otherwise I wouldn't have come back into the house and instead taken my chances trying to relieve myself in the bushes. Now, it was too late. I was trapped, and within minutes I knew I would do something that I hadn't done since before I could remember. Wetting was bad enough... but messing? I whimpered into the gag as I was hit with another strong cramp. I rolled around a bit on my bed in an effort to try and work my bonds loose, but it was hopeless. It seemed that Beckie was almost as skilled as Jason's brother Brian for tying someone up, so it seemed that I was there to stay until Beckie released me. The pressure built up in my bowels and then suddenly I felt a rather unpleasant sensation as they emptied into the diaper. I tried to lie perfectly still on my side as I felt the warm mess spread across my bottom. At the same time, my bladder released and I thoroughly soaked the front of the diaper. I thought with a touch of irony that it was fortunate that Beckie had put me into a thicker diaper because I was sure that this one was VERY well used at that point. I felt absolutely awful! Beckie must have known that after this had happened I'd be more willing to cooperate with her. I decided that the next time she came back to check on me I'd do just that. She'd won, and as far as I was concerned she could HAVE the camera. All I cared about was getting loose and getting cleaned up. I wrinkled my nose in distaste as the odor began to seep out of the diaper. It's seems a lot harder to keep track of time when you can't see and all you have to do is just wait in the dark, so I wasn't sure how long it was before Beckie came back to check on me. I heard her come into the room and come over to my bed, but she didn't say anything right away. She checked my bonds to make sure I hadn't worked them loose and then just made a `tsk-tsk' sound at me. "Well, well... it looks like the little baby had a big accident in his diaper. I'll bet you're wishing right now that you'd given me that camera when you had the chance!" I tried to tell her that I'd given up and she could have the camera now, but the gag worked a little too well and she couldn't understand anything that I was trying to say. She told me that she had to finish the chores that Mom had left for her that morning and it shouldn't take her much longer. When she came back later, she'd take the gag off and see if I was finally ready to cooperate, so in the meantime I could just lie there in my messy diapers and think about it. Just as she was about to leave the room, I heard someone knocking at our door down the side of our house. Beckie quickly checked my gag to make sure it was still tight and then went downstairs to see who it was. My bedroom window faced our backyard, but at the same corner of the house where our driveway was. I could just make out what was being said at our side door and knew that it was Jason who'd come by to see why I hadn't come back to the park yet. Beckie denied that I was still in the house and irritably told Jason to get lost so she could get back to her chores. Even if I was able to, I probably wouldn't have tried to get his attention because there'd be little he could do to help me and I didn't want him to find me like that. Jason said something to Beckie about telling me where to find him if she saw me and then he took off. After a few minutes, I heard Beckie start up the vacuum cleaner downstairs so I knew she wasn't coming back up to release me for awhile. I was really frustrated and upset. I could feel my blindfold getting damp as it soaked up my tears and that frustrated me even more. Being tied up like that was bad enough but I hoped that I could work the blindfold off at the very least. I tried without any success to rub it off on my bed covers, so there was nothing left for me to do but to lie there feeling miserable and wait. I must have dozed off because a while later I suddenly jolted when I felt the knot at the back of my blindfold being untied. It's a little hard to tell exactly when you're asleep or awake when everything's completely dark. As the blindfold finally came away, I squinted my eyes at the sudden light and when my eyes came into focus I got a HUGE surprise. It wasn't Beckie, who I'd expected to see standing over me -- it was my Mom! Part 13 - The Punishment Shall Fit the Crime "REBECCA!!! GET IN HERE AT ONCE!!" She screamed loudly and then bent down and started to frantically pick the knots that were keeping my hands tied. I heard a bit of stumbling in the hall as Beckie suddenly charged into the room. Her hair looked a little messy and she had a dazed expression on her face that quickly changed to one of terror when she saw our mother there in my room working to untie me. "GET OVER HERE!" Mom yelled at her. "Take that gag out of his mouth while I finish untying him. How could you do this to him?! I trust you to look after your little brother and you go and do THIS? Why is he wearing a diaper?!" She sniffed the air for a moment and then added, "and a very soiled diaper too! The very least you could have done was change him!!" Mom could tell that the diaper was well used, but she wasn't going to deal with that at the moment. She gently stroked my forehead and told me to lie still so they could get me completely untied. It took Beckie a minute or so to finally get the gag off because her hands were shaking so badly. She was in DEEP trouble and she knew it! Mom helped me get the wadding out of my mouth and noted how thoroughly soaked it was. She glared angrily at Beckie and said, "It looks as though he's been like this for quite awhile. Exactly how long have you kept him tied up like this?!" Beckie swallowed nervously and started to stutter about not being sure because she'd lost track of time. Mom told her very sharply to fetch a glass of water for me and then she picked me up and carried me into the bathroom. I didn't say a word as she stood me in the tub and removed my T-shirt. She didn't say anything either and I figured that she was angry with me. A few tears started to roll down my cheeks and I turned my head away from her. Beckie brought the glass of water in to the bathroom, after which Mom told her to go to her room and stay there, as she'd be dealing with her later. After Beckie quickly retreated, Mom held the glass of water for me to drink and until that moment I hadn't realized how thirsty I was! If not for her cautioning me to drink it slowly, I would have downed it all in one gulp. She then set the empty glass aside and started the unpleasant task of getting me out of that diaper. "Whew! You're quite a mess, Peter! Getting you cleaned up is going to be a little harder than I thought!" she said with a shake of her head as she started running warm water in the tub. As relieved as I was that I'd finally been released and let out of that messy diaper, I felt an incredible amount of shame as well. I'd kind of gotten used to wearing diapers again as part of my whole Katie experience, but this time I wasn't Katie, I was Peter. I suppose it shouldn't really have made much difference either way, but for some reason I felt that it did. To me it was more acceptable for Katie to be in diapers than Peter, and now I was so embarrassed that I couldn't even look Mom in the eye. I didn't even know what to say to her so I just sat in the tub in silence while she gently washed me. She must have guessed that I was feeling ashamed about how she'd just found me because at one point she stopped washing me and then lifted my chin up so that I'd look in her eyes. "Peter, I want you to know that this isn't your fault and I don't think any less of you for what's happened," she said as she gestured to the garbage bag that she'd placed the diaper in. "Rebecca is the one who was supposed to be responsible for you and her doing this to you was completely inexcusable. SHE put you in that position, and SHE is going to have to answer for it. You have nothing to feel ashamed about." I felt such an overwhelming sense of relief to hear her say that, so I started crying again. Mom gathered me into her arms and hugged me tightly as she stroked my hair and tried to sooth me. She finished washing me and gathered me up into a big towel, then lifted me out of the tub and carried me out of the bathroom with her. She brought me back to my room and told me to get dressed quickly because she needed to go out shopping and she was taking me with her. While I was getting dressed, I heard her