Jenny awoke to Clarissa lifting her legs. Whenever she woke up, it was because someone was changing her diaper or because she was coughing until her throat hurt. Brooke coughed nearby. It seemed as if she and Brooke had always been in bed together. Jenny couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t so sick that she slipped in and out of consciousness without noticing it. The world was a hot haze occasionally interrupted by diaper changes, soothing cold packs, and cool water bottles.
The diaper change seemed like it was taking forever. Jenny looked down to see Rachel, not Clarissa, changing her diaper. Turning her head to the side, she saw Niusha changing Brooke. Both women were wearing stiff masks across their noses and mouths. Jenny realized she must have fallen asleep during the last change. Too tired to care about the rectal thermometer in her rear or who was changing whom, Jenny closed her eyes and passed out.
~~~*~~~
From her seat at the dining table , Monserrat smiled at Rachel and Niusha as they came down the stairs. “You two washed up to your elbows with iodine, right?”
“Yes ma’am.” Rachel’s response didn’t have a hint of sass. Niusha set their masks – with the current date marked on them by sharpie – on the table next to the box of unused masks.
At first, everyone had been annoyed with Monserrat’s reminders and safety protocol, Rachel most of all. Two days into the superflu ordeal, it was as much a comfort for the girls to be asked as it was for Monserrat to do the asking. The house’s kitchen timer had been relocated to the dining table. Monserrat set a two-hour timer on it and hugged her girlfriends.
“Thanks again, my loves. I genuinely couldn’t do this without you.”
“No one could do around-the-clock nursing for two sick girls, not even super Monchi.” Niusha took a seat on Monserrat’s lap and kissed her tenderly.
“Where’s Clarissa?” Rachel asked, stretching. She was wearing a t-shirt and leggings, the same as the other girlfriends-turned-nurses in the house. Clarissa had been the first to affectionally refer to the outfit as polycule scrubs.
“Crashed out, like I told her she would be after she didn’t wake me for third shift.” Monserrat shook her head fondly. “I put her in your bed and cuddled her until she started snoring.”
“I have second shift tonight – I’ll join her.” Rachel waved tiredly at her girlfriends and wandered away.
“Looks like it’s just us.” Monserrat kissed Niusha again, dipping her hands under her girlfriend’s shirt for a tender caress.
“Do you realize how lucky we are?” Niusha worked her hands into Monserrat’s tight curls and rubbed her girlfriend’s scalp. “Four out of six of us are healthy, and our baby girls have around-the-clock care. My heart goes out to all the kids in the dorms or elsewhere suffering alone.”
Monserrat closed her eyes to luxuriate in the massage. “I know how lucky I am to have a beautiful girlfriend whose first thought is always for other people.”
“You’re one to talk, organizing us and checking in on everyone.” Niusha tucked her head under Monserrat’s chin. “Has the nurse called back yet?”
“She did, finally.” Monserrat pulled Niusha close. “She says it’s good news that their fevers are holding between 101 and 103. Apparently, that means a ninety-nine percent chance they won’t need to be hospitalized.”
“That high of a fever being good news scares me.” Niusha’s frown was audible in her voice. “What’s the bad news?”
“Two more days of high fever is likely.” Monserrat sighed. “Then we’ll have our girls back. They’ll be weak and recovering, but their fevers should come down, and they won’t be so out of it.”
“That long? I guess it gives us a benchmark, but I hate seeing them so sick.”
“It shouldn’t be too bad as long as we keep them on a liquid diet,” Monserrat said.
“I don’t mean the big diaper changes. I was over the shock by the second time.” Niusha idly stroked Monserrat’s arm. “When I was changing Jenny just now, she looked so hopeless and sad.”
“I know; I was teasing you.” Monserrat chuckled. “I’m adding morale officer to my list of duties.”
“Ah, then that makes it an official cuddle you had with Clarissa.” Niusha laughed and hopped off Monserrat’s lap. “I’m going to make another batch of food.”
“I’ll help.” Monserrat’s attempt to rise stalled out when Niusha put her hands on Monchi’s shoulders with weight behind them.
“You are helping. You’re in charge. Let me do my part.”
Monserrat gave Niusha a smack on the rear. “Time was that a girl who told me I was in charge ended up in my bed.”
“That’s still true. Our watches line up enough for you to sleep in my bed tonight.” Niusha went to the kitchen with a sassy sway in her hips. “Come get me when the diaper change alarm goes off.”
