Alterations - Exchanged Book 3 (Diaper Dimension)

Chapter 18
Defenders

“STAY RIGHT THERE and I’ll change you next,” Amanda told the girl as I watched a piece of poop slide down her leg. “Hold your skirt up so maybe you don’t have to lose that.”

The poor girl just started bawling, and I felt bad for her. Amanda was obviously a faculty member from the badge on her blouse, and this would mean a demerit and a trip to Dean Sanders office most likely.

She finished wiping me quickly, rediapered me, and set me on the ground, “Wait there a moment Stacy,” she ordered.

“Come here little one,” she told the girl. “Let’s pull down those poopy panties, there’s no reason to save them,” she told her as she reached down to the girl. She sniffled but let Amanda pull them down and discard them into the trash can adjacent to the table. I watched as she used a couple wipes on her standing up and then picked her up, “Lay there and be good for a moment,” she told her and suspended her butt in the air with her ankles in one hand as she kept wiping her.

She was much too big for one of my diapers, but Bella’s fit her and she had her diapered a moment later as a girl came rushing in, “Which little girl dripped all the way down the hallway?” She asked.

“I don’t know, that trail was there when we came in,” Amanda told her. “Both of these little girls needed changed, but they were in diapers that held everything in.”

“Damn…” the girl said and left after checking the stalls.

“Are… are…” the little stammered.

“Am I going to tell on you?” Amanda asked.

The girl streamed tears from her eyes, but nodded.

“No, but if you want my advice you won’t leave your dorm room in panties again. Make sure you don’t poop in a class, and the worst that will happen is a diaper change. You should have about five demerits right now and a paddling...”

The girl nodded, “Thank you miss,” she said. “I’m Meg, I really appreciate it.”

“I have a little sister named Megan, so I can remember that. This little girl here is my adopted daughter Stacy.”

“Nice to meet you,” the girl said as she was trying wipe her face with her hands.

A bit of her makeup was smearing, and Amanda offered her a baby wipe, “Wipe your face really good, we’ll walk you out of here and you should be fine. What class are you going to?”

“English…” she said nervously.

“So am I!” I told her. “Over in the Jennings building?”

She nodded.

“Why don’t you walk with us,” I said. Amanda walked beside us to leave the bathroom a moment later as I watched another two large Amazonian girls follow the trail of poop and urine in with the hopes of capturing a little to turn them in, or claim for their own.

Meg was hesitant to talk to me at first, but by the time we made it to the next building we discovered she had the same class that I did. Amanda dropped us off at the classroom, which was a moderately large lecture hall that seated about eighty students. I made a move to the front and she looked at me like I was nuts, “If you sit up front, they can throw things at you…” she hissed.

I shrugged, “If I sit at the front the professor may or may not be a defender. I’d rather be up front… Plus we don’t have any chairs to see over the top of here.”

“I guess,” she said as she sat in the too large seat and tried to use a sweatshirt to make herself a little more comfortable in the large seat. She was about a foot and a half taller than me. She watched in a little bit of confusion as I pulled my booster seat out of my bag and put it on the chair. “That looks a bit more comfortable,” she admitted.

I was sitting almost at her level then at least. “Gotta do what I can…”

“Aren’t you worried about being too much like a baby?” She asked as she squirmed in the diaper. “My dad always told me to never let anyone put me in a diaper…”

“Is he still free?” I asked gently.

She shook her head and looked in pain, “Last week just before I came here, he was taken on the street…”

“Your only real chance of staying free is wearing them I think…”

“But what about you?” She paused, “I mean maybe your mom can help keep you from being kidnapped, but…?”

I laughed, “I’m an adopted little is what she meant.”

“Wait… you’re the one who’s adopted and still going to classes?”

She asked just as I heard a “Hey Stacy!” from my side.

I saw Laura and said, “Hi Laura,” to her.

“Hey, why didn’t I hear from you this weekend?” She asked.