talking to Beckie from the doorway of her room in the hallway. I wondered what she was going to do to Beckie because I hadn't seen Mom this angry in a LONG time. Whatever it was she had in mind, it was obviously going to wait until later. She explained to Beckie that she was going back out to do a bit of shopping and since she didn't feel at present that she could be trusted to properly look after me, I'd be going out with her. She was told to clean up the bathroom while we were out and to put the used diaper in the wash. She also advised Beckie to get any social phone- calling she thought she might want to do out of the way because she was very, VERY grounded for the weekend and it would be a good idea to discourage her friends from calling on her over the next few days. I came out of my room just as Mom was saying the last few things to Beckie, so she turned and took my hand and then led me downstairs. When we got outside, I was surprised when she told me to get into the car this time because normally we walk when we do light shopping, since just about everything we need is close by. She explained that she needed to pick up a few extra things and that using the car would be easier. Our first stop was at a hardware store. Mom spent a bit of time talking with one of the store clerks, so I wandered out of earshot to look at all of the neat tools I saw nearby. Although I didn't really know how most of those things were used, I always liked tools and taking things apart was one of my favorite activities at home. I didn't notice whatever it was that Mom bought while we were there, but after a few minutes we were back in the car and off driving again. The next stop was at a large Drugstore. It was a lot bigger than the one in our neighborhood that we usually go to and I was curious as to why we went to that one. I got bored pretty quickly in there while Mom spoke with one of the clerks. There wasn't anything nearly as interesting for me to look at in that place like there was at that hardware store. Fortunately she didn't take too long getting directions to whatever it was she needed, so I followed her while she stopped in a couple of different aisles and picked up some things. In one aisle, she picked up a rather large item that definitely caught my attention -- a large package of disposable diapers! I felt my cheeks flush a bit as I was pretty sure those would be for me to wear while I became Katie on the weekend. We got through the checkout pretty quickly and I was glad to be out of there. It felt as though everyone in the store was staring at me; assuming that I was the one that my mother was buying the diapers for. Our last stop was at our local grocery store where we only picked up a few things, but the most notable items on the list were a few jars of baby food! I cringed when I saw them and wondered if this was one of the things that the lady doctor had told her to do, for when I became Katie. If that was the case, I hoped that Katie would start growing up awfully quick because that baby foodstuff looked disgusting. Finally, all our shopping was complete and we headed back home. Mom brought me into the house first and told me to stay in the living room and watch some TV while she brought everything in from the car. Beckie was in the kitchen and was told to go immediately up to her room and to stay in there with the door closed until she was told otherwise. Beckie looked a little anxious, but she went off to her room without saying a word. Mom was finished unloading in a few minutes and then turned to me and told me that she was now going to deal with my sister. While she was up there, I was to stay put in the living room watching TV and she'd be back down in a short while to start making dinner. As soon as she'd mentioned dinner, I glanced at the clock and noticed that it was actually a lot earlier than I thought it would be. Mom must have come home early from work today! That would explain why she was able to find me in my room before Beckie had a chance to untie me. I watched her head up the stairs and saw that she was carrying a couple of bags with her. I had no idea what she was about to do, but I knew that I sure wouldn't want to be in Beckie's shoes at that moment! Almost immediately I heard shouting coming from upstairs and then shortly afterwards Beckie crying loudly. I turned down the TV a little so I could hear a bit more clearly and it sounded like Mom was giving Beckie a spanking! That was really something because Mom didn't believe in spanking, other than a quick, single swat on the bottom to let us know when she was mad at us. I suddenly felt a little guilty for listening in on Beckie's punishment like that so I set the TV volume back to normal and tried not to think about what was going on upstairs. After a few minutes the noises upstairs settled down and it got pretty quiet so I turned my attention completely to the show I was watching. Mom came down a little while later and told me that before she started making dinner, the three of us were now going to sit down and discuss what happened. She had me turn off the TV and sit on the couch patiently while she went back to get my sister. When they both came back to the living room, I'll bet my mouth must have dropped halfway to the floor when I saw Beckie. She was dressed as a baby again, but this time seemed to be wearing large plastic pants in her size over the diaper. Her hair was done up in poodle bunches again and she was wearing a very short T-shirt that stopped well above her diaper. What was even more shocking was that she was very well tied up and it looked like there was a pillowcase with a large knot in the middle tied in her mouth! Beckie's legs hadn't been tied, so she was able to walk as Mom guided her to the big plush chair in the living room and gently eased her down into it. She then produced another piece of rope with which she tied Beckie's ankles together. Beckie looked VERY unhappy and her eyes were all red and puffy from crying but she had little choice other than to just sit quietly and wait. Mom checked her other ropes and her gag for a moment before she sat down on the sofa and asked me to tell my side of the story of how I'd ended up in the predicament that she'd found me in. I hesitated for a moment thinking about how it'd all started with my discovering Beckie dressed up as a big baby. I'd never really intended to tell on Beckie about finding her like that -- I'd only wanted Beckie to think that. Now, I supposed it didn't make much difference seeing as how Beckie was dressed up like that again in front of Mom. I told the entire story as accurately as I could and when I was finished, Mom sat there for a minute in silence. She looked over at Beckie, who started to cry again as she couldn't meet our mother's gaze. "Where is the camera now, Peter?" she asked me quietly. When I told her, she got up and told me to stay where I was. "I'm only going to be outside for a couple of minutes. Leave your sister exactly as she is and don't touch her." She then went out through the patio door and headed off towards the tool shed. Beckie had to have felt so embarrassed to be sitting there so helpless in front of me. She couldn't look me in the eyes either so she instead looked at the wall until Mom came back. "Okay kids, I have it. Rebecca, you don't have to worry about anyone seeing this film because I'm going to destroy it right now. I'm going to start making dinner and you two are going to stay here and watch Television until it's ready. Peter, keep an eye on your sister and do NOT try to untie her or remove her gag." With that, she went back into the kitchen leaving me sort-of `in charge' of Beckie for the first time in my life. Under normal circumstances such a turn-about would be amazing, but with Beckie all tied up as she was there wasn't really much for me to be in charge of. Beckie looked absolutely miserable and although part of me felt a little satisfied that she got what was coming to her... a larger part of me felt really sorry for her, as I knew exactly how she was feeling. As much as I didn't like being in that situation when it had happened to me, it had to be a lot more humiliating to a young teenage girl. I figured the best thing that I could do for her at the moment was not to stare at her and make her feel worse, so I turned the TV to a show that I knew she liked (although I didn't particularly care for it) and we sat there and watched it. After a