“I love you, Nishy.” Monserrat watched her girlfriend slink into the kitchen, well aware of how lucky they were.
~~~*~~~
Jenny woke up to Monserrat lifting her legs. How many diaper changes had there been? At least she hadn’t woken from coughing. As Monserrat wiped her down, Jenny realized her throat barely hurt. She hadn’t coughed in a while nor heard Brooke coughing. Monserrat taped Jenny into a new diaper and washed her hands. The pacifier she offered Jenny was strangely enticing. To the Little girl’s surprise, the pacifier’s nub was covered in a hard shell with a familiar lemony taste. Medicine and lemon soothed Jenny’s throat as she sucked on her paci.
Snuggling up to Brooke’s warm body with a sigh, Jenny reflected that she wasn’t hungry or thirsty. Her tummy felt as full as was safe with its current level of upset. Someone must have fed her a bottle, but when? It was scary to be missing so much time in her memory. Jenny whimpered, but the caregivers had already left the room. Brooke responded by rolling onto her side and holding Jenny close. Lying bare chest to sweaty chest with her best friend had ceased to be strange at an unremembered point. Cuddling with Brooke was as comfortable and easy as bathing together when they were babies.
~~~*~~~
Monserrat untied the straps holding up the foot-end of the makeshift crib that Rachel had built around her bed. The baby girls had gotten restless during Rachel’s night watch, and she’d ingeniously constructed a crib out of modular playpen parts without needing to wake anyone else. Though the girls were no more aware than they had been since their fevers started, everyone hoped their increased activity was a good sign.
As she wrestled her wiggly wife out from under the blankets, Monserrat’s chuckle was muffled by the mask on her mouth. “They better be healing because otherwise, these diaper changes will become a real challenge.”
Clarissa looked up from pinning an equally wiggly Brooke with a grin. “If she stays this active, I’ll have to start my baby girl on solid foods.”
“Let’s wait and see what the pediatrician says.” Monserrat popped the tapes on Jenna’s diaper. “Their big diaper changes are exciting enough as things stand.”
“Do you think they’re hearing us? Is there going to be a coma-patient thing going on where they remember everything?” Clarissa asked as she wiped Brooke down.
Monserrat collected both used diapers and dumped them in the pail. Carefully maintaining discipline, she squirted sanitizer into Clarissa’s hands and sanitized her own before putting lotion on Jenny. “No idea. Either way, I’m sure they’ll be able to tell how loved they are.”
“Did you hear that, Brookie-baby?” Clarissa leaned over to press her head against Brooke’s forehead before she applied baby powder. “We all love you so much.”
It could have been Monserrat’s imagination, but she thought she heard Brooke make a happy sound under her breath. Monserrat stroked her wife’s warm side. “You too, Jenny-bear. Everyone loves you.”
While Clarissa put away the diaper supplies, Monserrat carefully noted both girls’ temperatures, last feeding, and last dose of acetaminophen. At the hand washing station outside the sick room, Monserrat said, “Temps are coming down. It’s slow, but it’s been a consistent trend for the last four changes.”
“We should publish our results to the hospital,” Clarissa said. “I bet they aren’t taking rectal temps every two hours.”
“I’ll let you make that call; I’m sick of waiting on hold for the nursing station.” Monserrat put her arm around Clarissa and headed toward the intoxicating scent of Niusha’s Iranian food.
~~~*~~~
Jenny woke up with her feet on the mattress. That was confusing, as was her wet diaper. She blinked and looked around. There were no caregivers to be seen. Sunlight glowed orange in the bedroom window. Jenny rolled over and nuzzled Brooke. Her best friend felt warm, but not like the furnace heat she remembered.
“Brooke, are you awake?”
Brooke mumbled sleepily. Her eyes fluttered open. “Morning, Jenny.”
“I think it’s afternoon. Light doesn’t come in that window in the morning.” Jenny sat up, wincing at the squish in her diaper.
“Your diaper is wet,” Brooke said without apparent concern.
“Oh yeah?” Jenny pawed feebly at the sagging padding on Brooke’s butt. “You’re wet, too.”
Brooke giggled. “That’s cause I peed in it.”
Jenny laughed and regretted it as soon as she coughed. Her pacifier was lying beside her in bed, but its medicine had long worn off. “Where are our caregivers?”
“Dunno. Let me sleep in; it’s Saturday.” Brooke squirmed over to cuddle Jenny’s leg.
