You, Me, and Riley

chapter 24

I walked into Riley's nursery where she was playing with Leo and kneeled in front of her trying to get her attention. "Hey baby, Mommy and I want to talk to you do you think you can be big for a little bit?"

"I in troubo?" She asked looking up at me with a wrinkled brow "I no tink I do anyting."

"You're not in trouble baby we just want to talk." I said picking her up and carrying her into her big bedroom where I had set out some clothes for her to wear. "Do you want Mama to help or do you want to do it" I asked setting her on the bed.

"I do it Mama." I hovered in the door since she still sounded little and smiled when she turned around and said "I'm fine Ma I'll be down in a second."

I walked downstairs and met Hayden in the kitchen as we waited for Riley to walk downstairs. Our trip was coming to an end and we needed to decide what we wanted to do when we went home. I smiled at Riley as she came downstairs with a nervous smile and sat down at the table.

"Is everything okay." She said fidgeting with Leo's ears.

"Yes bug." I said with a smile "We just want to talk about what's going to happen when we go home."

"That still like a week away." She grumped out slumping in her chair. "I don't want to go home I like it here." She said with sigh.

"Why do you like it here?" Hayden asked brushing her hair out of her face.

"Besides that fact that it's Hawaii?" She asked with a cheeky smile "I get to be little whenever I want I like it." She said.

Hayden looked at me before taking Riley's hand and continuing "That doesn't have to change." she said.

"Yes it does." Riley replied "I have to go to work! If I don't go to work I can't pay rent or buy groceries or survive."

"Hear us out baby." I said pulling her attention back to us. "We want you to consider moving in with us, and then you wouldn't have to worry about any of that stuff."

"Seriously?" She said raising her eyebrow and looking back and forth between us "Just quit my job and move out of my apartment?"

"Yeah sweetheart." I said taking her other hand "You don't have to give us an answer right away just think about it."

"I'm not saying yes." She said "But I really do like my job could I maybe drop to part time or something."

"Absolutely baby." Hayden said with a smile "We don't want anything to change that you don't want to. But what we also need to consider is if you decide to keep your job what do you want to do about being little?"

"What do you mean?" She asked wrinkling her brow again.

"Do you still want us to be your caregivers. Do you want to be little on just weekends?" I asked sitting back in my chair.

"Uuummm can I decide that once I decide what to do with my job." She asked beginning to fidget in her chair.

"Of course baby." Hayden said sitting back with a smile realizing Riley was starting to get uncomfortable with the conversation. "What do you want to do today?"

"I was wondering if we could go to the zoo?" She asked standing up and sitting on Hayden's lap. "Jessica was talking about how they had gone and it sounded like so much fun." She said looking at me with a big smile.

"Have you never been to the zoo before bug?" I asked in surprise.

"Maybe before my parents died." She said with a shrug "But that was a long time ago so I don't really remember."

"Well the zoo sounds like lots of fun to me." Hayden said standing up and putting Riley on her hip "Are you feeling like you want to be big or little?"

"Can we bring a little bag?" She asked as Hayden set her down and led her down the hallway. "I'm feeling big right now but it might change when we get to the zoo." She shrugged.

"Why don't you head to your room and put on some play clothes." I said pointing her to her big bedroom and then following Hayden to the nursery. "How much do we know about her childhood?" I asked as we started to pack a backpack of little clothes to change her into if she slipped.

"Not a lot." She said looking up at me with a sigh. "She hasn't wanted to talk about. I know her parents died when she was young, I think 6 or 7 years old, and then she ended up in the system after that."

"I was 5." Riley said softly leaning against the door frame catching both of us by surprise. "They died in a car crash."

"I'm sorry sweety." I said pulling her into the nursery "We shouldn't have been talking about it without you."

"We were coming home from my school Christmas play and a drunk driver ran a red light." She continued "I was sleeping in the backseat so I don't remember anything. I woke up in the hospital almost a month later the swelling in my brain put me in a coma and gave me epilepsy for the rest of my life. I broke 9 bones and had to have a kidney removed. I am impressed that you guys haven't asked about that scar yet." She said with a smirk. "I barely remember my parents but I remember that month I was in the hospital after I woke up like it was yesterday. Once I was discharged I bounced around from foster home to foster home until I was 11. Some of them were nice some of them weren't." She said clearing her throat "I got hit a lot but nothing I couldn't handle. I eventually got put in a group home and that sucked. The caretaker wasn't mean or anything but she didn't care about any of us and it was pretty obvious. I'm small so all the big kids took advantage of the fact that I couldn't fight back. They had a lot of fun with me and I spent a lot of nights crying myself to sleep. The day I turned 18 was one of the best day's of my life, I was terrified to be by myself I had no help, no support, practically no money, but I was finally free." She said looking up at us with tears in her eyes.

"You my love are probably the strongest person I know." Hayden said kneeling in front of Riley and wiping the tears from her eyes "Thank you for sharing that with us."

She nodded before she rapped her arms around Hayden's neck and looked up at me with a smile "I don't want to ruin this moment." She said "But can we go to the zoo now? I'm like really excited!"

"Of course we can." I said as Hayden laughed and picked her up carrying her out of the nursery and into the car.