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“Welcome to Fresh Start Inc , how can we help you today?” The receptionist smiled prettily at the tired looking mother and her bored teenage daughter.
“Yes, hi. We have an appointment today for Katie Smith,” Anna Smith said, pulling a stack of paperwork from her handbag for the receptionist.
“I’m not ‘Katie’ anymore, Mom!” The fifteen year old complained, rolling her eyes. “I’m Katelyn.” She pulled out her phone and checked something on it, smirking.
“Right, ‘Katelyn’,” her mom said, exchanging looks with the receptionist.
The receptionist smiled sympathetically and glanced through the paperwork. “Well, everything seems to be in order. All the signatures we need are present, including from your husband. You’ve double checked the options you selected before signing, correct?”
The woman smiled widely and nodded. “Oh yes, we discussed the options in depth before making our decisions. We’re very sure this is the best plan for our family,” she glanced significantly at her daughter, who was ignoring both of them. The two women took in the girl’s chipped black nail polish, sloppy clothes, unbrushed hair and heavy makeup, exchanging another knowing look.
“Alrighty then, you can have a seat, and we’ll call Katie in shortly,” The receptionist said, stamping the paperwork with a legal seal and filing it in her tray.
“Ugh, it’s Katelyn!” The girl snapped at the receptionist, stamping her foot.
Anna grabbed her daughter’s forearm tightly and pulled her towards the seating in the waiting room. “That is enough! I’ve had it with your attitude lately, young lady. You will sit quietly and wait for the nurse to call you. If I hear even a peep out of you, you’ll be sorry!” She pushed her daughter into a chair, snatched the girl’s phone from her hands to throw into her purse, and sat down beside her.
Katelyn blinked, rubbing her arm in shock.
Her mom never told her off like that! She was an only child, and very used to getting her way. Her friends always said she could get away with murder and her parents wouldn’t lift a finger, and truthfully she’d begun to believe them. Usually, if she put up enough of a fuss, she could get whatever she wanted - clothes, makeup, money - the list went on. She wondered if maybe they were starting to catch on to her strategies and would start trying to reign her in - not that she would let them, mind you. She was the one who was really in charge, after all…
She folded her arms and kicked her feet, immediately bored. “What is this appointment even for?” She whined quietly after a few minutes.
They were the only people waiting, and there wasn’t even a TV like in her normal doctor’s office. Even if that TV was usually on the weather channel, or a cheesy soap opera, it was better than sitting and doing nothing!
“You’ve been complaining about your acne lately, right?” Anna said placidly, tapping on her own phone with short, perfectly manicured fingernails.
Katelyn could see her mom was texting with her dad, and quickly lost interest in reading over her shoulder. No doubt her parents were either discussing how to ‘adjust her attitude’, or were using an obscene amount of emojis to sext each other. Either way, no thanks!
“Yeah?” she answered cautiously, glancing at the secretary from the corner of her eye.
“ Fresh Start Inc specializes in helping people just like you,” Her mom smiled at her, but there was something in her expression that put Katelyn on edge. “I guarantee, by the end of your visit here, you won’t have to worry about acne ever again.”
“Oh,” Katelyn said, relieved. So this place was some kind of dermatology office? Cool… Although, it was strange her mom hadn’t said anything about taking her here. She’d just told her they had an important appointment today before rushing her into the car.
Katelyn looked down and idly played with her hair. She’d bought blue hair dye with her dad’s ‘borrowed’ credit card, and had her friends help her to dye the tips a deep cobalt at a sleepover two weeks ago. Her parents had, predictably, flipped out, but she hadn’t cared. Her hair looked awesome! Plus, she’d finally gotten the attention of Chris Rochester, the captain of the baseball team. If she played her cards right, she and Chris would be going to Homecoming together, and spending the whole dance in the back of his car.
“Smith?” A nurse in bright pink scrubs called.
“Go on, Katie,” Anna urged, pushing her daughter to her feet.
“Wait - you’re not coming in with me?” Katelyn asked, confused enough that she didn’t correct her mom about her name again.
