At times like this, I sure wished Audrey were here to slap the hell out of me.

Though I do not particularly like her harsh tactics, she was my gateway. Audrey was my triggering belt, snapping me hard to the core during times I got so full of myself that I failed to realize there are other people in the picture as well.

She was never afraid of how much her words could hurt me because she rightfully knew her words were equally laced with an adequate amount of toxin and lots and lots of tough love. And I needed that kind of love right now.

Watching Professor Brawston as he walked away clearly disgusted from me was not a fun sight to see. I swear I'd rather he gave me a failing grade.

I understood where his pain came from. He found comfort in a place where his pride was crushed endlessly, each time a little deeper, closer to the core — bound to break. And the hardest part was, Professor Brawston never did find comfort. He simply got used to the pain and accepted its recurring attack on his soul, and possibly confused the feeling of comfort with the numbing sensation.

Suddenly, as I was standing all alone in the middle of the hallway, the sound of my vibrating phone brought me out of my guilty, depressed state.

It was from Eric.

"Where are you? You're not in your apartment."

"I'm at school." I glanced at the time on my phone, wondering why Eric was looking for me at nine-thirty in the morning. Aside from the fact that he is my husband. "Wait, you're in my apartment?"

"Yeah, I'm right outside. I was hoping we could go out today."

"What for?" My eyebrows raised.

"Just because? It's not like you have anything to do."

"Now that is just harsh and degrading and true." I pursed my lips. It was not easy to get by with that.

Eric chuckled as he heard my voice of bitter acceptance. "I'm coming for you. Wait for me."

"Whatever." I closed the conversation.

Sighing deeply, I started to walk back to where I entered, hopefully, a shorter trip towards the lobby where I would be waiting for Eric. A pit in my stomach shouted, hold on. Inside my subconscious, I didn't want to leave just yet. After all, I did come here for a reason.

"Psst..." called a familiarly small, but a high-pitched voice, about ten meters away from me.

Only the top part of Rachel's very cute, tiny head exposed itself whereas the rest of her body was hiding behind the wall on the left corner. Her eyes slowly peeked and returned back into hiding when she was caught.

"I see you over there." There was no response. "Come on, Rachel. Show yourself. Don't be scared."

When I finally earned her trust, she ran towards me holding her mushy teddy bear like a rolling spinning wheel on a steep mountain — so fast and enthusiastic — impossible to stop. She put her tiny arms around my knees and giggled and when she tried to tiptoe to spread more of her inner joy into me but failed to do so.

"Hey, you..." I bent over and rested both my hands on my knees. My posture allowed me to talk to her at head level. "You sneaked out again, didn't you?" She nodded and smiled again until her eyes were as if they were not there. "Why don't you head back to your room now? Your daddy might see you."

She held her mahogany brown teddy bear closed to her chest. "But I wanna hang out with you. My dad's in class now and Grace is sleeping."

"I'm free!" She raised both of her hands.

"Who's Grace?" I asked.

"Grace is my grumpy, no-fun, babysitter. She wears a pink uniform every day, and she always says to me, 'It's time for your medicine!' My dad calls her my personal nurse. I don't even know why I need a personal nurse. I can take care of myself."

"Well, I think Grace is just doing her job, and she takes care of you in the best way she knows how."

My phone rang again. "Just one second, sweetie," I said, putting the phone on my ear.

"I'm in the lobby now. Where are you?"

"Coming in a sec. I'm a little caught up right now," I replied. "Actually, I —" Suddenly, my attention was taken by the child's watery, jewel eyes. "Eric, I — I—" There it goes again. The stutter. The feeling of wanting to pamper her with all of her heart's desires. Those irresistible, angelic eyes.

This funky kid had got me all tied up.

I covered the bottom part of the cellphone using my left palm. "Rachel, darling... I'm sorry, but you should really go back to your room now 'cause I have to be somewhere and I don't want to leave you here alone in the hallway."

"But I wanna hang out with you."