I sighed, “My sister was poisoned by a fake LPS agent on Friday, and then they tried to get me that night… She fought for her life that night and was finally improving Saturday night, only to be kidnapped on Sunday from the hospital…”

“Wait, that girl was your sister?” they both asked simultaneously.

I nodded, “Yes, my parents had taken her in to save her from some crazy stewardess on our flight to Selegnasol… I’d only had about a week to get to know her, but I already considered her to be a friend… I’m really worried for her.”

Both girls nodded and looked sad too, but there was clearly nothing they could do at that point. “Aren’t you worried they’re coming for you too? Didn’t the news say your house was broken into too?” Laura asked.

“I didn’t know they’d said that much…” I told Laura, “Yeah I am. They’ve tried for me a couple times already, so unless the police get them first, they’ll probably try again.”

“That sucks…” Meg said, “Your mom was really kind, I hate to see that happen to you all.”

We talked for about ten more minutes as we had all arrived early to class and I learned that Anaya and Kristina were responsible for the two empty beds in our nest. Kristina had given herself over to the adoption program, while Anaya got busted for pooping her pants and then fought the nest mother that had caught her trying to sneak back into the dorm. Anaya had ended up being sent to the university’s daycare and had been seen last grinning without her teeth, being carried with only a diaper on out to their playground through the clear glass ‘fence’ that surrounded it. Every little had stayed as far away though as they could, lest they be roped in with her too…

The professor for this class also had her own TAs to help out. Professor Benning was quite young really, having only received her PhD that past spring. She stated that the objectives of her class were to enable us to communicate and document our work in a clear and professional manner. Technical writing wasn’t to just be about essays, but real research type projects and reviews of journals. As we stood up to leave the class a couple Amazon girls came over and said, “How are your diapees holding up?”

I sighed, “Mine’s wet, but my mommy is waiting outside.”

“Her mommy promised to change us both,” Laura told her.

“Wait, Mommy? Why would your mom be here?” The girl asked in confusion.

“She’s a professor,” I told her.

Sure enough, as soon as we walked out of the classroom Amanda was waiting there and lifted my skirt to pronounce, “Well I have a wet little girl, huh?”

“Can my friends come with us to lunch?” I asked.

“Sure! Do they need a change too?”

“Yes ma’am,” Laura said. “I didn’t even bother with training panties today,” she told her honestly.

“Well, let’s go by the Union and I’ll change you all and get you a meal at the food court there?” She suggested.

The girls blushed but nodded as the aggressive girls stared at Amanda with looks of jealousy and anger. I reached up for Amanda’s hand and held it while Laura and Meg walked beside me. Laura was more comfortable being around Amanda by this point, but Meg was looking nervous that she was going to be forcibly adopted at any moment. Amanda changed both of them first before getting to me and leaving my naked rear in the air for my change. I tried to pretend that no one else was there to see Amanda change me… The three of us were all blushing brightly as we washed our hands and went outside to the food court.

“What’s your next class?” Laura asked me.

“Machine learning,” I answered.

“Who teaches that?” Meg asked curiously.

I tilted my head towards Amanda, “Professor Westerfield,” I said.

It seemed like they had a surprisingly quiet weekend in the dorms. We learned that Laura had actually gone to the church that Amanda’s parents went to on Sunday. As we got her to open up, we learned that Meg was an electrical engineering major, so I would probably inevitably have some other classes with her. As it was the three of us had our chemistry class together later in the afternoon too.

We didn’t have a long time to eat, especially with Amanda wanting to get to her classroom early, but we spent some time listening to stories from their weekend. They both had a break for a couple hours and were planning on going back to the dorm for a bit. Before we split up, I traded cell phone numbers with them so we could get together again. Amanda also gave them her number too, in case they needed something from an ‘adult.’

At Kilby we ran into her office for just a quick moment to grab some papers before heading down to the sixth floor. Floor to ceiling glass doors and windows looked into a smaller classroom with a single horseshoe shaped table that opened to a white board and a projector screen.

