Ltfl: Me too. This chapter is quite cute :-)

MrsWhovian: Thank you so much. Enjoy this chapter. I'm really glad you like the story.

Dancingwithmyshadow6: Thank you for pointing that out. I make so many mistakes, lol.

Chapter Fourteen

Lily was refusing to move out of the bathroom, and Connie wasn't sure whether that was because she didn't want anyone to see her or because she was too weak to actually move.

She looked terrible; her glands were swollen, her knuckles were red and sore, and it was obvious that she'd been crying. Connie knew that shouting wasn't going to help her at that moment in time, and that bulimia was an awful illness that no one could actually help. Lily obviously felt the need to lose weight, for some strange and unknown reason, and it was up to Connie to try and work out why.

"Let's wash that face a bit, huh?" She said gently, as Lily just rested her head against the wall of the cubicle. "Bad day to wear mascara. You look like a panda."

Lily managed a weak smile through her tears, reluctantly allowing Connie to wipe her eyes with a tissue.

She knew that Connie had her nice moments sometimes. She'd shown that side quite a few times in the past; when the minibus had crashed, when Lily had fainted during her shift and she'd allowed her to take a couple of days off. This was different though, she'd purposely been making herself throw up and Connie hadn't even seen the marks on her arms yet. She may be appearing as nice and kind, but inside Lily knew that she was struggling to understand why one of her doctors had chosen to do such a thing.

She was bound to ask why, and that would Lily having to talk about the stuff Archie had said to her.

"I...I can't breathe," Lily stammered, her chest immediately tightening at that thought.

"Don't," Connie whispered, shaking her head at her. "Come on, you have nothing to worry about. Elle and Charlie have gone to prep a room and no one else knows, so it's just you and me yeah?"

Connie had given specific instructions to Elle and Charlie. The two of them had cordoned off the bathroom, before going to prep a room, whilst keeping silent about the whole situation.

Lily just faintly nodded, rubbing at her chest whilst trying to listen to Connie's comforting words.

"Do you want to hear a funny story?" Connie asked, as she continued to wipe Lily's eyes for her. "When Jacob and I went on our first date, we went to this lovely Italian place. He treated me and we ordered a bottle of wine between us. Now you know what Jacob is like, always cracking jokes, and he told me this really bad Italian joke. Now it was so bad that I did actually laugh at it, but my eyes started to water and I had mascara streaming down each cheek. I really did look like a panda then, more than you do right now."

Lily laughed slightly at the thought of that and said, "I can't imagine you laughing over anything."

"Oh, I have my moments," Connie said. "I think a lot of us have a secret side to us, don't you?"

She ended with a sigh and Lily could tell that she was referring to her when she said that. She'd done so well during her time in the ED; she'd finished her training, she'd been promoted, she'd been put in charge of training Alicia, and now here she was hating herself for what she'd become.

"I've let you down, haven't I?" Lily whispered.

"No, Lily," Connie said with a hint of sympathy in her voice, and she shook her head at her. "Don't think like that, okay? You haven't let me down at all. I guess I'm just...Confused. Confused as to why you're doing this to yourself."

"Isn't it obvious?" Lily gave a small shrug and said, "I need to lose weight."

"But you don't," Connie said softly, tucking a strand of hair behind Lily's ear. "And I know that hearing that may not help right now, but you don't. When I look at you, I see a beautiful young woman who has a big, big future."

"You don't understand," Lily whispered.

"I don't understand?" Connie raised an eyebrow at her. "Really? I used to be young myself once Lily, I have an eleven year old daughter who has started to care way too much about what she looks like, and I'm a doctor. As doctors, we see everything coming into this department so don't tell me that I don't understand."

"But you're not going through it," Lily whined.

"No." Connie shook her head. "I may not be, but I know how to deal with it alright?"

Lily faintly nodded and held her knees up to her chest. "I don't want to go out there," she whispered. "Everybody's going to be staring at me."

"Not if I have anything to do with it," Connie said. "We'll stay here for a little while, okay? Just until Charlie comes back. In the meantime, I'll see if I can think of any more funny stories for you."

"Doctor Gardner!" Iain shouted, as he hurried over to Elle at full speed. He'd asked everyone within the ED and none of them had seen Lily, causing him to fill up with more and more worry. "Have you seen Lily at all? I really need to talk to her about something."

"Lily?" Elle sighed and shot Iain a questioning look.

"Yeah." Iain nodded, hands in pockets. "Have you seen her? It's important."

"Iain, she...She's with Mrs Beauchamp at the moment," Elle said quietly, aware of the fact that Connie nor Lily wanted anybody to know what had recently happened. "Could I pass on a message at all?"

"Is she okay?" Iain asked. "I'm just a bit worried about her, that's all. She hasn't been herself."

"I'm sure she's fine," Elle said, forcing a smile. "But like I said, she's currently with Mrs Beauchamp and I wouldn't disturb them right now."

Iain frowned at Elle with a mixed look of confusion and worry. There was something that she wasn't telling him and that seemed pretty obvious. He'd hardly seen Lily all day and now all of a sudden she was somewhere with Connie and he wasn't allowed to see her.

"Well, when do you think they'll be finished?" Iain asked.

"Probably not today," Elle said, knowing full well that they would need to examine Lily and have a full in-depth discussion with her about everything. "Just leave things with me and I will let Lily know that you're looking for her."

"Elle!" Charlie shouted, as he arrived in the entrance to reception.

Elle nodded at him and turned back to Iain, before saying, "I'll speak to you later."

"No, what is going on here?" Iain asked. "Lily's having some secret meeting with Connie, and the two of you are sneaking around being secretive."

"Calm down, Iain," Elle said, through clenched teeth. "Just get back to work. We've left Doctor Hardy in charge of the department, whilst we deal with some stuff. I will come and speak to you later but for now, there isn't anything that I can do."

"Something's happened with Lily, hasn't it?" Iain asked in a small voice. "What...What's wrong? Is she okay?"

Elle sighed and turned to look at Charlie, who was beginning to get rather impatient with her.

"Just get back to work, Iain," she repeated herself, before walking over to join Charlie.

Iain ran his hands down his face and sighed wordlessly, as he watched Charlie and Elle talk over in the far corner. Elle's smile had faded and she was looking at Charlie with a serious expression, nodding along, as he spoke in a soft whisper.

I really enjoyed writing the scene between Lily and Connie to be honest :-)

By the way, if any of you are reading my story "Love Is Alive," I have edited the story quite a bit. I hate to cause confusion but I wasn't overly happy with it. I have written a note at the end of the latest chapter so hopefully it'll clear things up. I do apologise if you're not keen on the changes. It's basically the same idea, just researched a lot more x