“I’ve already signed all the waivers, they won’t need me. Go on, I’ll see you when you’re done, sweetie,” Katelyn’s mom grinned at her eagerly.
Again, there was something in her eyes that just felt off , but Katelyn shrugged it off as nerves from being in a new place. She turned and followed the nurse through the lobby door that closed behind them, and down a long hallway that had doors spaced evenly along it. They came to a door marked as number six, and the nurse pulled it open. Katelyn stepped to the doorway and frowned. The room beyond the door was pitch black.
“The lights are on motion sensors,” The nurse explained smoothly with another bright smile. “Go on, honey, step inside.” She gave Katelyn’s butt a swift pop, startling the girl enough that she stepped fully into the dark room.
The nurse immediately closed the door behind Katelyn, cutting off the only light source.
“Hey!” The girl cried, turning back towards the door only to meet a smooth wall. Where was the door handle? For that matter, where was the door?!
“What the hell?” She yelled, pounding her fists on what was apparently a one-way door. “Let me out!”
She had to shut her eyes as bright lights suddenly blinded her. “Gah!”
“Welcome, Katie,” a pleasant female robotic voice said. “To Fresh Start Incorporated , where dreams come true. Please stand still for the full body scan.”
“What?” Katelyn asked dumbly, rubbing her watering eyes. A blue laser light suddenly appeared, scanning her from head to toe and back again. She looked around the room, dismayed to find it was no bigger than a closet, barely five feet in any direction and completely empty. She’d never been claustrophobic, but being sealed into a room with no way out made her anxiety skyrocket.
“Oh dear, we do have a lot of work to do,” the female robot voice said, and Katelyn could swear the computer was mocking her. A couple of openings slid apart in the walls with a hiss and two robotic arms came through them, grabbing Katelyn’s wrists and pulling her arms straight out to the side.
“Hey! Let go!” Katelyn pulled with all her might, but there was no wiggling out of the grasp of the mechanical hands. “What’s the big idea?!”
“Please, relax Katie. This is all a part of the transformation process. First, we must strip away the undesirable. Then we can begin remaking you in the image that was chosen for you by your caretakers,” the computer told her, its voice benign and yet detached.
“What does that mean? Hey, what are you doing with those?” Katelyn demanded when more arms appeared, this time bearing scissors.
As the hands held her immobile, the scissors set to work slicing through her clothes. The cold blades slid along her skin, sending goosebumps in their wake. Katelyn found herself holding her breath and freezing in place as the scissors slowly cut away her shirt, jeans, panties and bra. As much as she hated her clothes being destroyed like this, she was terrified of moving too abruptly and causing the computer to accidentally slice into her tender skin. Another set of hands appeared and forcibly removed her shoes and socks.
When they were finished, she was standing stark naked in the little closet-like room, trembling from cold and fright. The shredded remains of her clothes lay in a pile at her feet. Another blue laser light appeared and rescanned her naked body, making her cheeks go hot in embarrassment.
“Much better, but there’s still work to be done. Let’s proceed,” the computer said, while another hatch opened in the wall, this one much lower to the ground. A long skinny metal arm appeared and pulled the ruined clothing into the opening it had come from, working around Katelyn’s feet.
Next, a tube with a wide opening lowered from the ceiling right in front of her face. It only gave her a moment to frown at it before white colored smoke poured out heavily. She inhaled sharply in surprise, and immediately felt her head swim and her limbs go heavy.
She coughed on the smoke, sagging in the machine’s hold when her knees turned to jelly. Why was she so tired all of a sudden? She could barely keep her head up, and her anger and indignation had drained away, leaving just a deep exhaustion. She felt like she hadn’t slept in days.
“That’s it, Katie. Take deep breaths and relax. Your fresh start is just around the corner. Now please, mind your head on the way down.”
“Dow?” Katelyn mumbled drowsily. Suddenly, the floor tipped beneath her feet, and at the same time, the hands released her arms.
