In the middle of a class, Reed got a text. His heart racing with some yet-unknown emotion, he checked his phone.

"OH MY GOD REED SHE IS CRAWLING OH MY GOD ALDDSJGSHFJG!"

As professionally as he could, he said to the class, "I'm sorry, but I'll have to take this." He swiftly left the classroom, speed-dialed Shane, and began jumping up and down like a crazy person.

"Oh my God, she's seriously crawling?" he shouted when Shane picked up.

"Yeah! She is! I'm taking video!"

"I wish I was there…"

"It's okay, Reed. You'll have other chances to see her crawl."

"Yeah, but this is her first crawl."

"We both agreed that it was you who needed to-"

"I know."

Silence.

"So… What made her crawl?"

You could hear Shane's smile through the phone. "Actually, you know that voicemail you left the other day? The one telling me we needed more milk?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I was going through the answering machine and deleting all the messages, and that one came on, and all of a sudden, I hear this noise, and Annie's reaching towards the answering machine, and she just started crawling!"

"Shane Anderson, if you are making this up to make me feel better, I swear I will-"

"No, I'm serious!"

"…Okay, I believe you." Reed sank to the floor. His eyes were welling up, and he rubbed them with the sleeve of his jacket. "She's really crawling."

"Yeah."

"Wow…"

Reed stayed in the hall, clutching the phone like a lifeline, until he realized that he had to return to class. "Shane, I have to go."

"Yeah. I'll see you when you get home."

"Love you."

"Love you, too."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Reed placed the cell phone back in his pocket and re-entered the classroom.

"What was that about, Professor Van Kamp?" a student asked.

"It was something about Annie?"

"Aww, what?" chorused a group of girls and a handful of guys.

"She- uh… She crawled. For the first time."

There was an uproar of congratulatory noise from the class that was finally quieted by the bell.

"Don't forget the assignment due next week! Don't wait till the last minute!" he called, knowing most of them would. He sighed, sitting back in his chair. He was missing so much, but there was nothing he could really do. One of them had to work, and he didn't even know if Shane's job was still open. He'd made his choice, and he had to stick to it.

But why'd it have to be so damn hard?