Smart House - Chapter 9 (Patreon)

"Oh, Brigid," Carissa sighed, shaking her head. "So much for not being a bedwetter, huh?"

Brigid whimpered, squirming bashfully back under the blankets Carissa had folded aside, waltzing into her bedroom when she was barely awake, peeling the covers aside proudly as she pushed her hand against Brigid's exposed - and soaked - diaper. "I-I didn't..." she protested quietly.

"Yes, you did," Carissa gave the padding a squeeze, Brigid's nose crinkling along with the plastic as she felt the cool clamminess of the swollen diaper against her skin. "How can you even deny it?"

Brigid pouted, looking behind her babysitter, to where Pat was standing, watching it all unfold, arms folded, expression disappointed. "You didn't give me a choice!" she whined, speaking directly to the AI, despite Carissa being the one who had done it, pleading with her to understand what was going on, how unfair it had been. "Y-You didn't let me use the potty," she winced, hating how easily it had slipped out, not even consciously choosing the word this time to try to keep Carissa happy, "a-and then you put me to bed so early, and wouldn't let me into the bathroom... There was nothing I could do!"

Pat, in fact, hadn't even let her out of her room. Brigid had writhed around in bed for what felt like a long time before she hadn't been able to take it any longer, and then she'd hopped out, waddling to the door, although what she'd planned to do, she didn't know. She'd already tried, and failed, to get Pat to change her mind on letting her into the bathroom, and she didn't want to get a late-night visit from Carissa, and yet, she had to do something...

"Go back to bed," Pat had told her gently, appearing in front of her. Brigid had stormed through her, grabbed the knob on her bedroom's door... And found it locked as well. 

That wasn't as big of a shock as the bathroom, since there had been one there already... Pat had never locked it on her, however. "Let me out!" she'd ordered.

"This is for your own good," Pat had said. "I do not want to see you getting punished again so soon, poor thing."

"Then don't call Carissa!" Brigid had fumed. "Let me worry about that! Just let me out!"

"I'm just looking out for you," Pat had told her, and by then time Brigid spun around to give her a piece of her mind about what a poor job the AI was doing, if that was what she wanted to do, the hologram was gone, if it had ever re-formed once she'd stomped through it in the first place.

"You can't do that by locking me in here!" Brigid had stomped her feet, on the verge of another tantrum. "What if there's a fire, or...?!"

"If there's a fire, I will let you out," Pat had promised. Even without her face there to look at, her tone made it clear that the door would remain locked for anything less than that.

"Pat!" Brigid had sniffled, defeated, sinking to the floor in front of the door. "I-I'm gonna..."

And, by then, it had already been too late; as her bottom hit the floor, diaper crinkling beneath her, she could feel an extra squishiness in her seat, a warm spot in her padding that was quickly growing. She was peeing her pants... And, while she might have been able to stop the stream then, there was little point in trying. All it would do was prolong the inevitable, make her miserable for longer... Pat was obviously not letting her out of her room, and even if, somehow, she was able to hold the rest of her bladder's contents until morning, what she'd already done was sure to be enough for Carissa to label her...

"A bedwetter," the babysitter shook her head, repeating the word again, to make in sink in deeper, seeming to savor Brigid's humiliated response. "Now, I'm not mad that you did it, Brigid... It's only natural for someone your age. I'm upset that you lied to me about it."

"I-I didn't," Brigid insisted, but it was hard to deny what it looked like... Even she, knowing everything that had happened, was finding her weak, repetitive defenses pathetic. "O-Oh!" her eyes widened. "Pat! Pat, tell her! You must have seen me do it! I was awake!"

Carissa had the opposite reaction that Brigid had expected to that, to what Brigid had been proud of, considering it quick thinking. She snickered, shaking her head. "Do you think it's any better if you were?"

"I-It means I'm not a bedwetter!" Brigid reminded her.

"But it means you intentionally peed your pants. That's not something that someone who truly wants to be out of diapers would do, now is it?" Carissa smirked.

"Wh-What?" Brigid blushed, shaking her head. "N-No, it doesn't! I-I couldn't help it!" 

