The Exchange,

Chapter 7
The exchange part 7

Chapter Description: Sandra makes a choice (this one is a little darker but dont worry sandra will be happier later)

Sandra had a restful nights sleep, unaware that at 2 in the morning she had cried her new parents awake and had been changed and fed and put back in her cot, She had then repeated this pattern at 5am, sleeping through the entire nights events, unaware that she had kept Anya and Blake up most of the night. She woke naturally at 7am and rubbed her eyes as they once more focused on those high pink bars. Out the corner of her eye she spotted Pea and she smiled at him as the pea green dragon smiled back. "Hi" She said sleepily, she rolled over onto her front and it was then that the smell hit her.

"Oh no" despair was evident in her voice. She had messed herself in her sleep. The smell almost made her gag and she looked down towards her nappy only to realise she was in a footed pink sleeper. When had that happened? Actually she couldn’t even remember being put to bed. She had vague recollections of sitting in the high chair but that was where the nights events seemed to end. It was clear from the bulge between her legs that she was in a terry nappy. She wiggled her bum and could hear the crinkle of the plastic pants, but immediately regretted wiggling because it squished around the mess she was sat in and wafted another wave of toxic smell around the cot. Abruptly she started crying. Loud long wails. Blake came in moments later, He was already dressed in a shirt, black trousers and a maroon tie, the tie was half done up. He got halfway across the nursery before the smell hit him, it woke him up pretty quickly.

"Whoa. Someone’s a little smelly isn’t she? What on earth has your mummy been feeding you to produce something that foul smelling huh?" He bent over the cot and picked the wailing Sandra up, carried her over to the changing table and began un-popping the buttons at the crotch of her sleeper suit. Sandra squirmed, it was one thing being changed when wet by her new daddy but she was embarrassed by the state she was currently in and wanted her mummy.

"I want mummy" She said pouting, but Blake didn’t seem to hear her as he slid her legs out of the sleeper suit so he could get access to her nappy.

"Can mummy change me?" She asked again, through tear soaked eyes. Blake looked at Sandra and smiled happily. "Are you trying to talk to me? Are you sandy? I know your mummy can understand you, but I can’t i’m afraid. You and her are linked. we’re not, so you have to learn how to talk before Daddy can understand you. Can you say daddy? can you?" Sandra was in no mood to play talking games. She felt cheated not being able to communicate with her daddy. But Blake was being persistent as he carefully pulled off her plastic pants.

"Come on Squidgy, say Dada, say Dada" He tickled her on her tummy and she giggled a bit even though she didn’t want to. Finally succumbing to his poking she quietly, very quietly, said "Da-dee" A big grin spread across his face, it made him look younger and she grinned to reflect his smile, suddenly feeling happy that she had given in to his demands. Before she could protest further he had pulled the two nappy pins fixing the dirty nappy together. Pulling it apart he surveyed the damage and quickly put the towelling back in place.

"Err...how about we call your mother." Sandra lay there on the changing table simply looking at her daddy. "ANs! Hey ANs, He yelled his pet name for Anya from the nursery, as he couldn’t just leave Sandra unattended. Moments later Anya came rushing into the room looking panicked, she wore only a light purple dressing gown and her wavy brown hair was pretty messy, it looked like she had had a bad nights sleep. "What!? What’s the matter? What’s wrong?" Blake grinned sheepishly, "No, nothings wrong...well something IS wrong but nothing to worry about." The smell hit Anya and she relaxed as she realised why he had called her. "Jeez Blake, I thought something was up" She walked over to the changing table and punched her partner lightly in the arm. He rubbed the back of his head feeling guilty that he had called Anya over something as trivial as a dirty nappy. "I think this is more girl bonding time, guys just aren’t cut out for this kind of carnage, besides it was you that fed her that Alumirp yesterday so you should take responsibility for the fall out"

Sandra watched helplessly as her new parents playfully shot banter at one another. She just wanted out of this mess, she actually now didn’t care who changed her just so long as it was soon. Anya seemed to realise her daughters distress and began to pull the soggy and smelly nappy out from under her and lifting her pudgy little legs up she began to clean Sandras bottom with a baby wipe. Sandra knew this whole procedure was going to take quite a while to get used to. Being touched down there by someone else was just weird. But whilst Sandra felt shame and humiliation she was also relieved that she was finally out of that mess and thankful for the nappy because otherwise the mess wouldn’t have been contained. She squirmed a little happy for the clean feeling. Blake kissed Anya lightly on the neck as she worked and he distracted her enough that she turned and kissed him full on the lips, the momentary lapse in concentration saw her lower Sandras feet and Sandra accidentally stuck her flailing foot into the messy nappy.