Her deadweight body dropped down the now seventy-five degree angled floor, through a trapdoor, and slid along a stainless steel slide. The slide led her down into what looked like a factory assembly line, but she was too dizzy and tired to take it all in as it whizzed past.
The slide abruptly ended when she suddenly dropped into a tin tub filled with warm water. She sat up and gasped, then coughed on the water that had splashed up her nose and into her mouth. Blinking droplets out of her eyes, she looked around dazedly. More mechanical hands appeared, now armed with stiff bristle brushes and sponges. Soap was squirted into the tub and onto her hair, then the hands descended on her like a swarm angry of bees.
The hands scrubbed every inch of Katelyn’s skin, completely ignoring her screams for help and feeble attempts to fight them off. Whatever they’d gassed her with had sapped all the strength from her limbs. The hands had no trouble flipping her one way or another in the tub to reach every nook and cranny of her body, at one point even lifting and spreading her legs to scrub her bottom. All the while, two hands were busy harshly massaging the suds in her hair, rubbing her scalp with as much subtlety as a sledge hammer.
It seemed like the bath would go on forever, but finally the hands retreated and buckets of warm water were dumped on her from a couple of overhead pipes. Katelyn coughed and spluttered, feeling like a drowned rat from the impromptu waterboarding.
Several robot hands grabbed her mid cough to lift her from the tub and deposit her onto a conveyor belt she hadn’t seen before. Once laying on it, a metal strap pinned her chest and arms down, and she struggled weakly as she was carried along. She was moved down the line to a machine where several arms were waiting, each hand holding a large fluffy towel.
The machine began vigorously wiping her down, grabbing her squirming limbs with ease as it rubbed the terry cloth into skin that was still stinging and pink from the bath. The robotic arms were intent on drying her off, but didn’t seem too bothered if they took off a layer of skin in the process.
When the machine deemed Katelyn dry, the belt carried her to the next machine. This one shone a light in her eyes, then nose, then ears, before forcing her jaw open to look down her throat, gagging her with a long metal tongue depressor. Satisfied with whatever it found, it retracted the tongue depressor and she coughed again uncomfortably, throat muscles spasming for a moment.
Katelyn thought that would be it, but then the machine pressed her thighs up and against her stomach, folding her nearly in half. She peered between her knees to see what was happening, struggling to breathe as her legs were pressed into her diaphragm. She felt a cold sweat break out across her forehead as a hand approached her bottom, its two fingers together as it pushed against her crack. The fingers slowly opened, spreading her cheeks apart.
Oblivious to her curses and screams, the machine pushed a long metal thermometer into her and held it in place inside her rectum as she wiggled helplessly, tears springing to her eyes at the foreign intrusion. The machine had two lightbulbs built into its front panel, one red and one green. An eternity later, when it finished checking her, it’s green light lit up and she was finally released. The thermometer slid out from her, and the machine gave her bare bottom a soft pat that could have been interpreted as kind or encouraging. It released her legs, and she quickly crossed them protectively, her bottom feeling strange and loose and wrong.
She tried to stop crying as she was carried along to another machine. This one had a dome shaped helmet that it squashed over her head, pulling her wet hair up into its depths with a soft hiss of suction. She felt her head grow pleasantly warm as the machine rapidly dried her hair, and her eyelids drooped. Gradually, she let the tension in her legs go, laying limply on the conveyor belt as her hair was dried. Part of her wanted to be kicking and screaming, fighting with everything she had to get out of this nightmare. But the gas they gave her made her sleepy and her limbs were getting too tired to struggle much.
Finally, the machine released her now dry hair, the blonde and blue strands haloing around her head. A couple of hands appeared bearing a comb and scissors, and she whimpered in dismay as the machine mercilessly chopped off all the carefully dyed sections of her hair, leaving her with just her natural blonde. The hands then combed her shortened hair into the kind of style she’d only worn in kindergarten - two tiny ponytails on either side of her head, tied off with bright pink ribbon bows.
