Compromise - Chapter 25 (Patreon)

It took everything Heather had not to scoop Lizzie up into her arms and cover her in happy kisses; she'd been so uncertain that this day would ever come that she'd started to convince herself it wouldn't, to make the disappointment easier... Now, it only amplified her happiness now that it had.

Of course, she had to keep things in perspective, stay as calm as possible... This didn't actually mean anything, really. Lizzie hadn't agreed to wear them all the time, or, technically, ever. They had them for the diaper bag for the job, and Lizzie would keep them in case she used up her three strikes, but the chance of them needing them in the former case were slim, and in the latter, Lizzie was entirely in control. 

Heather didn't doubt that there had been a couple genuine accidents here and there, but she knew that, most of the time, it was Lizzie experimenting. Not that she minded! It was a good sign that she was willing to do that! It did mean, however, that the likelihood of her having three in a single day was very low... Unless she got a little push...

No. Heather shook her head, feeling a wave of guilt as she looked down at Lizzie, who seemed a bit lightheaded as she toddled towards the cart, staring down at the package of diapers in her arms, as if she couldn't believe it herself. This was how it should be... Lizzie should be in control, at least for this. As simple as it would be to give her one of the many tasteless drugs designed specifically to make littles think they were going incontinent, and guarantee she'd be peeing - and, perhaps, doing more than that - her pants more than enough to earn her diapers, she needed to leave it up to Lizzie. She'd gotten this far... Surely she'd take that last plunge eventually.

Heather smiled, watching Lizzie go up onto her tip-toes to drop the diapers into the cart. That was it, then... There was no turning back after that. As soon as the package had fallen from the girl's fingers, it was out of her reach, unless she climbed up into the cart and tossed it out, though Heather wasn't sure if Lizzie was capable of that, or of getting back out on her own. Of course, if Lizzie had asked her, she would have removed them... But did Lizzie know that? 

"There!" Lizzie exclaimed, giving the contents of the shopping cart one last look before spinning around, staring up at Heather. "We're all done now, right?"

They should be... This had been more than enough excitement, for both of them... Heather, however, could have easily spent the rest of the night in there... The rest of the week, honestly. There were so many things there that Heather wanted to look at, to gauge Lizzie's reaction to... She could furnish and stock her empty nursery from scratch just from this one store, and there was a big part of her that was ready to do exactly that.

She was glad she'd waited. Having a full nursery, ready to go at any moment, for whenever an errant little might cross her path, was one way to go about it, one that many Amazons preferred... There had been plenty of nights, before she'd met Lizzie, when she'd come home and look at that changing table, and wonder why she wasn't getting anything else to join it, certain that the knowledge that she could get a baby of her own at any time, and be prepared for them, would help soothe her loneliness, and her desire for one.

But this was better... Having her baby there, with her, seeing her reaction to each piece as she got it, as she built up the nursery of her dreams, knowing that she'd gotten the perfect one, rather than having to hope, or force her baby to think that they were perfect because they were what she already had... That was the way it should be. Even the clothes that Lizzie had said she didn't like, Heather had been sure she saw a glimmer of something when she'd had them on...

They could go look at cribs now, at the very least... It was the next essential piece of the nursery, really, the only other one that she had to have. Lizzie was dressed for it, and it would be adorable to see her waddling among all their options, getting to lift her into and out of them so she could try them out, as the poor little thing got sleepier and sleepier, looking more and more like she belonged in each successive one...

That was probably overkill, though. Not only was there no way for her to spin that as something they'd need for the job this was all supposedly for, but she was afraid it might scare Lizzie off. She wanted to get a crib either way, if for nothing more than naps... Lizzie, she knew, wanted to sleep in her bed... And do much more than that.

Heather was still working on getting used to that. Even dressed as she was now, even after seeing how enthusiastic she'd been for her diapers, after so long of being adamantly opposed to them, Heather had seen enough from her to know that she was an adult, a real one, no matter her size... And, while her mind was trained to think of people her size as cute more than anything, she could see that she was genuinely pretty, too... She wouldn't say that she wasn't attracted to the girl; it was just tricky to separate how much of that was from her maternal instinct, and how much was from something else. She was doing her best to get over how wrong it felt to attach those sorts of feelings to a little, but it was complicated.

