✅ My Cousin's Keeper [NaNoWriMo 2021]

135. My Children

This bonus chapter is dedicated to James. Thanks for all your support, James!

She really meant it. That surprised me. And even more surprising was the fact that the boy was willing to go through with it. After reading a significant portion of her new comic book, Ffrances slowly closed it, opening the floor to other conversations again. I thought that Tess was already acting a little giddy; and I saw that she had produced a paci from her pocket and was spinning it absent-mindedly between her fingers. After a long week, she was ready to be my baby again.

"I'm so happy to be a part of your family," she said, and I could tell that she included both me and Ffrances in that. Maybe she saw us as two mommies when she was in littlespace; although I wasn't sure how Ffrances's occasional regression would change that. Still, we were a family.

"Me, my wife, and my baby girl," I answered. And it felt so natural that it immediately brought a grin to my face.

Ffrances was pouting, but I could tell she was just as happy as me, while she objected: "Aren't I your baby girl?"

And in an instant, my nerves were on edge again. Spike was in the room. Neither Tess nor Ffrances knew that I'd told him about Tess's regression; and I was sure that after what had happened last time, Tess wouldn't be comfortable mentioning it when he was around. But she seemed to have gotten over the hangups over what he had done, so perhaps being pushed there by someone closer to her own age had helped her to learn that she was comfortable with it after all. Still, I was sure they wouldn't have talked it out properly. And Tess still thought that I didn't know what Spike knew. If they found out now about the advice I'd given him, even if they knew it had helped Tess to realise she was okay with being a full baby, they would be mad at me. I'd promised that I wouldn't try to make Tess mess; and using her boyfriend to give the suggestion was probably still against the rules.

But Ffrances stood up and gave a little speech about the recording she had listened to to make her into a baby. Telling Spike like it was something he might have to know about if he was living here. And then Tess had an excuse to say that she had listened to the same file, not mentioning that it had been created for her in the first place. Of course Spike knew about that, but they didn't know that I knew that he knew. So they thought they were wrapping everything up to keep me in the dark. I didn't like that they were keeping secrets from me like this, but once I managed to push the anger to the back of my mind, I knew that I really had nothing to be mad about. I'd hurt the kid before, forcing him to go home to his abusive father the first time I caught him here. They had a very good reason not to trust me, that I didn't want to remind anyone about now that I'd wound up putting Tess in danger too. And in the end, it worked out well for me. They weren't saying anything that could get me in trouble, and their cover up helped to conceal what I wanted hidden as well. So I listened while they told Spike an abridged version of what regression was, and how much Tess loved to be babied.

I found that I was waiting for the point where Ffrances would push Spike to try it himself. That would make him show his true colours; and if he got mad, I could use that as a pretext to kick him out. He claimed to be supportive, but if he really wasn't then it would be a lot easier to convince Ffrances of that. But before we got there, Tess said the last thing I had expected. She brought up what I had said about her needing regression sometimes, but wanting to carry the world on her shoulders. She told Spike straight up that if I wanted to regress her without getting her permission first, I just had to ask him. She'd said that before, but I'd thought she was just showing that she didn't take my suggestions seriously. But if she actually planned to give him that authority, then I might need to get him on my side.

And then when I wasn't sure what I should be thinking, and I didn't know what I wanted to say next, Tess suggested that she could feel a bit littler for me. And Ffrances told Spike that she would help him to experience regression so that he would understand it better.