Another green light went off, and she was moved along to the next machine. This one grabbed her jaw and forced her mouth open as wide as it would go. Instead of a tongue depressor, the machine slid a set of empty plastic trays attached to a hose into her mouth, fitting them around her teeth and completely encasing them.
She prodded the plastic barrier with her tongue, confused. She heard a gurgling noise, and felt a cool numbing gel flood all the empty space around her teeth inside the trays. The machine had a clock set into its front, and she watched it set a timer for fifteen minutes. As the timer went down, there was a strange hissing and popping noise coming from her mouth; it reminded her of when she’d watched her friends melt a plastic bottle in a bonfire. She felt the gel settle into her gums, numbing her right down to the jaw bone. Finally, the machine slipped the trays out of her mouth, much more easily than they had been inserted. She ran her tongue along her teeth… or tried to, but…
Her teeth-
Her teeth were gone .
Whatever was in that gel, it had dissolved her teeth right down to the root, sealing the open wounds of her gums back together and numbing her jaw so thoroughly that she hadn’t even noticed. She hadn’t even tasted blood!
She screamed, thrashing in the restraints as tears poured down her cheeks. “How coul’ you?! How coul’ you oo ‘is oo me!” She yelled, hoping her mother could hear her slurred speech all the way back in the lobby.
Her parents had gone crazy! That was the only explanation for all of this. The computer had told her she’d be ‘remade’ into the image chosen for her by her ‘caretakers’. Her parents had apparently spent a considerable amount of time pouring over those contracts Katelyn hadn’t given a second glance, carefully picking and choosing various tortures they were willing to pay good money to be done to her. The destruction of her clothes, the manhandling, the bath from hell - it had all been horrible and violating, but this? Removing her teeth ? No, no that was too much. When she got out of here, she was going to child protective services and the police. She’d show them what her parents - no, what those monsters - did to her, and she’d make them pay.
As she cried and screamed, one of the robot arms approached her holding an adult sized pink pacifier that had ribbons dangling from either side. The hand shoved the pacifier into her open mouth, abruptly cutting off her scream, while another set of hands tied the ribbons behind her head, gagging her. She struggled for several moments to spit the pacifier out, but the ribbons were tied tightly, and the plastic teat was large and cumbersome in her mouth, making it impossible to remove without the use of her hands. She finally let her head collapse in exhausted defeat against the conveyor belt, tears streaming steadily down her cheeks and snot dripping from her nose. Saliva pooled in her mouth, and she had to suck on the pacifier to swallow it, or she knew she would drool all down her chin.
She let the conveyor belt carry her to the next torture station, the fight almost completely gone from her. She suckled on the pacifier in a desperate search for comfort, gnawing her now bare gums into the plastic teat. The feeling was both horrible and foreign, and yet familiar and soothing.
Suddenly, the conveyor belt came to an end, the restraints snapped open, and more hands lifted her up under her armpits. The arms deposited her onto a large changing table that was waiting just for her. Once settled on her back on the changing table, the machine grabbed both her ankles, lifting and spreading her legs. Katelyn tried to grab the hands to break their hold, but more robot arms appeared to restrain her. She found her arms folded snuggly and comfortably across her stomach, pinned in place by a single hand while another patted her head in what the machine seemed to think was a comforting gesture.
She looked on in dismay and embarrassment as a couple more hands squirted cool lotion onto her behind, and began massaging it into every nook and cranny of her nethers. Once satisfied that she was sufficiently protected from a rash, the machine lifted her hips off the table by her ankles and slid a thick, pillowy diaper beneath her bottom, lowering her back down and taping her up securely. She wiggled uncomfortably in the soft girth of the diaper, the crinkling plastic so thick between her thighs that she knew she wouldn’t be able to walk without waddling.
