Crystalline

Chapter 4
Realizations.

Chapter Description: Too late with no time left.

[img align=left; footer=’’; border=0; showfooter=1;]http://i.imgur.com/ewqvr.jpg[/img]

“Miwanda, pease, you hafta—“ he squealed, tripping over the dropped jeans that fell around his toddler feet.

“Oh no! Someone must’ve left him up here by mistake!” Jennifer said, pulling at his now tiny hands, trying to get him to his feet while Miranda grabbed at the belt of the discarded pants, trying to pull them up to hide the toddler’s private parts.

“He’s so cute! He must’ve been in the bathroom and ran out and came in here to find clothes. Lucky for him we keep extra clothes in the drawers here, at least, Ben does,” she said, pulling open a drawer to reveal a neatly folded men’s button-down shirt and pair of khakis.

“But these won’t fit you, silly!” Jenn said, poking his protruding tummy and scooping him up from the ground.

Ben saw the watch in the corner of his eye and reached for it as it lay open on the lab table. He reached for it with all of his strength. As he leaned forward, he put a single pudgy finger onto the chain of the watch briefly and pulled it toward him. As he did so, he saw the clock in front of him tick steadily forward towards twenty-past ten. He only had a few more minutes before he knew it would happen again.

“Uh oh,” Miranda said, “this isn’t for you, little guy,” pulling the jeweled watch easily from his grasp and putting it back down onto the clipboard with a light metallic clank.

She had done it so easily, he was so weak! He felt so stupid, his doctorate down the drain in a matter of minutes! Tears welled up in his eyes. His lab mates saw him as a toddler. A stupid, naked little toddler. He thought about the setting he had put on the watch. Ten months old. He shuddered at the thought. He couldn’t think straight anymore. All the shiny things in the lab were blinding him, distracting him, taking him off task. If he could only just concentrate!

He imagined being a toothless, stupid baby. Naked. Lying in a crib. Pooping in his diapers! He wouldn’t, he couldn’t he—

“Well, I don’t think he was in the bathroom after all,” Jenn said, holding Ben out at arm’s length, looking down to see a dark spot spreading quickly in the shirt the draped over Ben’s body.

“Gotta pee-pee, sweetheart? Awww, it’s okay, shh, shh!” Miranda said, rubbing his back through the soaked t-shirt, slipping it off of him.

He was crying without even realizing it. He couldn’t see through the hot tears that kept coming and coming. He felt like a baby already, as he was held, naked in the arms of the smart girls that had no idea that the blubbering toddler they held used to be their co-worker. They treated him like any other stupid baby, jostling him up and down, cooing to him.

“Here, look, honey,” she said, trying to get his attention, “look at what I have!”

She held the pocketwatch by the chain and held it in front of his face. He reached for it absentmindedly, only to have it pulled away, dangled just in sight, watching the clock face turn to face his.

Watching the clock read 10:20.