The Product Tester - Chapter 4

Due to a communication mixup, I don't have a saved copy of HofBondage's illustration for this chapter. I'll be posting the art as soon as I have it. 

Mary slept like a baby. 

Which is to say, she fussed a lot, woke up half a dozen times, and kept Ethan awake for half the night. She blamed it on the pull-up; on not being able to get comfortable. In truth, she was just anxious about what came next. 

Sometime around five or six in the morning, she finally managed to fall asleep, which only made it seem cruel and terrible when her fiance shook her awake. “Hey, sweetie.” 

“Ugh,” she mumbled, rolling over and pushing her face into her pillow. “I want to sleep for another year.” 

“Well, you can do that, but first we’ve got to get the test started. I leave for work in an hour and I thought you’d want to get in a shower before…” 

“Yeah.” Mary rubbed at her eyes, reaching to the nightstand for her glasses. As the covers moved, she got a whiff of something foul and wrinkled her nose. “What’s that… smell… oh.” 

At some point after falling asleep, she’d made a mess in her pullup. 

Sensing the oncoming anxiety, Ethan moved in with a preemptive hug, pulling her close to him. “Hey, don’t worry. It’s fine.” 

“Yeah, I know,” she said, relaxing into his arms. “It’s just… ugh. Gross.” 

“It won’t be so bad in actual diapers. The cover isn’t smell-proof, exactly, but it muffles stuff pretty well,” Ethan pointed out. After a hesitant moment, he added, “That’s what the lab techs told me, anyways.” 

Mary shrugged, slipping out of the embrace. “I’m going to get washed up.” 

“Sure thing. I’ll get the mat set up.” Ethan kissed her cheek, and they rolled out of bed. 

She tried not to think about what was squelching between her legs like a small, personal mud bath when she waddled to the bathroom. It was like trying not to think about her breathing. Given more time, she could have distracted herself with something, but it was only about a ten foot walk out the bedroom door and into the bathroom. 

Starting up the shower, she had to decide what to do with her mucky pullup. She didn’t want to just peel it off and leave it sitting on the counter or stewing in the trash. When she’d tried that with the first diaper she’d tried on as an experiment, it had made the bathroom reek for a full day. 

After a few moments of indecision, she stuck her head back through the bedroom door. “Hey, babe, got a question.” 

Ethan jumped, having not heard her come in. “Huh?” 

“What are you going to do with the old diapers?” 

Ethan blinked in surprise, then pointed to a mid-sized trash can with a sealed lid. “Diaper pail.” 

“Right.” Mary glanced at the pail, then picked it up and carried it with her back into the bathroom. 

Turning off the water, she stepped into the shower to prevent any drips, stripped out of the stinky pullup, and dropped it into the pail. “Gross. Gross.” 

She turned the shower back on, and got a spurt of icy water for her troubles, spraying her back and eliciting a high-pitched, “Meep!” 

It warmed a second later, and she got to cleaning, using the handheld sprayer to clean up around her legs and thighs. The water going down the drain went from brown, to a light tan, to clear, and then she started with her normal shower rituals. Shampoo, soap, conditioner, shaving, and then a long rinse in the hot water.

Once she was satisfactorily clean and couldn’t justify running any more hot water, she turned off the tap and got towelled off. Wrapping her hair in the towel, she put her glasses on, brushed her teeth, took her birth control, applied a layer of facial cleanser, and finally ran out of things she could think of to delay the inevitable. 

Bracing herself, she returned to the bedroom. 

“Hey there,” Ethan said, looking up from the bed as she came in. “I was just about to come get you.” 

“I guess I’m ready,” Mary shrugged. “You’re all set up?” 

Ethan nodded. “I am. Sure you don’t want to back out? Now’s better than later.” 

“I’m sure.” 

“Then lie down, and we’ll get started.” 

He pointed to a mat on the floor. She eyed it warily, sizing up her opponent. 

The changing mat was flat and rigid, with long cuffs on one end and what appeared to be a padded tube mounted on the other. She hadn’t been allowed to see it before, but she knew the general design: Her arms would get locked into the tube, and her feet would get cuffed, so that she couldn’t struggle or escape mid-change. Besides that, it just looked like a plain, baby-blue mat with a water resistant lining. Simple, but fool-proof. 

