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

[Flashback Chapter 429: The Only Move Left is to Turn the Tables]

"Nuh-uh!" Adelaide pouted, shaking her head as Dean pushed a spoonful of porridge towards her mouth. She giggled a little on the inside, and she was sure that she wouldn't be able to hide the feelings. But a little mischief was only to be expected of a small child. So if Dean wanted her to be a baby, she was being the best baby she could be. It was entirely under her control now, and somehow she was enjoying it. A little oasis of things she could control, in the middle of a foreign country that she didn't even know the name of and a house she had no way to get away from.

"Come on, baby girl," Dean gently chided. It was clear he was getting frustrated now, but he was doing a lot better at keeping his anger in check lately. She could tell how much it was getting to him that he had to put up with this, but he also knew that triggering her again wouldn't get him what he wanted any faster. She could feel so proud of that realisation, because it made him so much easier to deal with. Maybe he didn't even know that she was thinking like an adult now; maybe he hadn't realised that the repetition of 'baby girl' had given her a break from the baby name that actually destroyed her reason. If he didn't think of it soon, she was sure she would be able to break free of the suggestions. If he didn't realise how hard it could be to raise a baby first, and give up on keeping her captive.

"You must be hungry," he tried, but that wasn't right either. Though most of her breakfast had ended up in her bib or on the walls, she was finding enough food when Dean wasn't looking. A bag of corn chips stowed away inside a soft toy with a zip up pocket, cookies stowed where the adult would never think to look for them, and the occasional microwave dinner at whatever time her captor happened to be out of the house. If he wanted her to be dependent on him, he'd have to try a lot harder and ensure that he gave her his full attention every hour of the day.

She shook her head again, and flailed energetically with one hand. That sent a bowl of warm baby food spinning across the kitchen, faster than Dean could have responded. She giggled at that, and the amusement was real. Maybe that was why babies giggled all the time; not because they didn't know any better, but because they could do whatever they wanted and never really be punished because of it. She was free, in a way she'd never really understood before she came here. And she could only trust that without the hypnosis, her internal compass wasn't misleading her. This couldn't all be some big trick could it, to make her think she enjoyed acting like a child?

"Come on, can you at least try?" he wheedled. "I know you have more control than that. Don't you?" Adi grinned again. She did have control of her hands again. Good enough to get back to the study and phone home, if she hadn't already discovered that Mom wanted to turn her into a baby too, and jeopardise any future escape attempt. She had control of a lot of things now. She could talk if she wanted to, though the only practice she got was in an empty room on her own. She could walk, and use her hands. And, of course, she had full control of her bowels. And now seemed like the perfect moment to use that to disrupt Dean's carefully laid out schedule again.

"No, Adi" He seemed to guess what was on her mind right away, but she just smiled and pushed. If he wanted a baby, then she could be the most difficult baby ever. He kept on protesting, begging her to behave, but she wasn't going to listen to anything he said. "Please stop. You need to start acting your age, you're not really a baby."

That was out of character enough to distract her, and she looked up into his face for a moment. And all she could see there was genuine concern, worry for her wellbeing. Was this it? The moment he'd give in, tell the mysterious man on the phone that she no longer needed someone to take care of her, and let her go back to her normal life? Had she found the limit beyond which he was no longer willing to hurt her? But she had to be very careful. If he even suspected she was faking the babyish behaviour, he'd say that name again and she would be right back to–

"I knew it! I knew you were still in there somewhere. You can understand me, can't you? Please say something. I've done my best these past weeks, given you every toy you asked for, tried to keep you clean and fed, played with you as much as I can afford to between my work. But I'm not seeing anything. I'm not asking you to tell me how grateful you are, or shower me with affection. But can you at least show me that you're still understanding what I'm saying? That there's still a mind and a personality in there somewhere, buried under all those baby behaviours? Can you just..." he sobbed, and Adi had no idea what to think then. She didn't understand this game, but it took all of her self control not to start crying too when he seemed so genuine. "Can you let me know there's still something in there that we can build on, and teach? Even just the smallest sliver of your adult mind? Because Chastaine is a genius, but even he can't bring you back from nothing."

Adi sat in silence, but she knew that the truth must be visible in her eyes now. She was confused, and she was trying to think. Something that baby Adelaide never even attempted.