She motioned for me to sit down while she finished getting ready. With nothing else to occupy myself I watched the other students in the course come into the room. Being an advanced computer science class, the course was restricted both by pre-reqs and in numbers. Only nine other students besides myself would be joining us in the room, and all would be upperclassmen.

A tall dark-haired girl was the first to come through and said, “Hi Doctor Westerfield,” to Amanda as she came in.

“Hi Danielle,” Amanda said with a smile.

She looked at me and thought for a second, “You brought Stacy to your class to babysit today?” She asked.

Amanda laughed, “No, she’s in this class for credit, just like you Danielle.”

“Didn’t she just check-in as a freshman last week?”

“Yes, I did,” I answered myself.

“Then how can you take this class? You have to have five semesters of pre-reqs?”

“I tested out of them,” I told her with a smile.

Danielle chewed on that, I didn’t think she was a totally condescending Amazon when I met her before, and I hoped I was right with this. “Seriously?” She stared at Amanda who nodded. “You must be like ridiculously smart…” she said to me. “Sorry if I came off as a bitch.”

I laughed, “Don’t worry about it,” I said.

Amanda went back to loading something on her computer and I pulled my own out to sit in front of me as other students came in. “What kind of computer is that?” A boy asked next to me, “I’m Eric by the way.”

I looked up at the Amazon who seemed to be slightly shorter than most of the others in the room. I guessed he was probably only nine-feet tall, with blonde hair, and a pizza face of pimples everywhere. Everything about him screamed ‘nerd,’ which meant I’d probably be able to make a friend if he could overlook my height. “Well it’s from the other dimension where I’m from…” I told him and went into the specs.

“My computer has a lot more power, but it’s so tiny… that’s incredible that you have as much in that little machine as you do!”

I smiled, “It’s me sized.”

Danielle giggled at that, “More like doll sized… You are so tiny!”

I shrugged, “Not going to deny that.”

I talked with the two of them a little bit the next few minutes and then Amanda began the class. “Good afternoon and welcome back to Emerson! I hope you all had a good summer!” She looked at the class. “I think most of you have been in classes together, but why don’t you all introduce yourselves. This class will involve a lot of collaboration and I want to make sure that you get to know each other today.”

She started with an Amazon boy at the far side of the room. As the others continued down the line, I figured out that Danielle and I were actually the only two girls in the class. ‘Weird still knowing that I fit on that side of the fence now…’ I thought to myself. As I introduced myself there was a mixture of curiosity on the boys faces and something else… It was a little creepy actually as I was pretty sure they weren’t just thinking of being daddies for some reason.

I noticed the same looks were only given briefly to Danielle before they looked down at their desks as she stared back at them.

“Okay then, now that we’ve got that out of the way let’s talk about what we’re studying this semester.” She paused, “Tessa, come join us,” she said with a smile.

To everyone’s surprise the holographic Tessa appeared. I was excited because she was probably the most advance piece of research I’d seen so far. “Hi Doctor Westerfield, Hi Stacy,” she said seeing me.

“What is she?” Danielle asked. “How does she know Stacy?”

“I’m an artificial entity projected via hologram into here,” Tessa told her. “I think I’m supposed to be an object lesson for you all today? Am I right Doctor Westerfield?”

She almost smiled, “You’re right, Tessa here is the most advanced artificial intelligence on the planet. She started off templated off of some nanny bot programming, but we brought her to a new level of intelligence by helping aid her in learning on her own. AI that works like hers, is the ultimate goal of this class, but way beyond what most of you will be able to effectively work on until you are in grad school.”

She looked back at Tessa, “Thanks for visiting Tessa, I know we’ll have you back soon.”

“I look forward to it… and I hope you get your little girl back soon too. Please let me know if I can help.”

Amanda turned white and I debated standing up as Tessa faded from existence. “What did she mean by that?” Danielle asked.

