Gallery Owner's Note: Sorry folks, but I don't have absolute trust that the moderation will be applied even-handedly, so this is getting a placeholder image lest I get banned. Should this change (my faith in the moderation, the site's rules, the image I use as a placeholder, etc.), I will let people know.

...

"But Mo-om, this is embarrassing!"

"I know, Ba-, uh, Sweetie, but it's just for the next-"

"You were gonna call me a 'baby', weren't you?!"

"Now, Baby, you know I do that out of habit, anyway. I was calling my big girl 'Baby' long after you became a big girl and long before this. Now, like Mommy was saying, we're not going to get our bladder control back for the next week or so, so until the side effects wear off, Mommy has to wear her diapers and you need to wear yours, too, okay?"

"But wasn't there somethin' else we could have done instead?"

"Yes, there was. And trust Mommy when I say you wouldn't have liked it any better.

"Now why don't you come help me make supper? I'll teach you how to make that stew you and Daddy really like, the one with all the really big chunks of meat."

"I guess that'll be fun."

"Thatta girl. Wash your hands ... thank you ... and I'll let you finish dicing the veggies. Now, with these, you kind of want to keep them the same size, but more than that, try to keep all the cuts neat and clean. Yep, just like that..."

And so the afternoon went, with the smells of the dinner being prepared watering the mouths of the mother and daughter, and the sounds of the chopping knives, simmering pots, and laughing girls drowning out the soft crinkling of the diapers between their legs.

And if Tera was supposed to be embarrassed, it had slipped her mind.

...

Introducing for the first time in color, Hale's daughter, Tera, who would probably have preferred a different debut (though maybe she doesn't mind now). Commission done thanks to  Wen; Hale and Tera are mine.