"Hailey!" Eva ran at me with a force I surely thought would knock me over as I stepped through the apartment door. She looked a little more tired than this morning like Betsey had informed me earlier. Still, she looked a lot more chipper than I had expected her to be on her first day.

"You're early." She mused as a happy sigh escaped her lips. Maybe she was putting on fake enthusiasm because I had asked her to give this a chance. My hope would be this all worked out so I didn't have to try and find someone else to take care of her. "It's only five-thirty."

"My boss let me go home a little early today." Searching around for the clock, I finally found it hung up on the wall over the play area."Is that okay?"

"More than okay." She radiated excitement as her eyes lit up. "I want to show you what I made."

"I would love to see what you made," I told her as she quickly walked to the small oak table about four feet from the wall. While she was gathering her picture, I found this was the perfect time to get a report from Betsey who had been watching our exchange carefully.

"How was she today?"

"She was good. Kind of quiet, but that's to be expected considering it is her first day." Betsey presented as we watched her carefully pull the piece of paper that had been sitting on the table into her grasp. "She's had no fever but wouldn't eat anything while she was here."

"She hasn't been very hungry lately. I'm hoping it has something to do with being so anxious about starting at a new school. That and she's just getting over a bug of some sort. She said anything about her stomach bugging her?"

"Natalie told me she still wasn't feeling great, but I have noticed anything out of the ordinary. What I did notice is your daughter has a real knack for drawing and art. You probably already know this, but I can already tell she's expressing herself in a different way. That she doesn't so much like to speak but to observe the things happening around her."

"Honestly, I don't know what she's thinking half the time. I guess she's more like me on that front."

"I forgot to add something, which is why it took me so long." Eva handed me the picture she had been working on. "This is supposed to be us at the park. This is a bench I made out of toothpicks." She pointed to a neatly glued bench in the middle of the page. "This is you and me."

"And who's this clear over here?"

"Paige." She stated, quickly moving her finger up the scribbled blue sky. "The cotton balls kept getting stuck to my fingers because I pulled them apart before gluing them."

"That sounds messy." Betsey and I shared a glance at Eva changing the subject. I was pretty sure her nanny didn't know about her new friend she had made at the park, but I had an idea she knew something was up with that. I made a note to tell her about it later.

"It was." She yawned, her jaw stretching out as she couldn't help the motion of tiredness. "Why don't you go get your things together and then we'll go home and eat."

"What are we having?"

"I think we still have some chicken noodle soup we need to finish up. That sound good?" I hoped it was. I didn't feel up to making anything tonight. In fact, I wanted to skip eating altogether and get a good night's sleep.

"Yeah. I like your soup."

"I'm glad you do." I was relieved to hear that she did, but I wanted to ask her more about Paige on our way home. "Got everything?"

"Yep!"

"Alright, can you tell Owen and Betsey goodbye?"

"Bye Owen." Eva willingly waved to Owen who was still coloring at the table, unlike earlier today when they had met for the first little boy looked up and waved back to her before grabbing the jar of crayons sitting up on the shelf as we turned to leave.

"Bye."

"Bye Betsey."

"Bye, Eva," Betsey said pleasantly as she opened the door for us. " I will see you tomorrow after school."

"Okay."

"Thanks, Betsey." I told her as we exited the apartment. I felt like I could never tell her how grateful I was for her taking Betsey while I was working.

"You're welcome. She's a good kid and I'm happy she's here." Betsey closed the door behind her as we waved goodbye again.

"You didn't really say much over the phone when we talked earlier. Did everything go okay at school today?" We walked down the hall slowly, side by side. It seemed like a longer walk than when I had arrived because Eva was walking rather slowly. I could tell something was eating at her as we pushed the button down for the elevator. As much it killed me to ask her what was wrong, I figured I would try a different approach and let her come to me.

"Mhm."' She mumbled as she stood there in front of the metal doors. They slid open a few minutes later with a slight squeak and then closed a few seconds after stepping in. I felt as she grabbed at my hand, squeezing hers around mine as the gravitational pull took us down to the main level of the building. "Hailey?"

"Yeah."

"Can I tell you something?" She glanced at me in the elevator mirror with hesitation, her hand still wrapped tightly around mine.

"Anything," I reassured her, but she continued to frown at her reflection in the mirror as the elevator pulled to a stop.

"Please don't be mad."

"Why would I be mad?" The elevator let out a little ding and we both stepped onto the main floor; the question of her hesitation still lingering in the air

"Because I pretended to feel better when I'm not." Oh, the guilt written on her face was utterly heartbreaking. "I didn't want to talk to you for a long time on the phone because you always seem to know when I'm not feeling good." I should have known. It was unlike her to back away when all she had done lately was cling to me. Breaking her grasp away from mine, she slipped through the door onto a bench placed just right outside the building. She gathered her knees up her chest and hid her face.

"Can I tell you something?" I sighed, knowing it was probably a good time to be honest with her about how I had been feeling as I joined her on the bench. "My stomach has been hurting a little too."

"Really?" Her words were muffled at first until she cast a worried glance in my direction. "So you're not mad?"

"Mad? No. I am worried because your stomach has been hurting a lot lately. Has it been hurting since you came here to Chicago or has it been longer than that?"

"Longer. It hurts a lot now."

"Okay. Does anything else hurt besides your stomach, like your head or your throat or your ears?"

"No." She shook her head adamantly, finally letting her legs fall in front of her on the bench. "Just my stomach. I'm really tired."

"Okay, here's the plan. I'll call Natalie and see what she wants to do and then we'll go from there, okay?"

"Okay."

"We're going to figure this out."