“My sister was kidnapped yesterday,” I told her.

“That was your daughter?” Danielle asked, “I’m so sorry, what are you both doing here?”

“Nothing more we can do right now,” Amanda said sadly. “Let’s get back to the topic at hand. This course…”

Amanda’s class was most certainly going to be the most demanding of all of my classes. I think even if she wasn’t my mommy, I could plan on her being tough on me. As class ended, I let loose a stream of urine into my diaper, knowing my best chance for a change was right then. A few students asked Amanda some questions, but most fled the room quickly.

Danielle hung around for a second, “I’m sorry to hear about your daughter,” she told Amanda. “Is there anything you need?” She asked.

“If you see Stacy around please keep an eye on her? That’s about it…”

“Sure!” she said. “You want me to change her and get her to her next class?”

Amanda shook her head, “Thanks for the offer, but I’ve got that taken care of right now,” she said with a smile.

“See you around then,” she told us both. After Amanda had her bag and supplies together, she reached down and picked me up to set me on her other side. My wet pamper was visible to several passing bigs and littles as we loaded the elevator to her office.

“Hi Kim,” she said as we passed.

“Hi Mandy,” she said, not having more time to talk because Amanda kept us moving.

As we entered her office, I looked at my watch and saw I had about forty minutes before my next class. “Let’s get this diaper changed, get you a bottle of juice, and then you off to your Chem class. I’ll need to come back and get some work done during that.”

“You heard anything from the police or anyone?”

She shook her head, “No news at least…” she said sadly.

I hugged her as she lay out a changing pad on an edge of her desk and scooped me up to lay me down on it. She handed me a bottle of juice and just before I put it in my mouth I asked, “I wonder if Tessa would be able to help at all?”

“That’s an interesting idea,” she admitted as she pushed my skirt out of the way. She ripped the two tapes off and wiped me, “I might try later.”

“Did you sweep this room?” I asked around the bottle.

She nodded, “anything hidden won’t make it out of here anyway, but I swept when we walked in.”

“Did you happen to scan her for that chip she told us about?”

She gave me a look as she taped my new diaper on, “Yes… and I copied it before I purged it of any information. If that’s why they kidnapped her they’re going to be really disappointed…” she said.

I was sat upright and she wiped her hands with a wipe. “I’m still working on getting through it all. The part that I can get through is bothering me though because it looks familiar.”

“Familiar?” I asked.

“I’m not sure why, but it looks very similar to some ongoing projects I’ve consulted on around here. I’m going to have to spend some more time looking at it before I can be certain of where though…”

“Can I get a look at it?”

She gave me a narrow look, “When we get home,” she looked at her watch, “for now it’s time for you to go to chemistry!”

I groaned, but nodded. I drained another third of the bottle, but didn’t want to take it outside of her office to finish it. I handed it to her and she placed it inside my diaper bag she had sat next to her desk. She walked beside me to Kendrick Hall where my chemistry class was to meet. I saw Laura and Meg sitting at the front, and sat on the other side of Laura so she was in the middle of us.

“How was your class?” Laura asked. “It’s got to be a bit odd having your mommy as a professor?”

“I’m dead certain that’s going to be my toughest class… we have some collaborative projects we’re going to have to do that maybe tough to work out. I’m also one of only two girls, and of course the only little in the class,” I told her.

She laughed, “Actually you may have an easier time with the guys. They tend not to have the desire to baby us quite as bad at their age.”

“No, they looked more like dating me was on the plate…”

“Eew…” Meg said with a snort. “A big?”

“It happens, right?”

“Yeah, it does,” Laura admitted. “I know there were at least a couple freshman girls at check-in with Amazon parents, and one had a little mom and big dad.”

The room filled and got noisier and noisier until the professor stood up at the front and said, “Good afternoon!”

There was a half-hearted response, to which Professor Casio said again, “Good afternoon!”