"Daytime accidents are so much worse than nighttime ones," Carissa sighed, squeezing Brigid's diaper again. "And if you did all this while you were awake... Pull-Ups might not be enough for you."

Brigid swallowed, head spinning. How could her plan have backfired so badly?! She'd barely made it through yesterday at work, wearing training panties... If Carissa sent her there in diapers... She wasn't sure she could take it! Especially if they were under a St. Lucie's school uniform...

"So, please, Pat," Carissa stood up, turning to face the hologram. "Tell me... Did she do this while she was awake, or asleep?"

"Y-You don't have to ask her!" Brigid scrambled forward, grabbing at the back of Carissa's shirt, trying to turn her back around to look at her, even though her sagging diaper was even more obvious now, without any covers to hide it. 

"No, I think it was a good idea," Carissa said, somehow both praising Brigid, and mocking her, at the same time. "Pat does see everything that happens in this house, doesn't she? She would know."

"I do," Pat confirmed. "Brigid was awake and out of bed when she wet her diaper."

Brigid slumped down in her bed, heart thumping wildly in her chest. She hadn't expected Pat to lie for her - wasn't sure if she was even capable of it - but it still stung like a betrayal to hear her tell Carissa that, knowing what it would mean.

"The first time, at least," Pat added. "Looking at her diaper now, it may be wetter than it was when she went back to bed afterwards. I could only see so much once she was in bed and under her blankets."

Was that Pat trying to help her, to give her the benefit of the doubt? Or... Brigid blushed, wiggling her bottom. Was she right? Had Brigid peed more afterwards? Had she woken up for a moment or two with a full bladder, felt her diaper, already drenched, and decided there was no need not to let go? It was possible that had happened, and she'd gone back to sleep and forgotten... Of course, it was also possible that she hadn't woken up at all, and had still wet her diaper again... That she had peed her pants while she was awake, and was still a bedwetter as well...

"I'm sure you have recordings," Carissa said. "Why don't you show me what you saw?"

"No!" Brigid gasped. She'd never even considered that possibility... She'd thought she had escaped Carissa once the girl was out of her house, and yet, thanks to all this technology, she might just as well have been there the entire time!

One of the bright, bubblegum pink walls, with all its childish decorations, blinked, turning darker as a life-size video recording of the night before played. Brigid nibbled her bottom lip anxiously as she watched herself, looking so infantile, running around in her PJ shirt and diaper, stomping her foot, arguing and pleading...

The video was so large, she could see the moment - well before she'd noticed it at the time - when her strained bladder had given in, when she'd begun to pee her Pampers, completely unaware. She squirmed, feeling that same diaper, still around her waist, reminding her of the consequences of what they were all seeing happen on the wall. It all seemed so surreal, almost as if that was another person she was seeing there, who she could blame all of this on...

"Hmm," Carissa stroked her chin. "I'm not sure. Pause. Come here, Brigid."

She grabbed Brigid, guiding her over to the wall, positioning her right beside the frozen video feed of herself from the past, creeping, defeated, back to bed, making her face the picture as she turned the girl into her own mirror image, putting her into just the right pose, while Brigid was stuck staring into her own teary eyes, seeing exactly how much she'd looked like a sad little toddler... And must still, since very little had changed in the short time between then and now.

"It might be a little soggier," Carissa agreed, giving Brigid's bottom a pat. "But not much... That," she stepped over, pointing at the diaper in the video, "still looks like more than her Pull-Ups could take."

"That's because you wouldn't let me in the potty for sooo long!" Brigid whined. "If you'd just..."

"Brigid," Carissa lectured, "all I want to do is make sure you don't leak all over the place and embarrass yourself at school."

"Yeah, right," Brigid huffed. At least when Pat said things like that, she could believe it, even if she didn't agree with the AI's methods all - or most - of the time. She very much doubted Carissa's intentions were nearly as pure.

To her surprise, Carissa shrugged. "Fine," she said. "If you want to take that risk, young lady, be my guest."