The hands reappeared with a pair of lacy, lavender diaper bloomers, sliding them over her legs and up around the diaper. The rubber panties were extremely gaudy - covered in more lace and ruffles than she could count. In the thick diaper, and combined with the bloomers, she felt certain that now she would only be able to crawl due to the several inches of material swaddling her hips. The machine produced a pair of white and lace trimmed thigh high socks, pulling them onto her legs and snapping the elastic around her legs. The firm elastic squished her skin, making her upper thighs look chubby and babyish, especially when combined with the thick ruffle of lace that lined the edge of her bloomers. She’d once worn socks like these for a halloween costume, but with the rubber panties, and the pair of mary jane shoes her feet were being shoved into, she felt anything but sexy. Finally the machine allowed her to sit up, but gave her no room for escape. Her wrists were once more held tight, now pulled over her head, as more baby lotion was rubbed into her chest, back, neck and arms. Soon, she smelled like roses and infant products, a far cry from her normal perfume.
With her hands still held up, a lavender dress that matched her bloomers was slid over her arms and head. The dress had puffed sleeves, a peter pan collar, a baby doll waistline, and so much lace and ruffles it made Katelyn nauseous. The dress buttoned up the back, and as the hands smoothed the material down, she could see that the hemline barely came to her hips, ensuring the bloomers and edge of the diaper were on full display.
The robots lowered her wrists to eye level so she could watch her hands disappear inside of thick white mittens. The mittens were tied off around her wrists with pink ribbon in a complicated looking bow. She tried flexing her fingers. The material barely moved, and she realized with growing horror that as long as she had these on, she would barely be able to pick up a glass of water, let alone hold a cell phone or open a door. Lastly, the machine presented her with an old fashioned lavender sun bonnet, slipping it over her head and tying the chin strap in another elaborate bow.
Just when she thought the day couldn’t get any worse, a full-length mirror slid in front of her, revealing a blonde baby swaddled in an adorable lace outfit. The baby had red-rimmed eyes, snot and drool dripping down its face, clearly having just finished with a tantrum. She tried to swallow the drool that was pooling in her mouth, but only succeeded in completing the picture of a precious baby when her mouth made an audible sucking noise on the pacifier. Distraught, tears began rolling down her cheeks in earnest, and she buried her face in the thick mittens as she sobbed.
“There, there, Baby Katie. Your transformation is nearly complete,” the female robotic voice from before said in a cooing voice, startling her. “Only a few final touches, and you’ll have your fresh start. Isn’t it exciting?”
‘Katie’ only sobbed harder as the hands lifted her from the changing table and brought her to an old fashioned baby carriage. The machine squished her into the only slightly oversized pram. The carriage was too short, forcing her to stick her bent knees into the air in order to fit, further humiliating her as her diaper and bloomer were exposed. She tried to sit up, only for a safety strap to be snapped over her torso and arms, pinning her into the carriage. The hood of the pram was pulled up, hiding her face and blocking her view, but leaving her rear end and scrunched up legs on full display.
Katie panted around her pacifier, sucking on it furiously as she was pushed towards an unknown destination.
Anna paced the receiving area - the ‘nursery’ - impatiently, while waiting for news.
She and her husband had been at their wits end for more than a year, watching as their daughter grew more and more into a spoiled brat. They’d tried everything. Stricter rules, therapy sessions, groundings, and many long nights of trying to get Katie to open up and talk with them.
Nothing. Ever. Helped.
If anything, their precious little girl had just pulled away from them harder, insisting that she was ‘all grown up now’ and didn’t need them to baby her. Then, Katie had started stealing. First, it was Anna’s nice high heels - broken after a late night spent at a teen house party - then, cash missing from her purse, then it was brand new pieces of jewelry Anna had found while doing her daughter’s laundry. The tags were still attached from the store she’d shoplifted from. The hair dying incident was the last straw.
Anna and her husband had already been considering boarding school, possibly even military school, when they’d found out about Fresh Start Inc. It was exactly what they needed! A clean slate for all of them.
They could start over with their precious baby girl, avoid the mistakes they’d made the first time, and raise Katie right. Although… She and Philip had discussed maybe keeping a baby forever. They hadn’t made any hard decisions on that yet. They didn’t want to make too many big choices all at once. They would give it a year, maybe two, see how it went. If they did decide to keep their baby ‘little’ forever, well, FSI offered an add-on package that was very reasonably priced.
