Madeline managed to avoid her parents the next morning. She slept late so had to rush to get ready for school, leaving no time to talk. With everything that had gone on the night before, she hadn't had time to do her homework, but frankly she didn't care. Her math teacher would probably make her serve a lunch detention.

She left the apartment without saying goodbye, ducking out quietly amiss the usual morning chaos. Her mother always made sure she ate breakfast before she left, but Maddie had skipped that today and she was already feeling it. She was done. Done with the arguing amongst her parents and done with her mother telling her she couldn't accept gifts from her father. It was ridiculous, and Maddie felt like she needed to shake things up.

Maddie served her lunch detention and skipped lunch as well. By the afternoon, she could tell her blood sugar was low. She hadn't felt this lousy in a long time. Soon teachers were calling her out, telling her to pay attention and asking if she felt well. She struggled through the end of the day and went home. Lin was home, and he called after her, but she stormed straight off to her room and locked the door.

She curled up on her bed and put in her earbuds, then let herself slip off to sleep. Her body was protesting its lack of food and sugar.

Around dinner time, Lin realized he hadn't seen Maddie since she got home from school. That wasn't out of the ordinary. She was a teenager full of angst, after all, and would usually rather be in her own room than hanging out with her family. At dinner time, he knocked on her door to get her and she didn't answer. He tried the door and found it was locked.

"Madeline?" he called a little louder. "Open the door please?"

There was still nothing from inside. Not even a peep. He called again and then began to become concerned. Her lock wasn't a real lock; it could easily be picked with a paperclip, which he did. He found Madeline curled up on her bed, looking pale. Lin strode over to her bed and shook her, and she was almost unresponsive. He patted her face a little and called her name. She opened her eyes a little, but they rolled back in her head.

"Jesus, Mads," he looked into her face. Her skin felt clammy. "Have you checked your blood sugar lately?"

Lin had been around her enough times when she had low blood sugar that he immediately recognized it. He turned her onto her back and shook her a little more. She looked terrible. Lin raced to the kitchen and found Madeline's emergency kit. Inside, there was glucagon, which could be injected if her blood sugar ever got dangerously low. Lin was pretty sure this qualified. He'd never had to inject her before, and was hoping it would stay that way. Lin himself wasn't a huge fan of needles and thought of pricking his kid with it wasn't at the top of his list of things he wanted to do.

He brought the kit with him, setting it down on her bedside table. He found the little vial of rubbing alcohol and some cotton swabs. There was a little cheat-sheet included, thank goodness, because it had been a long time since Lin had learned about what to do. She would need to be injected on the buttocks or the thigh. He decided the thigh would be the least invasive. Lin managed to unbutton and tug down her jeans to her knees and then pressed the swab to the area. Maddie winced at the cold.

"Sorry, Mads," he apologized. "I'm gonna have to give you a shot of glucagon. You're really out of it."

She moaned as Lin grabbed the vial. He inserted the needle and then pulled out the plunger until he had the correct measurement. Then, he pulled it out, took a deep breath, and willed himself to do the task. He pressed the needle into Maddie's thigh and she groaned a little, then he pressed the plunger, giving his daughter her much-needed medication. Once it was in, he pulled out the needle and set it down on the kit. He knew he needed to get Maddie to a doctor.

"Alright, baby girl, I'm gonna take you to a clinic," he said as he pulled on her arms to sit her up. Maddie was still completely out of it. Lin pulled her up to standing and managed to pull her jeans back up over her hips and button them.

"Rio!" he called for his son. Rio heard the tone of his father's voice and came to his sister's room immediately. "Help me with her. I need to get her to a doctor."

Lin wrapped one of her arms around his neck and Rio took the other. Together, they walked her through the house, out the door, and to the elevator. Lin hailed a cab and looked up the closest clinic on his phone. Within 5 minutes, they were checking in.

Lin gave the receptionist Maddie's name and birthday, then started to fill out some medical forms.

"Text your mom and tell her where we are," he told Rio as they sat in the waiting room. Madeline was doing slightly better. She'd opened her eyes and her skin color was looking a bit better. She sat next to Lin, leaning into his side as he wrote.

