Just as a reminder: ALL CHARACTERS in this story are over 18, no matter how they behave! Dawn is an Adult Baby.

ALSO: There is a suicide in this chapter. Do NOT read if you are adversely affected by talk of things like that.

Dawn sank further into being a baby as the days went on…

She started forgetting how to talk; her hands grasped at the air when she struggled to remember a word.

The frustration made her cry; she knew she should be able to do things, but she couldn’t!

Michelle’s casual handling of Dawn’s medication and other treatment was doing permanent damage to her; Dawn was getting worse and worse, not better. No surprise, then that Dr Carey decided to have her committed.

Dawn screamed and wailed. She waddled over to Michelle as fast as she could and wrapped herself around her, wailing ‘Won’t Go!’ all the time, getting more and more hysterical.

Michelle threw Dr Carey out…

By the time he had got back to the flat with a police escort, as he truly believed he was acting in Dawn’s best interests, the flat was empty.

Michelle had packed her bags, with another for Dawn, and left…

Michelle had been researching on the internet and found out about a commune up North built around adult babies. She had spoken to them about Dawn’s ‘handicap’, and the fact she was being persecuted. The community had welcomed them with open arms and assured them that their presence would be kept confidential…

Dawn loved it when they got there and she saw others just like her. None were as handicapped as her, however; they could still speak and some of them even went back to being ‘normal’ people during the week, only acting as adult babies at the weekends. They all found Dawn’s case fascinating; none of them had been aware of her type of handicap. Dawn soon found herself with a lot of friends…

Giggling and chuckling, Dawn loved playing in her brand-new playpen. Michelle kept watch on her all the time, but she didn’t mind that at all. Her mind now was so fractured that she loved it that her ‘mother’ was close all the time…

That made the day that Dr Carey caught up with them all the more traumatic. He had managed to get hold of Michelle’s call history via the police and her service provider. This led to the commune…

The police raided the commune one night, insisting that Dawn was being held against her will. Dawn screamed and wailed as she was dragged away; in the end, she had to be sedated. Michelle was just as bad; she, however, was taken into police custody, accused of kidnapping, amongst other things.

Dawn refused to talk to anyone. She refused to even move. She just sat hunched up in the corner of her room, ignoring everyone; she even wet herself because the people holding her hadn’t changed her nappy. She didn’t care. As far as she was concerned, unless they brought her mother back right now, she wasn’t doing anything for them.

“I was afraid of this”, said Dr Carey. “She’s grown so dependent on Michelle that she won’t do anything without her. I can’t reach her at all.”

“She won’t do anything for herself, Doctor. She just acts like a doll; we’re going to have to change her because she’s almost totally incontinent, just like a young child. She seems to be able to understand a certain amount of English, but she doesn’t speak at all. I don’t think she even can anymore. She’s been in Michelle’s company for way too long.”

“If only I’d got her out sooner, when she could still talk a bit”, said Dr Carey. We might have been able to do more with her. Still, we’ve got to try; we’re responsible for her, now.”

Two nurses went into Dawn’s room; they carefully put her on the bed and changed her, treating her like the adult baby she now was. There was no awareness in her eyes at all; she just watched with no expression as they did so.

They then tried to feed her. That did cause a reaction. As soon as anyone came in with a bottle, Dawn clamped her mouth shut and turned away. One nurse who had just returned from maternity leave then walked in. As soon as she did, Dawn reached up to her. She sat on the side of the bed and cuddled Dawn just like her baby. Dawn then started nuzzling her chest…

The nurse realised, to her shock, that Dawn was trying to breast feed. Before anyone could stop her, the nurse let Dawn suckle, as she was still producing quite an excess of milk.

Dawn drank her fill, then obediently let the nurse burp her.

Dr Carey just watched on in disbelief…

“What am I supposed to do? Let her starve to death?”, the nurse said, indignantly, later. “She’s just a big baby, so I treated her as such. At least she’s resting comfortably now.”

“She’s completely regressed”, Dr Carey said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“When she was first admitted, she had a high level of psychotropic drugs in her system”, one of the nurses said. “They are diminishing while she stays here, but I think it’s too late. They’ve done major damage to her mind.”

“We’re just going to have to teach her all over again”, Dr Carey said. “The memories are still there, I think, she’s just not accessing them, for some reason. Hopefully, if we start teaching her, she will learn a lot quicker than normal.”

“There’s another problem”, said the nurse. “We’ve been checking up about her on the computer; she’s got a younger sister. Mother and father are no longer with us, but she was supposed to be the guardian for the sister. She’s been on her own ever since this all started, whenever that was.”

The sister’s contact details were soon located, and she, Mary, was called. It turned out that she had placed a missing person report for Dawn…

Mary soon arrived at the clinic.

“Where is she!”, she cried. “Where’s my sister?”

“Before I take you to her, I need to tell you something…!”

“What? What’s she doing here? What’s wrong with her?”

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. There’s no easy way to tell you this; she’s not the sister you remember anymore…”

Dr Carey went on to explain. Mary’s eyes went wider and wider, then she burst into tears…

“Take me to her. I want to see her!”, she said, between sobs.

Mary was taken to the corridor outside Dawn’s room.

“This is one way glass. You can see in, she can’t see you.”

Mary looked through…

Dawn was lying curled up on the cot, gently rocking back and forth, once again staring at nothing.

“There’s nobody in there…”, Mary said, quietly. “That’s how Mum was just before she died. Dementia.”

“You’d think that, wouldn’t you?”, Dr Carey said. “But, watch this…”

He beckoned for the nurse that had fed Dawn before to go in. She was quite willing to help; she’d grown quite attached to Dawn since first meeting her.

Mary’s mouth dropped open in disbelief as Dawn reached out to her…

She then turned round to Dr Carey.

“Can I try…?”

As soon as she walked into the room, Dawn started bouncing up and down on the cot.

“MaMA!”, she squeaked, and promptly flew into Mary’s arms, nearly bowling her over.

Dawns fractured brain had identified Mary as a family member, albeit the wrong one…!

Mary spent the afternoon with Dawn, just cuddling her and calming her down. Dawn had never been so happy. Her real family was back!

Mary had another cot brought in. She wasn’t leaving her sister. Also, Dawn accepted bottled feed from her, another huge success…

The psychotics were now completely out of her system. Mary was shocked when, one day, Dawn stared straight into her eyes, and said…

“Love you.”

Dawn’s recovery was rapid after that. Bringing her sister to her had been the best thing for her. The sisters were soon talking together; Dawn was still at primary school level but advancing rapidly. As such, she was able to tell people that she didn’t know how Michelle had done what she did. This was because Michelle had only ever drugged Dawn at night, while she was asleep.

“I just got worse and worse”, she said. “It was so frustrating, feeling everything I knew slip away; especially how mum died. I thought it was happening to me…”

Mary held on tightly to Dawn…

A fortnight later, Dawn was able to go home with her sister. For her, the nightmare was over.

For Michelle, the nightmare was also over, but in a different way. Unable to cope without her daughter, she had hung herself in her cell, while awaiting trial and treatment. It was almost certain that she would have been committed to the same clinic/asylum that Dawn had been staying at, had she survived…