~Monique~

"Hey beautiful."

Groggily I finished opening my eyes to meet the pale blue ones of Scott. He was sitting in the same chair he had occupied a week ago when they first brought me into the hospital. It was odd to see him sitting amidst the noisy machines and lifeless room but it brought an indescribable comfort to me that I couldn't begin to explain. I rubbed a hand across my face and I noticed that I could feel the bones of each finger as it rubbed across my equally hollow cheek. I cringed and Scott saw this. He took my hand and brought it to his lips.

"You are beautiful. Remember that." He smiled softly and I nodded.

"Where's Shelby?" I asked. It had been the normal ritual for he and Shelby to come together to the hospital and spend time with me before Sophie and Peter dragged them back to Horizon. Not seeing her was a shock and a disappointment. Surprisingly she had become one of my closest friends in that one week.

"She had to take care of some business at home but she'll be back."

He looked worried about something. "Is everything alright, Scott?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. I just miss her but she'll be back in no time." He looked extremely distracted and I knew right away everything wasn't fine but I also knew better than to press Scott Barringer for information. He bent over to pick up something next to him and I craned my neck to see what it was.

"Whatdya bring me?" I asked as he set the vibrant red bag on the white hospital sheets. I sat up and began to dig through it. I pulled out my favorite shampoo and perfume, two videos and a bag of cookies.

                "You brought it!" I exclaimed while I surfed through my treasures.

                "Hank said the guy at the video store looked at him weird when he rented The Little Mermaid but he redeemed himself when he got Monster Truck Driving 4." Scott said, laughing. I opened the tops of the shampoo and breathed in their fragrant smells. Hospital shampoo didn't smell nearly as good. The bag of cookies laid untouched and forgotten, but not by Scott.

                "I got these too," He said handing me the small pink pack of cookies. "I remembered that you used to eat them by the pound when we were kids."

                "Which is probably why I weighed around two hundred pounds when we were kids." At any other time my comment would have been funny but now Scott looked hurt and I watched my hands nervously pick at the corners of the bed spread again. He put his hand on top of mine to stop me and get my attention.

                "I talked to Dr. Kramer today."

                "Oh." I tried to be as nonchalant as possible.

                "He said I should try and bring you your favorite foods, you know, get you motivated."

                "I am."

                "Liar. You should have seen the look on your face when I showed you a simple bag of cookies. You acted like someone was trying to make you eat tarantulas or something."

                "I'm sure tarantulas have a low fat concentrate." Scott wasn't amused at this.

                "You've gained a couple pounds."

                "I know, they told me. I'm trying though. One step at a time, that's the way you're supposed to do it. "

                "I'm proud of you." He beamed at me and I could tell he was sincere.

                "Do you think either of us will ever get this life thing right.?" I asked him. He sat back in his chair for a moment and contemplated before answering.

                "I think that maybe we've been through a hell of a lot but we've come out alright in the end."

                "Because we had each other and now we have Shelby."

                "Yup. You should probably get some rest. I'll be back later."

                He leaned over and brushed my forehead with his lips. I watched his retreating form as he walked out of the door. Then I closed my eyes and went to sleep but not before throwing the cookies into the garbage can beside me.

~Scott~

"How is she?" Peter asked as I sat in his office after visiting Monique in the hospital. I sighed deeply.

                "She gained a few pounds but apparently she's still won't eat and they might have to put a tube in her."

                "Damn," I heard Peter whisper to himself. I had never heard him curse before, he must have really been upset. "Well, her mother and father are on their way up here. There condition was that if she didn't get any better they were taking her back."

                "No!" I said suddenly getting up from the chair. "They'll just make it worst. She has to stay here. With me."

                "You're probably right, Scott but there's not a thing in the universe that we can do about it. Her parents are the last word, right or wrong."

                I shut my eyes to try and ward off the approaching head- ache. First Shelby left and now they were trying to take away Monique from me. Peter was silent.

                "When do you think they'll get here?"

                "Soon. A few hours."

                "I need to talk to Mo."

                "I don't know if that's such a good idea, Scott. If her parents are going to take her home then we should have as smooth a transition as possible. Upsetting her too much might aggravate the anorexia."

                He was right and I knew it but that didn't change the fact that I needed to see her. The quiet weighed heavily in the room, crushing me and making it difficult to breathe. I said good-bye to Peter and walked out onto the docks. I sat here, thinking about everything that had happened, the phone call from Shelby's mom saying that she needed her daughter home for a while, Monique's severe anorexia. It was like one day someone decided 'lets put the Barringer boy through hell' and they had certainly given it to me.

                "Hey Scott." A voice interrupted my thoughts and I looked up too see Juliet sitting beside me.

                "Juliet." I wasn't in the mood for her drama today but she looked different somehow.

                "I heard about Monique and I'm really sorry." Then she started to cry. "It was all my fault. I knew. I saw her but I was afraid."

                "Saw her do what?" I asked her.

