The Hardest Thing - Chapter 6 (Patreon)

Diana was stunned for a moment or two, cheeks blazing, simply staring, until she remembered she was being watched by the other two women. She shook her head, doing her best to clear it, despite how shocking what she'd seen was. "Sh-She... She chose that?" she asked quietly.

"She did," Batgirl confirmed, matter-of-factly. "As long as we've been observing, we haven't seen any evidence of anything else, anyone influencing her or forcing her to do it."

"That's... uh..." Diana almost wanted to leave, to not have to face Cassandra or Sorceress any more, but she was afraid of what that would make them think, or, in Cassandra's case, what it might already be making her think, seeing her so flustered. "That's only one world," she observed, after clearing her throat. "It doesn't..."

"One world we looked at because you didn't believe what was happening in another," Cassandra reminded her. "Do you want to see what's happening there?"

"No!" Diana squawked. "I-I mean... Not yet. It hasn't been that long, so I doubt anything has happened..."

Sorceress scoffed, clearly seeing through Wonder Woman's lie, not even needing Batgirl's training to do so. Diana blushed, but didn't take it back, couldn't check back in there and risk seeing another her make the same choice the one she'd just seen had. It was one thing to see herself defeated, put into them by force... The fact that the same thing happened in these two worlds without that did seem like it had to be more than coincidence, somehow, much as she hated to admit it.

Still... She wasn't going to give up yet. They'd seen that world before, knew what they were going to find. If they kept going, surely they'd discover one that disproved their little theory, showed a Wonder Woman like her, one who wasn't in, or about to end up in, diapers...

"Oh, this is strange," Sorceress furrowed her brow as she worked to open the window. "There's definitely a Wonder Woman here, but I'm having a hard time focusing in on her... Hold on, let me see what I can do..."

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"No, stop it!" Polly whined, stomping her Mary Janes, glaring up at the bigger girls in defiance - and more than a little fear - her textbooks scattered on the floor around her.

"Or what?" the leader smirked, stepping forward. "What are you gonna do about it?"

Polly gulped, shuffling her feet, unable to come up with an answer for that. She was so short, so skinny, mouth full of braces and chest nearly completely flat... And that wasn't even mentioning what was going on beneath the skirt that her hands clung to desperately. She was, probably, the easiest target in school, though pointing that out wasn't going to help her case now.

"Your sister's not here now to save you, is she?" the leader shoved Polly's shoulder again, pushing her back against her locker. 

"Sh-She might be," Polly said quietly. Emily was a bit of a bully herself, honestly, at least to her smaller, yet same-aged sister, Polly, but she wouldn't have let these girls pick on her. It was too bad, then, that she was off at an academic team competition for the weekend.

The bully snorted. "No, she isn't," she told Polly. "And we both know that. So, little Polly Pocket, why don't you let us check your Pull-Ups and see if you need to visit the nurse for a change?"

Polly's grip on her skirt tightened, her stomach dropping. There were plenty of other things to mock her for, so she'd hoped it wasn't that... But of course it was. "I-I don't..." she shook her head, wincing as the girls all laughed at her. 

Was it really that obvious?! She hadn't thought so... Then again, the accidents she'd been having more and more at school certainly had been, and their sudden stop was bound to raise suspicions. All it would take was for someone to get a brief flash of them from beneath her on one of the staircases at school, and recognize the pattern from their little sister's trainers...

It didn't help that she was soggy, too, which made her want to let them see even less. She'd been mostly dry, other than a few drops that had dribbled in here and there over the course of the day, until she'd seen the bullies... Or, more accurately, until she'd seen that the bullies had noticed her. Now, her Pull-Up was pretty warm, pretty soggy, beneath her uniform.

"Aww, come on," the leader sneered, reaching down. "We just want to see if you made your little stars disappear."

"No!" Polly could see the girl getting closer, knew she had to do something. She let go of her skirt, stepping forward and pushing her back, using all of her might. She was sure she could remember a time when that would have sent a fully grown man, in armor, flying... Now, all it did was make the girl chuckle, taking a single step back to maintain her balance, reminding her that those memories were all from her too-vivid imagination, that she'd never been some great, Amazon warrior... How could she have been, if she was now... this?

"Wow, look at that," the bully said. "I guess Polly has some fight in her after all... Good thing we know how to get rid of that."

"Hey!" Polly squealed, feeling someone grab her from behind, holding both of her arms behind her back. "N-No! Let me go!" She thrashed as hard as she could, another trickle of wetness making its way into her training panties as she watched, helplessly, as another girl stepped forward, opening a nearby locker. "No!"

"A little time in there will do you some good," the leader told her, patting her on the head as her crony pushed Polly forward, closer and closer... "Oh, wait. I almost forgot..."

Polly kicked at the girl limply as she reached for her skirt again, but as soon as she'd let herself get captured, she'd known it was over. She groaned in frustration, humiliation, defeat as her Pull-Ups were exposed, the bullies all getting a good laugh.

