Meanwhile, at the hospital, a very worried Damian and Bri sat in the waiting room while Lea was being examined.
"What is taking so fucking long?" Bri huffed.
"They have to run some tests on her," said Damian. "It's gonna take some time."
"Fuck."
Just then, Aini and Sméagol arrived.
"Hey, what happened?" asked Aini. "Is she okay?"
"We don't know yet," said Damian. "They're running a few tests on her."
"Is she alone?"
"No, her mother's with her."
"What happened to her?" asked Sméagol.
"She got really dizzy," said Bri, "and then, she collapsed." Then, she hugged Sméagol. "Sméagol, Honey, I'm glad you're okay."
"This is all our fault," Gollum sighed shamefully.
"No, no, no, Gollum, Sweetie, don't say that. This is not your fault. She's been feeling sick for a while. You had nothing to do with what happened."
"Hey, Gollum? Sméagol?" said Damian. "Can we talk to you for a sec?"
"Of course," said Sméagol.
Damian scooted over, creating room for Sméagol to sit between him and Bri.
Bri put her hand on Sméagol's shoulder. "Sweetie, you know Lea didn't mean to hurt you, right?"
"She didn't hurts us, Precious," said Sméagol. "We hurts her."
"It's just really hard and scary for her."
"We knows."
"It's really hard," said Damian, "loving someone with any kind of addiction, and I would know, because, well..."
"Me," added Bri. "I, more than anyone, know what it's like to fight addiction. I mean, not to trivialize other people's struggles, but in my opinion, an eating disorder is probably the worst addiction to have."
"Yeah, 'cause with other addictions, like alcohol, smoking, drugs, porn, you can give those up. You can quit them."
"But, you can't quit food, because our bodies need food to survive. My point is, I know what it feels like to struggle with addiction. It's freaking torture. I don't know what it feels like to fight against a ring that has crazy power over you, but for me, ED is my ring."
"ED?" Gollum inquired.
"Yeah, that's what I named my eating disorder voice. It kinda makes it easier to deal with."
"And, it's easier for anyone to know, hey, this is not Bri talking," said Damian. "It's ED."
"Like, when I would manipulate Damian into getting me binge food, and get mad at him if he refused."
"That was ED, not Bri."
"Just like when you blew up at Lea, it wasn't you talking, it was your addiction, and Lea knows that. It hurt her when you got mad, because, well, as you know, she's very sensitive. She can't handle conflict very well."
"And, she's scared. I don't mean scared of you. She's scared of your addiction, because of what it could do to you, to her, to both of you, just like Bri's ED scared me. It still scares me, even to this day, even though she's not having any behaviors."
"Yeah, because I could easily slip back into them."
"You know, it's hard, loving someone with an addiction, because you know you can't fix them. You can't really stop the addiction for them. All you can do is be encouraging and supportive. For me, that meant I was Bri's caregiver, because she was too sick to do anything for herself. She couldn't clean or cook or run errands, and she didn't wanna leave the house. So, I had to do everything, all the while watching her suffer, and knowing there wasn't anything I could do to fix it."
"And, for Lea, she's terrified that, if you find the ring, what it could make you do to her."
Sméagol suddenly felt sad. "She thinks we'll hurts her?"
"Well, yeah," said Damian, "I mean, that thing made you and Gollum do some pretty fucked up things. None of it was your fault, but... it still happened."
"And, she's scared that, if you find it, you'll choose it over her," said Bri, "and you'll leave her. You know, she's been left and abandoned so many times; that's the fear she's stuck with for the rest of her life, that the people in her life will turn on her. Remember, she thought I left her when I fell into that depression. She knows you love her, but she still has that fear that you'll leave, and the ring only makes that fear stronger. It's not your fault, but that's how it is for her."
Sméagol wiped a tear from his eye. "Our poor baby, we knows how she feels."
Bri stroked Sméagol's back. "Yeah, I know. I know you do, Sweetie."
"And, whether you find the ring or not," said Damian, "she's scared that something could happen to you while you're out looking for it."
"Yeah, remember what happened last time you tried to chase after it? You almost died. I know there's no molten rock around here, but things can still happen to you when you go out in the middle of the night by yourself."
"Like what?" asked Sméagol.
"Well, you could get raped her mugged or killed by a crazy person, or you could get run over by a car. Remember, I got hit by a drunk driver, and it wasn't even nighttime. But, most of the drunk drivers are out at night, and when you're drunk or high, you can't drive a car the way you're supposed to."
"A lot of crazy shit happens at night, buddy," said Damian, "and sometimes, even during the day. Trust me. No ring is worth putting your life in danger, no matter how powerful it is."
"And, think about it this way. Even if you could live forever, and have all the power you ever wanted, would it really be worth losing the simple but beautiful things in life, like laughter and music and joy and friendship and love?"
As Sméagol thought about what Damian and Bri said to him, Lea's mother came into the waiting room with tears in her eyes.
"Delaney?" Bri inquired, worried. "Is everything okay?"
"No," Delaney sniffled, approaching the group of friends.
"What's wrong?"
Delaney began to cry.
"Did they get the test results back?"
Delaney nodded.
"What is it?"
"She has... a brain tumor. It's cancer."
"Oh, no," Bri said sadly as she, Damian, Sméagol, and Aini all pulled Delaney into a big group hug.