"Ewwwwww!" she whined, Anya turned her attention back to her baby and laughed. "You’re not supposed to play in it you silly thing." Anya gingerly grabbed the offending foot and cleaned it up. "I think its no good, its going to have to be bath time." Anya stripped Sandra of the rest of the sleeper suit so she was now naked on the table, she felt a little chilly but she was happy to be getting a bath. She did feel pretty yucky after sitting in her own mess. Blake was laughing and Anya shoved him towards the door. "Make yourself useful and go run a bath." He feigned laziness for a second, dragging his feet slowly in the direction of the Nursery door, when Anya gathered up the messy nappy and pretended to throw it at him, Blake quickly shot out of the door to avoid being hit, then stuck his head quickly round the door "She called me dada. Talking already, she’s gonna be one smart cookie." Before Anya could respond, he actually left for the bathroom, whistling cheerfully as he went.

Anya grinned and turned her attention back to the naked baby. Grabbing something out of the nearby wardrobe and wrapped it round Sandra. Sandra loved it instantly it was unbelievably soft, thick and fluffy. Anya stepped back to admire the adorableness that was her new daughter. She had wrapped her in a baby dressing gown it was white and had bear ears on the hood. It was too big for Sandy though and as Sandy was trying to peer up at her mummy through the large droopy hood her mummy gathered her up and squeezed her. "you’ve made your daddy really happy, Sandy. Lets go see if that bath is ready." Sandra could hear running water and as she was carried out of the nursery and into the bathroom.

She was almost disappointed to see that it resembled a normal bathroom, Grey tiled flooring, beige and grey tiled walls, a toilet, a sink, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Anya placed Sandra down on the floor and grabbed a bottle of something from the shelf and poured in large dollops of green liquid into the running water. Instantly bubbles started to form in the bath. The bubbles were bright colours like purple and pink and green. Sandra couldn’t see this as the bathtub rim was too high for her to peer into.

Meanwhile, Sandra, determined to get started on walking sooner rather than later, had pushed herself up into a standing position. Blake came in just at that moment to check on the bath depth and saw Anya and Sandy were already there. He noticed his daughter standing and he smiled and leant his shoulder on the door frame to watch what she would do next. He was surprised by her level of skill already. He felt proud watching her. Sandra was concentrating hard so hadn’t noticed her daddy watching. She looked down at her feet. She was perhaps five baby steps at most away from the bathtub, if she could make it those five then she could cling onto the bath side for balance. Sticking her tongue out in concentration she took one step, two, she got halfway through the third then collapsed forward, sadly she was close enough to the bathtub that she cracked her head on the edge as she fell. Sandra spluttered into a wail, more from the shock of the situation rather than from pain. Anya quickly turned off the taps as Blake was instantly by her side and scooped the baby girl up urgently to survey the damage. It didn’t look too bad and he felt relief. "Awww Squidgy, wassa matta, wassa matta, Did you bump your head? Did you? Daddy will make it all better." He talked happily at her and rocked her up and down making silly noises as he kissed her head where she had bumped it. He felt a little guilty for not stopping her from trying to walk, but kids her age were going to get bumps and bruises, they were naturally clumsy. Anya looked at Sandras head and realised, as had Blake, that the bump wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been and she joined in with fussing over the crying baby, giving Sandras exposed feet a little tickle every time Blake brought the baby in range. Sandras wailing quickly evaporated into loud babyish giggles. The two parents played with Sandy for a few minutes until it was clear that her crying was gone, then Blake plunked Sandra down into the bath.