"You're practically soaked!" the leader observed. "Once you spend some time in the locker, I bet you will be... I hope you don't leak all over Lindy's locker."

"Hey!" the girl who had opened the locker frowned.

"Don't worry," the leader grinned, grabbing Polly by the chin. "If she does, she'll be a good little girl and clean up after herself... Won't you, Polly?"

Polly wanted to say no, to spit in her face, but she had no power here. All she could do was struggle not to burst into tears in front of them, and fail. "Poor thing," the leader giggled. "Clearly, she needs a nap. We have somewhere nice and dark and cozy for you, Polly... And if you're really lucky, maybe your Mommy won't put you back in Pampers when you come home in a drenched Pull-Up."

Polly was shoved into the locker, the door slamming shut behind her. She banged on the door as she heard the lock being slid back into place, her stomach churning in fear, hearing them laughing outside, the sounds of their voice growing quieter and quieter... 

It wasn't fair! The locker door wasn't that heavy... She ought to be able to punch right through it, knock it off its hinges with her bare hands, storm down the hallway and take all of those girls on in a fight at once without breaking a sweat. But... That wasn't her, was it? That wasn't Polly, the meek little pants-wetting schoolgirl... That was Hippolyta, the Amazon Queen she used to be in her daydreams.

They'd felt so real, so involved, it was hard to believe, sometimes, that was all they were... It was getting easier now, however, as the bullying at school seemed to be getting worse, reminding her, in no uncertain terms, how weak she was. The accidents she was having more and more didn't help matters, either.

Today was supposed to be better, though. With Emily out of the city, she'd actually been hired for a babysitting job again, and she'd been so proud, so excited. Now, she was probably going to be late, even if she didn't wind up stuck in this locker for the rest of the day, and the entirety of the weekend...

"Help me!" she wailed, banging on the locker door, wondering if anyone could even hear her, or if her voice, and her fists, were both too meek to be audible through the metal. "Someone, please, let me out!"

It was impossible to judge, from in there, how long she stayed there, crying and pleading, before, finally, the door opened. "Th-Thank you!" she blubbered, throwing her arms around the janitor who had rescued her. "Th-Thank you so much!"

"Why didn't you just call someone to help?" he asked her, after she calmed down a bit. "You have a cell phone, don't you?"

Of course she did... She didn't know why she always forgot about that, why it never occurred to her. Everyone else her age was obsessed with theirs, constantly on them, unless the teachers caught them and made them put them away... For some reason, she just didn't think about hers, and since she kept it on silent at school, she hadn't heard all the texts she'd been getting, from her babysitting client, asking where she was, what was taking so long, if she was okay, and then from her mom at work, asking the same things after her client had checked in with her, ready to leave early and come search for her if she needed to...

As much as Polly would have loved to have her mother give her a ride home, since she'd missed the school bus, so just told her that she was fine, and assured her client that she was on the way, and braved the public bus instead, trying to be the responsible young lady she knew she could be. She didn't particularly like either bus, but the school bus was a little better, usually, especially on a Friday evening, when things tended to start to get weird...

"I am so, so sorry, Ms. Caufield!" she blurted out as soon as she got to her apartment door. 

"What happened?!" her neighbor demanded. "I was worried sick, young lady!"

Polly shrank back, her mind emptying of all the excuses and stories she'd come up with on the bus ride, ways to avoid telling the truth. There was something about Ms. Caufield that made her want to tell her the truth, to be honest with her, even if she knew that she was going to tell her mom, and even if it didn't exactly make her look like the responsible babysitter she wanted the woman to see her as. "I-I got shoved in a locker!" she sniffed, immediately bursting back into tears.

"Oh, sweetie," Ms. Caufield cooed, pulling her into her arms. "I'm so sorry... Come here, it's all right..."

"N-No," Polly shook her head. "I-I'm sorry... Y-You're busy, a-and I'll be okay, so you can go, and..."

"I already had to reschedule," Ms. Caufield told her. "But don't you worry about that. We'll get you all cleaned up, and then I'll make some supper for you and DiDi, and you can tell me all about who did this to you."

Polly blushed, looking down at herself, realizing that, true to the bullies' prediction, she had, indeed, leaked onto her skirt. "Y-You're not gonna make me wear diapers, are you?" she squirmed, remembering how embarrassing it had been, having Ms. Caufield do that for her last time she'd babysat for her... And this time, there wasn't going to be any actual babysitting, apparently!

Ms. Caufield hesitated. "I'm sure this isn't your fault," she said. "But still, it's getting kind of close to your bedtime anyway, isn't it?"

It took everything Polly had in her not to stomp her foot, but she managed it. "Yeah," she grumbled. "I guess so..."

Polly let herself be led into DiDi's nursery, where the girl was sitting, wearing a t-shirt and diaper, playing with her dollhouse. She turned to see them step in, smiling behind her pacifier. "Look at that," Ms. Caufield smiled down at Polly. "She's so happy to see you!"

"Hi, DiDi," Polly waved, trying to sound cheerful despite knowing she was about to be led to the changing table, put into a diaper right in front of the girl she was supposed to be here babysitting.

