✅🎊✂️ Hypnosis Won't Take Me There!! [alternative cut]

[Flashback Chapter 366: Waking Up on the Right Side of Bed]

Adelaide shifted position, and tried to work out where she was. This wasn't her crib, and it didn't feel like a bed either. She wasn't comfy at all, but she wasn't properly awake yet, and she couldn't think. She blinked again, and realised there was something hard in front of her eyes. Something blurred, or too close to see. She wondered what to do for a few seconds, then reached out with clumsy hands and pushed herself away from it.

It felt like wood, and plastic. Then, as she moved, her sense of balance told her that she wasn't lying down. That was the clue she needed, and the world snapped back into focus. She'd nodded off sitting at her desk, with her face resting on the computer keyboard. She must have been more tired than she thought, because her folded arms hadn't even been under her head. It wasn't comfy, and she didn't want to do that again.

She tried to collect her thoughts. Something was wrong, but she didn't really know what it was. Something had woken her up, and it wasn't the light outside because the sun was quite high now, and the birds weren't singing as loudly as they did at first light. Maybe her computer had made a noise because she got an email or something. She squinted at the bright colours, and tried to read the words on the screen. She kind of remembered writing a message, but the screen didn't look like her email, or CritMass, or any of the other chat things she knew about.

After rubbing her eyes, she saw the words that jogged her memory. Reminding her to connect to the Internet to carry on playing. She could have played a different game while she waited, but she was still feeling very little, and she didn't want to forget to ask Dean to fix the computer so she could play online. So she'd just sat there waiting, until she fell asleep. Then something had woken her. It couldn't be a message, because nothing could get through. Could it be Dean calling her, just before she'd woken?

"Dean?" she mumbled, glad that he had a short and simple name that she could say easily even when she was feeling so small. There was no answer, so she turned around on the chair and took a step towards the door. Still half asleep, one step was all it took to catch one foot on the chair leg and send her tumbling to the ground with a thump. It would have been so easy to start crying then, but Adi didn't want to seem weak. She whimpered a little as she landed on her side, and more as she felt the bulk of her diaper pressing against her skin. She was determined not to let it get to her, and as she grabbed the chair to pull herself back to her feet, she promised herself that she really wasn't crying. She was going to change herself like a big girl, and then send her email to Mommy.

Then she heard the click of the door opening, and turned to face Dean. This time she was fast enough to put one hand on the desk before she fell, and did her best to smile.

"What's wrong, baby?" Dean asked. "I heard a bang. Did you hurt yourself?" He seemed really worried, more than Adi was herself. That made her feel just a little more comfortable with not having any control, but not by much. Sometimes, being a baby made her feel like her head was stuffed with plush fluff, but she could remember what she needed to do. What she needed to say, so she could try to be a big girl a bit longer without making anybody worry.

"I fell down." Even though she knew it was better to admit it, she couldn't help blushing at the words. She found herself looking down at her hands, and for a moment she expected to see chubby little fingers like a real baby. "It's okay, I got up again."

Dean joined in with her chuckles after a second, but he still took a few steps closer and used the sleeve of his sweatshirt to wipe the tears away from her eyes.

"You're such a brave girl, aren't you? You don't need any help from the babysitter. Just let me know if you need anything. Does a big girl need a soggy butt changing?"

"I can do it," Adi mumbled. She almost had to force the words out when she thought how safe and protected she felt as a baby. Why was she turning that down? It would be so much easier just to let him take charge. But she stuck to what she'd decided. Baby girls didn't need to think about things, or understand them. She was too little to understand, so she could see that it made sense to keep saying what she knew she'd wanted to say before. "But... umm... my computer's being bad. It says it needs a Internet."

"Oh, you've put your laptop on too. You are a good girl! Do you need to be online?"

Adi nodded, and babbled something about the game needing to be connected. Dean kept nodding while she talked, but at the same time he backed away into a room across the hallway. He came back with a shiny card in his hand, like a library card or something. Adi looked down and realised it had ridges along the edge. She had to fight against the urge to giggle and get distracted, while she took several seconds to work out something she would have worked out instantly if she was a big girl. It was a piece of plastic that slotted into the side of a router, with the wifi password printed on it. They'd had one at home, the last time Mom had decided to switch cable providers.

"I've got a password here for you," he said. "If I read it out, can you try to type it in yourself? Show me what a big girl you can be, okay?"

Adi nodded, and sat down at her computer. She tapped the keys a little bit to get the screen saver to go off, and then got carried away pretending to be a famous drummer, trying to make a tune with the tap-tap-tap of the keys. She closed the window at the front of the screen, so that the only thing on the screen was a game demanding Internet access. And she clicked on the little icon in the corner, to choose a network to connect to. But instead of a password, she felt Dean's hand on her shoulder.

"What was that, baby?"

"It's a game! Look!"

"I meant the thing you just closed when I turned to see."

"It's nothing. I'm just playing games, I'm a good girl!" She tried to work out what he might have seen. Would he know who she was trying to get in touch with? Would he be angry? He said he just wanted to make her happy, but she was sure that chatting to Mommy wasn't a bad thing. Even if she told him that she'd wanted to talk to them, that wouldn't spoil their holiday. Would it?

His answer sounded upset. Angry, even. He didn't yell, and he didn't storm off like some people she'd known. He just went very, very calm, with an edge in his voice she'd never heard before. He told her that he was upset with her, that she'd done something that really wasn't allowed. And as he helped her to get ready for the rest of the day, she knew that she wouldn't be allowed to use the computer on her own again for as long as they were here.