“Good afternoon,” there came a light-hearted response that was a bit better.

“Oh, you all can do better than that!” He said, and did it again, at last getting the response he wanted. I knew this was one of my largest classes so I suspected he was going to be a bit more of a commanding persona there. He really wasn’t very tall though… Maybe a bit shorter than Megan actually, but he seemed like a friendly sort of guy. His shorter status meant he was a bit less intimidating to me, but probably had to deal with Amazons scoffing at him being a betweener.

His class though? It was awesome! He kept up a great level of energy all the way through, explaining fundamentals of stoichiometry better than I’d ever had it taught to me back home. About midway through the class he called out, “Robert Stanson, what is the molecular weight of one mole of Cesium?”

I turned and could just see a student who looked to have just been asleep looking amazed at the professor that he already knew his name. “Umm....” he said.

“Ms. Westerfield? Can you help him out?” He said suddenly looking at me after letting him stew for a few moments.

I felt my diaper grow warm with nerves but answered, “132.9054 grams?”

“Correct!” he said, “Ms. Westerfield has a good chance of doing well in this course, Mr. Stanson you may have issues… Especially if you sleep through my classes,” he said. The whole class chuckled at his expense but I could feel a glare to the back of my head.

I sighed, but I wouldn’t hide my intelligence from anyone!

He went on and began doing other formulas and dealing with atomic masses before discussing the ideal gas law. He assigned about forty pages of reading before Wednesday, and then sent us on our way at the end of the class time. As I hopped off the chair and began storing my portable booster, he walked over to me. “I just wanted to say I’m glad you seem to be as sharp as I’ve heard Ms. Westerfield.”

“Thank you, sir,” I told him. “I really enjoyed your class today.”

“I hope that continues. Laura, Meg, please let us know if you have questions,” he told them.

We walked out the back of the lecture hall and I asked, “How does he know all of our names?”

One of the TAs was at the back collecting some information cards we’d filled out. “Doctor Casio memorizes every students name and face before you get to campus. He uses the pictures you send in initially to the university, but then gets an update with student IDs during orientation. He shuffles through them on his computer and tablet.”

“That’s kind of cool,” Laura said.

“Yeah,” Meg said.

Amanda was standing in the lobby and I said, “I’ll see you tomorrow, have a good night!”

“Night,” they said to me.

I walked up to Amanda and said, “Hi,” to her.

“You ready to go home?”

I nodded and held my arms up to her. She obliged by picking me up and putting me on her side for the walk to her car.

THE RIDE HOME was short, but I felt like the long day of stress and nerves suddenly slammed into me. I had fewer classes in a day than I’d had in high school, but I suddenly understood the idea that we’d be doing a year worth of high school classes in one semester. I mentally noted the homework I needed to do and was grateful that it wasn’t terrible today. I suspected that wouldn’t last long!

“How was your Chemistry class?” Amanda asked as we pulled away.

“Really cool actually,” I told her.

“Casio, right?”

“Yes,” I answered.

“He’s one of the student’s favorites. Great teacher,” she said. Knowing Amanda by now I knew that was high praise for the man.

“Seemed like it, I can’t believe he already knows all of the freshman names… I mean he called one kid that was asleep by name, then he called on me to give the answer when he couldn’t!”

“He’s as smart as anyone I know, and basically has an eidetic memory from what I can tell. It’s a good move to make students know he cares for them.” She paused, “Just make sure you pay attention!”

I nodded at her looking back at the mirror because we were at a light. The house was soon in sight and she pulled into the garage next to Fred’s vehicle. Amanda came around and let me out of the car seat and sat me on the ground. She leaned in and handed me my backpack before holding the garage door open. “Fred we’re home,” she announced as we entered.

“I’m in here,” he said from the living room. He looked like he was working on something around the staircase. I followed behind Amanda as she reached him and gave him a big hug and a kiss when he stood to greet her. I walked closer and he scooped me up to give me a big hug too, “How was your first day?”

