Kristy's Not Okay

Chapter Three

"Edward, what are we going to do?" Winry asked when the three returned home and Kristy retreated to her bedroom. "She's refusing to believe she has a problem, and I'm worried that if she never believes it, she can't get better."

"You're right," Ed responded. "If she thinks there isn't a problem, she won't get better. She has to want to get better. It's a difficult decision, especially for a kid her age. I just wonder what could have caused it."

"What do you mean, 'what could have caused it'?" Winry asked. "I thought it was because you had Bulimia that she has this problem."

"Well, I had Bulimia, so I must have passed on a genetic ability for all of our kids to have an eating disorder, but it's caused by other factors too," Ed said. "My mother had Bulimia, and I don't know what could have caused it, but when I developed it, it was me trying to control what happened around me. I was going through a hard time after losing my mom, and then I felt guilty because Al couldn't eat when I could. There were a lot of factors that contributed to my Bulimia."

"So you want to know what is contributing to Kristy's Anorexia…" Winry trailed off. "I thought we were doing everything right."

"Hey, we're trying as hard as we can," Ed said. "Just because one of our kids has a disease doesn't mean we did something wrong. Sometimes these things just happen and it's our job to help support her until she gets better."

"Hughes did that," Winry said. "Mister Hughes supported you and tried to get you better, but you still went against him for years after he died. What if that happens with us? I can't…I can't lose Kristy, Ed. We've lost so much in our lives; we can't lose a child."

"I know," Edward responded, hugging his wife close. "We're not going to lose her. We're going to protect her, and we're going to get her to eat. This is something we can beat if we just have the patience and we don't force her into anything."

"Don't force her?" Winry asked. "But, Ed, how is she going to eat if we don't force her?"

"She has to make the decision to eat on her own, Win," Edward said. "Now, how about you go into the basement and work on whatever you've been working on in there lately. I'll go make us something amazing to eat for dinner and we'll try with Kristy."

"What if she won't eat?" Winry asked.

"Then she won't eat," Ed answered. "I'm not going to let our daughter die, but I refuse to force feed her. Mustang did that to me once and I hated him for years because of it."

"I don't remember him doing that," Winry said.

"It was a long time ago," Ed said. "Back before I even told you that I had a problem. Now, go to the basement." Edward gave his wife a kiss on the forehead before retreating to the kitchen to make a meal.

Kristy sat in her room for a long while, picking at her fingernails. Her parents knew what she was doing. Her parents knew that she wasn't eating. A doctor had found out. Someone had found out her dirty little secret. The thing she wanted to hide most. She had never felt so embarrassed and ashamed. It wasn't like she was doing this because she wanted to. She had to. It was the only way Kristy would truly be good enough for her perfect family. Her father was a professor now and her mother was a well-respected automail engineer. Her brothers were going to be just as great as their parents someday. Kristy needed to live up to the Elric name. Even Uncle Al had become a prince of Xing!

It wasn't long until there was a knock on Kristy's door. She knew now that her parents knew what she was doing that there wouldn't be much privacy for her. Kristy frowned when the door opened shortly after the knock. It seemed more of like a fair warning than asking permission to come in.

"Kristy," Edward said softly. "We're having dinner. Come out with your mom and I and eat with us."

"I'm not hungry," Kristy responded. She wasn't in the mood to be forced to eat something. She already knew this was in her future when the stupid doctor had told them what she was doing.

"I know, baby, but you've got to eat," Ed said. "Will you at least try?" Edward didn't want to push his daughter too much. Not because he didn't want her to get better. He didn't want to push her too far to do something risky. As it was, when Edward had his issue, he had resorted to harming himself. He didn't want Kristy to do that to herself if she wasn't doing so already.

"I'll come in and watch?" Kristy suggested. She didn't want her father to hate her, but she just couldn't eat. Kristy had been a daddy's girl when she was little, and she didn't want to throw away their relationship all over a food issue.

"That sounds like a great idea," Edward said. Baby steps.

During dinner, Edward tried to make light conversation with his wife and daughter to try and distract everyone from the situation. He didn't want it to disappear, but it becoming the focus of everything they did would just make the problem with Kristy worse. He wanted her to know that he wasn't going to push her very hard. Maybe then she might come out and eat something.

In that time, Kristy seemed like her old self. Ed had noticed for a little while that she had been dieting, so she would eat small portions. This time, she just wasn't eating anything, and there had been times before that when she would complain of a stomach ache and blame it on 'woman issues' that Ed had dealt with from Winry before.

Kristy laughed at all of Edward's jokes and even picked at the food on the plate Winry had made for her. The three actually seemed like things were back to normal. Ed knew well enough that this was a farce she was making to convince them that there wasn't a problem. He knew this because he had done it himself when he was a kid.

