Beautiful things - jaylor story (peace book 4)

pictures and new rules

-taylors pov- 

"Hi tree, what's up" I pick up the phone and bite my lip. She knows I'm in the hospital with Ellie so she wouldn't call unless it was something bad. 

"Hi Taylor. I didn't want to make this call but there are pictures out there of you, joe and Ellie walking outside the hospital. And people are freaking out about the tube and putting two and two together that Ellie is anorexic" tree says. 

This is the last thing I want Ellie to deal with, she doesn't deserve to have her personal business out there, it's not fair. She is twelve years old and not a celebrity. She is entitled to privacy, especially when things are this hard for her. 

"One sec tree" I say and tell Ellie that I'm going in the bathroom to talk with her. It's not that I want to hide this from Ellie, but I don't know how to approach this at all. 

"Why can't people leave my children alone. We weren't walking around a mall in LA, we were in a hospital garden in Nashville. Why can't they give my kids a break. They don't deserve to have their private business out there. I'm furious" I say and rub my temple. 

This is the stuff I struggled with when I was pregnant with Ellie, what my job would bring into the kids' lives. If they had a mother with a normal job this wouldn't be an issue at all. But now there are pictures out there and the whole world knows about it if they read tabloids, and it's for sure going to be all over her school. I hate this part of my job, it's not fair on the girls. 

"Tree, I need to talk with joe, I need to figure out what to do" I tell her, and she agrees and hang up so I can joe immediately. 

"Joe, there are pictures of us from earlier all over the internet" I say on the verge of tears. This is a nightmare. 

"that's not good. Why can't they leave the kids alone. They are kids and its none of their business. What are we supposed to do now?" he asks, and I sigh. "I have no idea, like do we tell tree to not say anything or to release a statement, or do I release a statement. It's not fair on her, it's hard enough and she shouldn't have to deal with this too. I don't even know if we should tell her" 

What she doesn't know can't hurt her right? It might end up being a terrible idea, but she is so fragile right now and I don't want to make her life worse. We should shield her from this so she can just focus on herself. 

"I don't think we should tell her; it won't help her, and she needs to focus on herself. Tell tree to tell the media that its none of their business and then we ignore it. Our daughters health isn't up for discussion at all. It's been twelve years since they found out about her, and they are still so stupid that they think we are going to talk about her private stuff. That's their stupidity not ours" 

We have said from day one that our children's private life is not up for discussion. Sure we say a little something here and there, but we want them to have privacy and normalcy. 

** two weeks later Friday 30th September**

Today we are going home for the weekend and it's the test Ellie needs to pass to go home. She is off the tube, has been for a week now and it's a constant fight but at least she is following the weight gain meal plan. Her medical stuff is also stabilized, and we all think that the best thing for her is to come home, so if this weekend goes well, she can be discharged down to outpatient on Monday. School isn't an option for another two weeks but at least she gets to be in the comfort of her own home. She also gets one week before she is allowed to start taking one ballet class a week and have to eat an extra snack to make sure she doesn't end up losing weight from it. 

It's a risk taking her home and letting her back in the dance studio but its what's she wants to do, and we want to try and support her in that. It's important for her to have something positive in her life that gives her positive energy, so we need to figure out how to make that possible for her.