Compromise - Chapter 23 (Patreon)

Lizzie couldn't help but give a tiny giggle, trusting the paci to muffle it enough that Heather - and anyone else who might be around - couldn't hear it, or might, at least, mistake it for something else. She shouldn't be so excited for this, for plenty of reasons... 

For one, it was literally a pacifier, something that should be only for babies, even if plenty of people her age were forced to use them on a regular basis, which was an injustice she should be fighting against... Instead, she was voluntarily letting herself be dressed up like this and paraded through the store, looking like any one of those poor souls... Except that she had chosen to do this, had said yes to Heather's suggestions at every turn... Had wanted her to take control, whether that was solely because she trusted her to know how to make them look like a genuine Mommy/adopted daughter pair, or if there was something deeper to it...

For another, it demonstrated how far her stupid little thumbsuking habit had gone, something that had started purely as a part of her disguise to help her escape the movie theater without being seen, or recognized. That's what this pacifier should have been, too, a disguise... But there was something so comforting about it, something about feeling it fill her mouth, even when she wasn't actively sucking on it, that made her feel safe and cozy... She knew that, just like she'd started sucking her thumb after that incident, she was almost definitely going to be using this thing after she finished the job.

Perhaps the most important one, however, or the most pressing at the moment, was the fact that she was literally being taken to buy diapers at this very moment, for herself. They were for the job, too, sure... Heather had made it clear they would be there, waiting, for if she crossed the three strike rule. Most likely, at least some of those diapers were going to her house, a constant threat...

But that was being overly dramatic, to think of it that way, wasn't it? If she ever had three accidents in one day, it would be because she chose to... She might, every now and then, find herself a bit damp without realizing it, though, like had happened tonight, it was always after she'd had plenty of warnings, plenty of chances to go find a toilet... And she couldn't imagine doing that three times in a day without her making a conscious choice about it. Not to mention that the rule had been her idea in the first place, not something pushed on her by Heather, or even suggested by her.

Still, that didn't mean she shouldn't be a little anxious, at least. She had been, just a minute or two ago, when she'd agreed to this, and she'd assumed that would only grow as they got closer to the aisle. That wasn't how it had gone, however... Padding along beside her Mommy in her sleeper, soggy Pull-Up underneath, paci in mouth, leash around her wrist... It was embarrassing, certainly, if she remembered they were out in public, that it was impossible to tell who would walk in at any moment and see her there...

By now, it was hard to keep that in mind, though. They'd been here so long, trying on so many things... And now, as she toddled along, every all together had somehow combined to make her feel not nervous, but snug and warm, like she was just being taken to bed by her Mommy to be tucked in, even if she knew that wasn't really the case, at all.

It had to be the pacifier, she thought. That was the only thing that had changed, to make her calm down this much. That was, potentially, a good tool to have at her disposal, as a way to chill out after a tough case... It was also a bit scary, making her wonder how powerful it was, what it could make her accept without thinking... She shivered slightly, imagining somebody breaking into her apartment, finding that, shoving it in her mouth, and then her turning into helpless putty in their hands, going along with their every whim...

She wasn't going to just leave it out where anyone could see it, though, obviously. As much as she liked it - because of that very reason, to some degree - it was a humiliating thing for an adult like her to own, much less to have on display. And she had a feeling this sense of calm was brought on at least partially by Heather's presence, and that it wouldn't work when she was in a full-on panic, while some other person was trying to rob her, or kidnap her, or whatever was going on in her dark fantasy.

She got some proof of that, too, as they approached their destination, as she caught a glimpse of the diaper section... It wasn't a mere aisle here, but several of them, shelves and shelves stacked high with packages of diapers in all colors and thicknesses, their packages decorated with pictures of happy-looking littles running around in them. Lizzie felt a pang of sympathy for them as the images stared back at her from the endcaps, wondering if they'd even been told what they were there to model, or if it had been sprung on them when they arrived... Perhaps it was her imagination; she was sure she could see some fear behind those smiling expressions, however. 

How awful would it be to think you were finally getting your big break, only to be put into a diaper, made to pretend you loved them, and then have your photo slapped on the front of a package of diapers, to be instantly associated with them, constantly terrified, when you went to the store, that somebody would recognize you from there... Assuming the modeling agency didn't adopt them and keep them captive for future jobs, that is. 

