Emma's Point of View
The clock finally came full circle, 8:01, we were making progress, minute by minute; only 59 minutes to go. I sat at the front of the drawing room, near the window and I could feel Dash's eyes on me so I refused to turn around. I began to chip my mint green nail polish off my fingers and watched the tiny flakes as they fell to the floor.
Soon enough snores came from the back and I turned to find Leo sleeping with his head facing the ceiling, tilted back and leaning across two chairs. I rolled my eyes and continued to pay attention to my nails like it was the most important thing that had ever happened. Normally, I felt a tiny urge of hunger but right now I felt nothing. I felt on cloud nine, like I could go months, years without eating again. No noise or feeling came from my stomach and that made me feel oh so good. Tick, tick, tick.
From the screeching sound of a chair I could tell Dash had stood up and I guessed right when I felt movement behind me. He sat in the chair directly behind me and sighed as if he hadn't slept for days.
"Charlie waking up today, I didn't expect that," Dash said.
This caught my attention, it wasn't about me and Charlie waking up was a huge deal. I nodded and said "I'm happy for him, he has a long way to go but waking up from a coma, that's amazing. I can't wait to get to know him."
"Charlie and I have had so many conversations while I was under anesthesia. It sounds crazy but I feel like I already know him," he confessed.
As someone who had never had surgery or "been under" as they call it, I lacked the experience with Charlie the others had. Yet another thing that makes me different from the other Red Banders.
"Yeah, I wish I knew him like you guys do," Emma said sadly.
"You will eventually. He'll love you, it's impossible not to," I said, truthfully. "But, Emma you know he'll love you regardless of—"
"STOP!" Emma shrieked. "Don't you dare say it Dash. It's done, it's over. I should never have told you. You promised not to say anything."
"I know Emma, but this is serious. I don't think you realize that there are certain things you do, certain tendencies you have; your anorexia could have stemmed from this. Maybe if your therapist knew you could actually make some improvements in your health instead of staying stagnant like you have been or getting worse which it seems like you are lately," Dash rambled. He paused before speaking again, "Is he—is that guy still teaching? Emma, you don't have to go through this alone, and you don't have to hide it. I'm glad you told me but, I don't think you should stop there, I think you should tell someone else. Leo, Nurse Jackson, someone else needs to know. It could help you."
Tears welled up in my eyes and I blinked back furiously to try and get rid of them but they came streaming down anyway.
"What the hell is going on?" a low voice from the back asked. Leo.
He probably woke up when I screamed, which means he heard Dash's monologue. The wonderfully empty feeling in my stomach was more prominent than ever and I flew out of my chair to escape this room. It was as if it happened in slow motion, I popped up out of my chair and my neck flew back away from my body, my arm grabbed onto Dash's chair to catch myself and I could feel my wrist twisting. The empty feeling was still there, I was no longer hungry, I was fine, I could go to sleep now. And I did, as my arm let go of the chair and my body began to fall towards the hard tile ground.
Leo's Point of View
I woke up to a girl screaming, Emma.
I heard what Dash said to her and I have never been more confused in my life. Emma began to cry and before I knew it she was falling and because of my damn leg I couldn't catch her. I was too far and too crippled. I really didn't deserve her.
But, Dash could save her. Save the day like he always did. She was so close to hitting the ground when he grabbed under her back and caught the back of her thighs and carefully lowered her to the ground. I had never been so jealous of Dash than in that moment. But, at the same time I wanted to hug him because a 90 pound girl crashing to the floor could not have ended well.
We both went to the floor with her and tried to wake her up, but she wouldn't wake up. She wasn't doing anything. The Emma I know is a fighter and she wasn't fighting. She couldn't do anything.
"Emma! Emma! Wake up god dammit!" I cried out. "Em, it's me you have to wake up, you have to."
Wordlessly, Dash flew up and ran out the door to get help. I could hear him from the hallway yelling "Help! There's a girl down! Help!"
"What are you on about, Dash?" another voice asked.
"Just come Dr. McAndrew. Hurry!" Dash yelled back.
I clutched onto Emma's shoulders, begging for all hell for my girl to wake up.
Dr. McAndrew's Point of View
I was walking by the drawing room with a pile of x-rays when Dash crashed into me, causing me to drop the files all over the hallway. After a back and forth of yelling, I followed him into the drawing room to see a crying Leo hovering over an unconscious Emma.
"What the hell happened to her?" I asked the boys, and rushing towards the fallen girl.
"She stood up and she was all dizzy and fell backwards. Dash caught her before she fell, but she won't wake up," Leo responded frantically.
I reached towards Emma's arm and felt an extremely faint pulse.
"Boys step back, and move out of the way now," I instructed. They fell back and watched as I lifted the small girl into my arms. It was like carrying a pillow, she was far too skinny. I hurriedly carried her out to the hallway and straight across the hall, past the double doors to the pre-surgical preparation room and laid her down on a bed.
