Better Days

WANDA POV:

I was sitting in Nat's office finishing up my placement test for school while she read over some files. Some things on the test were easy, but the majority of the subjects made next to zero sense to me. I knew I was failing it but I just wanted to get it over with so I settled for guessing.

I finally finished it after about four solid hours of working on it. "Done," I sighed as I closed the booklet. 

"Good job," Nat praised as she grabbed the test from me and put it on the corner of her desk. I had no idea if she would be the one grading it or if she was going to send it to the school she planned for me to go to. "Why don't you head out and grab some food or something and I'll be out in a little bit?" she suggested.

"Okay," I said as I got up and stretched my leg and back muscles that were cramped from being in the same position for so long. I left her office and went into the kitchen to grab some food. I settled on a PB sandwich and some apple slices. 

I sat at the table, slowly eating my food, while I thought of what school was going to be like. I still didn't want to go but I knew that I really didn't have a choice, Nat was going to make me go. I tried to come up with a plan for what I could do once she dropped me off, surely there would be a way for me to sneak off of the campus. Oh well, I guess I'll just figure it out once I actually have to go to school. 

Hopefully I still had a few months before she forced me to go but I knew that I was starting to do better without her, there really wasn't a reason for her to keep me home anymore. I would fake something but I didn't want to be seen as weak any longer. 

"Hey kiddo," I looked up to see Tony walking into the kitchen. 

"Hey," I said. "What're you doing?" 

"Nothing much, just grabbing a snack. I was working in my lab but I need a few new pieces so I ordered them but they won't be here till later. That means I'm stuck doing nothing until they come!" he said with a dramatic groan. 

"Do you want to train with me? I want to get better at using my powers but Nat can't exactly fly so she can't help me with stuff in the air."

"Sure, I've gotta check with mama bear to make sure it's okay and then I'll help you. Are you back to normal?"

I had just finished getting over being sick and my energy levels were just starting to get back to normal but I felt basically the same as I did before I got sick so I would consider that normal. "Yeah, I am feeling much better," I told him. 

"Alright, let me go check with Natasha, I'll be right back."

I was excited to finally train again. Nat had made me take time off when I was sick and for a few days following that but since I was back to being myself, hopefully she'd let me train. I needed to get better because there had to be another mission happening sometime soon and I needed to be ready if I wanted a chance of Nat letting me go. 

I had the thought that I could always sneak onto a mission if Nat didn't let me go but I quickly changed my mind after I remembered what happened the last time I snuck onto a mission. I didn't want to go through that again.

Tony came back, pulling me from my thoughts. "She said yes short-stack, let's go." I held back a cheer as I followed Tony into the gym. One of his suits was waiting for him in the gym and he walked over to it, letting it wrap around his body. He flipped the face-plate up so that he could talk to me. 

"Okay, so I want to take it easy since you're just starting to feel better so let me know if I push you too hard. For now, I just want you to fly up into the air and then land gently. I'll help you if you need it." 

I took a deep breath and let my powers flow out of my hands. I put my hands in a position where my palms were facing the ground so that the red clouds could push my body off of the ground beneath me. 

I was able to shakily lift myself about three feet off of the ground before I stopped. I thought it would be easier than it was but then again, this was my first time really trying to fly. 

Tony came next to me and held his arms out, waiting to catch me if needed. "Can you lift yourself any higher?" 

I nodded as I put all of my thought into shoving my powers into the ground. I slowly lifted another few feet. I felt my hands getting a little shaky but I was able to hold myself up. Tony now had to hover about a foot above the ground in order to stay level with my waist. 

"Good job!" he told me. "Do you want to try going higher?" At this point, my feet were about 5 feet off the ground but I did want to go higher. 

I nodded again as I tried to push myself higher. My powers faltered for a second and I tilted forward but Tony was quick to wrap his arms around my waist to hold me up. "You're good," he told me as I took short, fast breaths. "Do you want to rest for a second?"

"No," I told him as I caught my breath. He very slowly unwrapped his arms from around me and let me go back to hovering by myself. I successfully did that so I pushed my powers to the floor again and raised another couple of feet. My head was now about three feet from the ceiling. 

"Good," Tony said. "Now let's try to land gently." 

I tried to slowly limit the powers holding me up but the second I started to lower, I lost control of my powers and went falling to the floor. Tony caught me almost immediately and I gripped onto his suit. I was out of breath and could feel how shaky I was but I wanted to continue. I knew I wasn't back to complete strength since getting sick but I thought I'd be better than this. 

