The three of us try to keep up the light hearted chatter up for hours. Lacy seems to enjoy and it means the world that we have her smiling on such a hard day, but all my smiles are forced.

Every time I start to feel genuinely happy, something instead me breaks and mocks, "Look at her. She's weaker than you've ever seen her. She hasn't even tried to sit up in the hours you've been here."

It's a big bully inside my brain.

"Sometimes, I imagine I'm a princess living in a cloud kingdom," Lacy sighs dreamily.

"There'd be lots of ponies and glitter and I'd wear a crown and let the other kids borrow it whenever they want to."

She gives her hands a couple claps and smiles wide.

"I'd love to visit that kingdom," Bridget says brightly.

Lacy grins and giggles. "You wouldn't just visit. You would be the very... special-"

Her happy mood suddenly darts away and she begins to take deep labored breaths.

I stand up from my chair slowly and take her hand. When I turn to look at Bridget her eyes are going wild.

"Lacy? Lacy are you ok???" I demand desperately, my heart jumping to my throat and then falling to my shoes.

Lacy begins to wheeze and she shakes her head.

"Whatdowedo???" I practically scream.

Bridget says nothing; she just runs to the door, pushes a button on the wall near the frame and sprints out calling, "LUKE!!!! LUKE!!!!"

Before long I'm breathing like I just ran a marathon.

A herd of doctors and nurses rush in. One comes and gently escorts me out to the hallway while the others bark orders at each other.

I'm just outside her door, still able to see. I think this lady doctor is trying to speak to me but I'm barely aware of her presence.

I can hardly sense when Bridget comes up to me and grabs my shoulders, Luke just behind her.

Before long, the chaos seems to die down and the doctors are wiping their brows with a sort of post-panicked calmness that I hope means everything's ok.

As my senses slowly go back to working like normal, I hear someone say,

"Ok, she's ok guys. Don't worry. They put her on oxygen. But I think we should let her rest now, ok?"

Bridget grabs my hand and Luke rubs his face. We make our way back out into the lobby and Luke takes his place behind the front desk.

"You two gonna be ok?"

Bridget nods, but she's not fooling me.

"Gen?" she turns the attention to me.

"Are... Are you coming back with me? Or do you need to meet your Aunt somewhere?"

"I... Uh... Is it alright if I... Ya know... Move on in with you guys again? I stopped at the house before I came here and dropped off my stuff..."

Bridget lets out a half-hearted scoff.

"Well, gee, I guess we'll have to keep ya," she teases.

Then she brings me in for another hug. We just hold each other for a long time until the sound of a ringing phone cuts in. Bridget slowly separates herself from me and looks at her phone.

"Oh for the love of Da Vinchi..." she mutters before accepting the call.

"Can I help you Natalie?" she sighs.

"CRAP GIRL!!!" I hear the voice on the other end and chuckle a little as Bridget momentarily pulls the phone away from her ear.

She motions to me that we can start to walk while she talks. So I wave to Luke and we start heading out the door.

"Isn't there another hour of school?" Bridget asks.

"Ah. How convenient."

She turns to me and rolls her eyes playfully.

"Look it's a lot ok? Gen's here so I'm gonna talk to her on the way and I'll see you when I get there.... Ok. Love ya dearest. K bye."

She ends the call and heaves a giant sigh.

"Sometimes..." she chuckles, rubbing one eye. "Some-times I don't know whether to hug that girl until forever or ship her to Timbuktu."

"What'd she do?" I sputter.

"Sheeeeee's been sitting on our porch for an hour. She has a dentist appointment and then convinced her mom to drive her to our house instead of back to school," she sighs with a laugh.

The easiness of the conversation seems so out of place to me. Maybe it's just because I'm waiting to be bombarded with more questions.

"So... Gen?"

Here we go.

"What was it you needed to talk to me about?"

Where do I begin?

"Uhhhh... Later ok?"

Bridget purses her lips firmly. "It's always later," she mumbles.

I whip my head in her direction and sigh. Annoyed, I start twisting a strand of hair around my finger but withhold from starting a fight.

"I... I went to visit my family's graves while I was with Aunt Cassie. It was hard, but it was good for me I think."

Bridget nods and offers me a quick smile before refocusing her attention on the sidewalk ahead of her.

"Umm... How... many siblings?" she asks carefully.

I bite my lip. "Uh... Two. I... I only ever knew one though."

