“This’d better be good,” Jessie snapped, already in work mode as she stepped out of her car.

Emily paused, mouth half open as she looked at her direct superior. “You’re–”

“In theory, I’m allowed a day off once in a while.” Jessie didn’t see the need to defend her wardrobe. No, she would never wear a flowy blue dress at work, but she wasn’t supposed to be at work. She was supposed to be getting dinner with…

It didn’t matter. She had work to do. If she got this taken care of quickly enough, she might even be able to enjoy a couple hours off before getting back to it tomorrow.

“Talk to me,” Jessie snapped, getting her distracted scientist back on track. “What’s the issue?”

“Artifact of unknown origin,” Emily replied, pointing with a pen as she read off her clipboard. “It’s inside the house.”

“And our containment team couldn’t do this on their own because…?”

“Because it’s…they just said, ‘It moved’.” Emily shrugged weakly, trying to deflect criticism before it could be thrown her way. “I’m not on the containment team, I can’t tell you what went on in there except to repeat what I’ve been told.”

“Alright.” Jessie tilted her head to one side, then the other, popping her neck. Reaching out her hand, she added, “Radio.”

Someone on the tech team passed her an earpiece, and–without any other protection besides her own power and the earpiece itself–she walked up to the structure. All it took was a snap of her fingers for two uniformed agents to step into line behind her, their tactical clothing at odds with her flowing dress.

It wasn’t a house, exactly. It wasn’t not a house, either. She couldn’t put her finger on why. It looked like a house–triangular roof, porch, windows, door–but seeing it, the word that came to mind was prison, or perhaps, cage. Her instincts just told her it wasn’t a place for people to live.

Pushing open the front door of the not-house, she peered inside. Lights on the street shone clearly through the windows, enough that she could see the layout. There were no rooms, just walls arranged haphazardly, as though someone intended only to break up sight lines within the not-house.

To her flanking agents, she asked, “Where was the artifact last seen?”

One pointed, shining a flashlight around one of the walls. Jessie started to look, but–

Motion whipped behind her, a rush of wind, and she spun on her heels, but there was nothing to see. She heard it again, and spun once more–still nothing. “Are you seeing this?”

“Hearing it, not seeing it,” an agent replied. “It’s too fast.”

“Then go back-to-back,” Jessie demanded. “Get rid of blind spots, so that–”

She heard the whoosh of air again, but this time, she was ready for it. Turning the other way, she caught the object with her eyes, and…

On the floor, motionless, lay a flat white rectangle. Nothing about its form suggested that it might have been moving at incredible speed a moment before, but Jessie knew it hadn’t been there just a second prior. Glancing to the side, she said to the agents, “I think I have eyes–”

Wind whooshed again. She looked back, but the rectangle was already gone, and before she could fully process what’d happened, she felt her dress ripple, as though something had pushed through the fabric and gone up…

She put a hand to her belly, shocked by a sudden pressure. She had to pee, bladder bursting as though she’d been stuck in a car for hours after drinking a super big gulp.

“Ma’am?” One of the agents asked, still looking away from her, covering all sight lines.

She could feel something between her legs, too, a new presence that certainly hadn’t been there before–pillowy fabric? A–

Grabbing the hem of her dress, she yanked it up, just in time for her body to lose the fight. The flood gates opened, and she was able to watch as bright yellow wetness spread over the front of a plasticy, white, puffy diaper.

She’d found the artifact, but the pressure didn’t go away. Her body just seemed to need to go, no matter how much she went–warm urine splashed into the diaper, soaking it until it began to sag, and still she felt the need.

One of the agents glanced back, eyes darting down at her raised dress. “Ma’am?”

“I–” she began, gasping as the pressure finally, mercifully, let off. She tried to peel away one of the tapes, but it stuck fast, and she knew the artifact wouldn’t let her be free that easily. “I found the artifact.”

The pressure tapered off as she trickled the last into her diaper, she felt the relief wash over her and sighed as the painful need turned into satisfaction.

“We’ll get a removal team ready,” the agent started.

“I’ll handle it,” she replied, lowering her dress. “We don’t need any…ah…”

The pressure returned with a vengeance, only this time, she didn’t only feel it in her bladder. Desperation suddenly grew deep inside her, a roiling pressure that she struggled to fight. She gasped, face turning pink, struggling with discomfort to fight the increasingly painful cramps.

“She’s hurt,” one of the agents said. “Get it off her, now!”

Jessie stepped back and tried to push their hands away, but another cramp rolled over her, and she lost the fight–bowels churning, she could only let out a tiny squeak as warm mush poured into the seat of her diaper, unbidden and unwanted, swelling out the seat and smushing heavily against her skin. Adding insult to injury, her bladder gave in once again, swelling the crotch of her diaper even more heavily, soaking it to the point she couldn’t believe it still held up.

Reaching forward, the commando yanked up her dress, revealing the diaper once again, watching as the seat sagged. There was no hiding the smell that wafted out, and only once both her subordinates saw the heavily used garment did the pressure subside, her bowels getting a break from the insane discomfort.

“I’m fine,” she said, feeling winded from the sudden need. “This–it just made me…again, this doesn’t need to be in a report.”

She could get past her other subordinates, get back to the lab, and sort this out alone. At worst, she’d need Emily’s help, but nobody else.

Lowering her dress, she–

Pressure.

She couldn’t fight it this time, not even for a second. As soon as her dress was lowered, the swelling, packing, torrent began to inflate her diaper yet again, foul muck bottoming out the diaper until it was so heavy she couldn’t stand up straight.

Falling back, her dress caught around her knees, bunching up to make her diaper visible to the agents.

The pressure stopped.

Jessie got it.

“No…” she mouthed.

“What?” an agent asked.

Reaching up, she touched her earpiece. “Emily, I need a containment team on constant standby. Observation only.”

Emily’s reply came promptly. “Copy, what’s the issue?”

“The artifact…” she began. “It has extreme effects that take place whenever it’s not observed. I need someone to watch me, twenty four seven, until it can be removed.”

Accepting a hand, she got to her feet, careful to keep her dress hiked so that her diaper was plainly visible. One agent checked the door, while the other scanned the room, and in that moment she cramped and felt another small wave of mush pile into the diaper, so that it sagged almost down to her ankles.

“Don’t look away,” she snapped.

“Right, sorry,” the agent replied.

They opened the door, and Jessie stepped out onto the street, her diaper on full display–where it would have to remain, permanently.