“Good,” I told him. “Any word on Bella?” I asked him.

He hugged me but shook his head, “No, unfortunately,” he said. “I’ve been working on finishing cleaning up the damage and adding some security measures, but no word from the police or anyone about her.”

Amanda’s eyes watered and we shared a three-way hug for a long moment. Fred felt my diaper under my skirt then and said, “Mommy she could probably use a diaper change,” and passed me over.

She smiled weakly, “I guess we should take care of that, huh?”

“Please,” I said.

A moment later she came to the door that said ‘Princess Stacy,’ but had only so recently had ‘Princess Bella’ added. The sight made me want to cry! Amanda noticed and hugged me tightly as she pushed the door open and laid me on the changing table. She pushed a pacifier between my lips and I nursed it silently as she pulled my skirt off and sat me up to pull my blouse off too. My feet were pushed up into the air a moment later as she replaced the wet diaper with a dry one.

She dug through the closet for a moment and then came back with a cute blue gingham dress. I sat up and put my arms through the sleeves before she buttoned it shut and tied a bow at the back. “I’m so glad we still have you Stacy… and I hope we find Bella…” she told me before tears came to her eyes.

“We will… somehow,” I agreed.

She kissed me on the forehead, hugged me, and then sat me down on the floor, “Little girl you have a bunch of homework to do… I know one of your classes has a crazy witch of a professor that will make you do a ton of work.”

I smiled weakly, “She’s not thaaat bad,” I said around the pacifier.

“I was talking about your English professor brat…”

I smiled at her and took my backpack from her. As she left, she closed the baby gate and gave me a long look, “I’ll get dinner started,” she said softly.

I looked around the room and sighed as I looked at the crib. It looked like the intruders had scratched the finish of the cribs and our names were gone from above our beds. My memory recalled from the video that they had been thrown everywhere… I looked at my desk and was surprised to see it seemed to mostly have been untouched. I sat my computer down and logged in to the cameras in the nursery really quick. I recorded a few minutes of me working before looping the feed and running over to my bed and looking under the mattress. I breathed a sigh of relief as I found my Switch hiding there.

‘Okay… this is staying in the backpack from now on, and I’m going to have to get to work on my project soon…’ I sighed, ‘these guys aren’t giving me much breathing room.’

I reset the cameras to normal after putting the switch in my bag. After that I pulled out my tablet to start reading chapters over on my bed. I used my stylus to mark up the margins of the eBook, and used another app to take notes. The Calculus work was a review for me, but I completed the homework carefully anyway due to the different Base 60 math. I was finished with that, and most of my reading for Chemistry, when Amanda came back up and said, “Dinner’s ready, Sweetheart.”

I sighed and put the tablet down and walked over to her, making the universal ‘pick-me-up’ sign.

“Those legs broken?” She kidded me.

“Uh-huh, I walked all over campus today!”

She tickled my side, “Poor baby, I guess I should have carried you around in your baby sling, huh?”

I giggled as she tickled me and let her put me into the high chair. The room felt weird without Bella… and you could feel that the smiles on faces were forced, as Bella’s chair remained empty.

“How about we pray?” Amanda suggested.

“Sure,” I said in unison with Fred.

“Please God, watch over our other adopted daughter Bella. We didn’t have long to get to know her, but we love her nonetheless. Please keep her safe and bring her safely home,” Amanda said.

“Amen,” Fred and I said simultaneously as she cried. Fred hugged her and we all picked at the chicken dish that she made. It was really good, but that didn’t really feel great to be eating it that night. A dark cloud most certainly hung over us as we ate.

I left a good chunk of food on my plate as Amanda picked me up, “I guess it’s going to take a while to get used to this,” she said sadly.

I leaned into her and hugged her, “I love you Mommy,” I told her as she sat me down on the floor.

“I love you too Stacy,” she told me.

“Stacy, I want to show you a couple things…” Fred said as he stood up from the table too.

