"Honey, I thought we were going to restrict reckless driving to highways and vehicular homicide."

Caitlin's mother's deadpan humor ushered her back into consciousness. Her whole body felt numb and her head, understandably, was throbbing. Looking around, she recognized the surroundings of a hospital room. She could see an IV in her arm, and painkillers cruised through her veins, likely contributing to her grogginess. That was probably the only thing keeping her from freaking out at the moment. Caitlin groaned as her mother, a slight woman with graying brown hair rubbed her hand.

"Don't try to move dear. Just relax. You hit your head pretty hard and you've got a few bruises, but nothing too serious."

"My car?" Caitlin weakly.

"We'll talk about that later. In the meantime, get some rest."

Caitlin laid back just as her father came in, he was visibly worried. He looked at Caitlin, then at her mother.

"Road rage?" He mouthed. His wife nodded in reply.

Her father sighed. "First the garage, then Mrs. Pepper's dog, then a newsstand. I swear, honey, you need to stop venting your frustration on the road. Don't they have tae bo classes at that school of yours?"

Caitlin smiled. In an odd contrast to her fiery temper, her parents were the most even-tempered people she knew. Her father was head editor of a nature magazine and her mother taught middle school. Caitlin's older sister Tegan had been away at college for the past two years, following in her father's footsteps as a journalist and taking summer internships. Caitlin, unfortunately, had yet to choose a direction and her parents didn't pester her about it. Mr. & Mrs. Landry had, as of late, been rather concerned for their daughter's growing tendency to vent her frustrations on the road. In the meantime, however, their main concerns were for Caitlin's safety , so an exasperated Mr. Landry kissed his daughter's forehead and slipped out. Caitlin swore she overheard the words "anger management" under his breath.

Caitlin was put out by her father's suggestion, but was also distracted by the fact that she was starving. It had probably been hours since her last meal. As if on cue, a nurse entered with a small tray of food. Caitlin didn't bother inspecting her turkey sandwich and soup, and just dug in. Before she knew it, Caitlin had emptied her plate and to her surprise was still hungry. When the nurse returned, Caitlin summoned her most pathetic sick-person voice, and politely requested another meal.  The nurse smiled and returned with  another tray of food. Caitlin ate with a bit more restraint this time, but still finished quicker than she planned. The nurse walked by again, noticed the empty tray, and raised her eyebrows.

"Hungry?"

Flustered, Caitlin muttered a soft affirmative. She still felt a bit hungry, but didn't give it much thought. Fatigue set in faster than expected, and she drifted off.

- - -

"What'd you hit this time?"

She recognized Maureen's voice immediately and blinked her way into consciousness. She felt like she'd slept for half a day but the clock indicated it had only been a couple hours. "Bitch," she said, smiling. "I'm feeling well, thanks."

Maureen set a small pot of flowers on the table next to her bed. "It's pretty plain in here. This'll spice things up a bit, along with those." " Maureen gestured across the room at a bouquet of nearly a dozen oddly colored balloons adorned with messages ranging from "Happy Birthday" and "Happy Anniversary" to "Mazeltov!" and "Good luck" which bore Alexis' calling card.

"Hm. It's nice to be thought of." Caitlin said.

Maureen sighed. "Yeah, you'd think Alex'd be able to at least find one with 'get well' on it. She'd be here, but I think she has cheer or something."

The very idea of Alexis bounding into the room made Caitlin queasy, a fact not lost on Maureen.

"Don't worry, I doubt she'll be in today. Speaking of which. How long are you gonna' be in here?"

Caitlin shrugged. "Dunno. I don't think it's anything serious. I think dad wants me in anger management classes."

Maureen couldn't help but smirk. "Truth be told Cait…"

"Hey, don't you even start with me now, I've had a rough day."

"Yeah? Well, relax. That's all you can do at this point. That and not think about it."

Caitlin grumbled and tried to make herself comfortable. She still felt a bit off-kilter from the accident, but nothing she felt a few aspirin couldn't fix. "I actually think I'm going home tomorrow. The doctor's got a few x-rays to look at and I'm supposed to get as much rest as possible."

"I think that'd do you good. Take a couple days off, do a few finals, and it's going to be beaches, bathing suits, and baking in the sun for the next couple months."