After dinner, Kristy offered to clean up the dishes. Edward and Winry nodded her off, speaking about the situation on hand when Kristy took the dishes to the kitchen.

"She seemed happy," Winry commented.

"It's just her trying to fool us," Ed informed his wife. "She's trying to make us think that there's nothing wrong when there is something very wrong. Hopefully she'll make some progress when she goes to therapy."

"I'm not going to therapy!" Kristy exclaimed from the kitchen. Apparently she had heard them and knew what they were talking about.

"She's going to therapy," Winry said, leaving no room for protest. "I don't care what it takes to get her there. If we're not going to get her to eat something, we're going to get her to go to therapy."

"Winry, we're trying to get her to eat, we're just not trying to force her into anything she doesn't want to do," Ed responded.

"Well, she doesn't want to eat!" Winry exclaimed before calming with a slight sigh. "You need to back me up on her going to therapy."

"She's going to therapy," Edward said. "That, I agree with. I'm the one who set up the appointment, remember? Doctor Warren is going to help her."

"I hope you're right," Winry responded before walking out of the room.

The next day, Kristy found herself sitting in Doctor Warren's office with her arms crossed over her chest in protest. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't been able to convince her parents to let her pass the therapy session with the doctor.

"I don't understand why I even need to be here," Kristy said, breaking the silence in the room. "I can't have an eating disorder because I'm not underweight. I was just dieting so that I could be summer ready."

"Do you think you need to be underweight to have an eating disorder?" Doctor Warren asked. After a moment, Kristy let out a small nod with an expression saying that she thought it was the dumbest question in the world. "Well, that's just not true."

"What do you mean?" Kristy asked. "In magazines and newspapers everyone is always underweight when they claim someone has an eating disorder. Celebrities are in there all the time, even ones that my mom knows." Working with so many people, Winry did meet an occasional celebrity of different countries that would keep in touch with her. So many people had automail these days.

"Well, that's not always the case," Doctor Warren said. "While obviously some people are underweight with eating disorders, other people are overweight, or even normal weight, like you are."

"I'm not a normal weight," Kristy said. "I'm overweight."

"No," Doctor Warren disagreed. "You are healthy weight now. You were overweight before. Our goal is to help you maintain a healthy lifestyle with eating, no matter if that means you will be overweight or if you will continue to be at a healthy weight."

"I don't want to be overweight," Kristy said. "I just want to be a normal weight. You don't understand; I have to keep up this diet so that I can get down to a normal weight."

"You are down to a normal weight, Kristy," Doctor Warren said. "Now you need to get better. Living like this isn't healthy at all. Your parents have signed off on me being your therapist and dietitian. You will be coming to see me twice a week for the next three months. After that, we'll see how you've improved."

"And if I can convince you that I've improved?" Kristy asked.

"Most patients benefit from a second cycle of treatment," Doctor Warren answered, implying that she wouldn't be easily fooled if Kristy deceived her. She had known that Edward was tricking them, but he had done what was required of them when he was first relieved.

"And what if that doesn't work?" Kristy asked.

"Your parents can sign for you to be admitted into the hospital at any time," Doctor Warren said. "It's only a matter of time until they allow you to be admitted. Your father, I think he's all for it. Your mother is the only one who is preventing you from being admitted."

Kristy felt very uncomfortable in that moment. "Can we…Can we talk about something else?" Kristy didn't want to speak with this person at all, but she especially did not want to talk about being hospitalized and having her parents pinned against each other.

"What would you like to talk about?" Doctor Warren asked.

"You said you were a friend of my father's," Kristy began. "How did you two meet? You said he was a funny kid, so you obviously knew him when he was young."

"Well, he was a teenager when we met," Doctor Warren said. She didn't want to reveal too much information on the chance that Edward hadn't told his daughter he ever had an eating disorder, which he hadn't. "Him being a State Alchemist, there were quite a few times when he was in the hospital. I happened to have the pleasure of being his doctor at one point and we kept in touch." It wasn't a complete lie, but it also wasn't the entire truth.

"I didn't think doctors were allowed to stay in touch with their patients," Kristy said, moving her attention to dust on Doctor Warren's desk. "I thought doctors just let them go."

"Well, your father was a special case," the doctor said. "Now that you've asked me a question, how about I ask you one?" Kristy didn't answer, so Doctor Warren moved on anyway. "Do you really believe that going without food is the answer?"

Kristy looked up at Doctor Warren for a long moment before speaking. "No. I don't think it's the answer." She could convince everyone she was 'recovered' and everything would be all right. "It's not the answer at all."

Doctor Warren smiled. "All right, well, I'll see you next week, then."

Next Update: November 14th, 2015