“What?” I asked looking up at him.

“The first thing is at the top of the stairs,” he said and walked up as I climbed beside him. I scrambled carefully up each step, while he was able to take normal steps. He pointed to what looked like a camera lens that had been added to each corner of the walls framing the staircase.

“What is it?”

“It’s a set of holo-emitters,” he told me.

“What are they supposed to emit?” I asked.

“Stay there a second,” he said and walked past me to the top of the stairs and then I heard a quick sound like a bug zapper start up. “Come on up the rest of the way,” he told me.

I nervously looked up there and saw that he was no longer visible and it looked like it had a moment before. I carefully climbed the last stair and then found myself meeting a hard surface. I poked at it and even hit it really quickly and found it felt like a brick wall, “Oww…” I whined before he deactivated it

“So, it’s a holographic solid wall?” I asked.

“More than that… I didn’t have the charge enabled… if they break in that will stay active and hopefully give us a minute or two.

“Wait, is it possible to disrupt with a laser like Tessa at school?” I asked.

“I didn’t think about that,” Amanda said from behind me. “Let’s test that…” she said as she went down to her lab and brought back four different lasers. “Re-enable it Fred,” she said from the other side. I watched in fascination as the air shimmered a little in front of us, but I could still see her. Fred had been hidden from behind it before so I assumed, I was too.

I watched her point a simple laser pointer like she would use in a class presentation at the image. She aimed at the image and pressed on it, but it still held firm. “Well that’s a good sign,” she said, “I might have to see about what they’re using with Tessa, this one would have disrupted her…”

“What about the others?” I asked.

She tried another one that was a little bit brighter, but it still didn’t do anything. She cycled through them until she got to one that was about the size of toilet paper roll. When she pointed it, I instantly saw a flicker in the field, and she was able to walk through without any problems.

“Hopefully they don’t have one that powerful?” Fred commented.

“Hopefully not…” she said. “This thing is kind of risky to even use indoors if you don’t want to start a fire…”

“What about if you used multiple of the less powerful ones?” I asked.

She looked at me and then we reset the experiment. Two of the lower leveled lasers did nothing, but when the third lower level laser was added the image shifted again and she was able to walk through. “I hope they don’t have laser sights on pistols?” I said after seeing that.

“Me too,” Amanda said. “I wonder if I can reprogram this somehow to be more resistant…?”

“Mandy, I’ll go do the dishes while you play,” Fred said. “Let me just show Stacy the other two additions first,” he said as he directed me to the nursery. He opened the gate and which I noticed now that it had been switched the way it swept open. Now it would move inward towards the room. I looked at the actual door closer to see that it now opened out to the hallway, “We put in heavier doors for both of our bedrooms. They open out so they’ll be harder to kick in. We’ve also put heavy-duty electronic locks on here that are pass coded. I doubt you can reach it, but the code is 938502. We’re going to keep it closed after we put you to bed each night.” He pointed towards the windows, “We replaced the glass in all of the windows with the same as the back door. It’s just about impossible to break or easily cut into. An alarm will sound if it detects a break in the glass too,” he added.

“That seems a little bit more secure,” I said.

“Well if they get through all of that we added one final addition here,” he said pointing to what looked like a new toy box in the closet. He opened it and I saw a compartment that seemed to be able to be locked from the inside, and the box itself was clearly bolted to the floor with some large bolts. “They won’t be able to remove it from the outside if you are locked inside. There’s water and food in there if you need it - well baby food,” he hedged with an apologetic look. “It stores easily… It’s enough to keep you fed for up to four days. The box itself can survive being crushed by more weight than this house has total, is fireproof, and it has a two-day supply of oxygen.”

“It’s like a little sized panic room,” I said softly. “If we manage to get Bella back, you’re going to have to get a larger one…”

He hugged me then with a sad look on his face, “It doesn’t look good right now, does it…?”

“Not great,” I agreed.

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