Five minutes later, her name was called. Lin and Rio helped her to the exam room and laid her down on the table. They sighed at the exertion, sitting down in the two chairs. The nurse took Maddie's vitals and blood sugar.

"How's her blood sugar get so low?" Rio asked as they waited. "I've never seen her this bad."

"I don't know," Lin said, scrubbing a hand over his goatee, but he suspected it was on purpose. There was no good reason it should have dropped so low on a regular day. "I'll have to ask her when she's back with it."

Luckily, they didn't have to wait too terribly long. A female doctor came in and greeted Lin and Maddie.

"Maddie, it seems that your blood sugar got pretty low today," she said as she got out her otoscope to check her eyes. "Do you have any idea how that happened?"

"No, not really," she lied, obviously still out of it.

"We got the readings back," she said as she switched to the other eye. "Your level's now at 90, which is still pretty low. I understand your dad gave you an injection of glucagon?"

"Yes, I did," Lin jumped in. "When I found her she was pretty unresponsive and and her skin was clammy and cold."

"If it's only at 90 now after that shot, it must have been dangerously low, Madeline," the doctor said, scooting back on her rolling stool. "You're lucky you didn't have a seizure."

The nurse walked in with some sort of instrument and stood next to Maddie.

"I'm gonna have the nurse hook you up to this device," she explained. "It's going to closely monitor your blood sugar. We'll hook you up to an IV and get you all leveled out. Then you should start feeling much better."

Madeline nodded, not that she would protest much anyway. The device was hooked up and showed her level as 93. She looked away when her IV was hooked up, sending more medication into her. Maddie laid back down on the bed as the nurse covered up with a blanket since she still felt cold.

Slowly, her blood sugar level began to come back to a normal level. Lin kept asking her questions, gauging her level of alertness. He felt immense relief when she started talking pretty much normally.

About an hour and a half after she'd arrived, she was deemed stable, and was released. Lin was told to check her blood sugar level every two hours while she was awake. As they walked out to the street, Lin stayed by his daughter's side in case she got woozy. They hailed a cab home and Madeline went to her room. Lin gave her a few minutes to herself, but then knew he needed to talk to her. He knocked and went inside, sitting on her bed.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her.

"Fine," she said grudgingly, scratching at her arm where her IV had been.

"Maddie, how did your blood sugar get so low today?" he asked her, not beating around the bush. "You've never gotten that bad before."

She shrugged and studied her nail beds.

"Madeline, did you do this on purpose?" he guessed.

"Why would I do that?" she asked him.

"I don't know," he said. "Maybe to get attention?"

"It's not a big deal," she tried to brush it off. It seemed kind of silly now.

"It is," he corrected her. "You put your health in danger. You could have had a seizure. Are you trying to make your mom and I feel guilty about something?"

It sounded so stupid when he said it. She sighed. "Lin, I-" she paused, not knowing how to continue. Lin waited patiently. He turned his body so he was facing her side. "I don't know. I get so sick of you guys all arguing and telling me I shouldn't be getting gifts from Dad. I'm sick of feeling like shit."

Lin nodded and scratched the back of his head. He figured it was something like that. Payback for all the angst they'd caused her.

"I can understand you've been feeling stressed with all this," he said. "But deliberately causing your blood sugar to drop like that? Not the smartest choice."

"I know," she sighed. "I felt like crap. I'll never do it again."

"Good," he said, relieved. As a parent, he'd never been more terrified in his life. To see his daughter like that shook him to his core. "You better not scare your mother or me like that ever again."

"I won't," she said softly. "I promise."

Lin gently pulled her head towards him and planted a kiss on her head. "Do you need something to eat before dinner?"

"Yeah," she said. "I'm starving. I didn't eat all day."

She followed him out to the kitchen and grabbed a handful of cookies. As she was chowing down, Kate walked in from work.

"Madeline!" she dropped her stuff and immediately pulled her daughter into a hug. Madeline awkwardly accepted, holding her cookies in one hand as she tried to finish chewing.

