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

Chapter 423: Aftercare

Belle wasn't sure how long she was sitting there, on the couch embraced by close family who'd been strangers only a few hours before. It was just so comfortable, and natural, that the time didn't seem to matter. First she sobbed, and then she slowly felt her calm return. She sat there with a growing smile. She was safe there, she knew that. And these people would never judge her. Even if she was using Adi's nursery after her friend had been kidnapped. Even if she'd pretty much told them that she was still nursing an obsessive teenage crush on her big brother. It wasn't that they didn't care, but that they didn't mind. And unlike anyone else she'd met, they were capable of offering hugs that were purely reassuring, and didn't seem like a first step towards more physical intimacy.

Nobody had held her like that, for as long as she could remember. Maybe Dean, back when she'd still been too childish to realise that a hug could be anything else. And then her train of thought took a detour in the direction of Garfield Oswald Spenser, and she quickly sat on that thought. He was just a kid, and she wasn't going to look up to him no matter how politely he behaved. And she wasn't a baby anymore, so she had no intention of revealing one more shameful thought to her generous hosts.

"You okay, Lily?" Reg asked a few seconds after the thought crossed her mind. Maybe he had felt her tense up, or maybe there was a natural time for a comforting, platonic hug to be over.

"Belle now," she corrected. "Think I snapped out of little mode with all the stuff that's been worrying me. But I'm good. Just surprised, is all. How good it feels to get all that stuff off my chest. I mean, there probably is even more in my mind, but I think I don't need to fill you in on every detail. It's just less pressure now."

"I know that feeling," Vicky whispered. "And I'm glad to see you can come back to adult on your own. That's usually a good sign. With some files, the ones that can be a real problem, I've seen friends upset and shaky for hours if they come out of a trance without the right trigger words."

"That you can drift naturally back to adult," Reg added a little clarification, "if I understand Mick correctly, means that the transformation is mostly under your control, at least on some level. It means that we can be more confident in trusting your judgement while you're regressed, as well. That can be a problem with some of the more intense files."

"That's got to be a good thing. But I think I knew. I mean, it's not like I'm a little kid. I know how old I am, really. I can just imagine how easy it would be to get carried away and not think about what I was saying. And I know it'll be so much easier that way, so I let myself get carried away with what I'm imagining. It doesn't have control over me, it just gives me another option."

And when she said that, she could feel the relief growing inside her as well. Because the same thought meant that Adi had gone willingly with all the things they had done. If she was in control the whole time, even when she played at resisting, then there was no chance Adi had really been coerced into the things she'd said she wanted. No matter how much Britney and Toni were doubting themselves now, Adi had agreed so many times that what they were doing was exactly what she wanted. And her adult mind had been watching from inside the whole time, like Belle's had just been, ready to break down the suggestions if there was any sign of trouble.

"I'm glad. But maybe we should check with our friends Mick and Alex in any case. They're both experts in hypnosis, but from very different directions. They might do more to reassure you that everything was your choice, and perhaps fine-tune your trigger so that it more closely matches the things you'd like to do. Because, I don't know. When you say you're not worried, your nervousness says you are. And before I write any more things on that whiteboard, I want to be absolutely sure that I'm not giving you things that you wouldn't have agreed to when you're sober. Understand? So there can be no doubt in our minds."

"Thank you. For introducing me, I mean. And for caring so much that you don't take it at face value. But... I'm sober now. I had like–" she cut off when she heard Reg's little chuckle. A voice so close to her ear, it could easily have been an intimate encounter, but she was sure there was nothing untoward here.

"No, I mean that when you're under the influence of a suggestion, it affects your judgement. Even if you feel normal, it's like being a little tipsy. You'll go a little further than you normally would without noticing, and for some people that lasts longer than you'd think. So to tell me what you're okay with, I want you to be properly sober. Not drunk, not submissive, not regressed, not in a distressed state where you don't think clearly, and not still feeling the afterglow or hangover of any of those things. It's what we call meaningful consent, and we don't do anything without it. At least, nothing that you might regret later."

"Thank you," Belle whispered again. She felt so protected, that these responsible adults would take so much care to ensure she was safe. But at the same time, her heart sank when she thought that if they were right, she still couldn't take Adi's insistence on what she wanted at face value. She couldn't bring that up, though, so all she offered in response was one more "Thank you."