While Neveilla had often preferred to frequent the much quieter Italian coffee shop not far from her house, as per usual she had been running late. She had grown far too used to awaking with the sun while back in Greece, but rainy old England had little of that to offer in the throws of Winter, and it had been a typically gloomy and grey Thursday morning she had awoken with the sound of sleet and hail pounding at her window. Along with the ever so slight drip of a leak above her head she hadn't quite gotten around to addressing yet. She grumbled to herself as a spot of water landed square on her forehead, and she pulled a pillow over her head in a momentary denial at the prospect of waking up at such a painfully early hour. But that movement only proved to be an invitation as a long-haired tabby furball jumped up onto said pillow, pawing it as he meowed in a loud and obnoxious manner at his human.
"Basil...You and I both know how this is going to play out. I'm going to get out of bed and you're immediately going to jump into the warm spot and go back to sleep. So stop pretending you're my best friend asking for attention..." she complained in a muffled voice before reluctantly slipping out from underneath the pillow the large feline had settled upon, the cat looking smug as he batted his tail lazily. "I don't know what you're looking so happy about. Get a job and contribute to this household. Then we'll see who looks that happy at 5 in the morning..." Not that he understood – if he did, he'd kept that information very much to himself – such a complaint as he settled down, purring away as Neveilla hot-footed her way across the cold bedroom floor to the bathroom so she could start her morning proceedings with a hot shower.
Comfortingly hot water raining down on her from the slightly squeaky and extremely old shower head above, she sat crouched underneath it as she draped an arm around a suddenly throbbing stomach, an issue that had been plaguing her for the past few weeks. It was something she had been naively putting down to the fact that dissertations, thesis papers and exams were all piling high upon her desk as the end of another academic year drew near. It had been pointed out to her on more than one occasion too that she had lost a considerable amount of weight; no small claim considering her nickname of 'Pixie' amongst her old friends hadn't been borne of irony. Although this was another thing she put down to little more than stress. Self neglect had been a common theme for her when things grew busier in her life. She waiting until the pain – something she had come to liken to an old friend that hadn't visited in some time – had passed before she straightened herself out, forcing herself into a cheerful whistle as she went back to washing her mane of dark hair.
Having ignored breakfast as per usual – although she had ensured that Basil's bowls were filled with fresh water and trimmed turkey from the butcher's shop at the end of the road, which should keep him busy until his sitter visited later in the day to take care of his dinner – Neveilla left the house with her book bag and Cello case in hand, the promise of a large cup of coffee offering a small glimmer of cheer as she gave her temporarily out of commission car a sad look before walking past it to begin the walk to work. A fact made acutely worse by the black heels she had forced herself to wear upon realising that almost all of her students were a good foot taller than herself, something which hardly commanded respect in a classroom environment.
By some miracle or other, she found herself arriving at the Coffee shop with only an ever so slight stitch in her side and slight pang in her feet. Which, she had to admit, was a vast improvement from the ill feeling that had stuck with her since she had awoken. It was unusually full considering it had barely past 7am, but the slight headache that was beginning to brew due to a lack of sleep and caffeine spurred her on as she walked in, joining the end of a less than awake looking queue of people who seemed to take turns in punctuating the moment with their collective yawns and grumblings.
The patrons had been startled as a young woman standing in line for her morning caffeine fix fell to the floor without warning, shocked looks exchanged between them for a few long seconds as they hadn't known what to do. Except for one exhausted woman seated at the back of the shop, enjoying one last drink at the end of a very long shift. She had sprung into action almost as a reflex, shooing concerned customers out of the way as a barista collected the woman's cased instrument and bag, stowing them away behind the counter lest they walk away in the confusion.
"Can you hear me, miss? I'm Doctor Campbell. I'm here to help" Serena introduced herself needlessly as she crouched down beside the woman after ensuring that somebody was in the process of calling an ambulance. She could see that the woman was completely unconscious as she surveyed her, her brow knitting together with concern as she took her in. The woman was painfully thin and absolutely not a healthy colour. She was far too pale, with a slightly yellow tinge that spoke of things far more serious than a slight nutrient deficiency or something of equal banality that could have led to such a collapse. She busied herself checking the woman's vitals – somewhat slow heart rate, laboured breathing – as she waited for the paramedics to arrive, also checking her pockets for some form of ID. She didn't have anything on her, but she would check her bag once they were situated in the ambulance and on their way.
Once they arrived at the emergency department – dispatch had tried to divert them to St. James' for fear of blocking the ED should a more serious incident occur, but Serena had been far more comfortable taking her somewhere familiar – handover had been a relatively straight forward affair.
