Once Jon got home, and the baby was finally asleep, he realized that he never did find out where Karyn was, as he had meant to. He had wished for Karyn to be his girl, and Karyn had vanished, and then he was taking care of a baby... later he had even wished he knew what the baby's name was, which was Karyn too.
He had been so caught up in taking care of the baby that he hadn't really put two and two together, but the only possible conclusion was that he had wished Karyn into a baby.
He realized at some level that he had made a lot of wishes about her--that she was his, that he'd be comfortable with her, that he could be there for her. But he didn't care if his feelings were the result of a wish or not. Karyn was his daughter. He would never give her up.
But Karen was a friend. It wouldn't be fair to his friend to leave her like a baby. How could he make things better for Karyn while not losing her as a daughter?
He could age her to her regular age, but if she was his baby that would make him a lot older. That wasn't good.
He could age her to her regular age with some explanation for why he was the same age as his daughter, like him falling asleep for years while she grew up, or her being in some experiment that made her grow up fast. That was possible, but there had to be something better.
Still, there was one thing he knew he could do to make things a little better for her. "I wish Karyn were 2 years old and could talk." He could still have had a baby when he was 15, after all. Though he wondered how that could be if he was a guy.
The baby started stretching out in her sleep, along with her clothes. His breasts began to shrink. She must be past breastfeeding age now. He had to get some baby food if he was going to leave her this way.
He gently woke her. "Karyn, honey, are you okay?"
She stirred. "Mommy, I'm okay, but I'm little! You made me little..." She began to cry.
"It's okay, Karyn. You'll get bigger someday."
"Really, Mommy?"
"Yes, really, really."
"I wanna now!"
It seemed that Karyn remembered being Karyn, but her attention span and emotions were those of a 2 year old.
"I can make you a little bigger but if I made you a lot bigger I might not be Mommy. Do you want that?"
"I love Mommy! Don't be not Mommy!.... Mommy, I'm hungry."
As Jon searched for the baby food (which had magically appeared in the kitchen cabinet) he decided to leave Karyn as she was until he could think of something. It was hard to take care of a child during the 'terrible twos' but he owed it to his friend/daughter. Eventually Karyn fell asleep again, and he was so exhausted he decided to go to sleep himself.
When Jon lay down to sleep he realized that in order to get the baby food he had put the stone down on a windowsill in the nursery. But he didn't bother getting up to get it. It was still out of Karyn's reach, right?
