"Jaime Reyes?" A nurse asked, peering out of the door into the waiting room. Cassie gently pushed Jaime up, following him into a new room.

"We're just gonna check your height, kay?" She asks, and he backs up against a wall with a couple of height markers. He just barely goes over the 6ft mark.

The nurse set her clipboard aside on a table, and Cassie sat down in one of the chairs set for anyone else attending. "Okay, can I just get you to step on that scale real quick, and then I'll take your blood pressure."

Jaime looked at Cassie, who gave him a sympathetic smile. He took a deep breath, and stepped onto the black device. The numbers randomized for a second before they finally settled down. 128.3. The nurse jotted the numbers down before setting him down and tying the blood pressure cuff around his arm. He didn't see the number before she set it aside, but he assumed it was normal.

The nurse showed him to a different room where he was to sit and wait for the doctor. He tapped his hands on his knees impatiently.

"it's gonna be fine, Jaime," Cassie said, giving him a quick, gentle squeeze. He tried to look happy but it was really hard. What if they decided he was actually sick and didn't listen to him? What if they made Cassie go away?

He tried to clear his head when the doctor walked in. She looked about mid forties, and she washed her hands and applied latex gloves before sitting down in her chair. "So, Jaime, how are you feeling?"

"Fine," He said, and it came out too quickly and he hoped she didn't pick up on his stress.

"Okay, I'm going to check your heart rate real quick, then we'll do something with these things," She said, gesturing to a couple of tiny liquid bottles.

She timed his heart by pressing a couple of forefingers to his wrist and keeping track on her wristwatch. After she wrote that down she reached for the liquid bottles and then began to put tiny drops of the colored liquids on his tongue. He didn't taste anything with them. She made a note on her clipboard.

"Alright, Mr. Reyes, from what I've gathered you're dangerously underweight. I'm going to suggest a psychiatric evaluation. You may have to go away for a while, just until you reach a healthy weight."

The doctor took them to a waiting room, and after two hours an official looking man appeared to talk to Jaime. Cassie had to leave the room, but when she came back Jaime was fuming and the official looking man handed her his number and some printed instructions.

They went to the car, and Cassie slid into the driver's seat. Basically, they had tonight to get Jaime packed up before he went to a hospital. She broke the awkward silence eventually, voice feeling too loud.

"Are you okay?"

"No," He said, folding his arms against his chest.

"I'm sorry," She replied, turning on the car with a quick twist of her wrist. "But you need to get better. Let's go pack up your stuff."

Jaime sighed and leaned back in his seat. "I'm not happy about this."

"I'll visit you," Cassie said, and gave him a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder.

"Still not happy."


Since Jaime - in his words - wasn't about to put a nail in his own coffin, Cassie busied herself with folding his shirts and hunting down a spare toothbrush for him to pack in his suitcase.

"It's just, for like, a month," She said, attempting to sooth him. If any thing that made him feel worse and he just laid down in his bed, and duct taped his wrist to the headboard.

"It's eternity," He whined, while she worked on getting the damned tape off. "Forever. Alone. No Demon. No you. Just me. And food."

She managed to get the sticky part of and worked on unraveling it from his wrist. "Stop trying to see it as such a negative thing."

"I'm not trying to see it as anything. It just is." He said venomously, and she rolled her eyes, pulling the remainder of the silver tape off his wrist. He massaged it carefully.

"You're getting better. For yourself, your family, everyone. Now help me finish up your packing, please."

He pulled some hoodies from the closet and threw them into the luggage, Cassie immediately pulling them back out to fold. "I still hate this."

"Well, fine, hate it. I don't care. But I'm going to visit you and you're going to get better, and that's it."

"Fine, then I just won't eat," He said, crossing his arms.

Cassie crossed her arms, one of his shirts still in her closed fist. "Y'know, you're acting like a child. You have to eat or else you will die. Don't you understand that? What about when you fainted yesterday? Huh? You think that was just because of some over-exertion? Jason said you were sleeping when he came over so obviously you weren't and you have just been boycotting eating! Again!"

"You broke up with me," He said. And, wow, that sounds lame and really manipulative and he feels like a dick as she falters and curls inward like he just punched her in the stomach.

"Yeah, I know, I shouldn't have done that, but I'm sorry, and I'll work on not being so hot-headed if you work on getting better, please," She says, grabbing onto his hand and giving it a squeeze.

He looks down at the half packed case and closes his eyes. "Alright, fine."