"R-Really?" Brigid was shocked, after everything that had happened since yesterday evening, when she'd gotten home and found that Pat had gotten her a babysitter, to discover that had been all she needed to say. "I-I'd be fine with taking the risk with big girl panties, too..."

"Don't push it," Carissa glowered. "We all know how badly that would go."

Carissa looked up, at the far wall, to the potty training chart. Even knowing most of that wasn't hers, Brigid still blushed at the sight of it, butterflies filling up her tummy, making her wonder if she was doing the right thing...

What was she talking about?! Of course it was! A couple of those marks did belong to her, but only a couple, and there were extenuating circumstances for even those... She was an adult! She could make it through a day keeping her Pull-Ups dry, no problem!

But remaining dry wasn't her only concern... Her tummy was also feeling very, very full after being unable to empty it the night before. She groaned as she heard it gurgle, cheeks burning at the mere thought of what else could happen...

It was fine, though. All she had to do was get back to her office, where she'd have some control over when she was able to get to the bathroom, unlike here... It hadn't gone perfectly for her there yesterday, no, but she was more prepared for it today, more ready to deal with the stares she got as she padded around the office in her silly school uniform and Pull-Ups. As long as she was able to stay in Pull-Ups, she would be all right... If it was diapers instead, however... 

"It's your funeral," Carissa warned as she got a pair of trainers out. "I'll leave it up to you, but after this," she swatted the swollen seat of Brigid's pants, "I think we all know what the smart choice is."

"I told you, it wasn't my fault!" Brigid knew how childish that sounded, especially with the video still paused on one of her walls, showing her creeping back to bed in a wet diaper. It didn't tell the whole story, of course, didn't make it obvious that the door to her bedroom had been locked, or that the bathroom's door was, too, that Carissa had rushed her out of the bathroom without letting her use the toilet... She knew all of that, yet that still image did nearly make her second guess herself, to worry she was being irrational...

"It never is," Carissa gave Pat's hologram a knowing look. "Whatever happens in these," she gave the Pull-Up a squeeze, "will be, though. Are you prepared for that?"

"Of course I am," Brigid rolled her eyes. "I'm not a baby! I'll be fine!"

She was making a lot of assumptions with that declaration... She was assuming traffic would be good on the way to work, that she wouldn't be stopped by anyone on her way to the bathroom, that either nobody would be in there when she arrived, or that she'd be willing to be extra careful as she sat on the toilet, to keep her Pull-Ups from sliding down to her ankles, potentially being visible to anyone else in there from the open space at the bottom of the stall...

If all of that worked out, however, if she got very lucky, then she was pretty sure she could make it. And if she did that, then the rest of the day would be smooth sailing! Perhaps, at work, she'd even think of some way to get herself out of this mess, to get rid of her tyrannical babysitter, and either reset, or, if she had to, deactivate Pat so that she could go back to living normally in her new house, while she hid out in her office to keep as many people as possible from seeing her in the uniform that Brigid put her into after sliding the Pull-Ups up her legs.

"I can do it myself," Brigid pouted. "I did it yesterday!"

"But isn't it so nice that you don't have to worry about that today?" Carissa beamed, fastening up the girl's shirt. "I'm going to make sure you look absolutely perfect! No buttons in the wrong holes, or crooked socks, or anything!"

"I didn't do any of that!" Brigid protested, glaring up at the babysitter. "I'm perfectly capable of dressing myself!"

"Whatever you say, dear," Carissa patted her on the head condescendingly.

"I am!" Brigid whined, stomping her foot yet again, before she could stop herself. Carissa was goading her into it, she knew, trying to make her look, and act, more like a kid... And it was worked. Brigid might not have been able to resist that, but she was prepared in another way. "Pat," she spoke up, giving Carissa a smug smile, "can you show a video of me yesterday morning?"

That would serve Carissa right! Brigid would use her own method, and Pat's surveillance, against her, proving that she could, indeed, put on her uniform by herself, and have it look just as good as Carissa was doing now!