half-hour or so, Mom came in to tell us that dinner was almost ready. She told me that she was going to take my sister in to the dining room first and then she'd call me when dinner was served. She crouched down to untie Beckie's ankles and then helped her get up and walk to the dining room. I originally thought that Mom would untie Beckie by dinnertime but as she was led past me I noted how elaborate the ropes securing her wrists and arms were tied. Not only were her wrists VERY securely tied, her arms were also pinned against her back by ropes that circled around her waist and her shoulders. I also noted that Beckie was wearing socks over her hands. Mom REALLY did a thorough job on her and it was clear that she planned on keeping Beckie restrained for quite a bit longer. A few minutes later, Mom called me to come and sit down for dinner. I came in and took my place just as she was finishing tying the last of the knots that would hold Beckie securely to her chair. She then fastened a bib around Beckie's neck and started to untie her gag. "Just a word of caution, young lady... remember what I told you upstairs. You are not allowed to speak AT ALL. If you try to talk once I take this out of your mouth, each word you say will cost you an extra half- hour longer tied up IN ADDITION to the amount of time I originally had planned for you. Do we have an understanding?" Beckie nodded her head and Mom completely removed her gag. I was amazed when I saw how big the knot that was in her mouth was! Mom really seemed to know her stuff when it came to tying someone up! She must have known that Beckie would probably be thirsty from having that gag in her mouth for so long, because she immediately picked up a glass of water and held it to Beckie's lips so she could drink. Beckie WAS thirsty all right... she looked so relieved afterwards that she was about to thank our mother when she suddenly stopped herself and remembered what would happen if she tried to talk. Dinner was a little unnerving that night, to say the least. Mom made the same casual conversation with me that she usually did and tried to encourage me to do the same back to her, but it was really distracting watching her spoon-feed my older sister! On top of that, every so often she'd give Beckie a little word of encouragement when she swallowed some food as if Beckie was a little baby! I could tell that Beckie was NOT particularly thrilled about that, but I think the worst thing of all was what Mom was feeding her. Now I knew who those jars of baby food were meant for and as much as I felt sorry for Beckie, I was glad it was HER that had to eat them and not ME! After dinner, Mom pushed that large pacifier into Beckie's mouth and told her to hold it there while she and I cleared the dishes and loaded the dishwasher. She explained to me that Beckie's punishment was going to last for the entire weekend and she would be treated like a baby right up until Sunday night... possibly longer if my sister didn't behave herself. Since I was going to be spending the weekend as Katie anyways, she thought it would be nice that I'd have a baby sister to play with as well. She then started to prepare a baby bottle and told me to go back out to the living room to watch more Television and she'd bring my sister back out to join me in a few more minutes. I tried to avoid looking at Beckie as I passed by her. I doubted that she was able to hear much of what our mother had told me in the kitchen so a lot of what she was going to experience this weekend was going to be a big surprise to her. Another thought occurred to me... Aunt Janet and Aunt Patty! I wondered what THEY would think of Beckie's situation when they arrived the next day. A few minutes later Mom was leading Beckie back into the living room and asked me to move to the plush chair so she could sit on the sofa with my sister. Beckie seemed to wince a bit as Mom sat her down on the sofa. Mom noticed my concern and explained that Beckie's bottom was still a little tender from her spanking earlier and it was making her a little uncomfortable when she sat down. She then pulled Beckie towards her, still tied up and all, so that she leaned back into her arms. Even though both Beckie and I knew what was coming next, it was a little comical to see the look in her eyes when Mom asked me to `hand her the baby's bottle'. I handed it to Mom and was fascinated as I watched her take the pacifier out of Beckie's mouth and replace it with the nipple of the bottle. Mom thought that this would be a great opportunity for me to learn how to properly bottle-feed a baby instead of always being the one being fed. Beckie was a LOT bigger than an infant, but Mom made do anyways and kept on with the pretense that she was only a baby. She explained how to hold a baby when feeding, how to elevate it's head properly, how to hold the bottle... and at the end even how to burp the baby! I could tell that Beckie was NOT at all happy about that last part, but even she looked surprised when she suddenly let out a small burp. The look on her face was just priceless, and even Mom found it difficult not to laugh. When the bottle was finished, the pacifier was put back in her mouth for a few minutes while Mom simply held Beckie and the three of us watched a little bit of television together. Before too long, however, Mom shifted Beckie back up to a sitting position and explained that she had a few phone calls to make and told us that we were to stay in the living room until bedtime. "I'm sorry Rebecca, but I'm going to have to put the gag back in your mouth now" she said gently as she took the pacifier from her mouth. "You still aren't allowed to talk and it'll be easier for you to resist the temptation if you're gagged." Beckie looked VERY upset and squirmed a bit when Mom attempted to tie the gag back in place. She resisted only a briefly but finally gave in when Mom cautioned her that she'd earn herself another spanking if she didn't hold still. After the gag was back in her mouth and knotted snugly behind her head, Mom did a few more once-overs on the rest of her bonds and then patted her on the top of her head. "Look at the bright side, sweetie. At least like this there's no way for you to make your punishment last longer than necessary, right?" She then crouched down to tie Beckie's ankles again, gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and told me to keep a close watch on Beckie and to call her if it seemed that Beckie was having any `difficulties'. I looked over at Beckie and wondered what Mom could be talking about, since tied up as she was Beckie wasn't able to do ANYTHING. She looked back at me and although it was obvious she was still very unhappy, she nodded her head towards the television and I understood that she wanted me to pay attention to the TV instead of her. We stayed that way for about an hour, watching some movie that was on TV at the time, when Beckie began making small noises through her gag. I turned to look at her and she had a panicked look in her eyes and was starting to fidget a bit. "Are you okay?" I asked her She shook her head quickly and I got a little worried. Beckie was starting to get REALLY restless now and began twisting her upper body about, trying to get her arms free. Tears were starting to form in her eyes and she squeezed them shut as if she were in some kind of pain. Maybe THIS was what Mom was talking about! I told Beckie not to worry and that I'd go get Mom. Mom was in the kitchen talking on the phone when I rushed in to tell her that something was wrong with Beckie. She told the person on the phone that she'd have to call her back and then she and I headed back into the living room to check on Beckie. When we got there, Beckie was struggling for all she was worth to get loose. Mom quickly held her by her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes while telling her gently, but firmly to calm down. Beckie still looked a little scared, but she drew a few deep breaths through her nose and seemed to settle down a little. "Your sister is feeling uncomfortable because she's probably feeling a strong urge to go to the bathroom" Mom explained. "Unfortunately, this is a key part of your punishment, Rebecca. Since you left your little brother in this very same predicament earlier today, you're going to see how it feels for yourself." Beckie's eyes started to water again and a few tears rolled down her cheeks as she felt another cramp in her