FIVE PIECES FOR HALF AN HOUR

Toby entered the sitting room and joined CJ on the couch. She handed him a cup of coffee, her eyes a bit red and watery. "Thanks. Andi will be through in a minute."

CJ smiled at him "I'd forgotten about 'Button'" she said

"I'd forgotten about 'Jillybean'" he replied.

"Well at least we have a choice of names that Ron can give her when he adds her to his detail!" Abbey said.

"Abbey…how did you convince Andi when I couldn't?" he asked

"You don't expect me to give my secret powers of persuasion away, do you Toby?" she asked.

"I'm just glad you did…I don't know where else we'd have got an inhaler if she hadn't been there," he said quietly.

"Ginger and Carol have them." CJ said.

"Really?…I didn't know that. How come you know that about my assistant and I don't know it about my own, let alone yours?" he asked

"I've always known about Carol, and after Roslyn, after we got back from the hospital…when Ginger came rushing in, she needed to borrow it. That's how I know."

He nodded thoughtfully, filing the information away for future reference.

"How severe is her asthma?" Abbey asked.

"Whose?" CJ smiled

"Jilly's. Andi's too…I never knew that either." she replied.

"Exactly the same. What Andi calls emotionally climatic! When they're upset, or angry or if it's cold and windy or hot and humid. Usually seconds apart too…if Andi felt it coming on she'd always go hunt out Jilly because she knew she would be starting too. It's one of their many, many similarities." Toby said.

"It's funny…I don't know why I didn't realise Jilly was her sister until you told me, because when you see them together they're like peas in a pod! Hair, eyes, features, Jilly's just a smaller version!"

"That's a sore point with Jilly...she hates not being as tall as Andi" he smiled "their voices are very similar too, but then Jilly hasn't exactly been talkative since she arrived, so you wouldn't know. Or at least, not to me," he added, turning to CJ.

"Toby I really don't know more than I told you before. When I met her in the park she was being talked to by a police officer, who was dubious about her. Her clothes are old, and inappropriate for the weather, but they and her are clean. But she has no shoes. She didn't tell me how she got here nor why she's come now. Or explain the bruising or marks. Or where she's been for the last three years nor why she vanished. The only thing she did say was that she hadn't planned to come, but that she just started walking. And that she's eaten nothing but apples for the last seven months, but last ate one three days ago" she replied.

"That's a really strange food to fixate on…I mean, vaguely nutritious yes, but also hard to digest, particularly on it's own." Abbey mused.

"It was all we could persuade her to eat for a time. I'd cut them into little chunks and she had to eat a certain amount…silly bribery things…do you remember?" he asked CJ

"I'd wash her hair for five pieces. She loved having someone wash her hair. You'd read to her; one piece for 10 minutes, five pieces for half an hour. You drove a hard bargain." she replied

"Five pieces and she could suck her thumb for half an hour" said Andi at the door. They all turned to look at her.

"I didn't know that." said Toby, moving up the sofa to make room for her between them.

"No…I hated resorting to blackmail at all…and certainly not on those terms. It started as a joke really, but it wasn't very fair really, was it?" she sighed, accepting a cup from CJ. Her hands were shaking slightly, and she rested the cup on her knee, her hands clasped tightly around it.

"How long has she had eating issues?" Abbey asked

"On and off…I guess about half her lifetime, since she was 13 or so. I don't know for sure, I'd moved away by then and only saw her occasionally. She came to live with us when she was nearly 18 to go to college and by then she'd obviously had problems. She got better for a while, then dropped out of college and it started again. Eventually she got on top of it and went back to college, and moved in with CJ. But she moved back to Mom and Dad's to do her finals and by the time she graduated it had started again. But she never got this bad before; very thin, yes, but not this." Andi sipped her tea and tried to regain her composure.

"So it was a case of stopping eating, rather than binging and making herself sick, or taking laxatives…CJ said she has a phobia about being sick? Did you talk about it with your parents when she went back?" Abbey asked.

"Yes...she just suddenly cut her food intake, but never did anything else, that's why she was able to keep it secret from Mom and Dad. They didn't really believe she had a problem. I think because they saw her every day they couldn't see the weight loss; it's only when you haven't seen someone for a while that you notice a change. But they didn't really believe in things like that anyway…couldn't understand why anyone would do something like that to themselves." said Andi.

"Well that's understandable for their generation…even in this day and age people struggle to understand it." Abbey replied.

"I DON'T understand it! I don't understand why she does it; she can't tell me herself… she had no explanation, rational or otherwise, although I asked her time and time again." Andi banged the cup down on the trolley as she began pacing up and down the room "And it isn't the classic anorexic thing of looking in a mirror and seeing herself as fat; she KNOWS she's thin, she isn't delusional about her size, it's not like she'd go shopping and come back with clothes two sizes to big or anything…"she broke off, coughing slightly, roughly wiping her eyes, began again "so why does she punish herself like this? It was like one step forward and two steps back; every time she put some weight on we'd be fine for a while, then she'd start again and would lose more than she had put on. And I had to watch her do this to herself" she stopped again, coughing and tearful, a telltale rattle at the end of her breath. Toby stretched out his hand to her and pulled her back to the sofa. Taking her inhaler out of his pocket he shook it, and held it out to her.

