by Maren Smith
She sighed, and her entire body relaxed. Glancing down at her face, I knew she had finally succumbed to sleep. Wanting to spend a few extra moments with her like this, I gently pulled the empty bottle out of her mouth, put it off to the side, and slowly rocked in the chair.
“You’re such a good girl, Hannah. Daddy is so proud of you for how brave you’ve been during this ordeal,” I whispered, brushing a strand of hair off her face.
I could’ve stayed like this forever, but I knew there was a lot else I could be doing. And as my mother always told me, adults had to use the time a baby slept to get their own stuff done.
Slowly, I stood up, making sure to not jostle my precious load in my arms and carried her over to her crib. Placing her down, I tucked the blanket up to her chin. Didn’t want my baby girl to get cold.
After placing a kiss on her forehead, I stared down at her angelic face for one more minute before I went over to my bed, pulled out my tablet, and started my research.
Chapter Five
One week later: Day 7 of Captivity
“Come on, Hannah. You can do it.” Bryice stood a few feet away from me. Focus, Hannah, focus, I thought as I took my first shaky steps on Kaibos.
“You did it,” Bryice exclaimed, lifting me up into the air when I reached his arms.
I couldn’t help the smile crossing my face. I was damn proud of myself! I had been on this new planet for a week and was making some amazing strides in regaining control of my body!
I had semi control of my facial muscles, so I could smile and frown. I was still getting the hang of talking. So far, all I could say was da-da, no, and ya. It did feel a bit odd calling Bryice, da-da, but there was no way I could say his real name. Plus, he was acting like my daddy, and a part of me was starting to view him that way. He sure as heck was giving me the attention and comfort my own parents had denied me.
The only area where I wasn’t having the best of luck was my bladder. I still had to wear a diaper because apparently taking back control of my bodily functions was the most difficult, or at least, that’s what daddy said.
“Do you want to practice walking again?”
“Ya!” I exclaimed. We had been doing exercises for probably the last half hour, and I wasn’t going to stop now that I had finally mastered to do something I’d been wanting to do since day one.
“All righty.” He put me down and walked a few feet away again. Carefully, I took one step and then another. When I was just about to reach him, though, I lost my balance and fell onto my bottom. At the same time, I felt a heated warmth fill my diaper.
Without any thought, I began to cry. This was pointless. Why would any galactic senate believe I had been kidnapped if I couldn’t walk, let alone not pee myself?
“Hey, it’s okay, baby girl. You did such a good job,” Daddy said, bending down so we were at eye level.
Lifting my arms, I let him know I wanted him to be picked up. He could make me feel better. He didn’t hesitate and scooped me up.
“I know this is frustrating, but you really are doing such a good job. I’m so proud of you,” he said, hugging me close. As he held me, he rubbed my back with one of his hands.
The comforting gesture and his words had me calming down. Maybe sometimes I was too hard on myself. I had to keep reminding myself it took the average human two to four weeks to regain all their normal functions on Kaibos. I was only in my first week and already had accomplished so much.
“I think it’s best we stop for today.”
“No!” Not now. Sure, I’d had a minor meltdown and needed to be changed, but I could keep doing this. There was no way I’d get back to normal if I didn’t keep practicing.
“Yes, Hannah. You’ve had enough,” he said sternly, and I knew there would be no point in arguing with him. He was in charge, and I didn’t want a spanking. Kaibosians had no issue doing that if they felt the one they were caring for wasn’t listening or was being a brat. Bryice had proven that to me early on.
“Besides,” he went on, “you need a change and some lunch.”
My stomach chose that exact minute to grumble. Okay, maybe it was time to quit for now.
Daddy smiled at me, and I knew there would be no more discussion on this topic.
He carried me over to my changing table and placed me down. He handed me my purple stuffed cat I had named Miss Violet. He had surprised me with her on my second day here. It was a sweet surprise and brought me a lot of comfort.
It was fun to play with her and pretend like she was my best friend and we were on a quest to find a treasure as my diaper got changed. It sure beat paying attention to what Daddy was doing down by my legs.
Once he finished, he picked both of us up and sat me in my high chair. The first time he had me sit here, I threw such a fit. Coincidently, it was also the time when I said my first word, no. It also happened to be the time when I found out if I misbehaved, I would indeed get punished for it.
Daddy buckled the safety straps around me and took Miss Violet out of my grasp.
“Ugh!” I whined, not wanting my friend to go.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. She’ll be waiting for you in your crib after lunch.”
I didn’t understand why he wouldn’t let me eat with her. He claimed I would get her dirty, but I didn’t believe it. If I could hold her now, I’d make sure to be extra careful. Sadly, I didn’t get a choice.
“How does some spaghetti and meatballs sound?” Daddy asked, opening the fridge and pulling out a container.
“Ya!” I said, happy to have a dish from my home planet again. I wasn’t sure how he did it, but when I had finally been able to eat solid foods, he always had them in the fridge, ready to go. I had no clue how he learned about Earth foods or when he got the time to make them. Then again, as long as I got fed, I didn’t particularly care when or how he got them.
