Quiet Time

Chapter 34

"Another great session Emma," Carmen congratulated as Emma stood up from her place in the middle of the nursery.

"Thanks momma," Emma said with a smile. Lately all of their sessions had been about piecing together Emma's master thesis. Apparently failing this was what sent her into her last spiral where Carmen and Elizabeth found her. The hurdles this time were due to complexity more than anything though, as the nuances of Emma's report were appropriately difficult to understand.

"Any exciting new insights?" Carmen asked.

"It would probably bore you, and it might go over your head. No offense," Emma said apologetically.

"It's the traveling salesman thing you were talking about isn't it?" Carmen questioned. "I'm kind of amazed how complicated a simple problem like that is."

"Well it's one of computer science's and maybe in math's in general oldest problems. They've been after it since before we even had computers. I think it's increasingly likely that it doesn't even have a solution at this point. I've tried several complicated methods to get around it."

"You would be the one to try and answer the problem that has no answer," Carmen giggled. "That's my little over achiever. Come on I think Mommy wants to talk to you about something."

"Oh geez," Emma said concerned. She had a feeling what this conversation was. It was the conversation where she moved up to pull ups, which meant she was on her way out of here. Emma knew this coming sooner rather than later, but she didn't know how she felt about it.

Emma followed Carmen as they left into the living room. Elizabeth was sitting officially on the couch and Carmen soon joined her. As Emma predicted a box of oversized pull ups was in front of them.

"Is this the talk I think it is?" Emma questioned sadly.

"Yup," Elizabeth said calmly. "You've done very well Emma. We think you can continue your treatment on you own, which means it's time to potty train you and get you back out to the world." Emma pulled one of the pull ups out of the package. Even these were pretty juvenile in appearance. They were purple, and decorated with fade away stars. Noticeably less thick than the diapers she was used to, but also thicker than the typical adult pull up.

"I guess I'm ready," Emma said honestly. "I'm just nervous. What am I going to do when I get out there?"

"Well we've been in contact with your old university," Elizabeth said comfortingly. "They would be happy to have you as a professor, you even get to have your own room in one of the dorms. It's a great opportunity to get on your feet."

"Thank you guys," Emma said quietly. "You guys have done a lot for me."

"It's our job," Carmen said with a giggle.

"Sorry for all the times I was a butt."

"We're used to fussy babies sweetie," Elizabeth said with a smile.

"How are you guys going to do?" Emma said concerned. "You guys haven't been without a patient since you started this whole thing."

"We don't know?" Elizabeth pondered. "Now that we're all official though we have a lot of management to do."

"We're going to miss helping the actual patients though," Carmen said wistfully. Emma stared at the pull up in her hand for a while.

"It won't be long will it?" Emma asked shakily.

"A week at most," Elizabeth said sadly. "All that potty training is still there. It's only going to take a little push to get it all back."

"Yeah that's good I guess," Emma said sniffling. "I'm going to miss you guys, I'm going to miss this."