bowels. I knew exactly what she was going through, all right and I knew that it wouldn't be pleasant for her. "Rebecca, just relax and don't fight it. You can't prevent it and you'll only cause yourself a lot of discomfort if you try" our mother said gently as she sat down next to Beckie and put her arms around her. "I gave you some medicine after your spanking as well as in your bottle a little later that will force you to go. I was concerned that you might try to hold it until Sunday night and I didn't want you to make yourself ill." Beckie started taking quick, short breaths through her nose and her eyes got really wide, as it seemed as though her entire body tensed up. Her expression rapidly changed from anxiety, to surprise and then finally to misery. She'd obviously lost the battle and couldn't hold out anymore. We noticed the smell immediately and Beckie screwed her eyes shut in shame. "There you go dear," my mother said softly, "now at least you aren't feeling those nasty cramps anymore, are you?" Beckie just slumped her shoulders and shook her head dejectedly. Mom then helped her off the sofa and had her kneel on the floor for a moment while she checked her diaper for leaks. She seemed satisfied that everything was still contained inside and then sat Beckie up on the sofa again. "Aren't you going to change her, Mom?" I asked "Not just yet, Peter," she said as she shut off the TV. "Now that Rebecca is in exactly the same position she left you in earlier today, I'm going to let her experience it for a little while before I change her." Beckie's eyes were red and swollen again from all the crying she'd been doing and the news that she was going to have to stay in a messy diaper for a little longer started a few fresh tears forming in her eyes. "You need to understand, Rebecca, that it was not just a really mean thing that you did to your brother today, but it was also VERY dangerous. My sisters and I used to play tie-up games with each other when we were younger and there are always safety rules that need to be followed. First and foremost is that you never leave the tied-up person alone for too long... ESPECIALLY if they're gagged. They need to be checked on frequently to make sure that they're still okay. Today, you left your brother alone like that for several hours while you fell asleep on your bed!" So THAT's what happened, I thought. I didn't think that Beckie was really so mean that she'd leave me like that for so long on purpose. I guessed that after she'd made me use the diaper, she'd only meant to leave me there a little longer to make her point, but then she got sidetracked somehow and ended up falling asleep in her room. "Then there's the matter of leaving him in a very soiled diaper," she continued. "It's bad enough that you forced him into diapers and then made him use them, but you left him in them for a long period of time after he'd done it. Peter is still very young and has sensitive skin -- he could easily have developed a bad rash from that. Your bottom may hurt a bit from your spanking earlier, but that's how Peter would have felt all the time until such a rash would have healed." Beckie closed her eyes and forced more tears to fall down her cheeks. Now it looked as though she was feeling both shame AND relief -- relief that no serious harm had come to me earlier that day. Mom said nothing else and we all sat there in the living room in silence, with the only sounds being the muffled sobbing noises Beckie was making through her gag. Mom then turned to me and instructed me to quickly run upstairs and get dressed for bed, but to come back downstairs and keep an eye on Beckie while she went back to finish her phone call. She told me that since I was now sort of `babysitting' that my bedtime was to be extended for a while longer that night. As soon as I got back to the living room, Mom went back to the kitchen to finish her phone call. I turned the TV back on and tried to find something I thought Beckie might like, but it didn't seem as though ANYTHING could comfort her at that point. I had never, EVER seen Beckie as upset and as miserable as she was then. Although she sat there quietly and tried to pay attention to whatever was on TV, she just couldn't stop crying. I looked over at her and the look of misery in her eyes made my chest hurt. Mom had made it clear that Beckie was to stay tied and gagged for quite awhile longer, but I could FEEL how miserable she was feeling and I started to cry myself. In spite of what had happened earlier that day, I LOVED my sister and it hurt to see her so miserable. I could feel her emotions coming off of her... shame, guilt, misery as well as how trapped she was feeling from being tied up for so long. I threw my arms around her and held her in a tight hug. It seemed to comfort us both for a few minutes, but I didn't want her to stay like that any longer. I got up and went into the kitchen to see Mom. She looked at me strangely as soon as I came in and suddenly noticed that I'd been crying. She quickly ended her phone call and then crouched down and took me into her arms. "What's wrong, sweetheart?" she asked me "Mom... Please... can't we untie Beckie now? She's feeling so miserable... I know she's sorry for what she did.... and... and..." Then, my breath started to catch in my throat as my chest started hitching. Mom gently pulled me off her shoulder and looked at me carefully for a moment. "Peter, I know your sister's upset right now and that's understandable considering her situation, but how do you know how sorry she feels?" "I... I'm not sure... I just KNOW. Please Mommy... Please let her go... I don't want her to be so sad anymore!" Her eyes widened in surprise at that as she considered what she'd just heard me say. I was a little surprised at what I'd said just then too, but I was too upset at the moment to linger on it. My only thoughts were of Beckie and how upset she was, and how all I wanted was for it to stop. "You know Peter, her punishment isn't supposed to end yet. She's going to have to stay in diapers for the entire weekend. She's also supposed to stay tied up until I put her to bed later tonight..." "Oh no!! Please Mommy... ," there, I'd said it again! "Please don't leave her like that... I'll do anything you want... I swear! Please... ," and then the tears started again. "I guess what your doctor told me is true... you really do have a lot more of Katie in you than I thought you did," she said to me with a look of amazement on her face. "I'll tell you what, I might be willing to release her shortly, but it'll mean that I have to do a bit of work upstairs first. If I do this, Katie's weekend is going to have to start tonight. If you agree, then I think we'll be able to release her in about a half hour or so." I had no idea what it was that she needed to do upstairs, or why it meant I'd have to become Katie a day earlier but if that was all Mom wanted before she'd untie Beckie then there was no question in my mind of what to do. "I don't mind... I'll become Katie this minute if you want! Please Mommy ..." I thought in the back of my mind that there was something strange going on since I'd suddenly started calling her `Mommy'. "Not just yet, Peter. You can switch a little later. Let's go and check on your sister," She then lifted me into her arms and carried me out into the living room. Beckie was still sitting in the same spot, not that it was likely she'd try to move much being tied up as she was. Her eyes were still very red and teary as she saw us come in, and as I got nearer to her I could feel her sadness again. I started sobbing and Mom looked at me in astonishment as she gently put me down beside my sister. "Rebecca, I have just been completely amazed by how much your little brother truly loves you. In spite of what you did to him today, he has just convinced me to cut part of your punishment short." Beckie looked at me with gratitude in her eyes and a bit of wonder as well. "However," our mother continued, "I have to do a bit of work upstairs before I can let you go. You're still going to be in diapers until Sunday -- or longer if you don't behave yourself this weekend. Peter has agreed to become Katie tonight instead of tomorrow and it is because of this that you're going to be released early." As she turned to head upstairs I asked, "Please Mom, can't we take her gag off while you're working upstairs? Beckie will be good, I promise!" She paused for a moment to