A Taste of Her Own Medicine - Chapter 3 (Patreon)

"Is something wrong?" Ethan asked, glancing over the flickering candles in the middle of the table.

Of course there was... Their daughter had been given the ability to turn her, mentally, into a four year old, in the name of helping to heal their relationship, and had a package of diapers at the ready for when she did, and now Ethan was about to go away on a business trip, leaving the two of them alone... That was a whole lot of somethings that were wrong, in fact...

But Cheyenne took a sip of her wine and shook her head. "No, no, nothing," she lied to her husband. "I was just... thinking."

Ethan might spend the majority of his time nowadays at the office, however, he did know her very well. "About what?" he pushed, not sounding convinced.

"Therapy," she answered after a moment, telling the truth, if not all of it. 

"Oh, yes," he nodded. "You two did do that, didn't you. I never asked... How did that go?"

Cheyenne shrugged, having hoped that simple word would put an end to the discussion without her needing to elaborate. "I-I think we're getting somewhere," she offered eventually. Was it somewhere she wanted to go? That remained to be seen...

"Good, good," he chewed thoughtfully. 

She blushed. "Y-Yeah..." She wasn't sure she agreed with Rachel's methods, but it was hard to deny that things had changed between her and her Kendra, and maybe, in the end, she would realize it was all for the best.

Until then, she was finding more and more reasons to stay out of the house when Kendra wasn't attending classes, letting herself get chased out of her own house by her daughter. That probably wasn't helping matters any... If she was avoiding dealing with Kendra, then was she really making an effort to work through their issues? But it was just so humiliating... And that, she supposed, was the point. She was meant to think about how humiliating it was for Kendra, growing up... 

Had it truly been any worse for her than for anyone else? Cheyenne knew she shouldn't think that way, yet it was difficult not to. Maybe that was part of why Rachel was having them do this... It had been so long since Cheyenne was a kid, she didn't really remember what it had been like. The more she let Kendra use the trigger phrase, the more she'd experience it... So, she ought to welcome it, to make the best of it, so that, by their next session, Rachel would see she'd done a good job, and put a stop to this because they didn't need it anymore.

"Speaking of Cheyenne," he said, "she told me she was going out with her friends tonight, so we should have the place to ourselves when... Do you hear something?"

She had, though she'd been ignoring it as best she could, while her cheeks warmed slowly. Probably, it would've faded into the background, her not paying at any mind at all, if not for her experiences lately... Thanks to those, she would know the sound of fingers snapping anywhere. In a way, it was a good sign, a release from her childish mental prison; in another, it was a symbol, to her, of this whole strange exercise, since she couldn't be released if she weren't captured in the first place.

"I-I don't think so," she shook her head.

"I could've sworn there was something," he mumbled, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "I think I turned my sound off, but maybe it was the vibration... No, nothing here. Did you get anything?"

She knew that wasn't what it was, though she didn't want to explain how, and why, she was so attuned to what the actual sound had been. "I don't think so," she reached down to slide her phone out of her purse, tapping the screen to look.

And then she saw it, the message short enough that the entirety of it showed in the preview, her eyes automatically scanning over it despite her better judgement, her mind knowing what it was going to be too late to stop, but early enough to feel a sense of dread overwhelming her.

'Are you mommy's sweet little girl?'

Before she could wonder if that would count, if the trigger would work over text, she got her answer, the intimate, fancy restaurant suddenly seeming very big, and very spooky, the romantic candlelight feeling ominous to the four year old version of herself. She gasped, wriggling in her seat, not knowing what to do, especially when she looked up and saw the grown-up sitting across from her.

She felt like she should know who he was, though, in practice, she couldn't quite place him, which made it even scarier. Was this the kind of stranger her mommy always told her to stay away from? What was she doing, sitting so close to him?! She squeaked, scrambling off her chair, wanting to run away, only to see a waiter behind her, and the other diners staring in her direction. All she could think to do was duck under the table, trying to hide, her thumb popping itself into her mouth as she felt a panicked warmth spreading through her panties...

And then the snapping came again, and her adult mind came crashing back into her, along with a wave of humiliation at the situation she was now in.

"What's wrong?" Ethan asked, rushing around the table. "Are you okay?"

Quickly - embarrassed that hadn't been the first thing she thought to do, but she had to admit it had felt kind of nice - Cheyenne slid her thumb out of her mouth, wiping it off on her dress and praying her husband hadn't noticed. "I-I just..." she stammered, lost about how she could possibly explain this, especially the wet spot, and the puddle she saw now, underneath her...

Ethan frowned, looking so concerned and confused. "What's going on, Cheyenne?"

"I-I spilled my wine," she fibbed, glad she'd gone with a white, at least, so the color matched up a little better. "I-I was just cleaning it up..."

Thankfully, her napkin had been on her lap, and it had fluttered to the floor beside her, letting her grab it, feeling extremely guilty as she used it to dab at the puddle. This was a nice place, she was sure they washed their napkins well... And she'd be sure to ask for a new one as soon as she saw her waitress again.

"I'm sure they can handle that," Ethan told her. "Accidents happen."

Cheyenne winced at those last two words, hoping he didn't mean them the way they sounded to her, that he hadn't seen through her story. "Th-They shouldn't have to do that," Cheyenne said. "I-I can take care of it..."

"Everything all right?" Cheyenne was already under the table, so it was silly to wish she could hide under there; instead, she supposed, what she wanted was to crawl further underneath, use the tablecloth to cover her face as the waitress appeared, crouching down to check on her.

Cheyenne swabbed up the remainder of her accident, carefully folding the napkin so that neither she nor the waitress would have to touch the wet part. "J-Just a little spill," she blushed. "That's all..."

She did her best to act like that was true, to project strength and maturity as she straightened back up, praying she hadn't attracted as much attention from the other diners as she'd felt she had... And wishing her wine glass didn't still look so full, making her story seem all the more unlikely, even if Ethan didn't recall that she hadn't been drinking when she'd dived under the table.

"That's all right," the waitress told her cheerfully. "No need to worry!" She leaned in, however, whispering conspiratorially, "I think you may have sat on it when you went under there, though, if you want to go get cleaned up..."

"Y-Yes," Cheyenne nodded. "Y-Yes, that's a good idea..." She grabbed her purse and hurried to the restroom, doing her best to use the hand dryer to evaporate the evidence as best she could without making it too obvious to anyone else who walked in, nonchalantly changing her position and rubbing her dry hands under the air, squirming to position herself to keep her wet bottom out of their sight until they went into a stall.

She checked her phone again automatically, only realizing her mistake when it was too late, when the screen was already on. Thankfully, it seemed another message from Kendra had come in - was that, perhaps, what had caused the finger snapping sound? Had Kendra changed her text tone? - and the preview of it had superseded the preview of Kendra's first message.

'Hope you were wearing a diaper,' the new one mocked. 'I think that would be a good idea from now on, don't you?'