"Mom," she assured her softly. "I'm okay."

Kate pulled back and looked at her daughter, concerned. "You scared me half to death." Kate smoothed her hair lovingly, just looking at her kid. She pulled her in for another hug and finally let her go. She smiled at Lin and hugged him warmly.

"And you had to give her a shot, huh?" she asked, giving him a quick kiss on the lips. "How did you get through that?"

"I have no idea," he admitted. "Not something I ever want to do again."

"Yeah, it still hurts, by the way," she complained, rubbing at her upper thigh. Lin didn't feel too sorry for her since she'd brought it on herself. He just chuckled and rubbed Kate's arms.

"I've got dinner," he told her. "Why don't you go relax for a few?"

"I won't argue with that," she said, kicking off her heels. She disappeared to her bedroom to change into more comfortable clothes. Madeline disappeared to her room with her snack. When Kate came back out, Lin called her over.

"Hey," he said quietly. "Madeline did this all on purpose."

She looked at him, confused. "What? Why would she do that?"

"Payback," he told her. "She's sick of us arguing with her dad and giving her crap about the stuff he buys her."

Kate scoffed and crossed her arms. "So, what? She endangers her life to prove a point?"

He shrugged as he stirred at the vegetables frying in the pan. "Teenage brain."

Kate rolled her eyes. "I didn't think she'd be capable of something like that," she said. "Maybe I need to talk to her some more about her dad. I know I haven't been that approachable."

"You could say that," Lin agreed. Kate laughed and gave him a playful shove. He was glad that Kate was starting to see the light. She wasn't so angry that she was blinded anymore. Lin would let her take the lead, since all this drama was with her ex.

After dinner, Kate went to visit her daughter. Maddie took a shower and was looking very refreshed and back to her usual self.

"Lin tells me you did all this today on purpose," she began, eyeing her daughter. Maddie looked away, embarrassed.

"Look," she continued. "I'm not angry at you. Okay, I'm a little annoyed, but I'm sorry that you felt things had gotten so bad that you needed to do something so drastic. What is it that's bothering you so much?"

"It's just that you make me feel guilty any time I'm with him," she began. "You've gotten better but it's almost like a passive-aggressive thing. I can tell you hate him. And I don't blame you, but he's my dad. And I want to have a relationship with him. And then we he buys me a couple things, you freak out. So what if he buys me a new cell phone? That's his business."

"I'm just afraid he's trying to buy your affection," Kate said, rubbing her daughter's leg. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"He doesn't have to buy my affection," Maddie said. "I love him."

"I know," Kate said softly, pulling her daughter's head towards her to give her a kiss. "And I'm sorry if I've caused you pain. That's the last thing I want to do as your mother. Forgive me?"

Maddie smiled and leaned into her mother. "Yeah. Of course."

They just relaxed for a few minutes on the bed, leaning into each other. The tension between them had lessened greatly, and Maddie was especially grateful. She didn't like fighting with her mother.

"Is it okay if I spend the weekend with Dad?" she asked. Kate squeezed her shoulder.

"Sure," she said softly. "But I'll miss you."

Kate kissed her head again and then stood up. "Have you checked your blood sugar lately?"

"Yeah, right after my shower," she said. "Normal."

"Good," she said. "Get an early night tonight. I'm sure this was all exhausting."

Madeline thought that sounded really good. She changed into her pajamas and was climbing into bed at 8:00. Within a few minutes, she was fast asleep.

Around 10:00, Kate and Lin went to bed as well. Lin stopped at his daughter's bedroom and peeked in. When he watched her sleep, she looked so sweet and helpless. After the day's ordeal, he was feeling overprotective of her. He quietly walked in and adjusted her covers, then knelt down next to her. Her breathing was slow and even. Lin just watched her sleeping for several minutes. He hoped that he never had to experience anything like he'd had to experience today. It had been the worst moment of life. Finally, he stood and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. He took a final look at his kid and gently closed the door behind him, knowing she was safe.