The door opened and Anna looked up, smiling widely as she watched a nurse push an old fashioned pram into the nursery. They’d asked for this part, specifically. She and Philip had always thought the way babies were dressed and cared for in the 1950s to be adorable. There was a small upcharge for custom made baby clothes and a carriage. They were modeled after ones they’d found in old family photos. She and Philip had been back and forth on the price several times, but seeing it in person now made it so, so worth it.
“Mrs. Smith? Congratulations, it’s a girl!” The nurse said with a cheeky grin.
“Oh! Let me see her?” Anna hurried to the front of the stroller as the nurse pushed back the hood, nervous butterflies filling her stomach. As soon as she laid eyes on her baby, she melted. “Aww,” she breathed, reaching out to smooth down the floofy skirt with gentle fingers. “Hello, little one,” she cooed.
‘Baby’ Katie stared up at her mom, her eyes red and face pink and wet. She mumbled something behind her pacifier, but the oversized nipple turned her words into incomprehensible babbling. “Oh, yes, sweetie, mommy’s right here,” Anna said sweetly, wiping a stray tear away with her thumb, oblivious as Katie jerked her head away from the touch.
“She just has a few more steps to complete her transformation,” the nurse explained, gently pulling Anna away from cooing over her ‘infant’ daughter and back to the business at hand. “You said you wanted to be present for the last steps, right?”
“Absolutely!” Anna nodded eagerly, and trailed after the nurse as the woman pushed the baby carriage over to an oversized changing table.
The nurse expertly released Katie from her stroller, placing the babe tummy down on the changing table and strapping the wiggling girl in place. She turned to a small cabinet, opening it to reveal a hidden mini-fridge. It was full of syringes, vials of drugs, and pre-made bottles of baby formula. She pulled three syringes and vials from the fridge, carefully checking each label as she set them on the table. The nurse reached up and pulled down the baby’s bloomers and diaper to expose her bare bottom, making the girl struggle even harder.
“Ah ah,” the nurse chided, giving Katie a sharp smack. The baby froze, clearly startled by the spank.
“Remember to be firm with her when you bring her home. Spankings should be administered regularly when she misbehaves to help curb naughty behavior,” the nurse explained to Anna as she filled each shot with the different medicines.
“Castor oil is also a good punishment, and has the added benefit of encouraging bowel movements. Her formula will help, but the castor oil is a nice natural addition to her routine - pureed prunes help too. If you have to, we can write her a prescription for enemas or suppositories, but we don’t want to throw off the balance of her gut bacteria too much.”
Anna nodded, completely ignoring the whimpering and tears coming from the table. “We’re committed to natural methods as much as possible. She’s getting only homemade baby food, not that store bought junk. Oh! We read in the documents you gave us that you recommend a bottle and diaper change every two hours for the first three months, even when she’s not hungry or needs a change sooner. Why is that?”
“Establishes a routine, for one,” the nurse said, swiping clean spots on Katie’s bottom with rubbing alcohol. “For another, it creates a dependency on you and your husband that she hasn’t felt since her first childhood. Most importantly, the feeding routine will help her regress much more quickly. Our ‘Second Babyhood’ formula is specially designed with a careful mixture of laxatives, diuretics, weight-gain fillers, and what we call ‘regression’ supplements.”
The nurse grinned excitedly, “By the end of three months, we guarantee that not only will your precious one look and act like a baby, but she will only be capable of baby talk.‘Dada’, ‘mama’, ‘baba’, all those precious first words will soon become her only ones! Combine that with the ‘no more biting’ package you selected, and Baby Katie will never speak like a grown up again. That is until, and unless, you allow her to begin aging again, and bring her in for our ‘tooth fairy’ program,” she added with a shrug, and Anna nodded thoughtfully.
“Katie had the most adorable lisp until her teeth all came in,” Anna said wistfully with a smile. “I can’t wait to hear it again!”