"Ha-hang out with me?" I chuckled. "No, honey, I—I'm sorry but you can't. Not at least you ask permission from your dad which I'm sure he'll say no to." I explained to her in the simplest, least harsh way one could do to reject a child.

I didn't want to hurt Rachel, not even unintentionally. She's a gem. She has caught my heart faster than any real diamond. Truly one of a kind.

Rachel stood there with the same sad expression, rubbing her teddy bear's ears like she was ashamed to even invite herself to come with me. She slid her feet across the recently polished floor in semi-circular repetitive rotations. Intentionally positioning her head faced down and her lips pursed, she moved her head upwards every once in a while to show me her reaction.

This kid is playing me. In a good way. She definitely knows how to get me.

"Don't pout now. It gets you wrinkles," were my last words of goodbye as I slowly walked to the lobby, away from her. I turned my back to look at her and she still stood in the same pitiful position. Although it hurt me to leave the kid that way, I continued to walk.

"You're my hero," she said.

"What?" I stopped and turned my back the moment she said something. "What did you say?" I stepped closer to her and patted her head.

Her cheeks were blushing as she bit her lip and squeezed her teddy bear. "How am I your hero, sweetheart?" I waited patiently to hear her response. And all the while, my phone never stopped vibrating inside my bag.

"My dad said you helped him get the best doctor for me and paid all the hospital bills so daddy won't work so hard," Rachel said.

"So thank you for saving me, Avery. But I also wished you didn't help because I really wanted to be with my momma now. And even though I don't exactly know where heaven is, I saved up enough quarters since I was two years old. So now that I'm turning nine, I could go anywhere I want to in the world with my dad and we can all be together in heaven."

The way she talked about death in the most innocent thinking cooked up tears in my eyes. Unbelievable how children can turn the most complicated, morbid thoughts into something beautiful and worth looking forward to.

"Um..." I wiped a tear with my thumb, and I laughed while doing so. I didn't want Rachel to think weakly of me. After all, I am her hero. I cleared my throat as I touched her shoulder and said, "Sweetie, it's not yet your time to go to heaven. Neither is your dad. You will see your mommy real soon, but in the right time."

"Ahem." Eric interrupted. He always had the worst timings ever. I barely even noticed the missed calls on my phone and the thudding on the floor. "Avery...are you coming?" I turned around to face Eric with flushed cheeks and slightly swollen eyes. "Can't you see I'm still talking with my new friend here?"

"Eric, meet Rachel." I pulled Eric and tilted my head as a signal to introduce himself to the child. Eric stepped forward and went closer to her."Hi, Rachel. I'm Eric. Nice to meet you."

"Hello!" Rachel said, grabbing Eric's hand and shaking it cheerfully with both of her hands. She greeted him with extreme delight. But I doubt she knew Eric. Her happy-go personality just makes you want to hold hands with every other person and sing praise songs aloud.

"Are you and Avery going somewhere? Can I come with you? Please? Don't worry, I don't talk a lot. And — and in the car, i-if I do fall asleep, which I will try not to, you won't have to carry me. You can wake me up when we get there. I promise. I'll behave. I promise."

"Rachel, you still haven't asked your —"

"I can't see why not, right Avery?" was Eric's direct response to Rachel's request. He didn't even think about it for a second. And boy, was I surprised.

"Wooooh!" Rachel cheered and jumped real high to the ceiling. Then with no time to lose, she ran towards the lobby with a huge grin on her pretty face, happy as a well-watered sunflower.

"W—wait, Eric..." I pressed on his shoulder with my index finger. "Are you sure you'd like to take Rachel out with us? That girl is Professor Brawston's kid. What if we get into some kind of accident and — oh God, I hope not. I mean. We didn't even ask for his permission. W—where are we going anyway?" Too many questions were asked. I didn't know if it was the right decision to do. I've hurt the man more times than I could count; his daughter is not an option.

"And...besides, do you even like kids?" I nudged on his shoulder even harder this time. I was getting desperate.

"Come on, Professor Brawston's in class. And it's not like we're kidnapping his daughter. We're just showing her around and giving her a great time."