"I can do it," I said before he was able to suggest resting. His arms stayed hovering about a few inches away from my waist as I lowered myself to the floor. This time, my powers were able to allow me to land on the floor gently. 

"Good job!" he told me once again. "That was awesome for your first time Wanda! Do you want to try again?"

I nodded and was quick to push myself into the air. I was a lot more confident this time in raising myself up to the ceiling and I pushed my entire body up into the air, stopping when I was about a foot away from the ceiling. 

"Wow, you did that much faster and steadier this time," Tony said from his position right next to me. "Are you ready to try landing again?" 

I was a little more worried about this than getting into the air but I kept telling myself that I could do it as I nodded and slowly lowered myself to the ground. I was shaky by the time I got to the floor but I managed to lower myself the entire way without any mishaps. 

"Great job, now let's try focusing on other things while in the air." I nodded and raised myself about five feet in the air, stopping when Tony told me too. 

He set up some machine in the corner of the room and then raised himself so that he was right behind me. "Alright, the machine will throw items at you and all you need to do is dodge them. If you get tired or just want to step, let me know and I'll stop the machine. It's set to slow right now so it shouldn't throw them too fast and if one hits you, it shouldn't hurt too bad."

I didn't know what the machine was going to be throwing but I didn't have to wonder long as the machine started firing tennis balls towards me. It took me a second to figure out how to move around, more than just up and down, but I was able to pick it up pretty easily and then dodging the balls was simple. 

Tony turned the machine up after a few minutes of me dodging the balls without getting hit. The higher setting was a little harder to dodge but I was still able to do it without getting hit. 

Tony continued turning the machine up until we were at the third to highest setting. I had gotten hit a few times on the lighter levels and it stung a little bit but wasn't bad. 

"Okay Wanda, you seem to do pretty good with controlling your movements while in the air. Now, on this level, I want you to stay put and use your powers to deflect the balls. Do you think you can do that?"

I nodded while taking a deep breath. Tony told me he was going to turn on the machine and it started firing the tennis balls much faster than before. I got hit several times while I tried to figure out how to use my powers while in the air. Right now, all of my powers were focused on holding me up in the air. Tony let me get hit a few more times before he turned off the machine. 

"Sorry," I told him as I continued to try to figure out how to use my powers for something other than holding me in the air. 

"You're fine, we should've started on a lighter level first. Here, how about we try to catch the bean bags instead? That way it won't hurt if it hits you." I nodded at this and watched as Tony walked over to a bucket full of bean bags. 

He tossed one up to where I was floating and I tried to catch it but again, my powers did nothing other than holding me up. 

"Try using one hand to catch the bean bag while the other one stays pointed at the ground, controlling the power holding you up." I tried what Tony said but it just wasn't working. I was starting to get frustrated and I picked both of my hands up to try to move my powers in front of me. 

It worked but then there was nothing under me holding me up so I fell towards the ground for the second time today. 

Tony was ready for me and was able to catch me before I hit the ground. I wanted to keep going and I went to let go of him to lift myself up when he said, "Alright, I think that's enough for today. You did really good!" I was slightly upset that we weren't going to continue but I was exhausted and a little shaky so I didn't argue as Tony carried me the rest of the way to the ground.

He high-fived me and told me how good I did for my first time as we picked up all of the tennis balls. 

We finished cleaning everything and I realized that I had trained for about two hours. "Thanks for helping me Tony," I told him on my way out of the gym.

"No problem," he told me with a smile. "It gave me something to do while waiting for my pieces to arrive." 

I walked through the hallways until I got to my room. I decided to take a quick shower since I was sweaty from training. 

I quickly showered and changed before walking into the lounge. I was exhausted from training and from exerting so much energy in using my powers so I was glad to relax into the couch. "Where's Nat?" I asked Steve who was sitting on the couch as well, reading through some paperwork. 

"Um, the last I saw her she was in her office. FRIDAY, where's Nat?"

"Ms. Romanoff is currently on her way to the lounge room you are in."

"Thanks," Steve told the ceiling as we waited for Nat to enter the room.

"Hey sweetie," Nat said as she sat down next to me and pulled me into her side as she pressed a kiss to my temple. "How did training with Tony go? He didn't push you too hard did he?"