"Neveilla Papadakis. 32 years old. Lost consciousness while waiting in line at a coffee shop. She has severe jaundice, decreased heart rate, distended upper abdomen and apparent discomfort in that area. She also has scalding to her chest and arm after spilling her coffee over herself on her way down."
It was hours after Neveilla had been stabilised and moved to cubicles that she slowly began to wake up. And although Serena had promised herself that it would be a quick handover and on her way home to bed, her curiosity had gotten the better of her. She had settled herself down in a chair by the woman's trolley bed and waited for her to come around, knowing she would no doubt be extremely confused and worried. She had looked through the woman's phone to see if there was anybody she could contact to come and be with her, but sadly she had found little beyond colleagues and a pet sitter. But she had at least ascertained the woman's place of work from her ID card carried on a lanyard around her neck, and so she had called them to let them know they probably shouldn't expect her in that day at the very least.
The woman grumbled lightly as she slowly began to wake up, her eyes closed for a few moments longer against the harshness of the hospital strip lighting as a hand lifted to rub her head in a futile effort to soothe her headache. She couldn't remember leaving the shower that morning. Maybe that was it. Maybe she had passed out in the shower, but come to just enough to drag herself to her bed before passing out again.
No. That was stupid.
And this certainly didn't feel like her home.
It was far noisier than her quiet little plot of world.
She slowly managed to prise open her eyes just enough to take in the small cubicle she found herself in, silently beginning to panic a little as her view drifted to the multitude of monitors that were dotted around her, some of which had wires like tendrils embedded in her arms. She moved her hand to try and remove these in her quietly frantic and confused state, although she was taken off guard again as a gentle hand landed on her own to stop her.
"Easy. Easy. You're safe" A soft voice soothed, the hand gently drifting to her chin and guiding her to look at her. "Relax. You're safe. I'm Doctor Campbell. You're at Holby City hospital. You collapsed on your way to work."
This did very little to calm Neveilla down as she scrutinized the woman, her hands planted either side of her on the trolley as she tried to ease herself to sit up. But as she did so, she was quickly brought down to earth with a series of stabbing pains in her upper abdomen, causing her to cease her efforts almost as soon as she had begun them. "Oww. Fuck fuckity fucking hell..." she grumbled, for the moment not in the mood to moderate her language as she had grown used to in front of her students, which caused a light smirk to appear on Serena's face as she continued to gently rest her hands on the woman's own to comfort her.
"I realise that you'd no doubt much prefer to be out of here, but I'm afraid for the time being we'd like to keep you in. We'd like to run a few tests to find out what caused you to collapse. And shou-" Serena found herself cut off as the woman lifted her hand to interject. "Please. There's no need. It's just stress. I have a pile of thesis and exams to mark on my desk and compositions I need to evaluate. I'm a teacher. Head of the Music department at Holby College. Once the next few weeks have settled down I'll be ticking over just fine again." Neveilla attempted to explain herself, but the look on the doctor's face told her that her excuse wasn't exactly good enough.
"Be that as it may, I'm not sure that stress could account for all of your symptoms. So we need to keep you in. Now is there anybody you would like me to call for you? I've already contacted the College and they send their well wishes. A lady named Anabelle called also, about your cat? She's going to be visiting a few times more each day until you get home. And she said not to worry about paying more. There's no charge."
Well at least Basil was going to be alright, even if Neveilla was feeling more than a little railroaded at that moment in time as she folded her arms, sitting back in a slightly huffy manner as she frowned to herself. She had far too much to get done, even if her staff would probably do alright without her. She didn't want to think that she wouldn't be missed in her absence.
"No. No….I don't...There isn't...There isn't anybody." she explained, sighing a little at the rather sad statement. "He chased something cute and fluffy down a rabbit hole. So it's just me and the cat..." she explained with a slight sneer at the thought of the last person to occupy her bed. It was a sad indictment on a 3 year relationship to nullify it with one simple sentence, but it was what it was. She was just grateful that while they had talked about the prospect of having children, they hadn't gotten lucky enough to have a child suffer through such an ugly breakup too.
While she was acutely aware that she was no doubt keeping the doctor from something important – she didn't seem to be actively working, which gave her the sinking feeling that she was probably keeping her from her own family or from resting between her shifts – Serena seemed happy to talk until the call came for Neveilla to be sent upstairs to undergo a few more intrusive tests. She was thankful for the time spared her, even if it was probably simply a feeling of duty rather than anything else.