Lying down, Mary took the towel off her hair, put her head near the end with the arm restraints, and waited for Ethan to come do his dirty work. 

“Give me your foot,” he instructed, kneeling down by her legs. 

She initially considered resisting, just to see what would happen, but there wasn’t much point. The challenge was to get out of the diaper cover, not to keep him from putting it on. Raising her leg, she complied, and one metal-reinforced cuff was strapped and locked securely around her ankle. 

Ethan repeated the process with her other leg, then moved over to the other end, opening the tube-shaped restraint and gently guiding both her arms to lay down. 

Once they were both in place, he shut the tube, locked it, and stood back. 

A thought struck Mary. It was possible that she could slip free of the restraints, but if she tried now, and he saw, he’d just have them replaced for something tighter. She’d have to wait until he was distracted during her next change, then try and get free. 

For now, she’d wait. 

“Is everything comfortable?” Ethan asked, checking the restraints. “Not cutting off your blood flow or anything?” 

She wiggled her fingers and toes. “No, I don’t think so.” 

“Good.” Leaning to the side, her fiance reached under the bed and pulled out a briefcase, snapping the latches and opening it in such a way that Mary couldn’t see inside. 

First came the standard supplies. A packet of store-brand baby wipes, a tube of powder, and a LAB-D adult diaper identical to the one she’d worn before. 

“Lift up your hips?” Ethan asked. 

“What if I don’t?” It wasn’t a serious denial, but she was curious nonetheless. 

His answer seemed a little obvious in hindsight. “Then we both wait here until you do.” 

She lifted her hips, and he slid the diaper in place, slipping the comical bulk beneath her waist. 

“Looks like you’re starting to rash,” he commented, squirting a dollop of some cream in his hands and rubbing it around her thighs. “We developed this stuff, it’s the best on the market. Enough of our rash cream, and you’d have to wear the same diaper for two or three days before you had to worry about it.” 

“But that’s not going to happen,” Mary said, flatly. “Right?” 

“Right. You get three changes a day, unless you decide you don’t want them.” Ethan reached for the tube of baby powder, applying a thin layer over her skin, filling the room with the sweet scent of light perfume. 

“Now, don’t squirm,” Ethan warned. “If you make me mess up the tapes, I’ll just have to start over until I get it right, and any leaks that happen will be your fault.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Mary moved her knees further apart, letting her fiance wrap the diaper up between her legs, hold it down, and stick the tapes down one at a time. 

Running a finger through the leg guards and around the waistband, Ethan admired his own handiwork. “Snug, but not too tight?” 

“I think so,” Mary agreed. “Is that it?” 

He rolled his eyes. “That’s it for the diaper. Now, hold still.” 

Reaching into the briefcase, he came out with a pale blue, mostly-translucent piece of plasticy material. It crinkled like tinfoil, obnoxiously loud as he slid the cover under the diaper, folded it over, and held it in place over her diaper with a hand. Going back to the briefcase, he produced two metal pins, sliding them in through holes in the cover, and then pulled everything snug and snapped it into place. 

Mary wasn’t sure what to make of it. The material seemed strong, but it wasn’t exactly thick, and though it was noisy and crinkled with every shift of her hips, it was still flexible. A drill, or even a sharp pair of industrial shears, she could cut straight through without trouble. 

They couldn’t have overlooked something that obvious, right? 

A pair of secure plastic bands were snapped in place around the leg cuffs, tight enough to prevent any leaks, and to keep her from getting anything thicker than a credit card between her skin and the band. 

With all that done, he produced the pièce de résistance. A belt-shaped object, with an extra strap that would run between her legs. Mary made note of the bulky battery pack and cable ports on the front, wondering if that would be an exploitable point of entrance. 

Reaching down, Ethan slipped the belt beneath the diaper, pulled it around, and clicked it in place like a safety belt in a car seat. 

“Okay then,” Mary said, craning her neck to see the details of the cover as Ethan checked that the belt was secure, and wouldn’t slip or move. “That’s it, right?” 

Ethan eyed her, trying to gauge if she was serious. “You did read the paperwork, right?” 

“Of course I did,” after that incident with the enema, Mary said, trying to remember what he was referring too. “This would be the part where I find out what the additional accessory is, right?” 