“It cannot possibly be Saturday.” Jenny was full of the unreasonable authority of someone who had no idea what day it was but was sure that Brooke was wrong.
“Then what day is it?”
“Not Saturday.” Jenny insisted. She cast around for a way to change the subject and spotted the brightly colored plastic walls that encircled the bed. “Hey, they put us in a crib!”
“Okay.” Brooke nodded. She was falling asleep again.
Jenny rolled her eyes at her useless bestie. She wasn’t sure of herself or her situation yet, but she was confident that things were not being done properly. Unfortunately, she was also profoundly exhausted. The “crib walls” that Jenny recognized as part of Monserrat’s playpen set stood only two feet above the mattress, but they might as well have been twenty feet high. In no universe was Jenny ready to climb anything.
That left her with a lot less options for contacting her caregivers. Her throat was in a precarious state, so shouting didn’t sound like a good option. For a wild moment, Jenny considered bawling like a baby. It’d work, but it would be almost as hard on her throat as shouting. That hurting her throat was her main objection to crying in a wet diaper was something Jenny was going to have to process.
The door opened, and Rachel stepped in with a pair of bottles. Her voice had the now-familiar muffling from her mask. “Goodness, there’s an alert-looking baby girl. How’re you feeling, Jenny?”
Jenny frowned – hadn’t her caregivers been doing diaper changes in pairs? “Wachel, my diaper is wet.”
“Let me see.” Rachel peeked over the crib wall and shrugged. “You’re fine for now.”
“What?” Jenny stared at Rachel, aghast. “You’re not going to change me?”
“The diaper change timer still has an hour on it,” Rachel said casually.
The words “diaper change timer” stunned Jenny long enough for Rachel to put a bottle to the Little girl’s mouth. Remembering that she’d promised to be a good girl, Jenny drank the water despite her outrage. Once the bottle was done, Rachel gently tipped Jenny onto her back and handed her Elizabat.
“Rachel…” Jenny’s attempt at using a girlfriend name instead of a babysitter name was met with a simple shush from Rachel. She snuggled her stuffie discontentedly while Rachel opened one of the crib panels and turned Brooke on her side for bottle feeding.
“Drink up, there’s a good girl, Brookie-baby,” Rachel said in a singsong voice.
“That’s what Clarissa calls her,” Jenny said.
“You’re right, Potty Pants.” Rachel nodded kindly. “We’re all going to have extra nicknames for you two after this.”
“P-p-potty pants?” Jenny pouted with every ounce of her Littleness.
“You go through water like nobody’s business. Jenny Potty Pants never needs to skip a diaper change.”
If she’d thought that diaper change timer had been a stunner, the name Jenny Potty Pants rang in the Little girl’s head like a gong. While she quietly watched Rachel feeding Brooke, Jenny felt a shiver run over her. The hot, fuzzy feeling that made her head pound was coming back.
“Wachel, my head hurts and my paci is out of medicine.”
“Give me a minute, Jenny-bear.” Rachel tipped the bottle up for Brooke to get the last of her water and retrieved both girls’ pacifiers from the bed. “I have fresh pacifiers for you, cooked up by Clarissa.”
Jenny took the pacifier gratefully and curled up next to Brooke for warmth. Rachel tucked them both under the blanket and put a cold pack on each girl’s head.
“I can’t give you any more Tylenol right now.” Rachel added a note to the small stack of papers taped to the wall. “But you’ve got your cold pack, and I’ll be back with Monchi to change your diaper when the timer goes off.”
Rachel’s instructions only dimly made sense to Jenny. If the pacifier was medicine, she didn’t understand what the other medicine was for. The easiest thing was not worrying about it and focusing on her babysitter’s soothing tone.
~~~*~~~
From her post at the dining table, Monserrat scrolled listlessly through housing websites on her phone. A whoop from upstairs had her on her feet with her chair clattering to the floor behind her.
“Ninety-Nine Point Five and Ninety-Nine Point Three!” Clarissa shouted triumphantly down the stairs. “Fevers are officially broken, bitches!”
Monserrat bolted up the stairs, slinging a mask over her ears. Clarissa had taken down the playpen walls, and Monserrat trod carelessly on them in her rush to hold her wife and baby girl in her arms.
“Jenny-bear, oh, Jenny-bear, you look so much better. You have color again.”
“As much color as I ever have.” Jenny smiled weakly. Monserrat’s eyes filled with tears at the return of her wife’s understated sense of humor.
