A/N: Had to revise this chapter already! Just a few mistakes that proofreading would have caught! Sorry it took so long, but I've been busy. This chapter feels different for me, weaker than the others, but Dawn is one of my least favorite characters. Hope you like it anyway!

Chapter Five: Dawn

As we waited for Stacey to come back from checking her insulin, I looked around at Kristy's bedroom walls. I took in the sports posters, framed team photos from high school, and a collage from our BSC days. I often wonder what has become of many of our charges. Some have graduated from high school, others have moved away. I don't have time for much reflection since Stacey comes back fairly quickly. It looks as though she's been crying, but as we make eye contact, she shakes her head slightly.

I jumped up to grab my new nightshirt out of my bag. I bought it in one of the shops while I was waiting on my flight. It was stereotypical, I know, but I couldn't resist the bright blue color or the orange and yellow "California Dreamin'" emblazoned on the front. I noticed the other girls were also putting on their pajamas. Well, if you can call Kristy's sweats pajamas.

"So Dawn," Mallory asked. "How are things in thenutrition world?"

"Great," I replied, popping my head through the opening of my nightie. "I am really enjoying the work. Ben sometimes worries that the emotional part of the job will take its toll, but so far, it hasn't bothered me. Our kids help keep me grounded."

"Wait a sec," Shannon cut in. "I don't get to see you guys often and I am a lousy correspondent. I knew you had one baby, but I heard you say kids. You have two now?"

"Three," I answered. "You know about Emma. We had her eleven months after our wedding, three months after we graduated from UCLA. We just couldn't wait to have her, I guess. Then two years later, we had Grant. Paige came 10 months later. With them so close together, it gets a little hectic in the Zaynes household. Wait – I gotta show my brag book, too." I yanked the large album out of my tote bag and started passing it around.

"Are you planning on any more kids?" Mallory asked me.

"I honestly don't know. I think Ben wants at least one more, maybe even two. It's something we've been discussing. So, maybe we will have another one," I said. "Job flexibility isn't a concern. I could work from home like Ben, but we'd still have to have a nanny. A lot of people think that since he's a novelist, he can stay home and watch them. He was to have time to write, though."

"Are you going to open your own practice?" Mary Anne asked.

"At the moment, no. I've built a rapport with the doctors, psychologists and nurses in the Body Image Center at the hospital. I love it, and working with the patients. Being such a vital part of their recovery from eating disorders sometimes overwhelms me, but I wouldn't want to change it." I answered.

"What exactly do you do? The last time I got to see you, you were finishing up your internship." Jessi asked.

"I'm a nutritionist with one of the larger hospitals in L.A. I work with the patients' physicians and psychologists as a team to help them get well. I teach healthy eating habits, formulate menus that help them recover physically and mentally. It's challenging work, but I'm making a difference. I really get to become part of my patients' lives. Let me tell you about one of my most heart breaking, yet most rewarding, cases."

"Pam - that's not her real name, you know, HIPPA laws - was fourteen when she was brought in to see me. Her mother had died a few years before and her father wasn't exactly sure how to raise a daughter. He left her mainly to herself, working long hours trying to get over his wife's death and wishing he could get closer to his daughter. He never saw her illness coming. Pam ended up falling victim to a few petty comments about her weight. It was typical locker-room ribbing, but she was pretty depressed between her mother's death and her father's work. She convinced herself that her mother had died and he father spent all his time at the office because she was fat. She started running, doing her mom's old aerobics videos, and not eating. Her father didn't notice because he was never home."

"Pam managed to keep up this routine for six months before she passed out in school one day. She was taken to the emergency room of my hospital and eventually came to the BIC. She kept regressing, going back to her relentless exercising. Her father would find my meal plans shredded in the food processor. When he asked her about it, she screamed, 'That evil woman's trying to make me fat!' After that, her dad would hide the plans from her. About eighteen months after she first came in, Pam began to show some progress. It's been a long battle, with a many regressions, but between her physician, her therapist, and me, she's recovering. Her father blamed himself for her illness, but he's been in therapy and he's getting better, too. He comes home from work by six every night and they eat together."

"Seeing her go to her junior prom looking healthy was wonderful. Her father cried tears of joy instead of grief. She still comes to see me every once in a while. She asks for new information on things and sometimes we'll make a light lunch in my office kitchen. She even tried to fix me up with her dad; she was very disappointed when I told her about Ben and the kids."

"So, that's my life. I work hard to save these sick young people, sometimes I'm not successful. I love coming home to my beautiful family, and when I do have some spare time, I volunteer with Greener America. There's an article on the organic greenhouse we helped build in this month's Vegetarian Times."

"That's our Dawn," Abby said. "Off on a crusade!"

I stuck my tongue out at her, but laughed with the rest of them.