"No, he was good. Training went well, we worked on using my powers to make me float and then power control while in the air. I haven't really gotten that part down yet but I can move around in the air pretty well. It's like I'm flying!" I told her excitedly. 

"That's so cool! Don't worry about the power control thing, I know that you'll get it soon, today was only your first day." I smiled as I leaned into her. 

"So," Nat started after a few minutes of silence, "I was thinking. I had told Fury that I was only to be used on missions that absolutely needed me but that I wasn't to go on any extra, smaller missions. I wanted to make sure that I was around you in the beginning in case you needed anything. Now that you are doing better by yourself, I was wondering if you would be okay with me telling Fury that I was available for other missions again? I can take more time off if you aren't ready for me to go yet!"

For some reason, I felt anger. Not at the fact that she wanted to go back, but more for the fact that she felt she needed to stay home for me in case I blew up or something. I tried to take some deep breaths as I pulled away from her side, not wanting to blow up at her, but I was finding it difficult. The rational part of my brain told me that she did that because she cares about me and wanted to make sure that she was there for me if I wanted her, but the irrational part of my brain was saying that she did it because I was weak and because she needed to make sure that I didn't do anything to hurt anyone, since I couldn't be trusted. 

"Why did you tell Fury you couldn't leave me?" I asked in as neutral a tone as I could but I knew it came out as a bit of a snap.

"I didn't tell him that I couldn't leave you," she responded after a slight pause. "I told him that for a few weeks, I was going to be unavailable to go on any missions unless they absolutely needed me. Unfortunately, he still asked me to go on a few missions that didn't need me, like the one that I got hurt on, but there would've been a ton of other missions if I hadn't notified him of the situation."

"Why did you think that you couldn't leave me?"

"What?" she asked, sounding confused.

"You said that you couldn't go on missions because you needed to make sure that you didn't leave me. Why didn't you want to leave me?" 

"Wanda, honey, you aren't making much sense. I told Fury that I couldn't go on missions but I never mentioned you. Of course he now knows about you but your personal life wasn't any of his business so I didn't share any details. I just told you that I wanted to make sure I was home with you in case you needed me. Of course I didn't want to leave you! You're my favorite person!"

That did nothing to calm me down and instead made me even more mad. I was kind of confused with myself for getting so angry because I knew that Nat wasn't trying to be rude or do anything to make me upset, she was trying to protect me and take care of me. Part of me didn't understand that though so I was getting upset. 

"So you didn't think that I could handle myself without you?" I asked, finally letting my anger show.

"No, I didn't say that, I absolutely think that you can handle yourself without me, I just wanted to show you that I cared about you after you first started staying here with us."

"You're lying," I said. "You didn't think I could handle myself and you didn't stay with me because you cared about me, you stayed with me because you needed to make sure I didn't hurt anyone because you didn't trust me!" I had raised my voice at this point and was staring into Nat's confused eyes. 

"Wanda, calm down, I 100% trust you and you know that I care about you so much! What's going on?"

"No, you didn't trust me and you didn't care about me. I was a weak person who was almost dead and you didn't trust me not to hurt anyone in my state so you made sure that you would constantly be with me to stop me from hurting anyone. You tied me down when I hurt Tony and then didn't let me out for a long time. You didn't trust me and that point has been made even clearer by you saying that you had to be around me in the beginning." I was fuming and panting from my rant. Nat still looked insanely confused but there was a slight look of realization on her face. 

"Wanda, that's not true, I al-"

"Stop saying Wanda in that tone! You are patronizing me and I hate it! Stop it!"

"Honey, I'm not trying to do anything that upsets you."

"Whatever," I huffed. I was angry at both Nat and myself. Why was I getting so mad at her? 

"Excuse me?" Nat said with a raised eyebrow.

"I said whatever!" I yelled. "You're lying to me and I don't appreciate it! I can't believe you viewed me as so much of a monster that you couldn't trust me by myself for a few hours while you went on a mission!" I got up and dodged Nat's hand that tried to grab me as I stormed to my room and slammed the door. 

I locked the door behind me and slid down the door, breathing heavily as I tried to figure out what had just happened. 

I was surprised when Nat didn't immediately come to my room, especially because I slammed the door. For some reason, this made me even more furious. I had a tiny voice in my brain that kept telling me that she didn't come because she hated me and that everything I said was true, she really didn't care about me. If she really cared about me, she would be coming to the door to talk to me, maybe even punish me, but no, she was nowhere to be seen.