"We need a team here! I have a sixteen year old female, anorexic patient. Page Dr. Peter Morales, we'll need a feeding tube and we'll have to open her up," I barked orders. "You two," I said to Dash and Leo who followed me, get out and go back to your rooms."
They immediately began protesting and giving in I said "Fine, wait in the waiting room, but you can't stay here."
I treat these kids and I love these kids very much. But, sometimes I think they get too close. These are all very serious illnesses and there's no telling which one of them, if any will survive them. Emma is a great friend of their's but, she might not make it. And I couldn't bring myself to tell those boys that.
Dash and Leo reluctantly left while I along with a scrub nurse prepped Emma for surgery. She had starved herself to the point of no return. When someone's starving, there comes a point when they no longer feel hungry, and that's when they are close to death. I am an oncologist, not a general surgeon but I obviously have knowledge of Emma's situation. I will aid Dr. Morales in putting a feeding tube in Emma, both as a doctor helping another doctor but, also as a protector of the other members of the "Red Band Society" in which they call themselves.
Standard precaution at the hospital is to always test a female for pregnancy before doing any x-ray, surgery, or handing over medication. Amy, a nurse took blood from Emma's arm and rushed it to the lab for testing. It would only take a few minutes and when the nurse gave me the okay with the results to confirm Emma was in fact not pregnant I opened up a central line in Emma's frail elbow crease, and stuck an IV in her arm to begin pumping her with medications she'll need for emergency surgery. We began to wheel to the operating room and Dr. Morales came soon enough.
"It's Emma? Oh no, she's been here a long time. I was wondering when this time would come," Dr. Morales said.
For patients with eating disorders who didn't improve on their own there was only two options: death or a feeding tube. And I would not let Emma die.
Kate, the anesthesiologist successfully put Emma under and cleared us to start cutting. Peter Morales is the best general surgeon in the state and Emma was safe in his hands. But, I couldn't bring myself to leave even though my hands weren't really needed.
Morales cut her shirt down the middle with a pair of surgical scissors, leaving Emma in just her bra. I grabbed a drape sheet to cover her and noticed her bones on her ribcage were protruding in ways I didn't know they could. Morales continued by cutting down her stomach and opening up her esophagus, placing the tube in it's proper location and making sure the nutrients pumped through the tube would channel to the rest of her body.
I held the clamp as he stitched her back up, only this time Emma had a tube in the middle of her stomach, and although it would help her health tremendously in the short-term, it would be harmful in the long-term. When she woke up, she would not be happy about the tube and I don't blame her. Those things are painful and many times humiliating. Force feeding is never a pretty sight.
Morales was finished and a couple of nurses helped get a hospital gown on the still unconscious girl while unhooking her to all the machines. Now we just had to wheel her to recovery, begin her first feeding, and wait for her to wake up.
Emma's Point of View
If this is what dying feels like, I never want to do it ever again. Was I dead? This place was really very white but there was no one else here. Is this where the others met Charlie? Charlie isn't in a coma anymore so there's no one here but me. I have no way of telling if I'm in limbo or dead. I would miss so many people if I were dead. Leo, Dash, Jordi, Charlie, even Kara, the nurses and doctors, my parents. But, would they miss me? Did it even matter?
Maybe I was better off dead, maybe the world is better off without me in it.
The more I sat and thought about it, the more I really hoped I wasn't dead. I was ashamed in admitting it. But, I wanted to live.
Leo's Point of View
My stump was aching in pain because I have been standing on it for the better part of an hour and refused to sit. Emma was sick, really sick. A feeding tube? I think I heard Dr. McAndrew say something about a feeding tube.
"Leo, you're worried about Emma, I get it. We all are. But you have to sit down, you leg is gonna start to bleed," Dash begged.
"Sit down? I can't fucking sit down Dash! My girlfriend is in there! She may be dead for all I know. And I—I never even told her I love her. So no, Dash I can't fucking sit down," I responded.
Dash stopped asking me things from then on but, I suddenly remembered why Emma was so upset to get up in detention in the first place.
"Hey, why was Emma so angry with you? Why'd you say that stuff that made her cry? What secret is she talking about that you know and I don't," I questioned.
Dash didn't respond and continued to look at the fruit painting on the wall.
"Well, what is it Dash? What the hell is going on between you two?" I said again, getting angrier.
"Look it's not my place to say anything. Okay? If it was I would tell you because I have never wanted to share anything more in my entire life. As much as I'm concerned about it, it's not my secret to tell. And you'll have to ask her," Dash said, loyal as ever.
"Ask her? Dash I may never be able to speak to her again! Who knows what's happening in there? Will I see her again?" I said, breaking down in cries.
Keeping quiet, Dash came over to my side, and pushed a chair underneath me, forcing me to sit down. And he sat next to me, and let me cry while we waited, and waited.
Author's Note: Thanks for the love guys, but something that gets me more than story/author favorites and follows? Reviews! Reviews help me a lot, I like to see your guys' opinion and input as to where you want to see this story go or what you think may happen. Or even if you hated it. Make me become a better writer, tell me what I can do better!