Expressions of Trust: the on-going growth of the Quiet Leader

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Quiet Leader. The one who brings leadership to the team queitly, but powerfully so. She does much of her leading when no one else is looking, and does so in an unthreatening way.
She's continued to do well, taking on more responsibility.
But there's another piece to her now, too. She seems to be trusting me more. She hates talking on the phone, yet I get calls from her, telling me about the newest advertising wave. She cracks jokes, in a mature, yet hysterical fashion. And she calls me out on things when she thinks I need calling out on.
And it is this last piece that is really inspiring. For QL to feel confident enough in herself that she can put me in my place, is really rewarding. She has this great way of doing it - like when she calls her peers out on something - she does so with humor, class and style.
A few weeks ago, she called me out on the fact that I had clearly seen a message on her FB (not that it was hidden, but I try not to read their walls too often - status, yes, walls, no). She called me a 'creeper' - and it became an on-going joke. I started signing emails as G-creeper, she called me G-creeper. But I noticed that this on-going joke seemed to increase her trust in me. Last weekend, she changed the creeper to 'overly affectionate'. Cute.
Later, I had a conversation with one of her friends. Turns out QL has been having a really hard month, and hasn't really been communicating with some of her closest friends. She'd felt a little isolated from them for a variety of reasons, and had been hurt by it. I finally put the pieces together this past weekend. And sent her an email, thanking her for all her hard-work and dedication. She wrote back, saying it was she who should thank me, for giving her the opportunity to grow and to become a leader. She's so humble. And such a role model for adults and youth.
She'll be representing us at a conference next week, and seems excited to go. I couldn't think of a better person, a better team member or a stronger leader to represent us... QL will prove the importance of being a QL.