Thank you for reading this fanfic so far. Any feedback is greatly appreciated :)

This is my last chapter before part 3!

The ED issue

As she inquired, Audrey found out that Nurse Villanueva wasn't actually the first one witnessing Emma emptying her nutritional shakes. Many nurses came to her over the following day, just to let her know how odd her daughter's behavior had been when it came to food. As testimonies were pouring in, Audrey took the liberty to call Emma's coach at Penn to inquire about her whereabouts at University. But she came to a dead end. As she tried to figure out who her physician was, she was opposed patient doctor privilege and all she could get were the congratulations of her coach as Emma had managed to keep a high GPA, double major and still be one of the top athletes on the team. He underlined how she had led her team to victory during the Ivy league cross country championships and what a great ethic she showed both on and off the track.

She also tried to reach out to some of teammates and was surprised to hear she wasn't as closed to them as she had let her know. She seemed so closed to her high school team that she had just assumed it would be the same with her college team. Only one of her teammates she seemed to talk a lot to. Audrey didn't want to have to go through her daughter's phone without her permission but as her enquiry was going nowhere, she was beginning to seriously consider the matter.

Meanwhile, Emma slept round the clock for the next three days. Her immune system was so weak that the 4 hours she had spent lying on the bathroom floor had been enough for her to contract a bacterial pneumonia that threatened her lungs again. Nothing seemed to bother her. Not even the daily shots of blood thinners to avoid enemas or when a nurse had come to insert a foley catheter again. Her nose canula was replaced by an oxygen mask. Doctors feared she would have to be intubated again but luckily, she made it through on maximum oxygen and a close watch.

When she finally emerged from her slumber, she had the nasty surprise to be visited by a new kind of doctor: a psychiatrist. She was still too weak to get out of bed on her own but apparently, not weak enough to avoid a psych consult. She felt so brain-fogged that she had a hard time focusing on the doctor's questions. It seemed like he was sitting far from her. She struggled understanding his questions but could clearly recognize some of the words coming out of his mouth. Those words seemed to pop out of the fog like little arrows warning her that this wasn't headed anywhere good. She gathered her strength to deny all allegations of an eating disorder when the subject was brought on the table. She had rehearsed the lines so well that all she had to do, was to focus on remembering them and reciting them with conviction. And so, she did. And before falling back to sleep, she vaguely heard him mentioning they would see each other again. Now her mission was to make sure this wouldn't happen.

When the pneumonia improved and as Emma was spending more and more time awoken, the psychiatrist came back. Though she still felt tired, her fever had almost gone and her breathing was much better and easier. The road to running again was, however, far ahead and she was yet to get away with her eating disorder. She had hoped she wouldn't be confronted with it until the day she'd be discharged. But Audrey had decided otherwise and there she was again, facing a doctor that could potentially jeopardize her future. She was terrified at the idea of eating or being admitted to a facility that she was ready to do all it would take to avoid spending any more time in a hospital.

"I spoke with your physician at Penn. A great colleague of mine. Did you know we went to med school together?" he said as she was trying as best as she could to avoid the elephant in the room.

"Your blood tests results had me worried you had REDs – you know what it is right? – but I was willing to put it all on COVID and the toll it took on your body. But as you might be aware, REDs can and is usually caused by under fueling oneself, something very common among female athletes, especially distance runners. So, I asked your physician and it turns out they've been following you for REDs since freshman year of college."

As he spoke, his voice was calm and his tone reassuring. It all just pissed Emma off. She knew all too well he was right but "damn it" she thought, "I just had my patient-physician privilege broken". This isn't fair. She remained speechless for a while, sinking in his words and trying to figure out an answer that would get her out of the woods. She wasn't ready to move on. But instead of a calm answer, she burst out in anger.

"I don't know what you're talking about" she first said dryly, remaining in denial as her line of defense. "I have never heard of REDs. You must be mistaken." There may have been no escape, she may have known she was screwed up, she had to fight back. Her anger, her instincts, every inch of her body told her to not give in.

The doctor could feel the tension building up and tried bringing Emma to her senses.

"Emma" he said calmly, "are you aware you are jeopardizing both your life and your running career? REDs have weakened your immune system, hence the severe form of Covid you developed…"

"… don't you dare!" she snapped. "So, because my name is 'Lim' means I don't have a right to have my privacy respected!? You just violated my patient/physician privilege and you have the guts to brag about it under my nose! You called my medical team without my permission and think you can walk into my life with your stupid concerns and a diagnose of an eating disorder like I'm a child who needs to be scolded for not finishing their plates!"

"Emma" he replied, not paying attention to her burst of anger, which drove Emma even angrier, "I never said you had an eating disorder."

"Don't Emma me again! And we both know that's what you had in mind! So go ahead. Feed my mother with whatever bullshit it pleases you to feed her with. Tell her I have whatever mental illness it pleases the both of you to fill my medical file with but just leave me be!" she was panting after that.

The psychiatrist was wise enough to leave the room and let time get the better of her anger. And as Emma had anticipated it, Audrey did get a report as she had requested one. Nevertheless, she decided that her daughter had been through enough and that she should let her breath. From then on, there were no more nutritional shakes, no more nurse checking in on her every time a tray of food was brought to her room. And surprisingly enough, the drop in pressure allowed Emma to eat. She was discharged as soon as Audrey managed to convince Andrews there was no medical reason keeping her inpatient and made sure she would pursue her recovery at home, in an environment she'd feel more comfortable in.

Emma tried following a bunch of online classes during that time but found out she was having a hard time focusing properly. She had to grow used to the fact that she still was sick and even a walk from the couch to the bathroom was enough to feel like she had just run a rough 5K. She was grateful however that her mother spent most of her time at work, thus avoiding sensitive subjects and potential fights over her health.

By August though, the tension between Audrey and Emma had reached new highs and every day seemed like a good day to fight. They would argue over the littlest of things and one night, after the umpteenth heated argument between the both of them, Emma abruptly made the call to go back to college. Campus had long been reopened and any excuse to leave San Jose seemed good enough at this point. Audrey had just become impossible to live with and Emma felt she needed to leave the town in which she had just lived through a nightmare. The decision hurt Audrey who, despite fighting all the time with her daughter, was actually worried sick that something would happen to her. With her being so far away, how could she properly take care of her? She still felt guilty for almost breaking her promise to Linda and with Emma gone, she simply felt like she was failing her deceased best friend a second time. But Emma was a grown woman and truly, there wasn't much Audrey could do to prevent her from leaving. She was healthy enough at that point to make the call. Even the eating disorder that she had been diagnosed with wasn't bad enough to call a judge and declare her medically incapable. All she could do was watch her daughter pack – or rather avoid watching her pack and bury herself in work instead – and let her leave again. She was heartbroken but then she still thought she was strong enough to get through it.