Jo really had had no idea what she was agreeing to when she'd offered to take Maxine in. One night had turned into a few and at this point, Jo couldn't see herself just leaving the girl at the mercies of whatever City social services were in place here. The natives of the City didn't seem too bright and she didn't trust them to place the girl with someone who wasn't, say, Hannibal Lector (whose name she had seen in the phonebook under doctors, which was all levels of disturbing)
She hadn't expected the erratic alarms or the way Maxine went outside at all hours of the day and night. Or night and... night, now that the sun had disappeared entirely.
When Ted arrived, Jo had been passed out. Or else she would have been the one to get the door. Even she realized that you weren't supposed to let five year olds answer the door by themselves.
Jo woke up and heard the sound of voices downstairs. She didn't bother to change out of the t-shirt and Star Wars (yes, Star Wars) pajama pants that she was wearing and instead hurried down the stairs to make sure everything was all right.
She stopped short when she saw who was at the door, talking to Maxine. It wasn't that she'd been deliberately hiding things from Ted. It was just that at first she'd assumed the situation was temporary. She was still operating under that possibly false assumption. Or she was still sort of shell shocked as she figured out how to be responsible for an actual child. And on top of that, she hadn't known how to explain it.
"Ted, hi," she said. "Uh, this is Maxine."
She moved forward and put her hand on Maxine's shoulder.