“Would you like me to feed you, or will you feed yourself?” he asked.
This answer was obvious. I banged on the plate in front of me. This might be a messier way of eating, but it was another exercise I could do to work on my fine motor skills.
“You got it, sweetie!”
He spent a couple of moments heating the dish up then put the noodles and meatballs on my tray, along with a butter knife. Seeing my chance at another opportunity to practice my hand motor skills, I grabbed the knife when he went to get a napkin.
When he turned, his mouth gaped open slightly, and he was next to me in a flash, pulling the utensil out of my hands. “Hannah, you can’t use a knife.”
“Ya,” I said, trying to argue I needed the experience and could cut up my own food if I wanted.
“No. You could seriously hurt yourself. If I catch you holding one again, I will turn you over my knee and punish your bottom. Do you understand?”
I grimaced. The spankings I had gotten from him before for breaking the rules were enough to have me agreeing. “Ya, Da-da.”
“Good girl.” He picked up the metal instrument and cut my food. I wasn’t sure if this was necessary, but if he enjoyed doing it, I wasn’t going to complain. Not after everything he was doing for me, which I truly was growing to appreciate.
Grabbing the small pieces, I shoved them into my mouth. They tasted delicious! Apparently, I was hungrier than I thought because my tray was clean in a matter of minutes. Instead of taking the time to go slow and practice my skills, I had pretty much shoved the food in my face, which resulted in sauce all over my mouth.
Daddy chuckled. “You act like I don’t feed you, silly girl. Would you like some more?”
“Ya!”
“Can you say please?” he asked, before he gave me what I wanted.
“Plea…Plea…” was all I was able to get out, causing Daddy’s smile to widen.
“Good girl,” he said, cutting some more food into small pieces. This time, I slowed down and really tried to concentrate on bringing my hand to my mouth and depositing the food inside. It took longer doing it this way, but, by the en
d, I was confident I had improved my skills somewhat.
“All done?”
“Ya,” I said and let out a yawn. All of this work was tiring. Thankfully, I was down to one nap a day. I didn’t want to spend my time here sleeping, even though Daddy said it was vital to me recovering faster. I thought he just liked the peace and quiet.
“Let’s get you cleaned up, then.” Without warning, he wiped my mouth and hands with a wet paper towel.
“Ugh!” I moaned, not liking the feeling of him doing this. Even though it had been a week, I still wasn’t a fan of being cleaned by someone else.
“Hannah, if you didn’t squirm so much when I did this, it wouldn’t be as awful as you make it sound,” Daddy chided as he threw the dirty napkin into the trash and unlatched me from the chair safety buckles.
He picked me up, grabbed a bottle he must have prepared when I was preoccupied with eating, and took a seat on the rocking chair.
Popping the bottle into my mouth, I began to suck on what I assumed was Kaibosians’ version of warm milk. At least, that was what it reminded me of.
“I’m so proud of you, Hannah. You made a lot of improvement today. Before you know it, you’ll be back to doing everything you used to do.”
This was hands down my favorite part of the day. Daddy held me in his tight embrace and told me how proud he was of everything I had accomplished. He did this at both nap and bedtime starting on my second day here, and it had me feeling like a pile of goo before I drifted off to dreamland.
No one had ever told me they were proud of my accomplishments, let alone me. Growing up, my parents didn’t care about anything I did. So hearing this, it made me feel like I was on top of the world and loved. I was sure Daddy had other things he could be doing, but he chose to stay with me, to care for and protect me. I couldn’t wait until I had the ability to fully speak again because once I could, he and I would be having some conversations about this.
Bryice
Hannah’s body fully relaxed indicating to me she was asleep. I pulled the finished bottle out of her mouth and placed it on the floor. Bringing my attention back to her, I smiled. She was an incredible woman, and I was finding it harder and harder to accept that one day she’d have to leave me.
I never had believed in the concept of mates, but, after this week, anyone could call me a firm believer. I couldn’t put into words why I had changed my mind. All I knew was I had fallen in love with her. Even though she couldn’t speak and was just regaining the ability to care for herself, I felt like I knew so much about my sweet baby girl.
She was determined, for sure. If I didn’t set up rules, she would keep exercising day and night. She was so much further along in getting her freedom back than most humans would be because she wouldn’t give up on her goal.
She was caring and intuitive. A couple of days ago, I had gotten a call from Omear giving me a heads-up that Tanr, the Liborth who had bid on Hannah at the auction, was making a huge fuss about not being able to search Kaibos because he felt that my boss was hiding Jayx and I, and we weren’t MIA. I had tried to shield Hannah from the call, but since I was not able to leave our small enclosure, she had figured out something was bothering me somehow. She had crawled over to me from where she was playing with her stuffed animal and given me a big smile and a pat on my thigh.
She may not have been able to speak, but she made it clear she was there for me. It made my resolve to protect her all the stronger. I wasn’t going to let anyone hurt a hair on her head.
I couldn’t wait until we could talk because I was dying to know, even after all I had done to her, if she felt anything between us, too. It was a long shot. She had made it very clear before we got here she wasn’t pleased with my plan, but, who knew, maybe she had changed her mind. One could only hope.