"Are you getting tired?" Heather asked, sensing her discomfort, if not the cause. "I know, it's a pain that they put them all the way in the back of the store, huh? That's so you have to pass everything else to get to them, so that maybe you'll find another thing or two to buy while you're looking for them. Sneaky, isn't it?"

Lizzie nodded, sidling closer to Heather's leg. "I-I guess it worked on us," she tried to sound jovial, looking at their full cart.

"Not really," Heather contradicted. "We were always going to get something else."

It was the diapers themselves that were the impulse buy... Or were they? Had Heather always been planning on getting some? She hadn't mentioned them before their last stop... Was that to keep from scaring Lizzie off? Or had she not thought of them until then? Or... Did she suspect Lizzie would have said no, until she saw her reaction to the pacifier?

Lizzie shook her head; she couldn't let herself get suspicious of Heather now. She hadn't told her they were going to look for most of what was in the cart... And she'd given Lizzie the chance to veto most of it. Not to mention the countless opportunities the woman could have taken advantage of since they'd met, if all she wanted to do was trick her into being her baby. Lizzie had only come to her for help with this job because she trusted her, more than she'd ever trusted any other Amazon. 

"H-How do we choose, Mommy?" she asked quietly from behind her paci, looking around the first aisle, already overwhelmed by the choices, even without all the other aisle she knew were there. No wonder Heather collected them... It gave her a leg up on knowing what was available, when, otherwise, they might have spent hours here sorting through them all.

"Well," Heather said, "we want something nice and thick and soft and comfy... And cute! That's very important, too!" She gave Lizzie a wink. "It might be the most important thing, really."

"R-Right," Lizzie nodded. "Since I'm not going to actually wear them, so they'll look nice in the diaper bag, and get his attention if he looks in and..."

"What are you talking about, silly?" Heather chuckled, patting her on the head. "Of course you're going to wear them!"

Lizzie gasped, staring up at Heather, eyes wide. "B-But Mommy!" she whined. "Y-You said...!"

"I'm sure you just misunderstood me," Heather told her. "You never pay attention, do you, sweetie? I said you could stay out of diapers if you proved to me you could be trusted to keep your trainers dry, but you didn't do that, did you?"

Lizzie fidgeted, her Pull-Ups feeling especially squishy between her legs now, starting to grow cool. "You know that wasn't an accident!" she huffed, although, realistically, that wasn't the case... Heather had seen her peeing her pants in the fitting room, yes, but that didn't meant Lizzie had done it on purpose... She hadn't asked to be taken to the bathroom, after all, which could have indicated that she hadn't known she had to go, that it had taken her by surprise rather than being a choice...

But Heather knew, right? She knew that Lizzie wasn't a baby, that, while she'd had a couple genuine accidents, there weren't that many... Not enough that she'd realistically have another one in the middle of a store... She didn't think she had regressed that much, did she?!

Heather shook her head. "That only makes it worse, young lady. If you're going to run around wetting yourself willy-nilly, you definitely need to be in diapers, don't you?"

"No, I don't!" Lizzie stomped her foot, the effect greatly diminished by the soft padding of the sleeper encasing her. Why was Heather being like this?! She understood teasing, but that wasn't what this felt like at all!

"Well," Lizzie flinched as she heard the voice booming from behind her, "it looks like somebody is up past her bedtime." She turned, blushing as she saw another Amazon woman behind her, carrying a basket loaded with diapers.

"My babysitter bailed on me," Heather told the new woman with a shake of her head, as Lizzie sidled up next to her again, "so I had to bring her out shopping with me... I can't trust her on her own, even locked up in her crib!"

"I know how that goes," the Amazon sighed. "Was your sitter a 'tweener?"

"Of course!" Heather scoffed. "I don't know why I keep doing that to myself... They're cheaper, but they're just so unreliable!"

"Isn't that the truth?" the other woman replied. "That's why I say they all belong back in diapers, too. Just like this little one!" She bent down, pinching Lizzie's cheeks. "Look at how cute and tiny she is! How could she think she should be wearing anything else?"

