Dawn was frantically struggling to get free, but the baby harness was just too strong and her mittened hands kept slipping off of it.

She moaned and wailed into her dummy, looking just like the disabled child that she was now supposed to be. Tears streamed down her face.

Michelle looked down at her, through the plastic of the canopy.

“Baby! Please, don’t cry! What’s wrong…?”

To Dawn’s amazement, she undid the canopy, out in public, leant inside and cuddled her.

“Don’t cry! I thought you’d like to go out…!”

Dawn was shocked that Michelle was now crying as well.

“I thought you’d like an afternoon out of the house! I didn’t think it was going to upset you! Please, stop crying!”

Michelle hugged Dawn until the crying slowed, then stopped, kissing her and gently rocking her. For some reason, Dawn found it rather soothing…

“Now, baby, do you want to carry on with our walk, or go back home?”, Michelle asked. Dawn, now comfortable again, nodded towards the park…

Michelle and Dawn had a quite eventful walk. People noticed, however, that Dawn was quite a lot bigger than the typical child…

Another mother, Hannah, came over.

“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but… isn’t she a bit big for a pushchair?”

“No, I don’t mind you asking”, said Michelle. “Dawn has a handicap which literally blocks her from thinking of herself as anything but a baby. She has to be treated like one, even down to having a cot and playpen, and wearing baby clothes. If I try to do anything else with her, she just screams until she passes out.”

“Oh! I’ve never heard of that one before.”, she looked in at Dawn. “You poor thing…!”

“She’s usually quite happy as a baby”, said Michelle. “Something just set her off earlier when we went out. I hate it when she’s upset…”

Hannah and Michelle talked for a while. Dawn would have loved to join the conversation, but her dummy wouldn’t let her, and the canopy also gave a certain amount of soundproofing. All she could do was stare at Hannah helplessly, and hope that she might notice something.

She didn’t. Wishing Michelle well and waving goodbye to Dawn, she left. Dawn almost started crying again…

The rest of their ‘walk’ was fairly uneventful, and they soon arrived back at the house. Michelle wheeled Dawn in and took her back to her room.

“There. That was fun, wasn’t it? I’m sorry I upset you earlier. Must be time for another feed…”

Michelle undid Dawn’s dummy and removed the gag insert from her mouth, then sat her on her lap and uncovered a breast.

“I don’t want…” Dawn started to say.

“It’s this, or you get bottle fed!”, said Michelle, crossly. “I can’t guarantee what the bottle food will have in it…!”

Dawn picked up on the hidden warning, and latched herself onto Michelle’s breast, sucking gently…

After her feed, Dawn got put in her playpen by Michelle.

She spent the first few minutes trying to get her mittens off and failing. She grabbed the bars of the playpen and shook them.

Michelle came back and stared down at her.

“Temper, temper! I thought we were over that. Do you want me to get your baby harness out?”

Shaking her head, Dawn collapsed into a heap, landing with a thump on the mattress in the playpen.

“Please don’t start crying again…! You know how much that upsets me!”

Dawn just glared at Michelle. Her small gesture of defiance didn’t last long, however, as she managed to fill her nappy.

Michelle’s nose wrinkled.

“Smells like someone needs changing…!”

Michelle scooped Dawn out of the playpen, after spreading a towel out on the table.

Dawn then suffered the indignity of having her romper suit removed and her nappy changed. Michelle then powdered her and put a new nappy on.

“Please… stop this…! Let me go…!”, Dawn cried, weakly.

“Do you want your dummy back in?”, Michelle asked.

“No…! I just want to go home… umph!”

Michelle replaced the gag and fitted the dummy, lacing it back up. She then dressed Dawn back in her romper.

“I warned you! Now, go and play in your pen like a good girl, while I tidy up and get supper…!”

Dawn dejectedly stayed in her playpen while Michelle busied herself in the kitchen.

“I’ve got yours ready first”, she said. “Don’t worry, it’s all mush, just like you’re supposed to have. I used the blender.”

Dawn tried hard not to be sick as Michelle sat her on her lap and spoon fed her.

“I don’t want this…!”, she cried, between mouthfuls. “Please, Michelle…! I’m not your daughter! I’m Dawn, your friend! I’m the same age as you!”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”, said Michelle. “You’re my handicapped daughter. You love this! It’s the only thing that keeps you sane. If you don’t believe me, try walking out that door…!”

