"I'm sorry, I should have..." Adam mumbled as he realised that Claudia was still compelled to wear a diaper as her sister had commanded. "Do you want me to make you take it off?"
"So you can see me fully naked? No, don't worry. She doesn't sleep for long, though. Like, she's throwing a tantrum about having to take an afternoon nap, saying she's not a baby now. Then she falls asleep an hour after lunch anyhow, but it's never for long. Ten, maybe fifteen minutes, and she'll be up here trying to get our attention again. Likely to be less trouble if I'm still dressed how she expects. You can tell me to go use the bathroom like an adult, though. And get you some clothes, did you leave them down there?"
"Yeah, thanks. Might be better if I'm dressed like a baby, though. If you can keep from laughing at me for a couple of minutes. Is there anything I can borrow so I'm not naked? I mean... if you don't mind."
"You're okay with being dressed like a big baby?"
"No. Not really. But I don't want her to make me act like a baby either. So I'm going to play along. I can do the clothes if it saves me from something much worse, right? Until those herbs wear off and I can make my own choices. Changing back to regular clothes, it'd be out of the frying pan and into the fire."
"Good. And yeah, that's what I was thinking. But I really hope we can start resisting orders again soon. How long is this stuff supposed to last? It has to wear off before evening, right? Mum doesn't usually go out and leave Lori with a sitter for a full day. And I think if she's managed to avoid eating the cupcakes, she'd notice in the evening. So it must be something that can wear off enough to not notice after a couple of hours. Right?"
"Probably," Adam nodded, more in the hope of reducing the note of desperation in Claudia's voice than out of any real certainty. If Mrs Cartwright left Lorelei with a babysitter for an evening, and didn't notice that she was less compliant than expected before bed, that either meant the demon child was good at acting, or it was believable that the drugs would have worn off by then. But he didn't want to guess about which of those would be more likely. And he could imagine that Mrs Cartwright might just not notice the incongruity in later misbehaviour. After all, she hadn't seemed to fully understand the effects of the drug she was giving people.
He didn't say any of these things to Claudia.
"So..." she mumbled. "I need to go get more diapers from downstairs, and bring your clothes up. Can you order me to use the bathroom and change my own diaper? I'm sweating too much today, and with what Lori said before, I don't think I'm allowed to..."
Claudia's voice trailed off, and for a few seconds she stared into space, lost in her own thoughts. Adam wondered for a second what had distracted her so suddenly, but every guess that came to mind made him more certain that he didn't want to ask.
"Yeah, sure," he said with a nod, then waited until Claudia was looking at him again. "Go and change your diaper, and then come back up here with a clean one for me and some clothes."
She nodded, and muttered something that could have been a thank you as she left the room. Once she was gone, Adam picked up the pack of baby wipes that he'd left on the floor earlier and made some effort to get himself cleaned up. Then he looked down at the baby powder and other supplies that were still here. Would there be more in the bathroom for Claudia, or would she have to come back and get some? He hoped that she would have some common sense despite the effects of St Jeremy's root, and would come back to get supplies if she needed them.
It was only a couple of minutes before the door opened again, and Claudia quickly locked it behind her. Now she was naked too, but had wrapped a towel around her waist. She had Adam's clothes in one hand, and a half pack of adult diapers in the other.
"I need wipes," she explained, "and powder, and all the rest. I assumed that I don't have to do things in the order you said, as long as I do it. That's fine, right?"
"Sure. Sorry, I should have thought earlier."
"No worries, everything's here now. I just need to get changed. Do you want to do it again? I mean, I was all antagonistic about not letting you see me like that, but you've already changed me once and you were about as polite as you could be. I've got to wear one anyway, so if you want to..."
"I can if you want, but I think you're old enough to do it yourself now. It's up to you." the temptation was there to talk to her like a toddler, or to speculate that she might have wet herself again just before she managed to use the bathroom. But he didn't say anything else; he didn't want to tease her any more than necessary today, in the hope that she could still be comfortable around him.
Adam sat down on her desk chair, and spun it around to face the TV again. Claudia could have gone downstairs again, but she seemed happy with the privacy provided by lying on the floor on the far side of her bed while she put on a clean diaper.
"Where did she even get these?" he asked, staring at the diaper in his hands with some confusion. He didn't turn around, but tried to focus on putting one on himself. It wasn't the most comfortable outfit in the world, but once he convinced himself that it was the only way to keep from making the juvenile terror mad, it was surprisingly easy to tolerate. He assumed that Claudia was feeling about the same.
"I don't know," she answered, a minute later. Enough time to have thought about it in some depth, or perhaps just waiting until she was more comfortable before speaking. "All I can think of is they're Uncle James's. He came to stay for a week last summer, and he's... too old to think hard about dignity. I think that's how he puts it. I think he might have left some in the cupboard."
"I guess Lorelei found them when she was looking for something else. Kids can be curious, right? But how long has she been planning this revenge?"