Just like, she had to assume, willingly picking out diapers for herself, and surrounding herself by all this other baby stuff, was for Lizzie. And look how well she was doing! She was embarrassed, being shown up by the girl like that, and she didn't have any good excuses for why she was falling behind, having a harder time with it... Maybe it was because she'd fantasized for so long about having a baby, and the idea of having that kind of a relationship with it had never entered her mind... Then again, as far as she'd told her, Lizzie had never thought of having a relationship with an Amazon, especially one who was openly trying to get her to act more and more babyish, who had a nursery, mostly empty or not, ready and waiting for her...

"Mommy?" Lizzie looked up at her, brow furrowed. "Are we done?"

"No, sweetie," Heather shook her head, smiling down at her. "Not quite yet... You can do a bit more walking, can't you? Or do you want to ride in the cart?"

Lizzie blushed, staring up at the seat on the front of the cart. "I can walk!" she insisted, Heather having to stifle a chuckle, especially knowing where she was taking the girl next.

It was tough to walk by all the high chairs, the bouncers, the rocking chairs - she could see Lizzie eyeing them all, as if she was wondering if each one was what they were going to look at next - but she did, moving on, instead, to the car seats, many of them not terribly different from what was attached to the front of the cart, that Lizzie had just said no to sitting in.

"Mommy!" she pouted. "I promise, I won't get out of the car until you let me out!"

"I know," Heather stroked her hair, "but I've been thinking about it, and I think it'll look too suspicious without one."

"But there might not even be anyone around when we get out of the car!" Lizzie whined.

"But there might," Heather countered. "Maybe even a certain someone whose office you'll be in later. There's no way to know for sure..."

Lizzie went silent, sulkily starting to suck on her paci again. She couldn't deny that one... Maybe, if they spotted him, they could drive around, find a different spot... That might seem suspicious, too, however, especially if he saw Heather with a baby later, and wondered why she would have parked further away from the entrance when she had her to bring inside. And what if he pulled in while they were getting out? There were too many variables, too many ways for it to go wrong...

And, to be honest, Heather wanted to get it. It wasn't nearly as important as a crib, or even a high chair, and she doubted she'd have the chance to use it nearly as often as those things might come in handy, but it was a good thing to have nevertheless.

"They're so expensive," Lizzie reminded her, bringing back the point she'd made earlier.

"They're having a sale," Heather replied. "Come on, just try a couple out for me..." She picked Lizzie up off the floor, setting her down in one of the displays before she could protest any further. "How is that? Comfy?"

"No," Lizzie huffed, wiggling her bottom. 

"Are you sure?" Heather smiled. "Or are you being cranky?" She grabbed the harness, pulling it over Lizzie's head, fastening it right in front of her padded crotch. "Is that better?" she asked, adjusting the straps.

"No!" Lizzie's squirming intensified, poking at the button to try to release herself, which, of course, for safety, would be nearly impossible for someone her size, especially when they were the ones inside the restraints.

Heather gently pushed Lizzie's hand away, pushing the button herself and lifting Lizzie out, setting her down on the floor and kneeling in front of her. "Is it really that bad? I think it would be a good idea to have one, but if you hate it that much..."

Lizzie sighed, staring down at the floor for a moment or two before shaking her head. "No, I guess not," she mumbled. "I just... I don't like being buckled in like that..."

"I know," Heather rubbed her back. "But that's kind of the whole point of them. To keep you safe when you're in the car."

"Yeah, but..." Lizzie wrinkled her nose. "C-Could we maybe get one, and then leave the straps off?"

"You don't think that would look even stranger when I get you out?" Heather asked.

Lizzie hesitated, knowing what the honest answer to that question was. "W-Well, we could leave them off until we get to the office, then put them on before you come around to let me out," she suggested.