NATASHA POV:

I was still reading over some case files when Tony came into my office. "Hey Tasha, Wanda was asking me if I could help her train? She wants to fly, but I wanted to check with you first, especially since she was sick not too long ago. Are you okay with us training?"

"Sure," I told him. "Is she okay doing it with just you or does she need me in the room?"

"I think she's okay with just me, she didn't say anything about needing you in the room."

"Wow."

"What?"

"Nothing, I'm just surprised that she's going to be okay by herself. She also just got over her separation issues and hasn't gone that long without me yet. I'm glad to see she's getting more independent. Okay, well if you need anything or she needs anything, just ask FRIDAY to get me."

"Will do, thanks!" Tony said as he left my office. I was so proud of my girl for getting better at handling her separation issues. I obviously had no issues with it and was willing to be with her if that was what she needed but I knew that it was eventually going to cause issues for the both of us because we couldn't do everything together. She had already shown some improvements with her separation but she hadn't really been willing to be by herself for too long yet so this was a major step! 

I thought a little more on it and then went back to reading more case files. 

The time flew by and before I knew it, a few hours had passed. I hadn't heard from FRIDAY asking for me so I slowly made my way to the lounge area, seeing if Wanda and Tony were done. 

Wanda was sitting on the couch with Steve when I entered so I sat next to her and pulled her into me. I asked her how training went and she excitedly told me about what they did and how it felt like she was flying. 

Once I saw that she wasn't super anxious about being away from me for so long, I decided to ask her how she felt about me telling Fury I was ready to go on missions again. I was prepared for a few different types of reactions but a blowup was not what I expected. 

"Why did you tell Fury you couldn't leave me?" she asked me after I had asked her and I picked up a tone of anger in her voice. It caught me slightly off guard but I responded, telling her that I never told Fury about Wanda's personal life. That was not my place. 

She continued to ask questions that didn't make much sense. She was asking me questions that I thought I had already answered or questions that made no point in asking. I tried my best to answer but she just seemed to get more and more upset as time went on. 

She was screaming at me, telling me that I didn't trust her and insisting that she was weak, that was the reason behind why I didn't want to go on any missions when in reality, it was because I wanted to build a bond between the two of us. She also wasn't doing well the first few weeks and desperately needed someone to take care of her. 

She mentioned being tied down and I knew immediately that she was referring to the restraints. I glanced over Wanda's shoulder to look at Steve. He was sitting there, also surprised at the sudden outburst. I looked back to Wanda as she was finishing part of her rant. "You didn't trust me and that point has been made even clearer by you saying that you had to be around me in the beginning." 

I was starting to piece together that she thought that I didn't go on missions due to me not trusting her but that was not true at all. "Wanda, that's not true, I al-"

"Stop saying Wanda in that tone!" she cut me off. "You are patronizing me and I hate it! Stop it!" 

I tried to hide my surprise as I responded with, "Honey, I'm not trying to do anything that upsets you."

"Whatever," she huffed under her breath and it peaked my anger a bit. 

"Excuse me?" Normally that tone would calm her down and snap her out of whatever daze she was in, making her be a lot more respectful but instead, she yelled some more.

"I said whatever! You're lying to me and I don't appreciate it! I can't believe you viewed me as so much of a monster that you couldn't trust me by myself for a few hours while you went on a mission!" She then stood up and started to leave the room. I tried to grab her but she seemed to expect that as she dodged out of the way and ran to her room, slamming the door loudly behind her. 

I sat on the couch, completely baffled by what had just happened. I never in a million years would have expected Wanda to blow up that way to the news that I gave her. I really didn't think it was a big deal. Apparently Wanda was feeling something and holding onto something that I had just glazed over. 

I released a breath as Steve looked at me. "Just give her a minute," he said as I stood up to go deal with her. I wasn't really mad, just confused. The slamming of the door always got under my skin, but right now, I think Steve was right, she needed a minute. 

"I have no idea what just happened," I admitted to Steve. "I did not expect her to react that way at all! Was I doing something wrong?" I asked, wondering if there was something he picked up on that I didn't.

"I'm as confused as you are," he said. "One second she was fine, the next second, she's screaming her head off. Do you want me to go talk to her and try to figure out what's wrong?"