Caitlin half-grinned. "Yeah, well this is the most relaxed I've been in months."

"I'll let you relax then. Will we see you tomorrow?"

"Probably," Caitlin replied, the sudden onset of hunger pangs nagged at her belly. "I…uh…I've been feeling better."

Maureen looked at her quizzically. "I dunno. You look kinda pale to me. You eaten today?"

"Yeah…just not much. I guess I should probably eat." Caitlin's stomach growled, and she self-consciously put her hands to her stomach. "Can you get the nurse?" She asked Maureen before she had a chance to think.

"No prob. Honestly, you'd think they'd be treating you better." Maureen stepped out. After what felt like an eternity, Maureen returned, followed a nurse with a tray of food. Caitlin dug in heartily, not noticing Maureen still hovering in the doorway.

"Wow, are they going to bleed you after they starve you?"

She swallowed a large gulp of food in her mouth. She wanted to share Maureen's outrage, but this was her third meal in three hours. While the hospital meals were paltry, she knew that she would never typically have eaten that much in such a short amount of time. In less than a few minutes she had cleaned her plate, much to the surprise of her friend. Caitlin blushed a bit at her gluttony, but felt great following her meal. In fact, even her headache had eased up a bit, only again to be replaced by overwhelming fatigue. She waved at Maureen, and Maureen smiled and returned the wave. A warm comfort spread over Caitlin's body as she, again, drifted off into a peaceful slumber.
- - -
"I've never seen such a miraculous recovery," the doctor said. "Your injuries were far from serious, but you've recovered from them much faster than I would have expected. All the tests came back negative. If I hadn't known better, I'd say you haven't even been in an accident at all."

Caitlin certainly felt great, but the doctor's rambling bored her. He'd been talking continuously for about ten minutes, just enough time for Caitlin to text her mom to come pick her up. She looked forward to getting away from the hospital as soon as possible.

"…the bruises, the internal injuries, it's all completely gone. I've simply…"

"…never seen such a miraculous recovery," Caitlin finished. "I'm glad to be the highpoint of your career," she said, digging through her purse for a hairbrush.

The doctor persisted. "You don't understand, this is totally unprecedented, I've never seen anything like it. I really think it'd be in your best interests to stay here longer."

"I'm not staying here any longer than I have to. You said it yourself, I'm fine."

"But we really should…"

"Thanks for the help." Caitlin sped out of the room as fast as possible, not wanting to hear the doctor's voice any more, though she could hear his audible sigh from down the hallway. She set to work checking her messages, and sure enough there were at four from Alexis asking if Caitlin had received her balloons. She smiled at her friend's concern, but deleted the messages without listening to anything past "Hey Cait! Guess what Ben said to me today!" She stretched to alleviate the stiffness in her joints from laying down so long, and her body felt awkward with the sudden amount of movement. She rotated her shoulders and arched her back a bit, but the feeling persisted. She couldn't quite place exactly why or even how so, but she definitely felt uncomfortable. Her first impression was to inspect her body, but everything seemed normal enough.
"You're looking better," her mother said, smiling as Caitlin entered the waiting room. "I guess you just needed a car accident to clear your head." Caitlin's mother then launched into a lecture about reducing stress and constructive ways of dealing with anger, whether or not Caitlin wanted to hear it. As they settled into the car, Caitlin let the seat back some so she could either sleep or make it look like she was asleep. It was only a couple minutes to her house, but she figured she pass it off as fatigue from the hospital. Regardless, her mother continued.
"Your father is thrilled you're coming home this weekend. I was surprised with your speedy recovery, but he chalked it up to his 'good 'ol Landry genes.' I swear, the next thing you know he'll be taking credit for your painting. Honestly, that man couldn't draw a stick figure. Do you think it came from your Aunt Becky? She's quite the artist, and quite the lesbian. And she wonders why she doesn't have children…"

Mrs. Landry's chipper and talkative mood annoyed Caitlin, who still felt lethargic. Her body felt odd. She couldn't quite describe it, as she had never had this particular feeling before.

Noticing her daughter's unresponsiveness, her mother chimed in. "Need anything honey?"

Caitlin realized she did need something. "I'm hungry," she said.

"How hungry?"

Caitlin thought about it for a moment. "Pretty hungry."

