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

[Flashback Chapter 457: I Can Do it By Myself]

Adi opened her eyes, and saw the morning sun making a piercing line between the curtains. The fabric was a little faded, but they did the job they were designed for. For a few moments she watched motes of dust dancing in the spear of light, like a curtain of golden glitter reaching to the opposite wall. It was beautiful, in its way. And where the sparkling line caught a glass of water standing on her desk, there was a miniature rainbow to enhance the image.

Adi let herself smile. It was great to see something so beautiful, and have the time to appreciate it. Back at home, she would have been rushing to pick up her computer, to try to send a message before that silly mushroom alarm clock turned her into a baby again. Or she would already have been feeling too young to realise what was going on. Now she was safer, with Dean to protect her.

She couldn't grab her laptop and tell everyone on CritMass that she was safe. She couldn't even pick up her phone to check the time, because she wasn't sure yet if she could trust herself not to listen to any hypnosis files that were still on the memory card somewhere. She was still uncertain enough that Dean had to be there with her when she wanted to listen. Reminding her to start saying her new baby baby name. More than anything, she didn't want anyone calling her Adelaide again.

She watched the glowing dust for a few minutes longer, as the sun crept above the horizon and the rainbow drifted down to trace a complex shape on the floor. That meant something as well, she thought. The sun was higher in the sky now, but the light show had been almost horizontal when she woke. The sun pale and yellow-gold, the light maybe given a little colour as it skimmed the top of the trees in the surrounding woods. They were starting to turn now, more yellow than orange in this part of the world, but there was definitely an autumnal taste in the air. The summer was nearly over, and she'd been too young to enjoy most of it. The only chance she'd had to enjoy life as an adult was a single theatre show with Dean, just a few days before. And even then, she'd been quite aware of the warmth of her diaper as she wet uncontrollably, not even halfway to the interval.

Summer was gone. Her family must be worrying, but she knew she had to keep away from them for now. They would accept this change, like they had accepted it when she started becoming a baby in the first place. They'd said so many times that they just wanted her to be happy. Dean had been keen to remind her of that, when she worried they might hate her. She just couldn't risk seeing them just yet. She needed to avoid anyone who might use her old name, even after the new one started working, because it could take weeks for her to be fully safe. She still wasn't sure if Chastaine was overreacting, but in this case she knew it was better to be safe than sorry.

Having started the reprogramming schedule, she had to finish it.

"Good morning!" Dean's voice called up the stairs. He'd quickly stopped calling her 'baby' once he knew she was uncomfortable with it, and she'd insisted that nobody but Toni could call her 'Babe'. He didn't want to say 'Adi' even, because of the slim chance she could mishear it as the other thing. So now he called her nothing at all, and with nobody else in the house there was no question who he might be speaking to.

"Morning!" she called back, cheerful as ever. As she walked across the room the colours of dawn played across her nightshirt, but no light stabbed her in the eyes this morning. It could have been a sign that summer was truly over, or that she'd overslept. But she let herself not think about it, just smiling at how good the colours looked on her. Once upon a time she knew she would have been putting herself down when she realised how much of the morning she'd wasted, or how much of the summer. But babies didn't worry about things like that. And if there was nothing she could do about it now, maybe the adult Adi didn't need to worry either.

She threw off the nightshirt, and the fluffy socks that had helped to keep her legs warm in the last week. The air was a little chill here, although Dean assured her it was better than it had been before he'd replaced all the windows with modern double-glazed units. Goosebumps stood up on her arms as she lay back to change her diaper. Most days she'd use the pull-on medical ones now, easy enough to change like real underwear. But this morning she looked at the supply in the closet and decided it would be appropriate to pick something decorated with pink and pastel blue unicorns. Dean had said he didn't have time to order more before they moved on to see Chastaine in person, so she had to make the remaining supply last. And if that meant using up some of the humiliating designs when there was nobody around who might see them, so much the better.

By now, she was becoming used to all kinds of creams, lotions, and powders that might help to protect her crotch from a rash. She rubbed a little in the hope of dispensing with itching, but she knew that it was something she'd have to put up with for a few days. She'd decided to let her hair grow back as soon as it was her choice again, and promised herself she would never be persuaded to shave down there again. Trimming maybe, she didn't want to be untidy, but she also didn't want to see herself looking so much like a baby. Dean had encouraged her to wait awhile, because he said it would be harder to keep clean. But Adi had decided it was worth a little discomfort to prove that she was the one making the choice.

With everything done she dressed quickly, wearing a summer dress that would give easy access to her diaper for changes, as well as more long fluffy socks. With her hair growing out again over the summer, hanging in waves past her shoulders now, she had to admit that she looked a little childish in the mirror. But there was nothing wrong with that. She could even give herself a little smile now. For months now she'd not listened to the hypnosis file at all, and she'd still been willing to act like a baby to frustrate Dean. And she knew now that the times she'd enjoyed that independence were in no way influenced by posthypnotic suggestions. So maybe, just maybe, her inner child was glad of a chance to play when it was on her terms. She could see herself like that, and enjoy the innocence.

An unseasonal summer dress wouldn't bother her, anyway.