It was even worse than she'd feared, too, as Ms. Caufield took away her skirt, leaving her in her shirt and diaper, looking far more like DiDi than Polly care to admit as she was sent over to keep the girl entertained while Ms. Caufield cooked.

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Polly hadn't wanted to tattle on the bullies, no matter how much they deserved whatever they had coming to them, but it was hard to resist Ms. Caufield, especially when Polly was in diapers, basically being babysat by her, rather than babysitting her little girl, like she was supposed to have been doing that night. "I-I should be able to stand up for myself," she'd prefaced the list of names with. "I-I don't want them to get in trouble..."

"Oh, Polly," the woman had sighed. "It isn't your fault you're so small... You're just no match for the other girls your age."

Polly had known she ought to be offended by that, that it was a thought that, perhaps, Ms. Caufield had meant to keep to herself, yet, deep down, she knew it was true. No matter how much her mom, or Ms. Caufield, tried to tell her that bedwetting was common, it felt like she was the only one in her class who did it, and she was positive she was the only one who had to wear trainers to school.

"Please, don't," Polly had sniffled. "They're only going to be meaner if they get in trouble because of me..."

"That's true," Ms. Caufield admitted. "If only they had some idea of what it was like..."

Despite those words, Polly hadn't known, for sure, if Ms. Caufield was going to say anything or not. Even after she got to school on Monday, she didn't, although, strangely, every one of the bullies came up to her and apologized for making fun of her on their own, none of them sound angry, or like they'd been coerced into it.

She wasn't certain what was going on until she stopped by the nurse's office for a fresh Pull-Up. The leader of the bullies was coming out as she arrived, her face immediately turning bright red as she hurried down the hall. Polly, of course, couldn't ask the nurse about it, knew she wouldn't tell her if she did, but when the woman opened up the cabinet she kept the trainers in, she caught a glimpse of another package of them in there, one in a bigger size that Polly didn't realize they came in, with a girl who appeared to be her age on the front. Interestingly, while she was convinced they hadn't been there on Friday, the pack was noticeably sagging, already close to empty.

She looked away as the nurse caught her staring, trying to pretend she hadn't been. "You know," the nurse smiled, "it's strange... There's been a whole rash of girls all of the sudden with the same... problem... as you. It's like you started a trend."

"O-Oh, I don't know about that," Polly blushed.

But by the time she was finished up, and getting sent on her way, there was a line forming outside of the nurse's office, the other bullies all standing there, staring bashfully at their feet, unable to meet Polly's eye as she strutted past. It was weird, like the nurse had said, that it had happened all at once, that it seemed to only be the girls who had been mean to her, whose names she'd told to Ms. Caufield... 

Then again, Ms. Caufield had also assured her that it wasn't that uncommon a problem for girls her age, and she'd never had any reason to doubt the woman before. Clearly, this was just another example of how much smarter she was than Polly. Maybe one day, Polly thought, she'd grow up to be like her... Though, right now, that definitely felt like it was a long, long way off...

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Even in her current state, and even with her being called 'Polly,' Diana had, of course, recognized her mother, had done her best not to react, hoping that Batgirl and Sorceress might, somehow, not, although surely, in all their spying into other worlds, they'd encountered Hippolyta before. She was quite cute like that, Diana thought, and, as unusual as it seemed that the window had opened following her, it had been a nice change of pace, seeing someone other than her regressed and humiliated.

At least... Until she'd seen the other her, saw how closely connected she was, apparently, to Polly. "There we are," Sorceress had said when 'DiDi' had appeared.

They hadn't seen enough to know if she'd chosen this, like in the last universe, or if this Ms. Caufield woman was a villain in disguise. She didn't seem like one, to be honest, appeared to be very sweet and understanding and caring... And it didn't look as if DiDi was in any distress. She had been shrunken to the size of a toddler, yet she was happily running around in a shirt and diaper, playing with her toys, letting herself be plopped down into her high chair and spoon-fed baby food, all the while staring lovingly at her Mommy, never fussing or questioning her...

"Interesting," Barbara declared once the window was closed. "Maybe we should see if we can look into the past there and find out..."

"I-I don't think there's any need for that," Diana blurted out, shaking her head. She didn't want to admit that she was afraid of what they'd discover, but she had a feeling Barbara could already tell. "I-I mean, we have so many others we can check out..."

But that wasn't really what she wanted to do, was it? Not yet... After seeing those last couple of worlds, she was more scared than ever of what that first alternate version of her was up to, what she was going to do... And, simultaneous, more curious as well to see if she was going to be the one to prove Diana's point, show Batgirl and Sorceress that they were wrong.

"First, though," she suggested with a blush, "maybe we could peek back in... somewhere else..."

She tried to be cryptic about it, not wanting to seem too obsessed with it, but already, she could see Cassandra smirking knowingly. "Sure," she said. "We can take another look."

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Our characters might not have checked it out, but if you haven't read it before, you can find the story this was a sequel to here!