"Okay," Heather nodded. "And what if somebody notices while we're driving? Do you want to get pulled over because I let you ride without a seatbelt?" She didn't need to elaborate, to tell Lizzie that there would absolutely be other Amazons, and likely 'tweeners, who would alert the police if they looked through her car window and saw that, whether their intentions were to protect Lizzie from a Mommy who clearly didn't know how to properly protect her, or to have her put into the adoption system where they might have a chance to snap her up.

"Good point," Lizzie admitted. "Fine... I'll try a couple more... Maybe they'll be better."

Heather smiled. "Good girl," she praised her, picking her up again, setting her on her hip. "Which of these do you like the best?"

Lizzie looked at the row of car seats, seeming mostly unimpressed by all of them. "I dunno," she shrugged.

"Okay," Heather nodded, not wanting to push her. She'd made plenty of decisions tonight already, and no doubt they'd been tough for her. "What about this one? It's pink! Just like your diapers!"

Lizzie blushed, but confessed, "I-I like pink."

"Of course you do!" Heather beamed, setting her down in it. "Does that feel any better?"

Lizzie shifted in place. "I-I guess so?" 

"Well, that's better than a 'no,'" Heather said. "Now, I'm going to buckle you in, okay? Just for a minute, and then I'll let you out."

"I know," Lizzie told her, looking embarrassed about her reaction last time. The warning did seem to work, though, with her flinching only a little as the restraints snapped into place.

"How about that?" Heather asked. "Those don't look quite as tight, anyway."

"They're all right," Lizzie told her uncertainly.

"All right, huh?" Heather mused. "Why don't we see if we can do better than that. Here, this one is just plain black... It looks a bit less babyish." Lizzie giggled. "What?" 

"Really?" she asked, glancing down at herself as Heather unbuckled the straps, then turning her gaze towards the cart with the outfits they'd picked out, and the diapers. "I don't think the color of my car seat is what's going to make someone think I'm a baby."

Heather chuckled. "Maybe not," she said. 

They tried out a few more, but eventually wound up back at the pink one after all. "Do you want to try it one more time? Just to be sure?" Lizzie sighed, which was enough of an answer for her. "Pink it is!"

"Fine." Lizzie didn't seem nearly as excited about that as she had with anything else, but she had gotten noticeably more comfortable with the idea of the car seat as they'd tried them out. She hadn't even visibly reacted when Heather had buckled the last couple, and had participated somewhat in critiquing them, saying that the cushion on one was too hard, and that the straps on the other pinched.

"It's only for in the car," Heather reminded her. "It's not like you're going to be in it all the time."

"I know," Lizzie pouted. "And I know you're probably right that we should have it..."

"But that doesn't mean you have to like it?" Heather finished for her. Lizzie blushed, then, a moment later, nodded. "I'm glad you can see that it's a good idea anyway," Heather kissed her on the forehead. "And now, since you did, I think you deserve a treat."

"A treat?" Lizzie's eyes lit up. "Ice cream?"

"No, not ice cream," Heather smiled. "Although, if you want some, we could stop on the way back..." She certainly wouldn't have minded taking Lizzie into an ice cream parlor like this, letting her pad in, lifting her up so she could see all the flavors... She had a feeling Lizzie wouldn't be quite as happy about that, however.

She took Lizzie to one more section of the store, one that they probably would have gone to anyway, though it was more fun to frame it as something Lizzie had earned by being a good girl. "Toys?" Lizzie looked around as Heather steered the cart down the aisle and stopped, signalling that they'd reached their destination, the girl's voice a bit quieter now.

That was hardly surprising; as usual, this section was one of the busiest, with plenty of Mommies or big sisters bringing babies here to pick out a new game to keep them occupied, or, like with Lizzie, a treat for good behavior during the rest of the shopping trip. There were lots of short skirts, and diapers peeking out - or, in some cases, fully exposed - but Lizzie still managed to look particularly childish in comparison to them, the only one swaddled in her sleeper, looking ready for bed as soon as she got home, despite how early it was.

