Sera's POV

I felt myself different... Something was cold under me, and a strong, sharp antiseptic smell burned my nose. There was a warm hand hold mine, running smooth circles... I didn't recognize the person... But I wanted him to keep doing that... I heard my mother's voice talking to Grandma Grace, and a beep was beeping slowly yet constantly... I finally realized it... Was I in a hospital?... Again?

I opened my eyes slowly, taking in the room... White sheets, blue room... My father was there... He was the one holding my hand, with pursed lips, and scruffy hair.

'Hey peanut!' he said with a weak smile as he noticed I was up.

I looked towards my hand and noticed that there was an IV... IV meant fluid... Fluid filled with all sorts of sugars and stuff... I took my hand away from dad's trying to disconnect the IV, but he was quicker than I was and realized my plan from the start.

'The IV is giving you nourishment... You need it.' he continued as he held my hand tighter.

'What happened?' I asked slowly, almost afraid of the answer.

'The...' he was about to start, when Grandma cut him off.

'The cut you inflicted was too deep and it didn't heal properly... Both cuts opened and you lost a lot of blood.' she replied as she wrote down my parameters. 'Sweet heart, we're keeping you inpatient until we see some improvement... You lost a lot of weight and your BMI is way low.'

'No...' I simply replied.

'Sera, it's time your mother and I take this matter into our own hands.' dad started. 'You need to get better... If you don't want to do it for you then do it for me and mummy!'

'...and why should I do that dad? You haven't talked to me in almost 2 months!'

'I'm sorry...'

'Dad, unfortunately sorry is just a word... Sometimes it takes more than that for an apology to be real... Neither of you were there for anything... Neither of you noticed anything... And all of a sudden you're all parenting... Going through my stuff...'

'Sera...' grandma cut me off. '... You need to rest... John will be here shortly...' she continued as she turned to my parents '...I need to speak to both of you outside.' She finished while dad placed my phone on the bedside table.

Christian's POV

'How is she?' I asked slowly.

'I'm not going to beat around the bush... She's very weak! Her kidneys are failing... Did she ever complain about any pain?' My mother asked as she took in the gibberish numbers that I couldn't understand.

'She complains about a lot of pains and aches these days!' Ana replied as she moved towards the glass window and looked to what was once our daughter, that was now lost in her music. She had that from me. Music always made me lose myself in thoughts. Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. 'How... How did it get this far? She doesn't have the will to live anymore!'

'It's how anorexia nervosa is... At first it seems that she had the control... But as the illness progresses it takes control over herself...'

'We did this to her!' I replied desperately.

'You may have contributed to a part of it... Yes... But we're not looking for the blame here... We want her to get back on her feet so she'll respond to therapy..'. My mother continued as she placed the file on the nurse's desk, and paged my father. 'Has she spoken of the abuse as yet?'

'No...' I replied. '…at night she constantly wakes up... She has nightmares... And I never went beside her to comfort her... Ana was always the one to hold her...'

'She needs both of you now more than ever... She needs to know you love her.. And you're going to stick by her no matter what... She needs your support...'

'What if she hates me mum?' I asked.

'Sera doesn't know how to hate... She's too innocent... She's hurt.. And she may give you the cold shoulder for sometime... But she'll eventually soften up... And when that time comes you both need to sit down with her.'

'How long are you going to keep her Grace? Ana asked, while my dad took a look at the charts himself.

'Till we see some improvement on her condition. We're putting her on a feeding tube…'

'Feeding tube? Dad, you know how Sera is! She hates needles, and pipes. Can't you wait till she stabilizes a bit?'

'Stabilize? Here, her latest test results. Her condition is drastic; she could go in shock at any time. If she remains dangerously malnourished with hypotension, bilirubin's elevated; BUN indicates insipient and renal dysfunction, which relates to relatively low blood supply and an overwhelming concentration of toxins. That's all three Christian… Heart, Liver and Kidneys.' Dad answered. 'Christian, I know this is hard. It is hard on all of us Christian… but we all need to set our feelings aside for a second, and do what's best for the kid.'

'How much does she have to gain Carrick?' Ana asked.

'At least 20 pounds. She'll still be very underweight, but at least she would be able to walk. Right now she barely has the energy to make her way to the bathroom. I'm appalled at how she still went to school and to ballet!' My dad replied.

'When do you think we can take her home?'

'Not for now for sure!' My mother continued as she crossed her arms. '…but when she gets back home she has to follow a very detailed diet. She has to start eating slowly again, but you have to pay a lot of attention... Anorexics tend to have many rituals... Many ways to deceive... You don't notice them, but hopefully it will all get better.'

'...and what if it doesn't?' I asked again.

'We only hope for the best!' Dad finished as John made his way towards us.

'Hey…' He greeted, as dad handed him the chart and started reading. '…feeding tube? Carrick, Grace… it's really bad if you're resorting to this!'

'It's drastic now John.'

'How are you holding up?' He asked us.

'We just found a box full of diet pills, suppositories, laxatives… anything that would send her to the other world in an instant.' I answered as I rested my back to the wall.

'I'll talk to her.' He finished as he entered her room.

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