Sandra gasped at the colour of the bubbles as they surrounded her it was like taking a bath in a brightly coloured warm bouquet of flowers. She swished her arms around enthusiastically splashing and giggling. She felt really childish and for once she was allowing herself to simply go with the flow, her parents were insistent that she was a child and right here, right now, she was allowing herself to enjoy it. After all if she was going to be stuck like this for a while, she might as well get some pleasure from the problem. She stopped and looked up at her mummy and daddy. Anya was knelt by the side of the bath watching, whereas Blake had retreated back to the bathroom door and was watching from there. He was looking a bit depressed.

"I’m going to have to go to work soon, but I’ll be home early tonight" he said. Anya looked at him, got up from her crouching position beside the bath and walked over to Blake and straightened out his tie. Still holding onto his tie she gave him a light kiss on the cheek. "We’ll see you later then" Blakes depression left his face as he grinned. Then after quickly returning the kiss he waved at Sandra

"Daddy’ll see you later Squidgy" With that, he turned and left.

Sandra waved at the empty space that had been her daddy, then she couldn’t help but splash around in the bath a bit more, she knew it was childish but the bubbles amused her. Anya poured some shampoo onto sandras head and massaged it into a lather, Sandra continued to play whilst Anya washed her baby. Eventually it was debatable as to which one of the two was more covered in water. Once Sandra was clean Anya lifted her out of the bath and placed her onto a towel on the floor. Gently rubbing Sandra dry she covered her in talc and put a fresh disposable nappy on her. The bath had invigorated Sandra and she lay there gazing up at her mummy, as her mummy showed her the outfit she had picked out today. It was a lemon and white gingham dress. There was a small layer of lace at the hem of the dress with matching booties and the nappy cover had similar rows of lace on the butt. Sandra looked at it doubtfully.

"That looks too babyish" She said grumpily. Anya laughed. "There’s a reason for that sweetie, it’s because you’re a baby. I’ve arranged for you to meet someone special today so you have to look your best."

"Yeah but could I not get some little tiny jeans and a couple of t-shirts or something. You know stuff that isn’t quite so cutesy." Sandra had never been a girly girl. Anya wasn’t listening though, she was looking perplexed as she suddenly remembered something.

"We promised Eliza and Daniel we’d meet up with them again this morning, but I’ve gone and double booked us. Hang on a sec sweetie" Sandra lay there on the towel on the bathroom floor in just a disposable as Anya put down the outfit she had been holding up and put her right hand to her ear. Anya smiled at Sandra, then Sandra noticed her mummy’s eyes seemed to glaze over for a moment or two, then they returned to normal.

"Right, that’s that done, now back to getting you dressed you little horror." Anya tickled Sandras exposed feet, the baby let out a squeal

"Wait? What’s done? What did you just do?" Sandra was sure she had just missed something important.

Anya began threading the yellow dress over Sandras head as she spoke. "I just let Eliza know we wont be meeting up with them today and that we rescheduled for tomorrow." Sandra shook her head in disbelief. "how?"

Anya pulled Sandra into a sitting position and did up the buttons on the back of the dress, then she started pulling little white laced ankle socks onto Sandras tiny feet. "Do you remember me telling you that I can’t understand you outside this apartment because of everyone’s collective brainwaves? Well as an older child, usually from about the age of 8 you can tap into that collective. We harnessed that power by adapting the chip." Anya held out her palm again to remind Sandra that the chip was embedded there. It knows where anyone is at any given point, all I have to do is think of a person and they will get a special sense that I want to talk with them. if they accept that request then we can link minds and converse. Like what you and I are doing now, but on a much bigger scale." Sandra had forgotten that she wasn’t actually speaking words, simply baby babble, and that really they were talking telepathically but only her mummy could understand her.

"Wait. Why can’t daddy understand me?"

"That’s because you two don’t share DNA. You’re part of me and i’m part of you, we’re hybrids of each other so we’re really strongly bonded. Your daddy is very dear to me, so as a result you are quite closely bonded with him but it was a fifty fifty gamble as to whether he would understand you or not. Sadly he’s been left out of the loop. It’s a shame really. I think he feels rejected." Sandra felt bad, she would have to try and learn some words so she could communicate better with him.

"But as you get older you’ll be able to talk proper words and then be able to tap into our collective consciousness. You’ll learn all about it when you get to school"

"when will that be?" Sandra was impatient to start properly learning things about this new world she had to grow up in. Anya thought for a second.