consider it, but then shook her head. "No, I think it's better that it stays on until I'm ready to untie her. Waiting for only another half-hour or so shouldn't be so bad considering that she was supposed to stay tied up for several more hours. Stay with her and tell her to be patient." She then turned and headed upstairs. I looked at Beckie for a moment and then simply held my arms around her and cried softly on her shoulder. I could already tell that she was feeling a little better, but I really wished that we could have untied her right away. I turned the TV back on and I flipped around the channels to hopefully find something that would help Beckie take her mind off of her confinement, as well as the uncomfortable mess in her diaper. Before long, we heard Mom doing something with tools upstairs and then a little while after that she came back into the living room. "Just a few more minutes, Rebecca. You'll be untied as soon as I get "Peter changed... and then I'll change you into a fresh diaper as well." She then crouched down to release Beckie's ankles again and helped her up off the sofa. She guided Beckie up the stairs and then we stopped at the bathroom door where she pointed out what she had been working on. Mom had installed a lock on the door that opened with a key from the outside. She explained that it was a precaution to make sure that my sister would finish her punishment without cheating in any way. Since I was too young to start having keys to things in the house, this was why she thought it better for me to become Katie earlier because I'd have to rely on diapers through the night just as my sister would. Mom then led Beckie to her bedroom and had her sit on her bed and told her to sit still and she'd be back to release her shortly. She then picked me up and carried me back down the hall into her own room where she'd laid out some diapers and one of Beckie's older nightgowns. "You're a VERY loving child to care so much for your sister so soon after the way she treated you today, Peter. I hope that Rebecca appreciates just how much you love her." I wasn't sure how, but I knew that Beckie had changed a bit that night. We made some sort of... connection. I wondered if this was the Katie side of me that was getting so close to her, like I'm told that sisters sometimes do. Mom had me take off my pajamas and then she quickly diapered me, then dressed me in the nightgown. She sat me in front of her vanity mirror while she carefully combed and brushed out my hair, and then wound it into a single braid. She then lifted me into my crib and asked me to wait in there for a little while so she could take care of my sister, then she'd be back with a bedtime story for me. When she came back a while later, I was feeling much more relaxed. I knew that Beckie had to be feeling MUCH better now and knowing that made me feel a lot happier. Mom brought me a book from my room, but before she started to read it to me she told me that she'd forgotten something and left the room again. While she was gone, I thought about Beckie. I wanted to see her and to know that she was okay now and before I realized it, I'd already climbed over the railing of my crib and padded down the hall to her room. I paused outside the door as I heard her sniffling a bit. I could still feel a bit of sadness coming from her, but it was nowhere near what it had been earlier. I pushed the door open a bit and let myself in. She was curled up on her side under the covers, and looked up at me as I came in. With her hair still in poodle bunches, she looked a lot like she did earlier that day when the whole mess started. Neither one of us spoke as we simply looked at each other. I then ran to her and threw myself into her arms and hugged her tightly. She returned the hug and started to cry again... which made ME start to cry again, but this time it was different than before -- it was more like `happy crying'. We held onto each other like that for a minute, then she moved the covers aside and made room for me to climb up into bed with her. Her diaper seemed to be a little thicker, but she seemed fresh and clean now and with a slight scent of fresh baby powder on her. She probably didn't like that she was still in diapers, but now that she wasn't in a messy one anymore she seemed much happier. The silence between us was finally broken when she whispered 'I'm so sorry..." to me. I hugged her tightly in response and held on like I was afraid to stop. We stayed that way for a while and neither of us noticed that our mother had come back into the room and had been standing there for a few minutes just watching us. Mom cleared her throat and said, "I've got something here for BOTH of my little girls, and since you're both here together, how about I read the both of you a bedtime story?" From behind her back, Mom produced two baby bottles full of milk and my copy of Alice in Wonderland. I smiled when I saw the book and I knew why she'd chosen it. She'd already picked a different story to read to me that night but changed her mind when she'd seen that I'd gone to comfort Beckie. Although I really did like that story, Beckie absolutely adored it. Mom seemed a lot less angry now and perhaps the worst of Beckie's punishment was now behind us. She gave each of us a bottle and then sat down next to Beckie's bed and started to read to us. Beckie was VERY confused by this turn of events and wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but I held her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze as I started to drink my bottle. Beckie looked at hers for only a moment longer before she started doing the same. Not long after, we both started to drift off to sleep. Beckie was no doubt exhausted from the ordeal she'd gone through that day so she'd fallen asleep first. Mom carried on reading for a few more minutes while she gently stroked the top of Beckie's head. When I started to doze off, she quietly asked me if I wanted to sleep in my crib or stay in Beckie's room for the night. I was so tired by then that I'd only half-heard what she'd asked and simply snuggled up closer to Beckie. Mom smiled down at me and gave each of us a quick kiss on our foreheads, then quietly let herself out and turned out the light. In the last few moments before I drifted off into a deep sleep, I remembered thinking, `sisters should stay together'. Part 14 -- Two Baby Sisters I slept very deeply and peacefully that night. My dreams were filled with events of Beckie and myself doing lots of `sister' stuff together. Sometimes we were both babies playing together and other times we were older girls out shopping together. All throughout these dreamed experiences, everything just seemed so... natural. As I slowly began to awaken the next morning, I started to notice the scent of fried bacon and toast in the air. I sensed a bit of movement in the bed with me and opened my eyes. For a moment, I had forgotten where I was and was momentarily surprised to see Beckie lying right next to me and looking back curiously at me -- as if she'd also forgotten how I'd ended up there. "Sorry... I didn't mean to wake you," she said softly. "That's okay," I replied. "I think I was already waking up. I can smell breakfast cooking downstairs." "Pet..." she began, then quickly shook her head. "Katie, I'm VERY sorry about yesterday. I was really upset when you... surprised me, and I was so desperate to get that camera back that I wasn't thinking very clearly." I chewed on my lower lip thoughtfully for a moment as I thought about how everything started with my accidentally discovering her the previous day. "Beckie... why were you dressed up like that yesterday? I know you like to dress me up as a baby, but do you like to be one too?" I asked her quietly. Beckie didn't answer right away and looked away for a moment as I thought I felt a brief wave of embarrassment flow through her. She then looked back at me and shyly nodded her head. "I used to play dress up like that once in awhile when I was younger, but you would've been way too young to remember since you were just a baby then yourself. Mom thought it was kind of cute and even made sure I had some babyish clothes that would fit me. After I outgrew them, I stopped playing dress up and didn't think about it again until a couple of months ago." I nodded slowly as Beckie paused to consider how much she wanted to tell me. This was certainly interesting so far and I'd wondered why I had never