"No, I'm going to give her a few minutes to cool off and then I'll go talk to her. I don't even know what to do. I want to figure out what's going on because she obviously has something that's bothering her or some feeling that she's holding onto. I don't really know if I should punish her or not, usually Clint helps me with these things," I laughed lightly. She wasn't necessarily that disrespectful to me, yes, she shouldn't be screaming at me, but the words weren't really rude, she seemed upset and overwhelmed. I desperately wanted to know what was going on but I knew that if I went to her before she had cooled off a little bit, that I would get absolutely nowhere. 

"You could always text him," Steve responded, referring to Clint. 

"Yeah, I'll figure it out," I smiled at him. 

"Let me know if you need any help," he said as he got up and squeezed my shoulder, heading downstairs. 

I sat on the couch for a few more minutes while I took some deep breaths, trying to understand what had happened and trying to figure out what had made Wanda upset. 

I finally got up and headed down the hall to her room, the door was closed and I could hear her heavy breathing on the other side. From the shadow at the bottom of the door, she was sitting right in front of the door. 

I knocked and waited for a response. When I got none, I started talking. "Wanda, it's Nat, can I come in please?"

No answer but the breathing got quieter. "Wanda, I just want to talk. What made you so upset?" No response. "I can't help you if I don't know what's going on." There was still no response. I tried the door knob and found that it was locked. "Wanda, can you unlock your door? I don't have to come in but I want to make sure I can if needed."

I waited a few seconds and tried the knob again to find it still locked. I slid down the door on the other side as I tried to talk to her. "Wanda, talk to me baby, what's going on? Honey, I didn't mean to upset you at all, I just wanted your opinion on the whole Fury mission thing. Are you upset with the idea of me going on missions again?" It was dead silent on the other end of the door. 

"Wanda, are you okay? I really didn't mean to upset you."

"Go away," she growled from the other end of the door. So she was still mad. I was racking my brain for what I could've done to make her mad but I couldn't think of anything I did wrong other than suggesting I go back on missions. She had had some traumatic experiences with missions, first me getting hurt, then her getting caught, it would make sure if she was against missions. 

"Wanda," I tried again after a few minutes.

"I said go away!"

I sighed but decided to leave her for now. "Ask FRIDAY if you need me," I told her gently. There was no response, big surprise, as I left her door and headed down the hall to my room. I wasn't going far in case this was something more than her just being mad at me. 

"FRIDAY, tell me if Wanda does anything to hurt herself or if she tries to leave the compound." 

"Will do Ms. Romanoff." 

I settled on reading for a few hours until it was time for dinner. Tony had ordered pizza. 

On my way to the kitchen, I knocked on Wanda's door to let her know it was dinner time. "Wanda, Tony ordered pizza for dinner. Everyone is headed to the kitchen to eat, please come out and grab a slice. You can come back to your room if you need to." 

FRIDAY had told me that she was awake and that she had heard me so I continued down the hallway to the kitchen.

We made it through the entire dinner and Wanda never showed up. The team was going to play games and watch a movie so I decided to try again to talk to Wanda. 

"Wanda, everyone misses you. We are going to play games and watch a movie, do you want to come?" I heard light footsteps on the other end and smiled as I heard the door unlock. She opened the door and looked at me. Her eyes were red which meant she had been crying. 

She threw my pajamas at me and said, "Sleep in your own room tonight, I don't wanna see you," and then she slammed the door in my face. 

My emotions were going all over the place. I was upset that she didn't want to see me, confused as to what was going on, angry at the fact that she slammed the door in my face, and torn between the decision to get mad and yell at her for slamming the door or staying soft and trying to comfort her and figure out what was going on. 

I chose to ignore it for now as I walked down the hallway to put my pajamas in my room. I then went back into the living room where everyone was getting settled for games and a movie. 

"Wanda will not be joining us," I said as I sat next to Steve on the couch. 

"Do you want me to go talk to her?" he asked. 

"You can try, she just threw my clothes at me and said that I am not welcome into her room and that I need to sleep in my own room tonight. She doesn't want to see me and hasn't opened up to me all afternoon. Then she slammed the door in my face and re-locked the door. I have no idea what's going on with her but I'm not liking it."

"I'll go talk to her," he said and he got up and left the living room. 

He came back about ten minutes later with a frown on his face. "Any luck?" I asked. 