"I don't know, Eric. Is it just me or you're getting to sound irresponsible?"

"Irresponsible? Fine." He took out his cellphone for his pocket and looked at me. "Here, I'm calling Max. After class, he will inform Professor Brawston that we took her sweet, lovely daughter out to have some fun. By the time he finishes his last class, Rachel will be in his arms by then." Then, Eric pressed call and relayed the message to his head of security.  

I wasn't expecting Eric in this flavor. He had always been the follow-the-rules and do-what's-right kind of guy. Now, he had seemed like, he had evolved. I like it.

"Hey, guys! Let's go already!" shouted Rachel from afar, her voice echoed in the semi-empty halls. Her cried joys were heard. Eric and I walked behind her, and she was leading the way, all pumped and excited like a real, perfect, and imaginary family.

It took about two hours from Wixton Academy to Gorchoire, which was where my treehouse was built. When we had arrived, Rachel got out of the car the second the engine was turned off.

"A treehouse!" Rachel gasped, placing both palms on her mouth. She was in awe, standing right in front of the humongous, modernized treehouse. "I've never been to a treehouse before!"

"Go ahead and have fun, kiddo!" yelled Eric and laughed at the sight of Rachel head-over-heels excited.

"Rachel, please be careful!" I shouted immediately.

"Okay, momma. I— I mean, Avery," she said as she climbed up the stairs, her tongue out as a sign of eagerness.

Crossing my arms, I surveyed the entire area, and right then, I noticed a huge difference. The empty, desolate land I had seen weeks before didn't seem so empty now. There were men in complete, safety construction uniform scouring the area, with blueprints on their hands widely spread. "What is all this?" I asked Eric, dreamily looking over the development. "You'll know it when it's finished," he replied.

"You two look so good to each other!" screamed Rachel from on top, her head outside the window, feeling the cold breeze.

"How do you like this?" Eric put his arms around my shoulders to which Rachel giggled extremely, her laugh was very audible from the ground.

I shrugged him off after Rachel stopped laughing. "Nice try," I mumbled with a little smile.

Nearly three hours had passed, and Rachel definitely had her fun. Inside the treehouse, we played kingdom forts to boardgames to sharing stories around our imaginary bonfire. We ate, and laughed, and had an awesome time in a place where our hopeful hearts found rest.

After all the fun, it was time to head back to Wixton.

Inside the car, Rachel slept on my lap while never letting go of her toy teddy bear. All her playing made her tired. "Hey, why did you really come to see me?" I whispered to Eric beside me.

Eric scoffed and looked at me in the eye. "You're my best friend and my wife in one. I don't need a reason to see you." I didn't respond. There was an awkward pause in the middle which was not new for us at all. "So...how was one night sleeping alone in your apartment?" He filled in the air.

"I...I wasn't alone. I was with Nathan," I replied, turning my head the other way. I didn't want to lie to him anymore, but it didn't erase the guilt, not by a small chance.

"Oh..." he said, looking out the window.

"She's cuddling. E-ric! Eric! Hey, look at her!" I said, shoving his elbow. "She's cuddling me. Sh-should I cuddle her back?" I whispered.

"Um, yeah, sure I guess."

"Okay, okay." I sighed. "I don't know why I'm feeling nervous about this. I mean, I only met her today." I moved her head on my chest.

"Sometimes, love ignites even when you don't strike a match. It makes fire with itself," said Eric seriously.

As I stroked her hair calmly, she yawned and wiggled more into my chest, her fingers curled. When she had made herself comfortable, she said something out of the blue.

"I love you, momma."

My heart shined like metal.

I couldn't explain how it really felt. It was as if I were on the edge of a cliff, about to fall down plummeting a hundred feet to a gigantic air sack. I wasn't sure if it was the words I love you which made my heart flutter, or if it was the manner she said it. Or maybe it was the unusual circumstance of love being present.

She fell asleep on my chest on the way home. And everything went smooth sailing from there.