"Because!" Maxine started. Seeing both of them together in the hallway filled Maxine with anxiety, particularly when she could still sense that Wash was upset. That, with the calm fake Wash next to him was more than the child was able to process. Her eyes started to well up with tears.
"Our teacher took us to the Christmas tree in the City and told us all to make a wish and I wished you were my real dad and you weren't and then he followed me home and he didn't go away so I said he had to hide in the closet!"
Maxine wasn't hyperventilating but she was a few heartbeats away from humiliated sobbing.