Chapter Six
Bryice
One week later: Day 14 of Captivity
“What’s going on, boss?” I whispered, as I answered his call on my tablet. I was in the bathroom, trying to be as quiet as possible. Hannah was sleeping and, despite what she might try and argue, she needed her naps. If she didn’t get them or got woken up early from one, she was grumpy. We had both learned that lesson the hard way.
“That damn Liborth, Tanr is really starting to piss me off.” Omear’s voice boomed through my speaker. As fast as I could, I turned the volume down.
“What is he doing now?”
“The bastard just emailed me threatening to have a warrant issued by the galactic senate to search our planet, and he had several senators’ signatures added.”
“Shit.” If he followed through and found Hannah here, we would probably get into some trouble. Always sticklers for rules, the senate wouldn’t like the fact we hid Hannah, even if it was only because we were trying to protect her.
“Yeah. How is she doing? Do you think we could bring her to Datheturn now and have her share her side of what happened?”
“Maybe. She’s made so many improvements these last few days. I worry, though, about bringing her away from here. It might make her regress in the progress she’s made.”
“We don’t have much more time, Bryice. If the warrant gets passed, despite the fact we were protecting her, the senate will most likely punish you, myself, and Jayx for lying and not being honest in the first place.”
“What were we supposed to do? Tell them the truth when she couldn’t speak or move? Of course, Tanr would’ve lied and said she was his and that he hadn’t purchased her. Then he would’ve sucked all the blood out of her, so she couldn’t testify. I wasn’t about to let that happened.”
I didn’t care if I got sent to prison over this. I would make the same decisions over and over again because my baby girl was worth it.
“Take a deep breath. We’re going to figure this out.”
“How?” I asked tersely, wanting a pretty damn good answer or else I was going to call this Liborth up myself and tell him exactly what I’d do to him if I ever got ahold of him.
“Why don’t you let me worry about that? I wanted to let you know in case you hear anything. Focus on getting your mate back to her full strength so when the time comes, she can tell everyone her side of the story.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, hearing Hannah rustling in the bed. “I need to go. She’s waking up.”
“Be safe, and I’ll contact you with any further information I receive.”
“Thank you, Omear,” I said, and ended the conversation. Now that he was gone, I took his suggestion and inhaled air and slowly exhaled it. Nothing good would come of me being upset when I was around my little one. She needed her daddy now, and I was going to give her that.
Hannah
“This is getting ridiculous,” I muttered as I woke up from my nap with a wet diaper once again. I had regained control of pretty much all my other functions. I could talk perfectly. My balance still wasn’t the best sometimes, but otherwise, I was back to my normal self. Except for my bladder. It was being beyond stubborn, which was frustrating the heck out of me.
“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” Daddy took a seat on the side of my bed. Since I had gotten control of my motor skills, I no longer needed to sleep in a crib, so he had taken the bars off.
“It’s been two weeks, and I keep having accidents. I don’t feel when I need to use the bathroom until I’m wetting myself. I don’t understand why this keeps happening when I regained control of every other department.”
“Sweetie, remember what I told you before we came here. It takes two to four weeks for Elaraians to adjust to our gravity. It’s been exactly two weeks since we got here. You need to give yourself a break; you’ve accomplished much more than most do in a quicker time. You will get control of this again too.”
I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. “What if I don’t? What if even when I go back to Earth, my incontinence problem continues? I’ll be laughed at.”
“You can always stay here with me.” He swept me up and carried me over to the changing
table.
His statement caught me off guard. The plan had always been for me to go back to Earth once those responsible for kidnapping me were caught. Even though I’d been having such a nice time here, I’d never thought to stay.
“How would that work?” I blurted out, as he cleaned between my legs.
Daddy paused and looked at me, his eyebrows furrowed as if he was thinking hard about something. “Do you truly mean that?”
“I don’t know. But I think it’s worth a conversation. Don’t you?”
He smiled. “Yes, I do. Let me finish doing this and then we can have a proper chat.”
He was right. This wasn’t the position I’d want to be in during a serious talk. Thankfully, he made fast work of changing me, and we were soon sitting on his bed facing one another.
“I didn’t think there was a chance you’d ever consider staying here with me. What changed your mind?”
I shrugged. “It’s hard to explain. At first, you couldn’t have paid me to not go back to Earth. But spending time here and being treated like someone who matters doesn’t make me want to go back to a place where no one cared about me.”
Tears streaked down my cheeks at my admission. The realization I was alone at my home hit me. My parents didn’t care. Sure, I had my best friend Leanne, but being adults with full time careers, it wasn’t always the easiest to keep up with one another.
“Oh, sweetie.” Daddy pulled me onto his lap, and I curled up into his embrace.
“This is your fault. You’re too nice. Maybe if you were meaner, I’d want to go,” I joked.
He laughed. “When we first met, I told you the rules of my people. We will not tolerate misbehavior, but if you behave and act as you should, there’s no reason for me to be mean.”