heard either her or Mom ever mention this in the past! "A few weeks back," she continued, "I was looking for something in the downstairs storage closet and I found the box full of those outfits as well as some of our old baby things. When I saw all that stuff I realized then how much I missed playing dress up like that. So, once in awhile when I'm alone in the house I'll try to dress up for a little while." This certainly explained why some of Beckie's clothes were a bit on the babyish side when she was younger. Now I knew why SHE was dressed up as a baby yesterday, but I still didn't know why she and her friends had started all this baby girl stuff with me. It probably didn't make much difference for me to know at this point with everything that had happened over the past few weeks, but I was still curious. "Beckie, why did you and your friends turn me into Katie that first time?" I asked quietly. Beckie was quiet for a few moments as she thought about it. I could sense a bit of turmoil going on inside of her. Clearly, there wasn't a simple answer to that question and I guessed that Beckie herself didn't even know all of the factors that motivated her that first day. "Well... I guess it sort of started around the same time I found those boxes again. I knew I'd never fit into those clothes again, but I still really wanted to have some use out of them. At some point it occurred to me that since you are even smaller than I was at your age, you'd be a perfect choice to wear them." She went on to explain how she figured she'd need some help from her friends to `convince me' to go along with them, so when they were over at our house that fateful morning, she showed them the family album with the `little girl' pictures of me and then brought them downstairs to show them all the stuff from the storage closet. She'd only thought that they'd do all that baby stuff with me that one time, but they were all so surprised at how cute and authentic-looking I was when they'd dressed me up that they wanted to keep playing. Just then, we heard our mother coming down the hall towards Beckie's room and she immediately hushed up with a bit of a worried look on her face. I guessed she was afraid of being caught talking by our mother and getting tied up again. She tensed a bit as our mother gently opened her door and peeked in. Once she saw we were both awake, she smiled and stepped inside the room. "How are my two little girls this morning? Did you sleep well?" I knew immediately that Mom was in a good mood and Beckie had nothing to fear. The worst of her punishment seemed to have ended last night and it only remained to be seen how much longer she was to be kept as a baby girl. After what Beckie had admitted to me about how she'd enjoyed dressing up in secret, I assumed that she'd be happy to get a whole weekend to be a baby. "Well, come on girls... brunch is ready" she said as she stepped over to the bed and pulled the covers off of us. Beckie instinctively tried to cover herself with her arms and Mom simply made a tsk-tsk sound as she noticed Beckie's apprehension. "Rebecca, try not to be so self-conscious" Mom told her. "Remember, you're a baby for this weekend just like little Katie here so the sooner you get used to that idea, the more comfortable you'll be." Beckie nodded silently and then got out of bed, but as soon as she took a couple of steps, she got a strange look on her face. Mom looked at her for a moment and then with an amused smile on her face, she summoned Beckie over to her. As soon as Beckie stood in front of our mother, she suddenly turned beet red as Mom did a wetness-check on her diaper. "I thought so," Mom said with a slight chuckle. "I guess you'll be needing a change pretty soon, won't you sweetie?" Beckie, still very embarrassed, could only look down at her feet and nod her head. Mom then helped me to my feet and did the same wetness-check on me. Although I hadn't given it any thought until then, I wasn't surprised to find out that my diaper was wet too. "Well, let's go and have brunch first while it's still warm, girls. I'll change you both afterwards and then we'll just sort of take the day as it comes along." She then took each of us by the hand and led us downstairs to the dining room. I was a bit surprised to see that the table seemed pretty normal. After how dinner went the previous night I had wondered if there was going to be excessive baby stuff like highchairs and such set up, but it didn't appear that Mom was going to bother with that at the moment. Beckie and I had slept a little later into the morning than was normal for us, so Mom had made up a larger Saturday morning breakfast for us, complete with sausage, bacon, eggs, toast and juice -- the latter of which was served to both Beckie and myself in spill-resistant toddler cups. Beckie's normal chair was still in the same spot it was from the previous night, where it had been moved so that Mom could more easily spoon-feed her. The look on Beckie's face showed that she was also remembering that dinner and I think she even turned a slight shade of green. Yep... after eating all that baby food I'd probably also feel a little queasy just remembering it. Mom tied bibs on us both before she brought the plates in from the kitchen and she almost laughed when Beckie breathed a huge sigh of relief at seeing that she was being served `normal' food. Mom DID, however, cut up Beckie's food into small portions and still spoon-fed her the entire time we were seated -- and Beckie was so relieved it wasn't baby food that she didn't seem to mind. She didn't try to spoon-feed me at any point and that suited me fine. Mom was obviously trying to make a point that Beckie's status was to be much more infantile than mine that weekend and for some reason I couldn't quite put my finger on; I felt that it'd probably be good for her too. When we'd all finished our meal, Beckie automatically got up to start clearing the dishes as she normally did, but Mom stopped her and gently reminded her that she was too young for that and instead shooed her and myself away into the living room. She looked a little surprised, but simply shrugged and followed me to the living room. Just as we'd started to watch some Saturday morning cartoons, Mom came in and gave us each a baby bottle full of juice and told us to simply stay in the living room together while she cleaned up. A short while later Mom came back in and told us that it was time for each of us to be changed. Beckie turned a bit red as Mom took her by the hand and led her back upstairs. When she was brought back in a little later, she was still a little red-faced but appeared to be a bit more comfortable. Mom then picked me up off the couch, deciding to carry me, then took me upstairs for my turn to be changed. As I'd only been wet earlier that morning, Mom unlocked the bathroom door for me so I could take care of any other necessary business. As she was helping me out of the diaper, she'd explained that diapers for my Katie time was only meant as a precaution against wetting accidents and there wasn't any intent of forcing me to use them. I was still a bit grossed out from the memory of messy diapers the previous day, so that was fine by me. After I'd finished up in there, she brought me back to her room where she pinned me into fresh diapers and covered them with plastic pants. I was a little surprised that she had me continue to wear the nightgown I'd been wearing all morning, but she explained that she'd deal with getting both her girls dressed for the day after our Aunts arrived. At the mention of our Aunts, I wondered again just how they were going to react to everything. Although I was pretty sure they were expecting to meet Baby Katie, I doubted that they were expecting to meet Baby Beckie this weekend as well. For the rest of the morning, Mom encouraged Beckie and me to play quietly together while she took care of some phone calling she needed to do, as well as a few last-minute clean ups around the house to prepare for the arrival of our Aunts. She wanted us to stay in the living room so she'd always know where we were, so after we got tired of watching TV we started romping about together and throwing some of the cushions from the sofa at each other. For some reason, both Beckie and me were in a very silly mood and after some play wrestling and pillow fighting, we were both lost to fits of giggles. At one point, Mom came in and saw how we'd been