“You were really sick and gave us a big scare.” Monserrat patted Jenny’s head lovingly. “It should be all done now. How do you feel? How’s your tummy and your cough?”
Jenny considered the question seriously, without the dazed confusion she’d shown when Monserrat had previously asked. “My tummy feels fine – good even. I took some deep breaths and didn’t need to cough at all.”
Four days of intensive nursing hit Monserrat all at once; she collapsed onto the bed with Jenny, hugging her like she could infuse her love directly into the Little girl. Jenny hugged back, her already-noodly arms even weaker after her ordeal. Across the bed, Clarissa and Brooke were laughing and crying simultaneously in their embrace.
“Um, Monchi?” Jenny said bashfully. “My diaper is wet.”
“We’ll take care of it in a bit, baby girl.” Monserrat sighed and wrapped her baby girl up as thoroughly as she could.
~~~*~~~
Jenny blushed as she awkwardly made eye contact with Brooke. When the laughing, crying, and hugging were over, Clarissa and Monserrat turned their baby girls on their backs and popped their diaper tapes without so much as a by-your-leave. Brooke was blushing, too, but wasn’t protesting any more than Jenny was. Though they hadn’t talked yet, Jenny knew her connection with her best friend had been restored. They were both thinking the same thing, “This is embarrassing, but after dozens of diaper changes, what’s the point in making a fuss?”
It would have been nice to know how much Brooke remembered from their ordeal. Jenny’s memory had the vast majority of her sick time locked behind a haze that she wasn’t sure she wanted removed. That their caregivers would remember every second was bad enough. Monserrat and Clarissa were chatting as they changed their girls’ diapers, as if Brooke and Jenny couldn’t hear them.
“There’s plenty of food downstairs that shouldn’t be a problem for their tummies, but I think we stay away from dairy for a couple of days as a precaution,” Clarissa said.
“That’s a good idea; Jenny’s not always great with dairy anyway.” Monserrat nodded.
“Where did you get that idea…” Jenny’s question was ended by the pacifier Monserrat put in her mouth.
Monchi was so on autopilot that Jenny didn’t think her wife realized what she’d done. Brooke giggled and took Jenny’s hand. Jenny’s desire to re-assert her competency melted away in that simple gesture. It wouldn’t be so terrible to be Little for a while longer.
Being babied extended to being carried downstairs. Jenny had expected it and been looking forward to it. It was Brooke’s turn to be caught off guard when Clarissa picked her up. Brooke had either lost enough weight, or Clarissa was running on adrenaline, but they got down the stairs without a hitch. Niusha and Rachel greeted them in the living room with adoring hugs and kisses, and then the baby girls found themselves sitting on the floor with their caregivers on the couches around them.
The caregivers’ faces looked naked without their masks on. Jenny realized that she and Brooke were both still topless – naked but for their diapers, in fact. It was a warm spring morning already at summer temperatures, but the situation was as undignified as possible. Brooke’s eyes lit up with the same realization; she looked up at Clarissa and opened her mouth petulantly.
“Momma…” Brooke got no further before Clarissa reflexively put a pacifier in her mouth. She blushed and doubled the red in her cheeks when Jenny waggled her eyebrows.
They both knew those eyebrows meant, “You call your girlfriend Momma?”
Brooke seemed overwhelmed, so Jenny crawled to her and sat hip to hip. She’d lost track of the conversation in her concern about being naked and Brooke’s revelation. Tuning in to the adults – her babysitters – her girlfriends – Jenny realized they were about to put dinner on. Four days of a liquid diet had left her ravenous, and her belly growled in anticipation.
To Jenny’s abject horror and Brooke’s infinite amusement, Niusha responded to the noise by checking the back of Jenny’s diaper. That came with a whole slew of implications, especially since she didn’t remember leaving the bed for four entire days. Brooke’s eyes widened as she caught up to Jenny’s train of thought. The two of them blushed purple and clasped hands until their knuckles hurt. A pact was made. Neither of them would bring up the ramifications of being diapered for four days straight until they had some distance from the event. Or maybe never.
“We should put them in high chairs. You have some, don’t you, Monchi?” Rachel asked.
“I have exactly two, but that’s enough.” Monserrat scooped Jenny off the floor.
“I got her down the stairs but might need help this time,” Clarissa said to Niusha.
“I’ll get the chairs!” Rachel scampered off.