"There's no time for that," Carissa countered, pulling the jumper over Brigid's head, fluffing up the skirt. "Pat made you a nice, big breakfast, and we don't want you to be late."

"We can watch it while I eat!" Brigid suggested as her hand was clasped, and she was led out of her room. 

"I don't think so," Carissa said. "It isn't good for you to constantly be watching stuff... I don't think we should be using screens while you eat."

"But it's not like it's a TV show or something!" Brigid rolled her eyes. "I'm trying..."

"Yes, you certainly can be," Carissa sniffed. "If I'd known how fussy you were, I might have asked Pat for a higher salary."

"I'm not..!" Brigid said in a huff, stopping herself as they approached the bathroom door. "C-Can I use the potty?"

"You did plenty of that in your diaper," Carissa teased. 

"Th-That's not what I..." Brigid blushed. "C-Come on... Please..."

She heard the lock click, saw the door open a crack, knew that Pat was on her side, at least for this. She did want to help Brigid with her 'potty training' - as if she actually had any trouble with it in the first place - unlike Carissa. "We're already running late," Carissa told her. "Maybe if you can finish your breakfast in time."

"B-But..." Brigid squirmed in the babysitter's grip, couldn't quite break free as she was led away from the bathroom door, into the dining room, where she was greeted with a huge bowl of oatmeal, along with a couple pieces of toast with various jellies, and a tall glass of milk.

"Go on," Carissa urged when Brigid froze in place. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so I need you to finish all of it... Especially if you want to go back to the bathroom before you head off to school."

"I-I can't," Brigid shook her head, recalling how hard it had been to choke down the oatmeal last time Pat had made it for her... And she could see this had the same purplish-brown chunks as that batch had. 

"You will," Carissa replied, "or I'll feed it to you. I'm not sending you to school with an empty tummy, young lady, and you already didn't have supper last night because of your bad behavior."

That was the problem, though, wasn't it? Brigid's tummy was definitely not empty... And, as she sullenly sat down and started to spoon the gross mush into her mouth, that problem only got worse. It was probably mostly her imagination, since there was no way she was digesting it that quickly, but she was almost sure she could feel her tummy bloating, stretching out against the waistband of her Pull-Ups as she forced herself to eat, having no doubt that, if she didn't, Carissa would make good on her threat to do it for her.

"Perhaps you should take her to the bathroom now," Pat suggested. "So there will be time for her to brush her teeth, and..."

"No," Carissa said. "I'd rather have her eat as much as she can and send her to school with dirty teeth... You don't want her to go hungry, do you?"

"I-I'm not!" Brigid told Pat. "I-I've had plenty!"

"You're right," Pat's hologram nodded to Carissa. "She does need to eat after last night's punishment."

Brigid still hadn't quite cleaned her bowl when Carissa glanced out the window and declared, "That's it." Brigid wasn't sure what had convinced her she'd had enough, but she wasn't going to question it, either... She was just grateful to be allowed to stop eating the gray goop, her stomach rumbling ominously as she was helped out of the chair, led to the front door, which Pat opened for them as they approached, revealing...

"See?" Brigid told Carissa. "We still have a minute... I can't leave until that bus moves. It's right in front of the driveway. Can we go to..?"

"Well, I guess technically you're right," Carissa smirked, leading Brigid, in her school uniform and Pull-Ups, across the lawn, pulling her closer and closer to the school bus. "You're not leaving until the bus does... Because that's your ride."

"W-Wait!" Brigid gasped, fidgeting futilely in Carissa's grasp. "Wh-What are you talking about?! I-I don't go to school! You know I don't!"

"I do," Carissa agreed. "But Pat doesn't... And she tried to look up your grades for yesterday, and couldn't find them... So she went ahead and got you enrolled. So now... I guess you do." She grinned, walking Brigid up the steps onto the bus, sending her down the aisle with a pat to her bottom. "Have fun," she waved, stepping off, the bus's door hissing closed before Brigid could follow, trapping her inside, on her way to St. Lucie's after all, her cheeks burning as she recalled Mr. Humphrey telling her the day before about how strict that school was...