"In about 3 of our years" Sandras heart sunk. She would be preschool for that long, then a question formed in her head, her mouth suddenly dry as she began to guess the answer "And how long is one of your years..in human years?"

Anya had been dreading this question, there was no use in lying.

"well, like I said that first conversation we had. We have a much longer lifespan than the human species, so I guess one of my years is probably the equivalent of about 7 of your years. Sandra didn’t take a second to do the calculation.

"so...So i’m gonna be a preschooler for 21 years??? I’m gonna go stir crazy. What do you expect me to do for that length of time? Chew blocks and drool? That also means i’m gonna be stuck in nappies for at least 14. That’s crazy, I mean surly you’re going to get bored looking after me. 21 years before I even get to the basics at school. This is a nightmare!"

Sandra couldn’t help but feel despair. Anya felt her pain and hugged her tightly. "Its not like that, our lives are longer so we have..."

"no! Get off of me. I don’t want hugs. I want to be me again. I don’t want this"

Sandra pushed against her new mummy, struggled to get away as she cried properly for the first time about her predicament. "Oh sweetie." Anya sighed. "I’m so sorry." She tried to hug the struggling child but could see it was distressing her more than it was helping, so with a breaking heart Anya walked back to the nursery and put Sandra back in her cot. Anya left, sobbing. She knew this was going to happen, but had been optimistic that perhaps Sandra would escape this phase. Clearly Anya had been too optimistic.

Sandra was inconsolable, suddenly many things rushing through her mind as she sat there in her cot. What about her family back on earth were they looking for her? they must be worried, work colleagues too, she didn’t have many people who were friends but surly people were noticing her for her absence. Were there police searching for her body? She had been snatched without any warning and now she was stuck. Stuck helpless and dependant on aliens from a different planet. It was all just too crazy, perhaps she had had a mental breakdown and was right at this second in some mental institute crazed and deranged.

She cried and cried ending up a snotty snivelling mess. She had hyperventilated and was trying to get her breath back when she looked over at Pea, still smiling at her. She rubbed at her eyes and crawled over to the dragon toy. She plucked him up by one of his wings and stuck his ear in her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. Calming down a little. Her baby side gaining comfort from being near her toy friend. Anya quietly entered the nursery. She had been sobbing in the lounge, listening to her little one cry herself silly unable to really do anything about it. But now....now came an important decision.

"Sweetie?" Anya called softly and questioningly. Sandra looked up from her toy, up at her mummy and felt awful. This woman had been given the task of looking after her, and had been doing a fantastic job. Sandras own biological mother had never paid her this much attention or given her this much love and Anya had only been a day and a morning so far and already Sandra felt more love for the woman standing on the other side of the crib than she did for her own mother. But how much of that was because of their spliced DNA? Sandra sniffed some more snot up as Anya approached looking fairly miserable.

"Sandy, can I pick you up and talk to you for a minute. I’ll understand if you say no."

Sandra had been so mean by shoving her new mummy away. It must have hurt a lot.

"I’m...I’m sowwy" She said as she threw her arms up in the air as an indication that she wanted to be picked up. Anya was bending over the side of the cot in an instant and hauling Sandra into her arms. Hugging her with such tenderness, Anya never wanted to put her baby down, never wanted to see her in that much pain again. With a few swift strides she was over by the rocking chair and sitting down. She pulled a baby bottle out from her pocket. It was quite a small sized baby bottle and it was filled with pink liquid. Strawberry milk? Sandra looked at it, but Anya didn’t give it to her straight away.

"Sandy, listen, this is really important. This stuff here.." Anya shook the bottle. "...is called syrup, it helps Exchange students like you to forget."

Sandra looked confused. "Forget? Forget what?"

Anya looked at the bottle, then at her baby. "It makes you forget memories, it starts from your first memories and works its way forward erasing what you know, who you know, everything really. it’s potent stuff. Some carers of exchange students use it far too frequently in my opinion. Their students forget who they were before, they really become like children. Before you ask, I haven’t used it on you. Although some carers use it on their students before the students even become aware. But....I wanted to give you the choice." Sandra was looking at the bottle with a mix of curiosity and horror.

