"Hi daddy." My little girl sat on the couch next to Evan, smiling so hard her cheeks must have hurt.

"Hi sweetheart. How long has she been up?" I glanced at Evan and he sighed.

"Okay, I might've been here longer than I told you. I've been here since 10. She woke up around 10:30."

I turned towards the clock. 11:47.

"Well fuck Evan. You might as well move in."

My daughter jumped up and started squealing. "Can he, daddy?"

"Lillian, Uncle Evan already has a place to stay." I smiled sweetly and tucked her hair behind her ear and fixed the tubes around her face and nostrils.

"Well.. " Evan looked away from me, towards the window.

"What? " I asked.

"Bailey kicked me out last night. I slept in your driveway in my car." He rubbed his neck.

"Dammit Evan, why didn't you knock?" I sighed.

"I didn't want to bother you. Or wake up little Lily."

I gazed at Lillian and sighed. "I better make her something to eat."

Then she started coughing. "Evan, hurry up, get a towel please."

I ran over by her side and kneeled, seeing if there was anything wrong with her tank. Nothing.

I ran and made sure the windows were closed and I kicked on the humidifier.

Evan was now beside her with a cloth in case she needed it. She began violently coughing into the rag and when she was done, she sat back up and took a deep breath.

I jogged to Evan. "Please tell me it isn't blood."

"No, she's good. She's fine."

I let out a deep breath of relief and kissed Lillian's forehead.
"You've got your mother's lungs."

She smiled and I grinned back. Evan sat back down beside her and I headed into the kitchen.

I started making French toast when I heard a little creak on the floorboards behind me.

"Lil, I'm fine, go sit back in there with Uncle Ev." I said sweetly.

"She's watching Peppa. I came in here to talk to you."

Evan leaned against the counter next to me, fidgeting with the handles of my spoons in the spoon jar.

"Quit that, before I whoop you with one." I joked, whisking the batter in a bowl.

"Oh really?"

Before I could muster out another word he smacked my ass with the back of the spoon, making me almost drop the bowl and become completely speechless for once in my life.

"So. There really is something I wanna talk about." He put the spoon back into the jar.

"What's that?" I asked.

"When are you putting Lillian in school?"

The question everyone asks me.

"She really wants t-"

"Evan. I already know she really wants to go. I already know she's excited. But I can't let her go. Not until she gets better. Those kids, they're going to bully her and then she's probably going to be put in a seperate class. She's going to carry that oxygen tank around, Evan, I don't know if she could handle-" I interrupted.

"No, Delirious. She can handle it. You're the one who can't handle it. She's your little girl, I know, and just because she's sick, doesn't mean she should be kept from all the other kids. It's been a week since school started. Don't you think she's going to stand out more being the new kid half way into the year instead of the start?"
He blurted everything out sharply, with a tone I've never heard before.

He's been onto me about her going to school for months now.

"I just, I don't know, Evan. She's do fragile. I don't want her last moments to be there... "

"And they won't be." He continued. "You can't shelter her, Jonathan. She deserves a normal life. She deserves to be happy."

I looked down at the bowl for a minute and sighed.

"Okay Evan." I closed my eyes.

"Okay."