“Alright, we’re all ready,” the nurse said, pinching Katie’s rose smelling tush between her fingers and jabbing the first shot into her skin.
The baby jumped and cried out, immediately kicking her feet against the table in protest. Anna laughed and effortlessly held her daughter’s legs down. The action of the useless kicks just made Katie look more like the toddler she was dressed as, one who was overtired and having a tantrum.
“That first shot will act as a long lasting muscle relaxant. She shouldn’t try crawling at all until she’s four months old, but this will ensure that her widdle legs are too weak to walk. After all, babies can’t walk, can they, little one?” The nurse asked in a sickly sweet voice.
She readied the next shot, this one she jabbed lower down on Katie’s behind, right into her sit spot. The baby started to cry in earnest, and Anna absently patted the legs she was still restraining. “That acts as a numbing agent delivered directly into the sphincter muscle. She won’t know when she has to go potty anymore, and after a few accidents - helped along by her formula, of course - her body will soon go whenever it needs to. No more constipated babies!”
“What will they think of next?” Anna murmured, awed.
“Last shot, the happy juice, is my favorite,” the nurse explained with a giggle. “Just a little something to tire them out and be more receptive to affection. It’s very effective in solidifying the bond during the first feeding.” She picked up the last syringe, this one twice as big as the others, and jabbed it into the opposite cheek that she’d put the first shot in. Once the syringe was empty, the nurse disposed of the needles and pulled up the baby’s diaper and rubber panties.
“Go ahead and get comfortable in the rocker, Mrs. Smith, I’ll bring the baby to you.”
Anna eagerly sat down in the wide rocking chair, feeling like a kid in a candy store as she waited. The nurse unstrapped Baby Katie from the changing table, hoisting the now much more docile infant onto her hip. She removed a bottle of formula from the fridge, being careful to select the bottle with the yellow cap. Blue cap bottles were for ‘sleepy time’, green caps were for sick babies, red were for diaper training, and yellow were for first time feedings with ‘second babyhoods’. She brought Katie to her mother, laying the girl across her mother’s lap as the woman cooed. It took a few more moments of adjusting until both mommy and baby were comfortable, the infant lying snuggled into the crook of her mother’s arm.
Anna reached up and gently pulled the pacifier out by the ring from the baby’s mouth. Her eyes were practically starry as she gazed at the girl’s glistening pink gums, completely devoid of teeth. The baby’s eyes were unfocused and glazed, drool slipping down her jaw unnoticed as her mother fawned over her.
“She won’t always be like this,” The nurse said softly. “This is from the shot. She’ll be quite cranky most of the time, except for right after feeding time. Cherish that time with her, and know that gradually, as she regresses, it will happen more and more often. Eventually, she’ll always be your perfect little angel.”
“Worth it,” Anna whispered gleefully, taking the bottle. She slipped the nipple into Katie’s mouth and watched as her daughter slowly latched onto the plastic teat with bare gums. She struggled for a moment, still obviously adjusting to her missing teeth, before finally finding a comfortable way to suckle from the bottle.
Anna slowly rocked the chair, staring down at her perfect baby with awe. She thought of the redecorators at their house being supervised by Philip. By the time they got home, Katie’s new nursery would be ready. No more boy band posters and dark blue walls for her little girl. No siree, from now on it would be pastels, My Little Pony and Disney Princesses. They’d already donated or thrown out all of Katie’s old wardrobe and replaced it with soft footed pajamas, onesies, and as many lacy dresses as the closet could hold. She couldn’t wait to take their baby out on Sunday strolls in her best dresses and ruffled bloomers, showing her off to all their friends. It wouldn’t always be easy, of course, babies could be quite cranky. But she and Philip were determined to do things right this time.
About halfway through the bottle, Katie’s glazed over eyes met hers, and a flash of anger and hurt managed to break through the haze of drugs. Anna gave Katie’s bare leg a swift and merciless spank, thrilled when it had the desired effect and the girl was instantly cowed.
The nurse nodded in approval, smiling at the pair. Another satisfied customer for Fresh Start Incorporated.