"It's all right," Heather told her, giving her a hug, seeing her staring at the other littles nervously. "They're not paying attention to you... Not with all these toys here to distract them. Go on... Pick something out."

"L-Like what?" Lizzie asked.

"Well, a dolly is always nice," Heather smiled. The store was well-stocked, with a few different toy lines all promising that any baby could find a companion who looked exactly like them; between all of them, Heather was certain at least one would be right, and they could get a tiny twin of Lizzie for the girl to play with. As much as she loved that idea, she suspected Lizzie wouldn't be as enthusiastic about it, and she was right. "Or a stuffed animal," she suggested.

Lizzie didn't immediately wrinkle her nose at that, so Heather took her by the hand to that part of the aisle. "Look at this!" Heather prompted. "Here's a kitty!" She picked it up off the shelf, offering it to Lizzie.

"But I'm the kitten," Lizzie sniffed, clearly not wanting to share the title, even with a toy.

"Of course," Heather nodded, putting it back. "Here's a doggy, and a cute little octopus... Or there are some teddy bears." Those seemed almost too plain for Lizzie, so she didn't expect her to go for them, yet that was what she pointed at.

"It looks so fluffy!" she giggled.

"I bet it feels fluffy, too," Heather winked, grabbing it and giving it to Lizzie. "Go on, give it a hug and see."

Lizzie hesitated for a moment, then obeyed, unable to hide her smile as she nuzzled against the bear's fur. It was telling that it took her until they were almost to the cash registers before asking, "What do we need a teddy bear for?"

"You need something to play with while we're at the office," Heather said. "No good Mommy would take her baby to work with her without something to keep her entertained." Lizzie nodded, happy to have a suitable excuse, though it hadn't sounded like she was going to fight it, whether Heather had been able to come up with one or not.

"Sorry," Heather told the cashier as she handed over the package of pacifiers, already opened, and the tag for the sleeper. "We needed to use these before we could get up here."

"No problem!" the cashier beamed down at Lizzie. "Isn't she the sweetest little thing?"

"She certainly is," Heather agreed. "Lizzie, kitten, can I see your bear?" She chuckled, seeing the girl's enormous pout at that. "I promise, you'll get it right back as soon as the nice lady scans it, okay?"

"Okay," Lizzie mumbled from behind her pacifier reluctantly.

Heather was almost a little sad to see the shopping trip end, but all it took was a look into the cart at all she'd managed to get, and a bit of imagination to think of all the things they'd be able to do with it, to cheer her back up. She paid the cashier and pushed the cart out of the way before asking Lizzie, "Do you want me to change you while we're here? I know you've been soggy for a while..."

"Did you bring a change?" Lizzie perked up.

"No, but we just bought a whole pack," Heather smiled.

Lizzie blushed, realizing she meant the diapers. "I-I really should get back to my place tonight," she protested. "I-I could probably stay in these until I get back..."

"Do you have something important to do in the morning?" Heather asked.

"Well..." Lizzie squirmed. "Not really..."

"Then is there any reason you shouldn't stay over?" Heather pushed gently. Lizzie blushed, shook her head. "All right, then!" Heather clapped her hands. "Let's finish get you ready for bed!"

"But Mommy!" Lizzie whined. "I'm not sleepy!"

Heather, of course, knew that was a fib... And how could it not be, after everything that had happened here? Lizzie was yawning by the time Heather got her onto the changing table in the bathroom, too tired to even put up a token fight against the diaper Heather pulled out of the package for her and slipped under her bottom, or, once that was taped into place and the sleeper was zipped back up, against being put into the seat on the front of the cart to be wheeled out to the car.

"What do you think?" Heather asked as they arrived, and she started to unload the bags into her trunk. "Should I see if I can get the car seat set up real quick here, so you can try riding it in? Or should we just leave it be for now?"

She didn't get an answer; Lizzie was already fast asleep, sucking peacefully on her pacifier, tightly snuggling her teddy bear, looking, for all the world, like the perfect baby girl Heather had always known she could be.