To Dawn’s amazement, Michelle just let her get onto the floor. Standing unsteadily on her feet, as she’d been off them for so long, Dawn waddled toward the door.

The anxiety kicked in almost immediately. By the time she was halfway there, she was in the throes of a full-blown panic attack. What was happening to her…? She sagged to her knees, still short of the door.

“Mum! Help…!”, she wailed.

Michelle was there in an instant. She gathered Dawn up and carried her back to the sofa.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that, love, I really am”, she said. “I told you this was all for a reason.”

“But… but… I was fine before I came to see you…!”, Dawn wailed. “What’s wrong with me?”

“It’s a combination of extreme agoraphobia combined with an almost overwhelming fear of the unknown”, said Michelle. “And, as far as your body is concerned, the unknown is anything through that door without me. You are now completely dependent on me.”

“No…! I want to go home…! I want to go back to work…!”

“Don’t be silly, little one. You are home; also, you quit your job ages ago, after your nervous breakdown.”

“No… that’s not true! I was fine when I came here last week…!”

“Last week? You’ve been here six months, you silly idiot. Ever since you had a meltdown in the office and ran out…!”

“No…! That’s not true…!!”

Dawn just dissolved in a heap, wailing…

Despite everything, Dawn was starting to believe what was happening to her. Michelle was so convincing; she did have the absolute certainty of madness on her side, though…

Dawn desperately searched for something that would disprove what Michelle had told her. However, all the calendars on the clocks said six months had passed, as did the newspapers. Michelle didn’t have a TV, or access to the internet, so she didn’t see any news stories to give her confirmation one way or the other.

Dawn fell into a deep depression. Michelle had a hard time getting her to do anything. Most of the time she just sat in her playpen, staring at nothing. Michelle was starting to get really worried about her. Finally, with a sigh, she made a phone call…

Dawn was still sitting in her playpen the next day when there was a knock at the door.

“Michelle? It’s Dr Carey. Let me in, please. I need to see your daughter.”

Michelle went to the door and opened it. A young man came in.

“Where is she?”

“In her playpen, as usual, just staring at nothing. She wouldn’t even let me put her to bed last night. She kept trying to hit me…!”

Dr Carey went over to the playpen.

“Hi, Dawn! It’s Peter. Do you remember me?”

Dawn ignored him completely.

Peter crouched down and stared straight into Dawn’s eyes.

“Dawn? Can you hear me?”

Nothing. Not a twitch. Peter then made the mistake of reaching for Dawn. Dawn turned into a spitting, clawing wildcat. It was only the fact that she was wearing her romper with the mittens on that stopped Peter being seriously hurt.

Michelle had had enough. She grabbed Dawn, pulled her out of the playpen, bent her over her knee and spanked her. Dawn had a crying fit, this gradually subsided.

“Thanks, Mum”, she said, weakly. “I needed that.”

Dr Carey then examined Dawn.

“Physically, she looks fine”, he said. “A little bit overweight, due to lack of exercise and rich food, but that’s understandable. I’d like to examine her properly, in hospital.”

“No… No! I can’t leave here. I can’t!!”

Dawn pulled herself out of Peter’s hands and dived back into her playpen.

“Won’t go! Won’t go!”, she howled.

Dr Carey had no idea that Dawn was behaving the way she did because Michelle had been drugging her in her sleep and planting hypnotic suggestions in her using somatic pillows in her cot and her playpen. She was deeply indoctrinated now into believing she actually was Michelle’s daughter…

Michelle’s unbalanced mind had no idea what the intense therapy would do to Dawn. She wasn’t able to live without her daughter, so Dawn would be her, end of story. She’d totally misjudged the doses of the ‘medication’…

There were enough clues in the ‘real world’ that would show that Dawn had only been with Michelle for a couple of weeks, not six months.

Dawn wasn’t going to see them, though. There was no way that she’d leave the flat conscious. If Dr Carey wanted to get her into hospital, in her current state she would have to be sedated…

He was already thinking about having her committed. However, he could see that, once she was out of her occasional black moods, she could have a normal life, albeit one of a toddler, when she was with Michelle. He completely missed all the signs that Michelle might be having problems of her own…

Peter eventually decided to leave Dawn with Michelle. He felt it would do a lot more damage if he tried to remove her from an environment she was comfortable in.

However, he insisted on starting weekly review visits.

Michelle happily agreed; anything to keep Dawn with her.

When Peter left, to her amazement Dawn held her arms out for a hug…