                "Everyday at any meal she would stuff food everywhere, in napkins then into her pocket or cut it up really small. I saw the signs but I didn't say anything, I'm trying to get better too…I told her to be careful but I just didn't know what to do."

                I was startled slightly by this confession but I couldn't let Juliet blame herself even though saying something could have stopped her earlier, but then again knowing Monique probably not.

                "It's not your fault. Mo knew what she was doing. You couldn't have stopped her and neither could we. Maybe going to the hospital was a good thing, it scared her a little, now she has the will to want to get better."

                "I really hope she does."

                "Me too."

                Juliet leaned over and hugged me tightly and when I recovered from the shock I returned the hug. She wiped her tears, adjusted her jeans and walked away. I turned and watched the sun setting in the distance and I was a little comforted that Shelby and Monique were watching the same one.

~Monique~

"Get out!"

I screamed and I threw the nearest thing I could find which turned out to be an empty watcher pitcher across the room. My mother and father who had been cowering by my bed quickly walked out of the room and slammed the door behind them. I hated them. What right did they have to come in and decide that they were taking me away? I wouldn't go. I would run away again first. At the moment running away seemed like a good idea but then I noticed the wires and cords hooked up to me, it would be hard to run when you're dragging an IV behind you. My head jerked up at the sound of the door opening, I grabbed a book in preparation to ward off any intruders that happened to be my parents.

"Mo?"

It was Scott.

"I'm not going with them! They can't make me!" He edged into the door and shut it behind him and then he took up his usual seat next to me.

"There's nothing you can do. You have to go with them."

I snatched my hand back from his grasp. "You want me to go don't you! Just like everyone else. The faster I'm out of your life the better off you'll be anyway."

 The torrent of words escaped my lips before I could even think about what I was saying.

"Stop being ridiculous, Monique." He said wearily.

I grabbed my head and tried to make the room stop spinning.

"I'm sorry," I was calming a little. "It must be the drugs they're giving me."

"How did you get here anyway?" I asked him.

"Peter said it was alright since he knew your parents were coming."

My eyes narrowed. "I won't go with them, Scott."

"I don't want you to either."

I glanced out of the window and watched cars pull in and out of the parking lot. Red car, blue truck, white pick up. I felt Scott next to me but it was like I was in another world. As if I was behind a glass window watching everyone, but never actually being with them. I pulled my eyes from the window and looked down at my arms. They were tiny, like sticks, they were beautiful, they were ugly, full of life but close to death. I sat in the empty shell the doctors still liked to refer to as my body and wondered how many times I would have to fall before I could stand up again.

"What are you thinking?" Scott said, tucking a stray curl behind my ear.

"About how hungry I am. When's dinner?"

I've never seen him so happy. "Right now."

He got up to call the nurse and when he looked back I smiled at him.

                "I have to go but I'll be back and since your eating your parents can't take you. Not yet."

                He was so excited. I hated myself for lying to him but there was nothing else I could do, I'd have to punish myself for that.

~Scott~

"Scott," I looked up from my math homework to see Sophie standing in the doorway. "You have a phone call."

I got up from the table, thankful for any distraction and went it to Peter's office. Tactfully he left when he had handed me the phone and shut the door.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Cowboy."

I recognized the voice and the greeting immediately and my heart beat a little faster.

"Shelby…where are you…when are you coming back…"

"Whoa. One question at time." She said, there was no laughter in her voice though. "I'll be back in a week or so and I'm at home, with Jess. She's sick."

I remembered the name of her sister, the one she talked about all the time. "How sick?"

                "She has pneumonia but it isn't life threatening, it's just that my mom has to work and my dad…How's Mo?"

                "She's doing alright, I guess. They are going to wait before they tuber her. She misses you, I miss you."

                "I miss you too but I'm actually doing okay, an old friend of mine, Cameron, is in town and we've been catching up but I still can't wait to get back." I heard a noise in the background and it sounded like someone was having a coughing fit. "I have to go, she's really miserable and Cameron brought by some movies for her. I'll call you later. Okay."

                I was disappointed but I tried not to let it show when I said goodbye. I hung up the phone and walked back to my homework but concentrating was difficult. There were so many questions on my mind and so far none of them had been answered, one being who this Cameron character was. While I was scolding myself for being jealous over nothing,  Juliet walked by and before I knew what I was doing I called her over.

                "Can you answer something for me?" I asked her. She looked perplexed but agreed.

                "Why?"

                "What?"

                "Why didn't you eat? I don't understand it at all."

                She sighed and then sat down next to me. "Well, its different for everyone. Some people do it just to be skinny but there's always something deeper. It goes beyond whether you eat or not, its emotional. I did it to escape the problems in my family, others do it to find a way to express their pain and some do it because they blame themselves for something, like a punishment, in a way. You never know."

                While I was thinking about this the answer seemed to come out of nowhere. There it was staring me straight in the eye the whole time and I ignored it because I didn't want to deal with it. Now I didn't have a choice, it was either my pride or Monique's life. That was probably the easiest decision that I would ever make and in the instant of clarity I knew what to do.