"Nope, she was silent." I sighed but tried to get my mind off of it as I played games with the team. I could barely focus on them and ended up leaving early due to my worry for Wanda. 

I tried one more time to talk to her before I went to bed. "Wanda, I just want you to know that I love you and you can come and talk to me at any time. I really want to help you honey, my door is open at any time. If you need anything, ask FRIDAY and she'll get me. Goodnight sweetie, I love you." It broke my heart a little when all I got in return was silence. I was hoping she'd at least say that she loved me but nope. 

I walked to my room and laid down, knowing I was probably not going to get any sleep. "FRIDAY, wake me up if Wanda has a nightmare please."

"Of course Ms. Romanoff." I stared at the ceiling, replaying the conversation from earlier in my brain, trying to figure out what made her angry. Nothing came to mind so I eventually gave up.

At around 1 am, FRIDAY told me that Wanda was in distress. She then notified me a few minutes later that Wanda had woken up from a nightmare and was crying. I desperately wanted to run to her and comfort her but I knew that her door was probably still locked and that me showing up without permission would probably not be appreciated by Wanda. 

I really hoped that she'd come to me instead of suffering by herself. "FRIDAY, is Wanda awake?" I asked after about half an hour had passed. 

"Yes Ms. Romanoff. She is still crying." 

I got out of bed and walked down the hallway. I was able to hear her cries from the hallway and it broke my heart. I knocked on the door and all sounds from the other side stopped. I tried the knob and it was locked, just like I had expected. "Wanda, are you okay in there?" I asked. I waited a few seconds and there was no response. "Can I come in?" 

This time I waited a little over a minute but there was still nothing. "Honey, please let me help you," I pleaded. Nothing. I sighed but decided that Wanda probably wanted me to leave. "Alright baby, I'm going back to my room. If you need me, just yell or ask FRIDAY and I'll be here. You can come to me too." I stepped away from the door and waited. 

After about two minutes, the heartbreaking sobs started again from inside of her room. I sighed as I went to my room. Instead of laying down, I paced up and down the length of my room. 

I got tired of pacing and I sat on the edge of my bed, waiting for my door to open at any moment with Wanda needing something. 

"Ms. Maximoff has fallen asleep," FRIDAY informed me softly after about an hour. It was now nearly 3 in the morning. I just hoped that she'd be able to sleep soundly for the rest of the night. 

That wasn't the case and FRIDAY notified me about 45 minutes later that Wanda was in distress. 5 minutes following that, I got a message saying that she was awake and crying. I sighed, wishing that she would come to me. 

I laid in bed for about 10 minutes before I heard light footsteps in the hallway. The lights were off so I decided to just lay there, seeing what would happen. 

I heard my door open and I heard the sniffling and light crying of Wanda as she stood in my doorway. I barely opened my eyes to see her standing there, turning her head from my bed to the hallway. She started to turn around, facing the hallway, and I "woke up," trying to make it seem like I had been sleeping. I didn't want her to think that I didn't care about her but I also didn't want her to think that I didn't trust her to handle her nightmare by herself, forcing me to stay awake. 

"Wanda?" I asked in a sleepy voice. 

"Nat?"

"C'mere," I told her softly as I sat up slightly in the bed. 

"I'm sorry mama," she sobbed as she crossed my room and crawled into bed with me, shoving her face in my chest. 

"Shh, shh, you're okay. You're safe, I've got you, shh. I've got you baby." I rocked her gently and she calmed down, still laying her head against my chest. 

"I'm so sorry for earlier Tasha," she said in a voice that made her sound much younger than 16. 

"It's okay, I'm not mad, I just want to know what's going on."

"Can we talk about it tomorrow? I will tell you, I'm just so tired." Her crying picked up a little bit at that statement and I hugged her a little tighter.

"Of course we can talk about it tomorrow."

"Can I sleep with you? I don't want to go back to my room by myself. Please."

"Honey, you can always sleep with me. I'm never going to make you sleep by yourself if you don't want to. Do you want to stay in here or do you want to go back to your room."

"We can stay here."

"Okay sweetie, try to get some sleep. I'll be right here."

"Okay mama," she said sleepily as she laid on my shoulder. I rubbed her back gently as she fell asleep. I was ready for her to tell me what was bothering her but I wasn't going to push her to tell me and sleep was much more important than that so she could sleep first, talk later. I was just glad I had my girl back with me again.