Bridget doesn't show any change of emotion in her face but I see her shoulders tense up a bit, nervously. Then she just stops dead in her tracks and turns to face me. Her shoulders slump as she lets out a puff of air and straight out asks,

"Why'd ya do it, Gen? Why did you want to leave? And then what made you come back?"

I let a long breath out my nose and look at the ground. "You hit the nail on the head, Bridget. I was scared."

Before I know it, my mouth starts running and pouring out things that I hadn't even identified I was feeling.

"You all may have heard, 'Lacy relapsed' but when I got that news, what I heard was basically her death sentence. I was scared. There's nothing I can do this time, Bridge, if it gets as bad as it was last time. I can't save her again. I hate watching my family disappear before my very eyes while I watch helpless. I'm tired of just feeling bad for the poor girl. I want to be able to do something. But I can't anymore. So I ran away from the hurt. I was going to hide from whatever reality faced you guys next. I didn't want to lose Lacy. I don't want to Laos her. But I came back because what I can do I will. We're family and I have to be here."

I look up and find Bridget staring at me wide eyed as I feel tears I hadn't even noticed spill down my face.

"Gen..." she whispers.

I let out a sad laugh and quickly suggest, "Come on. Let's go. Better not keep Natalie waiting any longer than she has been."

          ___________________

"Bridget Clarissa Tolia!!!"

The girl I assume to be Natalie rushes up to us as soon as we are in view from the house.

"If you don't answer your phone calls, woman, I will personally whip your behind!"

Bridget rolls her eyes playfully. "Good afternoon to you too, Natalie."

"Yeah, yeah, how do ya do and all that."

She turns to face me.

"This must be..."

"Genevieve," Bridget says.

"Natalie meet Genevieve. Gen meet Nat."

Natalie whacks Bridget on the shoulder while Bridget snickers mischievously.

"Natalie's good," she says politely to me before getting in Bridget's face and teasing, "I refuse to be called a g-nat." She pronounces that silent "g."

Then, just as quick as she was on top of us, she gets serious and says, "But seriously. Is everything ok."

Bridget shrugs and wiggles her toes in her shoes. "Did I tell you Lacy relapsed?"

Natalie's face goes so solemn I can hardly believe she was just teasing seconds ago.

"Well, I heard that things weren't great from your mom when she answered the door."

She pulls Bridget in for a hug. "Relapse, huh? How's she doing?"

"She had a big scare right before we left but she's ok fo- for now," Bridget says, biting back tears and flashing me an encouraging smile over Natalie's shoulder.

"Well," Natalie says, pulling away slowly. "Do you guys wanna talk or... Play a board game or something?"

Bridget shrugs. "Neither if you wanna know the truth."

Natalie nods. Then she takes Bridget's hand and says, "Come on. Lacy wouldn't want you to worry too much. Let's play a game."

Reluctantly, Bridget lets Natalie pull her towards the door, and I follow.

Mrs. T greets all three of us, and asks no questions, which I love her for. She simply walks over and holds me tight in her arms.

"Mom? Did you hear? Lacy has relapsed," Bridget says, forcing the words out.

Mrs. T's smile fades a little bit. She pays her thighs and whispers, "Oh."

All three of us search for any sort of reassurance but can't find any. So then Natalie awkwardly breaks the silence with,

"Come on guys lets find a game up in Bridget's room."

"I'll be right up," I say, holding back so I can chat with Mrs. T.

Natalie shrugs and Bridget looks at me curiously. I flash a smile in hopes I can ease her worry a bit. She slowly smiles back and heads up the stairs with Natalie.

"Everything ok dear?" Mrs. T asks tiredly, leading me back into the kitchen.

I swallow hard as I try to arrange words about what to say to explain the situation with Aunt Cassie.

Mrs. T turns on the sink and starts washing her hands.

As I look up at her weary face, worry lines drawn in around the wrinkles of age, I decide to bring up another issue... At least not yet. I can pray on it tonight and call Josie back at her house. Aunt Cassie has no idea we're planning on trying to help; she doesn't even know that I overheard the whole ordeal.

So, I take a deep breath and mention something else that's been messing with me.

"Mrs. T, is it... ok if I come back to live with you guys again?"

Mrs. T looks at me with big empathetic eyes. She turns off the faucet, dries her hands and says, "Of course sweetheart! Why wouldn't it be ok? Everyone here was a mess without you and you weren't even gone that long!"

"Thank you," I whisper as she once again gathers me in her arms.

She rubs my back in a gentle yet firm way. "Love you, Gen. I love you just as much as my biological children. Never doubt that."

I lean into her and whisper, "I love you too... Mom."