Lizzie squirmed as the two much larger women chuckled at that, at her. Looking at the other Amazon, she could see now that she was even bigger than Heather, even more imposing and scary... She was very glad, if she was going to encounter her, that it was with Heather by her side, because otherwise, if she'd decided that Lizzie needed to be adopted - and she seemed the sort to believe that of any little on their own - she didn't think there would have been anything she could do to dissuade her, or escape from her...

"I suggest these," the woman said after a moment, grabbing a pack of diapers out of her basket and handing them to Heather. "They're the bulkiest on the market, guaranteed to force your babies to crawl with just one layer... The tapes are little-proof, too, of course. In fact, they're 'tweener-proof as well." She gave Heather a wink. "There aren't many of those, are there? Not in these sizes... They might be handy for your unreliable babysitter. You could give her one more chance, and leave her with your little one while she's wearing these, and then, when you come back and the baby hasn't been changed... That just proves how irresponsible they are, doesn't it?"

Lizzie's skin crawled as she listened to the Amazon, watched her laugh at her own cruel plan. Not only did that seem totally unfair to the hypothetical sitter, she also found it mean to the poor little, being used as a pawn, stuck in that diaper until their Mommy got home...

"Clever," Heather nodded, taking the package and setting them in the cart. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Mommy!" Lizzie squealed, watching the diapers being placed with the rest of their purchases. Heather couldn't really want her to wear those, could she?! Diapers so thick she couldn't even dream of walking in them, that she didn't have any hope of removing by herself?!

Without hesitation, the unfamiliar Amazon reached down, gave the pacifier's ring a twist. Lizzie gasped as she felt the nipple expanding inside her mouth, growing to fill it, pinning her tongue and silencing her as it locked into place, as impossible for the girl to remove as the diapers she'd just recommended. "Little girls like you are meant to be seen and not heard," she lectured. "I know she's sleepy, but I can't believe you're putting up with this behavior."

She turned her attention to Heather, and, finally, seeing a flash of fear in her eyes, it hit Lizzie why Heather had been acting like she had... She was scared of the other woman, too. She must have seen her coming down the aisle behind Lizzie, and wanted to keep up their cover, and now she was doing what she could so seem like she was a strict, domineering Mommy, too, for fear of the woman taking Lizzie to raise her 'correctly'... Or doing the same to Heather herself.

"I assumed she was going to sleep while I shopped," Heather shrugged, as nonchalantly as she could manage. "I didn't think to bring anything to discipline her with. Stupid mistake, I know..."

"It is," the woman agreed. "You should always be prepared... Lucky for you, I am." She reached into her purse, pulling out a large, wooden hairbrush. Lizzie cowered behind Heather in fear, feeling a fresh trickle of warmth into her clammy Pull-Ups as she imagined this giant of a woman spanking her, showing Heather how it was done...

Heather reached out, grabbing the hairbrush before the other Amazon could do any of that. "You're too kind," she said. "I'm sure this will only take a minute... She's such a baby, she can't take more than a few swats."

"That doesn't surprise me," the woman sniffed. "I'll give you a few moments... I need to get another pack of diapers to replace those." She glanced at the ones in Heather's cart before walking away.

"All right, Lizzie," Heather told her harshly. "Bend over!" Lizzie stared up at her with giant eyes. "Bend over and grab your ankles!" she snapped.

Lizzie flinched, gulping and starting to nurse her paci frantically, knowing there was no way out of this. This was her fault... If she had just stayed quiet, been a good little girl, the Amazon would have left them alone... It was only right that she face the consequences of her actions, if that was what it took to keep both of them from facing the woman's wrath... At least Heather would be more merciful with the spanking than the other woman, surely...

She bent over, blushing as she felt herself pushing her padded bottom into the air, a ripe target for the heavy, wooden hairbrush in Heather's hands. She tried watching, at first, to know when it was going to happen, but in her position, everything behind herself was upside-down, which was disorienting enough, even without the constant fear of what was coming. A spanking... They'd teased it a bit, and she had even given Heather permission in the past... Now, however, it was reality, and she didn't know if she was prepared, certainly not for one with a hairbrush, and not just Heather's hand... 

