✅ Over Protected

12. Mum Offers a Compromise

I woke up and immediately knew something was different, but I might have been a little slow to work out what it could be. I was warm and comfortable, and I could ignore the music coming from my alarm for a couple of minutes. It wasn't until I shifted position that I felt the increased weight of my diaper. I sat up, and felt the bulk of the padding press against me. Yes, I was wet. How had that happened? I was surprised, and my mind was filled with images of Mum punishing me; treating me like a baby again, and taking care of my every need whether I wanted her to or not.

Then I woke up a little more, and reached for my glass of water. It was warm again, and that was enough to jog my memory. What I had done last night, or rather this morning, to see how it felt. So I hadn't had an accident, which was less of a relief than I had expected. The diaper was swollen with water, and kept slightly warm by my body heat. But it still didn't feel wet, clammy, or any of the unpleasant sensations I might have expected against my skin. I was almost tempted to put on my dressing gown and go downstairs, pretending everything was normal, and change afterwards. But as soon as I stretched I knew that the diaper was sagging with its new weight, and there was no way I would be able to walk normally like that.

I had to take the diaper off, and then I put on my clothes for the day. I found myself looking in the mirror more than a couple of times, trying to work out if I'd missed anything that could give Mum a clue what I'd done. Of course there wasn't; there was no visible sign of bedwetting after I'd changed. But I felt guilty, and there was a part of me that was sure Mum would be able to tell. She could practically smell when we had done something wrong; she knew everything that Sarah had done without even asking. In fact, she probably already knew about Sarah sneaking out this morning, and she was just waiting for breakfast time to decide if it was fair to punish her just for doing things to make a friend happy.

I took a deep breath, and thought about what our punishment might be. I had no idea. But it was clear in my mind that my experiment had been worth it; even if I wasn't really sure why. So I was still nervous as I went downstairs, but tried not to show it.

"Oh, it looks like my baby girl is wet again!" I heard Mum's voice from upstairs, teasing my sister. "Now, I'm sure you've been a good girl this morning, doing everything Mummy said. Have you?" I didn't hear Sarah's response, and tried to take my mind off it as I went to fill the coffee machine and fix my own breakfast. I could hear them arguing; and I hoped that I hadn't gotten my sister in any more trouble because of what I'd done, or somehow made things worse for her.

I couldn't ignore it anymore when Sarah came downstairs, trying to avoid acknowledging that I was there and gritting her teeth. She was dressed in a pastel tee with the words "baby girl" on the front, and the same diaper as last night. She was clearly wet now, and there was nothing to hide the diaper. Now that the sun was up, there was no way she could hide her embarrassment. I stared down at my bowl, and tried to pretend that I hadn't seen anything.

"Don't tell Mum," she snapped. "Don't say anything."

"What happened?" I asked, not understanding what was happening here. "Did you–"

"Mummy says she's not got time to–"

"Morning, Alice!" Mum called cheerily as she bounced down the stairs. "Listen, there's something I need to speak to you about, and I didn't want you to set off for school until we'd spoken. So I've had to put off Sarah's morning change for a couple of minutes, as you can see. I hope you're not going to tease her about that, or I might wind up punishing both of you."

"Of course not!" I answered. "What do you need to–"

"Come on, we can talk upstairs." She'd poured her coffee now, and put a couple of Pop Tarts in the toaster for Sarah. I felt that I was probably in more trouble than I realised, although I wasn't really sure why. I picked up my breakfast and took it with me as I followed Mum back upstairs. I was expecting to go into my bedroom, but instead Mum opened the door to hers.