spending our time together. Although she was trying to look like she was a little angry with us for messing up the living room, we both could tell she was trying really hard not to laugh. It seemed that the two of us were reveling in a happy euphoria together and nothing could dampen our spirits. Nothing, that is, until the front doorbell rang. "That must be Aunt Janet and Aunt Patricia, girls," my mother announced as she made towards the front hall to answer the door. "Omigod, Mom!" Beckie said with a look of panic on her face. "I forgot all about them! I can't let them see me like this! Please, can't I go upstairs and change?" Mom paused at the door to the front hall and replied, "No, I'm sorry Rebecca. You will remain as you are. You are to be a baby for the rest of the weekend without exception." Beckie looked totally crestfallen and I thought she was going to burst into tears. Mom softened a bit as she saw Beckie's expression and then said in a gentler tone of voice, "Sweetheart, try to cheer up. You may be surprised that this weekend won't be as terrible as you thought. Your Aunts are far more understanding and accepting than you realize." With that, she went to answer the door. I gave Beckie a hug and told her that I was a little nervous too since I was in the same situation that she was. Aunt Janet and Aunt Patty were about to meet their two baby nieces and there wasn't anything that either Beckie or myself could do about it, so we might as well just relax. I supposed it was a little easier for me to do that than for Beckie, though. I'd had a lot more experience being all dressed up like a baby girl and was more used to it than she was. While Beckie may like to play dress up like that in secret once in awhile, being put on display to others was quite a different matter and she was more than a little nervous about it. As soon as we heard their voices in the front hall, Beckie tensed and tried to get up as though she was going to bolt up to her room, but I caught her hand and gave her a reassuring squeeze to try to calm her. Poor Beckie, the look on her face was almost like that of the proverbial rabbit caught in the headlights. The moment of truth finally came when Aunt Janet and Aunt Patty entered the living room and took a good look at the two of us huddled together on the living room floor. "Girls, you remember your Aunt Janet and Aunt Patty," our mother said. "Don't you want to come and give them each a hug since they came such a long way to see you both?" Although I felt a bit self-conscious being dressed as I was in front of them, it was nothing to how Beckie was feeling. She was so shaking so badly that when she tried to obey our mother and follow me to greet our Aunts, she couldn't even stand properly. "Beckie dear," Aunt Patty said with a look of concern in her eyes, "What's wrong sweetheart? Please, don't feel embarrassed in front of your Aunt Janet and I." Then, it seemed as though the floodgates finally broke. Beckie felt so ashamed that she hid her face in her hands and burst into tears. Aunt Janet and Aunt Patty practically ran across the living room and got down on the floor to comfort her. They both held her and rocked her gently as she continued to cry her eyes out. I was still a bit in tune with Beckie's emotional states, so I started to cry a bit as well, although nowhere near as intensely as Beckie. Mom picked me up and sat down on the sofa with me as her two sisters continued to try comforting Beckie. "As you can see Pat," Mom began, "There's been a few developments since we last spoke about little Katie here." "Indeed, Judy. You'd mentioned on the phone last night that there was some problem with Beckie as well but I must admit that I'm a bit surprised," replied Aunt Patty. "That's for sure," said Aunt Janet. In an attempt to lighten the mood of the moment, she added, "It's been a few years since little Beckie used to dress up like this. I'm surprised that you were able to find diapers for her in her size." She then gave Beckie's behind a playful little pat for emphasis. Mom explained that she'd picked up those things at a drugstore that had a special section for incontinent teenagers and adults. Since Beckie was going to be kept in diapers for the whole weekend, she wanted to make sure she got ones that would do the job properly as the bathroom would be off-limits to her until Monday. Aunt Janet and Aunt Patty obviously knew that Beckie had done something pretty serious for our mother to be punishing her like this, but it didn't appear that they knew all the details at that point. Mom promised to fill them in a little later when both of her `little ones' were put down for their afternoon naps. Beckie, who had calmed down considerably by then, made a bit of an indignant expression on her face when she'd heard she was going to be put down for a nap later, but she kept quiet about it. Mom had held off on having her usual Saturday morning soak in the tub until our Aunts had arrived. She then asked if they'd like to baby-sit the two of us for a while and get to know their two baby nieces a little better while she had her bath. Both of our Aunts could tell that our mother had a lot of pent up tension from the last few days and figured that she could do with some relaxation for a while. Now that Beckie had gotten her emotions back under control again, she was being extremely shy with our Aunts there. Combined with her very babyish attire, it made her look really cute. Our Aunts must have thought so too, because suddenly they both tackled Beckie and held her down while they tickled her. Beckie was caught completely by surprise, but was soon giggling so hard that her face started turning red. Although I shouldn't have been surprised, I was still caught a bit off guard when Aunt Patty suddenly pulled me off the sofa and started doing the same to me. Within moments, Beckie and I were both rolling around on the floor laughing with our two Aunts as they played with us. It seemed that was just what the situation needed to break the ice because Beckie and I were both feeling a lot more relaxed and perhaps a bit less self-conscious to be dressed as we were in front of our Aunts. Aunt Janet had us stand up and rotate around for her so that she and Aunt Patty could get a better look at us. "Well, you two certainly do look adorable!" said Aunt Janet. "Absolutely!" agreed Aunt Patty, "But you can't stay dressed just like that all day. How about we get the two of you dressed a bit so we can go into the backyard for some fresh air?" Beckie didn't look all that eager about the notion of going outside while she was stuck in diapers for the weekend, but for the time being she kept it to herself as our Aunts led us out of the living room. They brought us both upstairs and knocked on the bathroom door to tell our mother what they had in mind. Mom answered through the door that she thought it was a great idea and she'd come out to join them shortly after she'd finished with her bath. "I changed both of the girls a few hours ago, but you might want to check if either of them needs another change before you try dressing them." Mom called from inside the bathroom. "Beckie's diapers are in her bedroom closet and little Katie's are in my room." Beckie turned a deep shade of crimson, hearing our mother tell our Aunts so plainly about `her diapers'. Aunt Janet seemed to sense her embarrassment and gave her a gentle, reassuring hug. She then led Beckie off to her bedroom as Aunt Patty brought me into our mother's room. I managed not to feel embarrassed when Aunt Patty did a precautionary wetness check on my diaper before starting to dress me. She looked over the assortment of little-girl clothes that Mom usually kept in her room for me, but couldn't seem to make up her mind what she wanted to dress me in. I was still a novice when it came to girls' fashions, so I was finding it difficult to understand why my Aunt was having such a hard time trying to decide. At one point, she seemed to have an idea and scooped me up off my Mom's bed and carried me with her down the hall to Beckie's room. She knocked gently on the door as she entered and saw that Aunt Janet seemed to be having a similar problem trying to dress Beckie. "How are things going in here, Jan?" Aunt Patty asked. "Well, little Beckie here may be a baby for the rest of the weekend, but dressing her properly isn't going to be easy. She doesn't have much that will fit over her diapers!" replied Aunt