Done Adulting Vol. 1 Ch. 128

“What time is she getting here,” Jamie nervously asked.

“Not for another two hours. I told you already. Would you just relax,” Becky pleaded. Jamie had been barely able to sit still since lunchtime yesterday. Even Ella couldn’t seem to calm him down. Cheryl’s impending visit had Jamie’s anxiety reaching a peak, which for him was saying a lot.

“Sorry. I just …”

“Seriously, Jamie,” Becky said, reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder, “Stop pacing. Let’s get you fed and ready.” Jamie closed his eyes and exhaled, and Becky picked him up onto her lap, opening her robe to offer her breast to Jamie. He latched on and began feeding.

“Ouch! Jamie! Be gentle,” Becky admonished him. He exhaled again and tried to suckle more slowly. The milk began to have its calming effect on him. This was one of the reasons Becky was so keen on nursing. When Jamie’s emotions were running high, her milk always slowed his mind down, bringing him back to equilibrium. “There’s my good boy,” Becky said as he settled into his soft rhythm and she stroked his hair. “Everything is going to be fine.” After five minutes, Becky switched sides. His mouth muscles were stronger; when they’d started, his cheeks would get tired by this point.

Knowing he was going to get a bath when he was done with his breakfast, Jamie decided to fill his diaper, not that he had much choice in the urgent matter. “O my gosh,” Becky squeaked as she felt the diaper she was patting suddenly triple in size, “Who’s a poopy bear this morning? Who’s my little stinky bear who must feel so much better?” Jamie continued to drink, feeling sleepy, and Becky began to relax as well, the familiar, comfortable tug of his lips and the softness of his cheek against her making her drowsy. When he finished, Becky closed her robe and wiped Jamie’s lips for him. One glance at his pupils told her he would be blissed out for at least a half hour. She lifted him so he was laying against her chest and reclined back against the arm of the couch.

“All better now?” Jamie mewled in response “That’s my Baby Bear.” She tugged the blanket from the back of the couch over him and ran her fingernails up and down his naked back underneath it. “We’ll get you cleaned up when you’re a little more alert,” she laughed.

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After Becky had fallen asleep along with Jamie, he had managed to nuzzle around until he found her nipple again and was slowly nursing in his sleep. That’s how Cheryl spotted him through the front window, asleep on Becky, though she couldn’t tell what he was doing. She couldn’t reach the doorbell and couldn’t knock hard enough to wake them up, so Cheryl reached up high to grasp the doorknob; finding it unlocked, she let herself in.

“Hello,” she said cautiously. She approached the couch. “Hello,” she said smiling. Jamie came to first, seeing her standing there out of the corner of his right eye, and froze. She smiled back at him, turned her head sideways, and started to chuckle.

“Are you breastfeeding?” Jamie realized he was and took his mouth off of Becky, who was still soundly asleep. “Why are you doing that? Rebecca?” Becky began to stir while Jamie laid on her, entirely unsure what to say or do.

“I, uh, hello.”

“Yeah, hi,” Cheryl replied, feeling uncomfortable at the sight of Becky’s bare breast and not understanding why Jamie was sucking on her. Finally Becky’s eyes opened and she covered herself again.

“You must be Cheryl,” Becky said as she sat up.

“I … “ Cheryl stopped when the blanket fell off the two of them, leaving Jamie nude except for his very dirty, visibly stained diaper. “What the fuck? Eric, why are you wearing a diaper? Did you shit in your pants?” She couldn’t fathom the scene in front of her.

Becky responded by sitting the stunned and silent Jamie on her knee, bouncing him up and down and singing in the voice she saved for when Jamie was feeling his littlest, “Yes, he did! Yes, my poopy bear did!”

Jamie looked over his shoulders at Becky’s kind smile and back to Cheryl’s open mouth. He saw her face darken.

“What the fuck did you do? I gave him to you to fix! And Eric,” she rounded on him in wrath, “I sent you here unregressed. What happened to not forgetting? Huh? Is this what you’ve been doing, pretending to be a baby and just breaking all your promises!?!”

“I … “ Eric managed to say, “I just …” Except he had nothing to say, and so he responded like an infant in need of a major diaper change, with big tears he hid in the soft warmth of his mommy, who was scowling at this rude person who’d hurt his feelings and accused her of mistreating him.

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Jamie woke up so suddenly and violently that he was on his feet in his crib trying to catch his breath before he remembered where he was. He looked around his curtain-darkened nursery. There was no Becky, no Cheryl, just his normal furnishings and a few toys scattered on the carpet. A ray of light peaked from behind the curtain. Jamie took in a deep breath and another, faster and faster until he couldn’t keep up and began to sob, the trauma of his dream feeling so intense and real he felt frightened and humiliated and heartbroken all the way to his middle. He let himself drop back on the mattress, crying freely and loudly until he grabbed his bear and buried his face in it.

He didn’t see or hear Amanda open the door and trot to the rail of the crib, reaching down and plucking him out. “Shhhh,” Amanda cooed as she patted Jamie’s butt and rubbed his back, trying to comfort him. “It was just a dream, baby. You’re okay … shhhh.”

Jamie had to fight against the cramping in his diaphragm to get enough breath in to say, “Cheryl was angry at me” before he sobbed again.

“It was only a dream, Baby Bear.” She rocked Jamie in her arms until he calmed down enough to talk to her and he told her all about the dream.

“It must’ve been very scary,” she said as she laid him on the changing table. “But I promise that won’t happen,” she assured him as she cleaned him up.

“How do you know?”

“Big sisters just know these things sometimes.” Jamie huffed in response, clearly still distressed.

“Tell ya what – Mom ran out for a bit. Why don’t I warm you up a bottle, and we go turn the fire on and just sit together for a while. Does that sound good?”

“Mhmm,” Jamie somberly answered, looking past Amanda into the middle distance. When she got his clean diaper taped up and zipped his sleeper closed again, she picked up him, putting her hand behind his head and pressing it gently down so he was laying completely on her shoulder. His arms hung limp at his sides. Amanda squatted down to get his bear and paci out of the crib and carried him into the living room.