"I don't need it, I'm fine" she shook her head at him, but coughed again.

"I've got one sick Wyatt on my hands; I don't need a second one Andi." he held the inhaler out.

She took it from him and took a puff, breathing most of it back out again, then handed it back to him "It's such a senseless thing to do" she began again, still angry and upset, but remaining seated "she doesn't think people will like her more if she's thinner, I mean she was thin to begin with, for heaven's sake! And she's never been the kind of person to worry about what outsiders thought of her anyway. She's not stupid enough to be influenced by the media or peer pressure; she's a bright girl! I tried scaring her by dragging her to the doctor; I was worried about long-term problems, like weakening her bones, but I didn't know the half of it!" She began crying in earnest now. "In addition to almost certain osteoporosis he said it can put a strain on her heart and weaken it beyond repair, that her stomach could shrink so much that if she ate a normal three course meal it could literally burst; he asked her about her menstrual cycle, was it still regular….I hadn't even thought about it!" she blurted out through her tears, coughing hard.

Toby turned her face towards him with one hand, shaking the inhaler with the other. He held it to her lips and she opened her mouth, trying to calm down enough to breath. He dispensed a dose then removed the inhaler, his other hand still holding her face, thumb wiping the tears. CJ left the room, returning a moment later with a glass of water which she held out to Andi, whose hands shook too much to hold it, so CJ sat beside her and held the glass to her lips, making her take small sips, just as she had with the younger sister earlier. Gradually Andi got her tears under control, though her breathing still rattled.

"Go check Jilly and bring my stethoscope will you, CJ?" Abbey asked, turning to place her cup back on the trolley as CJ did as she requested. Abbey crossed over and sat by Andi as CJ returned.

"She's sound…her colour's better and she's quite cool to touch." she reported, handing the stethoscope over.

"Take your jacket off, Andi." Abbey said, putting the stethoscope in her ears

"I'm fine, really…"Andi began to protest, but Toby leant forward, slipping the jacket over her shoulders and down her arms before she had even finished, and, freeing her hands from it, laid it over the arm of the couch. Abbey lifted the sweater up at Andi's back, breathed on the stethoscope and placed it on her back "Take as deep a breath as you can" she instructed. Andi sat up straight, drawing in breath, before coughing. Toby stroked her hand softly, looking into her eyes; once more the wordless conversation, and brown eyes to green eyes. "And again" Abbey said. Andi could only manage a shorter breath this time before coughing. "Take another one" Abbey said, looking at Toby. He shook the inhaler, as Andi began to protest, and again placed it to her lips. She gave in, and opened her mouth, began a deep breath and Toby dispensed another dose. She held this one as long as she could, feeling the medication seep into her, before breathing out. Abbey listened to her lungs again. "Just sit quiet for a bit. You've had a bit of a day and you're system's overloading." she said, gently pulling the sweater down, before sitting back in the chair opposite, giving her place back to CJ. Andi leant forward, her elbows on her knees and her head lowered into her hands. CJ placed a hand on her arm, gently stroking her, as she had done to Toby earlier, while he, in turn, rubbed his hand on Andi's back in soft, small circles as they listened to her breathing begin to soften, just as her sister's had earlier.

Presently, she lifted her head, and looked at Abbey. "Sorry. And sorry for the stuff I said earlier…" she said. "It's all been a bit much" she smiled softly.

"It's OK, you've nothing to apologise for." Abbey smiled back. Andi leant back against the sofa, laying her hand over CJs, their fingers intertwined, as Toby stilled his hand, but kept it in the small of her back. "I think we need to look at what health problems she may have caused herself, and what's caused all those marks and bruises you told me about." she said quietly, finding comfort in the touch of her friend's hand in hers, and the solid presence of the man she loved but couldn't live with. She inclined her head to the side and found his shoulder, familiar comfort.

"There's plenty time. Let's get her stable first." Abbey said.

Andi nodded softly, eyes closing in relief that she wouldn't have to deal with this alone. Toby laid his cheek on her head. "We have a lot to sort out, but it's all going to take time. We need to go slowly. For everybody's sake. And we need to tell Abbey and CJ the rest of the story." Toby said softly.

"And there's plenty time for that too. Andi, I think you should go lie down for a little while. CJ and Toby can go do some work, and I'm going to make some calls. That's an order, Congresswoman." Abbey said with a smile, getting to her feet. Andi smiled as she slowly stood up, CJ still holding her hand, Toby's hand still at her back.

"Yes ma'am." she said, walking through to the other room, the others following. She lay down on the bed with her sister, cradling her just as CJ had. Two peas in a pod, Abbey had said, and indeed they looked it now, their long hair intertwined, faces in profile almost identical. Toby leant over and dropped a kiss on both heads as Andi joined her sister in sleep, before looking at Abbey and CJ. "The Wyatt Women. Heaven help us." The three smiled as they left the room.