"Sandra. I wanted to let you chose whether you remember your old life or not. It must be painful thinking of lost family and friends. People you’ve left behind. Your life. I know I would be devastated if I found myself in your position. Independent one minute, the next helpless. One day you may return to earth but that wont be until you’ve at least reached adulthood which is going to be around 130 years or so, so everyone you know will be gone. I want to give you the chance to leave all that emotional baggage behind. "

Sandra looked at the bottle. The idea was tempting. Forget that she had once been a world renown geneticist. Forget that she had a mother and 2 sisters all who were probably worried about her. Forget all her past triumphs and mistakes. But her memories were what made her her. If she gave them up she’d be giving up on herself. She looked up into her mummy’s deep, beautiful eyes and took the bottle from her hands. Anya watched her baby as she looked at the swirling pink liquid. Sandra put the bottle to her lips and for what seemed like an eternity the scene seemed to pause. Then without taking a suck Sandra threw the bottle onto the floor and shook her head as she clung tightly to the light purple dressing gown Anya wore.

"Mummy don’t let me drink that stuff ever okay. I’m....I’m sorry I was mean to you and i’m sorry that I was angry. I felt trapped...I feel trapped...but...but I love you. I wanna be a good girl for you and I wanna learn lotsa stuff but most of all I wanna be me. I am scared if I drink that stuff that I’ll end up something else. I have bad memories and I have good ones and I want to remember them all. Don’t, please don’t ever make me drink that stuff. I just need time to adjust. I don’t want to forget anyfing, ever. Even bad stuff"

Anya hugged her baby tight and rocked on the rocking chair.

"Its okay sweetheart. I promise you I will never do anything like that to you ever. You have my word" Anya meant it without a shadow of doubt in her soul. If that’s what her baby wanted then she would respect her wishes. Sandra was satisfied with her mummy’s promise she trusted her completely. It would be difficult to adjust, and it was going to be such a struggle at points but she wanted to do it her way. Anya adjusted herself in the rocking chair and undid her blouse. She would need to give Sandra a quick feed and then they would have to go out pronto if they were to get to their destination on time. Sandra began to suckle almost as soon as Anya’s nipple was exposed. She was famished and all that crying had exhausted her and being this close to mummy was always comforting. She lost herself in infantile bliss as she filled her stomach letting Anyas warmth wash over her and envelope her in the feeling of safety, she felt her eyelids getting heavy and within moments was fast asleep. Anya sighed. This was not how she had envisaged her morning going, but at least that important unavoidable conversation was out of the way. Anya looked down at the pink liquid filled bottle and gently kicked it further away from her. She would make sure Blake was aware of Sandys wishes, She didn’t want him accidentally feeding that stuff to their baby. She respected and admired Sandy for making such a tough decision. Anya put Sandra into her cot so she could leave her unattended whilst she gathered items into the changing bag and got herself dressed. She dressed in a long flowing white dress that had small flowers printed all over it. She could easily slip the dress off the shoulders to give access to Sandra for feeding. Anya was nervous for todays meeting. Sandra didn’t know it but she was going to meet her first set of Exchange students. The first student was the 2nd youngest on board a 4 year old by the name of Rebecca. Anya hoped it all went well. Sandra would need friends to play with and what with her daughter being much younger than everyone else on board Anya worried the other children might get bored of her or pick on her. She guessed there was only one way to find out. Fitting the chest harness baby carrier to herself she walked back to the Nursery and carefully picked up Sandra and put her in the harness. Sandra snored lightly muttered something unintelligible and then fell back into a sound sleep. Anya also picked up her dragon toy, she guessed Sandra would find having her toy with her a comfort. He was too big to fit in the changing bag though so she would have to carry him.

Catching sight of the time Anya hurriedly stuffed the changing bag with various essentials like wipes and Sandras pacifier and nappies. She grabbed a couple of bottles of milk she had expressed earlier from the fridge and they were ready to go. Walking out into the hallway she slipped her shoes on. Anya was feeling very nervous, she was probably more anxious than Sandy was going to be. She was going to meet other carers, perhaps make some new friends at the same time Sandy did. Anya hoped she made a good first impression as a mother to an exchange student. With that she left the house and headed for their first play date encounter.