Janet with a shake of her head. Beckie's expression was a bit comical as she blushed again and I had to hold my hands over my mouth to keep from giggling too loudly. "Does Beckie have any coveralls?" asked Aunt Patty, "If so, we can dress little Katie in the ones we brought with us and then the two of them would look like twins!" Apparently Beckie did have some, but I hardly ever saw her wearing them. Mom got them for her a while ago to serve as comfortable `knocking about the house' clothes, but mostly Beckie didn't like wearing them, as they weren't stylish enough for her teenage-girl tastes. Aunt Janet found them hanging up in the closet almost immediately and decided it would be the perfect choice. Aunt Patty carried me back downstairs with her to the living room and then brought their bags in from the front hall so she could sort through them. "Ah, here it is!" she said as she held up a smaller set of coveralls. "We went by the measurements your Mommy gave us over the phone so I hope it fits!" She removed my nightgown and helped me into the coveralls. I'd never worn coveralls before, or at least I couldn't remember if I ever had. They seemed quite comfortable, if a little bit girlish. They were denim blue, but had brightly coloured stitching on the front shaped into a few flowers and the word `princess' just underneath. My Peter side was getting a bit nervous but I reminded myself that as Katie, such things aren't really all that out of place on me. They fit quite snugly and I quickly became quite amazed at how comfortable they felt. Aunt Patty put a pair of pink socks on my feet and gave me a pair of little-girls sandals to wear over them. I looked down at myself and was surprised that even the diaper I was wearing didn't seem all that noticeable under the clothes. She brought me back up to Mom's room so she could work on my hair in front of her vanity mirror. She let my hair out of the long braid it had been in and was brushing it out just as my mother came back in from the bathroom. "Oh my!" she gasped, "Pat, she looks absolutely precious! That outfit is just perfect on her!" "And not just her," said Aunt Janet from behind us. We turned to see her leading Beckie into the room. "Little Beckie looks quite precious too, don't you think?" Except for the really girlish design on the front of my outfit, Beckie now looked exactly like me -- but bigger. Mom was really impressed and squeezed Beckie in a giant hug. "Sweetheart! You look adorable!" she said as she had Beckie turn around for her so she could look over everything. "It does seem a bit tight around her waist, though." "It can't be helped," replied Aunt Janet. "I doubt that little Beckie's coveralls were made to accommodate diapers. At least for little Katie over there we had that in mind when we bought those." she said as she gestured towards me. Now it was MY turn to blush. Our Aunts certainly came prepared for their visit, all right. Mom needed to get dressed, so our Aunts brought Beckie and me back downstairs to the living room to finish getting us ready to go out. Aunt Janet took Beckie's hair out of her poodle bunches and brushed it out while Aunt Patty brushed mine. After they were finished, they sat us together on the floor and `oohed and aahed' over us for a few minutes until our mother came back downstairs. "This is definitely a Kodak moment!" Mom said as she motioned for her sisters to get in the picture with Beckie and me. She took a couple of pictures, then placed the camera on a bookshelf and set the self-timer so she could get into a picture with us. We then all went out into the backyard, where Beckie and I were encouraged to play together so the adults could talk together. Beckie bridled a little bit at being dismissed like some toddler, but resigned herself to the situation since that was exactly what she was supposed to be for the rest of the weekend. She quickly forgot about her infantile status and started to enjoy herself as she and I threw a ball around together. Although the situation wasn't exactly ideal, I was really enjoying spending time with Beckie like this. She was really a lot of fun to play with when she allowed herself to just let go of her worries and simply relax. For a while, it was hard to remember that she was in reality twice my age. After an hour or so, Mom called us to come back inside with them. We were a little disappointed since we both wanted to play some more, but we were told that we'd all go back out again later that day if we continued to behave like good little girls. Mom handed each of our Aunts a baby bottle full of milk and then sent us into the living room with them so they could feed them to us. I thought that Beckie would get a little upset by that, but I was surprised that she seemed to accept it without any complaint at all. I was hopeful that maybe Beckie had finally accepted her situation since it would go a lot easier for her if she didn't fight our mother over it. Aunt Patty fed me my bottle on the sofa since I was still relatively small enough to be held on her lap and Aunt Janet settled on the floor with Beckie. The adults continued talking about things with each other as if Beckie and I weren't in the room while we both quietly drank our bottles. I'd finished mine a lot sooner than Beckie, so after Aunt Patty burped me -- much to my embarrassment -- she simply cuddled with me while we waited for Beckie to finish hers. When she'd finally finished, she was just as embarrassed when Aunt Janet burped her but she seemed to take it well. That is, of course, until Mom announced that it was time for the babies to be put down for their afternoon nap. Beckie tried to plead with Mom and told her that she wasn't tired, but Mom wouldn't hear any of it. She handed Aunt Janet the large pacifier, which was immediately put into Beckie's mouth to quiet her protests. She was told to keep it in her mouth and be the good little girl that she's expected to be and not give them any trouble or she might earn herself another spanking. That certainly caught Beckie's attention as her eyes widened at the thought of being spanked again, so she settled down and didn't make another sound. "Jan and Pat, can you stay down here with Rebecca while I put Katie down upstairs in her crib? I want to keep Rebecca downstairs with us while she naps so we can keep an eye on her." Our Aunts looked at each other and tried to keep from smiling, as they didn't want Beckie to think they were making fun of her situation. "Well, alright Judy," Aunt Patty said, "But I really don't think putting Beckie down for a nap will make her sleep. She may look like a baby right now, but she is still a teenager." Mom simply smiled at them as she lifted me up into her arms. "Don't you worry about that, Pat. Little Rebecca will be able to fall asleep easily enough," she replied as she carried me out of the room with her towards the stairs. I looked back over her shoulder as we were leaving the living room and saw Beckie's confused expression as she tried to figure out what Mom had meant. Mom brought me into her room and put me down on her bed as she helped me out of the coveralls. I was then settled into the crib wearing only my diaper and was covered by a light blanket. "You really are a good child for being so nice to your older sister, especially after yesterday," Mom told me softly as she gently brushed some of my hair out of my eyes. "I love her, Mommy," I said quietly. "I know she didn't do all that mean stuff to me yesterday on purpose. She was just really mad and I know she didn't mean it." Mom looked down at me and shook her head in amazement. "It is incredible that you are able to forgive her so quickly. I hope that Rebecca will one day realize just how fortunate she is to have such a loving little brother..." She paused for a moment and then winked at me, "Or sister. I hope she's able to learn from this experience and who knows... maybe being a baby for awhile will be good for her." She stayed with me and gently rubbed my back to help me fall asleep faster. I felt myself pleasantly drifting through the memories of Beckie and myself playing together earlier that day. It seemed that the more my Katie side grew, the closer that Beckie and I became. What that meant for the future was difficult to say, but I was hopeful that Beckie and I would always be able to share that same closeness we'd felt since last night. I smiled at that thought and finally drifted off into a restful sleep.