“Right.” Ethan hesitated, reaching back into his briefcase. “You… like wearing turtlenecks, right?” 

Mary blinked. “Why?” 

He produced a smaller belt, with similar cable ports and a locking clip. It was far too small to go around her waist, but too big to go around her ankles or wrists, which meant-

“A fucking collar?” she blurted. “Are you serious?” 

“No, I’m Ethan.” “It’s pretty important to the security of the cover.” 

“How?” Mary demanded. “Last I checked, the cover isn’t anywhere near my neck.” 

“That’s confidential, though I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon enough,” Ethan said. “Now, hold still, I don’t want to pinch anything.” 

Mary fumed, but if she wasn’t going to back out over a diaper, she wouldn’t back out over a collar either. She lifted her shoulders and neck away from the mat, letting Ethan clip the tight collar around her neck. It had plenty of flex to it, and she didn’t have any trouble breathing. A little click signalled that it had been locked in place, and Ethan tried the clasp a couple times to check before he was confident that it wouldn’t come loose. 

All that said and done, he took a steel-jacketed cable from the briefcase. He plugged one end into the collar, the other into the belt, and then twisted both ends to ensure they were locked in place as well. 

“All set,” he said, reaching for the briefcase one last time. “I just need to test everything.” 

“Test?” 

“Make sure the signal is good, there’s no voltage issues, that sort of stuff,” Ethan said, producing a small device with a wire from the case. He stuck it into the cover, checking the readout. 

Mary didn’t recognize the plug; it was almost certainly proprietary. If she could get a hold of, or replicate the hardware, she could learn a lot about what made the cover tick. Heck, it might even let her access some sort of digital override. Good to know. 

Satisfied, Ethan unplugged the tester, put it away in the briefcase, and said, “You’re all set.” 

“Great,” Mary said, wiggling her fingers. “A little help, then?” 

Ethan complied, unbuckling the wrist restraints, followed by the leg cuffs. Mary pulled her legs up into a sitting position, her diaper cover rustling in response to the motion. 

“Breakfast?” Ethan suggested. “I’ll make toast.” 

“You’ll burn toast,” Mary rolled her eyes. “I’ll cook something. You need to get ready for work.” 

“Sure, sweetie.” Her fiance gave her a kiss on the forehead, then began to undress, stripping out of his pajamas. 

Mary did the opposite, pulling on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. Her bulging padding was still visible through the sweatpants, but it wasn’t as immediately obvious, and it muffled the crinkle as she waddled out the door. 

“First thing on the to-do list,” she muttered, looking down. “Learn to walk normally.” 

It was distracting, but she got used to it as she bustled around the kitchen, toasting bread, boiled water for coffee, and cracked a few eggs into a pan. 

Ethan came out of the bedroom while she was working at the stove. “That’s a pretty tune.” 

“Huh?” Mary asked, glancing back at him. 

“You were humming,” Ethan said. “What song was that?” 

Mary had to think about it for a moment. She hadn’t realized she’d been humming, but thinking back she remembered the tune. “I think it’s the theme song from that one detective show? With the fake psychic.” 

Ethan chuckled, walking over to lean against the kitchen table. “Well, it’s pretty when you’re humming it.” 

She glanced over at him, blinked, then asked, “Are you staring at my ass?” 

“I…” Ethan started to say, blushing. “Guilty. You’ve got a nice ass.” 

“Agreed, though I don’t think you can see it through all this crap,” Mary said, putting a hand to the back of her diaper. “Is there any point in it being this thick? I look like a toddler taking her first steps.” 

“You only get changes at set intervals,” Ethan pointed out. “If they were any thinner, leaks would become a consistent problem, at least if you drink enough water to be healthy.”

Mary took the water off the stove, pouring it into the ten dollar french press she’d gotten from a thrift shop. “That’s at one and nine, right?” 

“Right,” Ethan confirmed. “I’ve got an extra long lunch all month so I have time to swing by and get you changed every day.”

“Well, tell them you won’t need the bonus time for long,” Mary winked. “Because I’d bet I’ll be out of these things by tonight.”

“Yeah?” Ethan asked. “What’s the error bars on that estimate?” 

Mary shook her head, checking on the eggs. “About thirty days.” 

Her fiance laughed. “Well then, I’m sure your estimate is going to come true, one way or another.”