"Well there's a Subway right over here. One turkey sub coming up!" Caitlin's mother pulled into the parking lot. Getting out of the car, Caitlin noticed her hunger was a bit stronger than she initially assessed. She fought the urge to run into the Subway, but she kept her cool and tried to stay composed despite her wanting a footlong turkey sub more than anything else in the world at that moment. Fortunately her mom opted to eat in, as waiting to eat until she got home would have been torture. Eating her usual half sandwich didn't fill her up, and Caitlin proceeded to eat the whole thing. Her mother noticed her daughter's larger than normal appetite, but said nothing. "Feeling full?"

"Oh yeah." Caitlin lied. She was still hungry, if not more so than she had been before she ate. She felt odd about asking for more food thoug,h and did her best to hide her hunger. "I'm actually feeling a lot better, mom. I'm thinking about stopping by Alex's on the way home, so I can just walk from here."
"Are you sure dear? Looks like that appointment really took it out of you."

Caitlin critically needed food, and she anxiously urged her mother on her way. "Yeah mom. I really could use some fresh air. After all, it's the first sunny day of the year." Despite her reservations, Caitlin's mother left, reminding her not to stay out too late. Caitlin smiled and headed to the bathroom, where she paced desperately paced back and forth, waiting for her mother to leave.

After no longer than a minute, she Caitlin exited the bathroom. With a quick scan of the parking lot for her mother, she got back in line. She ordered a footlong steak & cheese sub, knowing she couldn't possibly eat it all and she could always just take some of it home. She again waited impatiently for her sandwich and snapped a quick "no" when asked about toppings. Though she had planned not to stay and let the employees assume the sandwich was for her, she immediately sat down and tore into the sandwich. She couldn't recall the last time a sandwich or even food had tasted this good. Much to her surprise, she completed not only half the sandwich, but the whole thing in under five minutes. Even more to her surprise, she was still hungry!

"Oh my god." She said quietly to herself. "What's wrong with me?" She remembered what she had learned in health class about the body taking some time to realize it is full, and she left the Subway waiting for that knowledge to kick in. It didn't happen, and not even two blocks from the Subway she found herself in a Burger King eyeing the value menu. She figured if she ordered enough, the employee would assume she was ordering for her family. She had a twenty dollar bill in her pocket and she opted buy more than she needed just to be sure. She ended up ordering four cheeseburgers, two orders of chicken nuggets, two small fry orders, and two apple pies.

Upon receiving the order she immediately reached in the bag and stuffed a handful of fries into her mouth as she exited. She took the long way home so that no one she knew would see her, Caitlin Landry, walking down the street pigging out on a large bag of Burger King. In the privacy of the back roads, she stopped and opened up a cheeseburger, digging into it ravenously. Four large bites and a big gulp later she, moved onto her second burger. She quickened her pace in an attempt to get home sooner, but could only move so fast while still scarfing down fast food. In the back of her head she still wondered: "What the hell is wrong with me?"

Eight minutes, an apple pie, three burgers, and seven chicken nuggets later she was making her way up the back balcony as quietly as she could. The last thing she wanted to have to do was explain the extra-large Burger King bag to her mother. She slipped in the back door and headed up to her room where she shut her door and set to finishing her meal. She finished the rest of the fries and the last burger before her hunger finally abated. She had never felt so grateful to feel full, but at the same time she looked at the wreckage from her meal and wondered to herself how she could have possibly eaten over four pounds of food in a half hour.

A sudden, powerful fatigue washed over her, and she eyed the clock. It was around four in the afternoon, and her need of a nap didn't strike her as unusual, especially considering her recent food binge. She went to recline on her bed, but couldn't get comfortable. Her jeans were constricting her a bit more than normal. She groaned, imagining the damage she'd probably do to her figure. There was no doubt about it, her pants were choking her legs and they'd have to come off. After some effort she managed to peel off her jeans. She examined her legs for excess cellulite or dimples, but, to her surprise, found her legs to be just as firm as she remembered. "Odd," she thought to herself. While bending over and examining her legs she even felt the fabric bunching a bit under her armpits, but at this point she was way too tired to be even thinking straight. She considered the tautness in her shirt, but decided to lie down anyways. Despite her mild discomfort, she was asleep in seconds.