There was much laughter as Monserrat put Jenny in a high chair and even more when Clarissa and Niusha worked together to situate Brooke in the other high chair. Things were getting out of hand, but the laughter had such a relieved quality that Jenny couldn’t bear to stop the game. It was a game, she realized, even if it hadn’t been for a few days.
“This is a fun game, huh?” Jenny squeezed Brooke’s hand.
“A game?” Brooke sagged in relief and nodded. Her smile went from wobbly to genuine. “Yeah, really fun!”
Both girls responded to teasing about taking their pacifiers out by demanding food. Their fussiness delighted their caregivers. Niusha served up delicious Kuku Sabzi, the Iranian frittata that was at the top of Jenny’s breakfast favorites. Brooke was initially hesitant about the green color, especially after discovering it was made of eggs. Once she tried it – or rather, once Clarissa firmly fed Brooke a bite – the tastebud-busting power of the Kuku’s herbs had converted her. Jenny would have eaten until her stomach was as bursting as her tastebuds, but Monserrat insisted on reasonable portions that left both girls wanting more.
Monchi’s decision was wise, but Jenny was sitting topless in a high chair, getting her chest wiped down by her wife in front of her best friend and all her girlfriends. For Jenny’s money, it was the most legitimate license to brat ever.
“If we can’t have more kuku, I want dessert!” Jenny pounded her fists on the high chair’s tray.
“Yeah, dessert!” Brooke joined Jenny on percussion. “We’ve been sick, and it was scary; we deserve a treat!”
“You’re on your way to a spanking with that behavior, Brookie-baby,” Clarissa said with her hands on her hips.
“You – you’d spank me after I’ve been sick?” Brooke forced crocodile tears out of her eyes as Jenny watched in awe. She might be the more experienced baby, but her bestie had a trick or two to teach!
“Normally, I’m the biggest hardass in the room, but in this case…” Monserrat shrugged. “I have some cookies that should be fine on their tummies.”
After a bit more begging, Jenny got that cookie and a pajama top. Her seat in the living room was still on the floor, but with cookie in hand, it was hard to complain. There was no mention of letting the girls out of diapers, but thankfully, no gory details of their illness either. By unspoken agreement, Brooke and Jenny decided to cut their losses on that score.
Oblivious to the rich inner lives of the Littles at their feet – and at least temporarily indifferent to the girls’ autonomy – the caregivers chatted on. They’d all gotten used to talking as if Brooke and Jenna couldn’t hear them. That being the case, the Littles surprised all four caregivers by shouting, “What?!” when Monserrat mentioned Brooke having a room in her new house.
“I didn’t realize you kiddos were paying attention,” Monserrat said, with the other babysitters rumbling their agreement. “We were talking about the place I want to buy, and if I stretch the budget a bit, there’d be room to get Clarissa and Brooke in.”
“I uh – wow.” Brooke looked up at Clarissa nervously. “Momma…”
“I love the idea, Brookie-baby, but don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of time to discuss it.” Clarissa ruffled Brooke’s greasy hair. “Monserrat hasn’t set up any house viewings yet.”
“Navi, that’s so many rooms! A six-bedroom house?” Jenny squeaked when Monserrat hauled the Little girl into her lap.
“It might be more than six. I’d like to have an office, and with that many people in the house, we’d want to have spaces people could use to gather in smaller groups,” Monserrat said.
“Alternatively, you can drop a bedroom if we put both baby girls in a nursery together.” Rachel grinned.
“That’d be so cute!” Niusha’s tone was frighteningly serious. “They’re such good sleepers together, and it’s easy to get custom cribs in Ardenthill.”
“Navi! We said no cribs.” Jenny whined.
“What, you don’t want to snuggle with your best friend every night?” Monserrat bounced Jenny on her leg.
“It’d be an infinite sleepover,” Brooke said brightly.
“No fair joining their side; you know I think infinities are cool.” Jenny pouted.
“Eat your cookie, baby girl.” Monserrat nuzzled Jenny’s cheek. “Nothing’s decided yet. The first thing is you Little girls getting a bath and new diapers.”
“More diapers?” Brooke asked uncertainly.
“Ugh, they’ll probably never let us out of diapers now.” Jenny joked though the laughter that followed sounded more like an affirmation of Jenny’s statement than she’d expected.
It’ll be fine. Navi said nothing is decided yet. Jenny snuggled up to her wife, determined to make her cookie last as long as possible. If their ABDL polycule could survive the superflu, everything else would be okay. Catching Brooke’s gaze, Jenny could tell her best friend felt the same way.