"I guess you can't count, with that paci in your mouth," Heather announced loudly. "So I'll do it for you." Lizzie winced, eyes squeezed tight as she braced herself as best she could, hearing the whoosh of air as Heather swung the brush back, and then another as it came crashing down with the unmistakable smack of wood against flesh...

Except, it wasn't Lizzie's flesh it hit. She furrowed her brow in confusion, slowly opening her eyes as Heather said, "One!" Lizzie still wasn't sure what had happened, not until she kept watching, seeing Heather lift the brush again, then slam it down onto her own thigh. Lizzie gasped into her pacifier, tears filling her eyes despite having not been touched, out of empathy for her friend as she saw her struggling not to react, and guilt for knowing Heather was doing this for her.

"Two," Heather spoke after a long moment of collecting herself. "Good thing you do have that paci, huh? So the whole store doesn't hear you blubbering?"

Lizzie straightened up, grabbing Heather's wrist as she started to go for another spank, shaking her head, pointing down at herself. It wasn't fair to make Heather do all of this! But Heather shook her head, pulling free of Lizzie's grip with ease. Lizzie glared at her, stomping her foot, giving her bottom a slap of her own to show Heather it was okay, that she was willing to take it.

Heather hit herself again anyway, finishing it off with a, "Three!" that came out almost a little too quickly, a hint of pain in her voice at the start. "There, I think you've learned your lesson, haven't you?"

Lizzie sniffed, giving Heather's other leg a hug. Heather smiled down at her, hugging her back, then pointing to the floor urgently. Lizzie took the hint and curled up in a ball, sniffling pitifully, as the other Amazon returned. "Thank you so much," Heather told her, handing over the brush. "This was just what she needed."

"I had a feeling it would be," the woman said. "Good luck with her. I'm sure, after that, you'll at least get one good night's rest... Won't she?" She patted Lizzie on the bottom, the unexpected contact fortunately making Lizzie flinch, hopefully enough to make it seem like it was because of a freshly spanked bottom, as she nodded, burying her face deeper into her knees so the woman wouldn't see that she wasn't crying, the way she was trying to make it sound through her pacifier.

Lizzie stayed on the floor until Heather gave her shoulder a gentle shake, then scrambled to her feet, Heather unlocking the paci and removing it for her. "I-I'm so sorry!" Lizzie blurted out, giving Heather another hug. "You could have just spanked me instead! I tried to tell you you could!"

"Well, at that point, I was worried she'd hear the difference if I did that," Heather told her. "But it's fine! It sounded worse than it was." Lizzie wasn't sure that was the whole truth, though the skeptical look she gave Heather was met with, "I'm okay, sweetie, I promise."

"That was scary," Lizzie confessed, cuddling up next to Heather.

"It was," Heather agreed. "We're all right now, little kitten."

Lizzie nodded, looking around at the aisle again. It didn't feel nearly as intimidating anymore, after what they'd just been through, but she did look back at their cart, and the package she knew was in there. "A-Are we going to get those ones?"

"We don't have to," Heather smiled. "I'm sure we can find something better."

Lizzie shifted, nibbling her bottom lip. "W-We can, if you want," she offered. "I-I mean, to have in the diaper bag... I'm sure they'll look good."

"But they aren't only for that," Heather reminded her. "We want some you can have on hand, too, for if you need them." Lizzie blushed at her choice of words there. She wouldn't need them, obviously! She was only going to be in them if she chose to use up her strikes... But, as Heather had said for the other Amazon's benefit, wasn't that worse? Wasn't it more embarrassing that way? "It doesn't sound like these would be a good option for that, would they?"

Lizzie shook her head. They definitely wouldn't, not if they were going to force her to crawl, and she couldn't take them off on her own. "D-Do you want to get them for your collection?" she asked.

Heather peered down at her, and then at the diapers in her cart, before shaking her head. "No, I don't think so," she said. "These are the kind of things you use on someone who you're keeping captive, who you don't want to get away, at any cost... They're not something I'd want to use, so there's no point in adding them to the collection."

Lizzie gave her a smile, before bashfully reaching up and taking the pacifier from her. "Well, then," she said, popping the paci into her mouth, "we'd better get looking for what we do want, then, huh?"