Chapter 4: The Waiting Game

"Eurydice Colette Clytemnestra Dido Bathsheba Rabelais Patricia Cocteau Stone", Saffy stuttered to read Patsy's name from her ID which they found in the depths of her handbag. They needed to have her details send up to the ward where Patsy was, and needed her name to track the records. Saffy helpful added that "the only time Patsy comes into hospital is for plastic surgery and oh she had something else too…" She looked to her mother who was casually leaning on the counter with one elbow looking out at the people in A&E where she and Saffy had been deposited to wait for Saffy to be treated.

"Oh that, Patsy was briefly a man while we were in Morocco the first time, but don't worry it fell off and she's completely female again" Eddy sighed trying to make eye contact with a muscled man who had a burn across both his forearms.

"Mum, will you stop it that's disgusting, all these people are ill and you're trying to…" Saffy cleared her throat in embarrassment and gave her name to the woman on reception "Saffron Monsoon, I've cut my hand on some glass" she explained and after she gave her date and place of birth she turned to her mother who had been tapping her on the shoulder for the past minute.

"Saffy, what about me darling?" Eddy enquired urgently nodding her head.

"What about you, mum?" Saffron replied in confusion, not sure what her mother was trying to do this time.

"Don't you need to sign me in as well? I'm important too!" Eddy asked her daughter in all seriousness. "Edina Monsoon…" she barked at the woman sitting on reception and looked very pleased with herself.

"You aren't ill; you don't need to sign in! I'd actually prefer it if you went to see Patsy and left me alone" Saffy rolled her eyes and apologised for her mother's behaviour to the woman behind the desk, but also being told as she wasn't 18 yet, her mother needed to stay.

"I…I am poorly sweetie, I'm…um…I'm in shock sweetie!" Eddy fished around for a plausible illness and once she found one added "both my best friend and my daughter being carted off to hospital, I'm covered in both their blood and had several panic attacks in the ambulance on the way over here", "yes that's right, we came in an ambulance" she added informing the whole department with a triumphant look on her face.

"Absolute rubbish you aren't ill" Saffy whispered, shaking her head and took her seat hoping she'd get seen soon.

Saffy had a feeling that one of these days it was going to be either Patsy or her mother who was going to seriously injure themselves from the excessive drinking, smoking and drug taking they did. But secretly she was glad it wasn't her mother, even though Eddy drove her around the bend, she did love her and with this thought she rested her head tentatively against her mother's shoulder.

"Nurse, nurse! Quickly my daughters fainted on my shoulder" Eddy shouted in a panic that meant the whole of A&E looked at her, a snap of attention she quite enjoyed until she was interrupted by Saffron;

"MUM! No I haven't I'm fine, sorry everyone" she got her mother to sit down before she continued "I was just…thinking and realised that I…" Saffy couldn't express herself in the way she was usually so good at. She couldn't quite bring herself to tell Eddy she loved her or that she was glad she wasn't the one upstairs. Pulling her knees up so her feet rested on the plastic seat in the huge open room they were using in the hospital to hold the sick and needy. Saffy put her head on her knees and wished the time to go faster, being in here reminded her off all the times she'd been admitted for horrible things Patsy used to do to her as a child. For once she wished that Serge her older brother hadn't been driven away by their ridiculously overbearing and idiotic mother; so she didn't have to take the brunt of all the insults and abuse which were flung her way all day everyday.

"Darling, I was wondering…" Eddy started talking to her daughter after a silence which must have spanned half an hour. She took Saffy's injured hand affectionately and spoke again "if you're likely to stop bleeding any time soon! You really are ruining this Karen Millen scarf sweetie, why you couldn't use a tea towel or something is really beside me", she finished in the usual selfish way Saffy knew all too well. Pulling her hand away from her mother, Saffy stormed away from her and sat several rows away facing in a completely different direction.

"S…S….Sweetie, Sweetie… Darling" Eddy yelled across the room at Saffy who was enjoying reading the New Scientist magazine she'd managed to fish out from the trashy Hello and Elle Magazines which were dumped on a table. Saffy hated being called 'Sweetie Darling' constantly; she felt like one of the nobody's that her mum did PR for and called 'Sweetie Darling' as well.

"My name is Saffy; it has been for nearly 18 years of my life! You think you'd remember by now…sweetie" Saffy raised her voice in a sour reply then returned to her magazine. She tried to lose herself in a rather mundane article about stem cells but couldn't stop thinking whether her mum forgot her name intentionally or not.

"But Saffron sweetie…" Eddy started but was immediately interrupted by her daughter,

"Right, I've had enough of this Mum, you either sit down here next to me where I can keep an eye on you, and you stop whining and stop talking to me or you got home and don't see Patsy at all. It's your choice" Saffy announced in a stern voice and then sat back down with her magazine waiting for her mother to make a decision. Shocked by her daughter's abrupt nature Edina started moaning,

"But Patsy needs me, I want to see Patsy, I don't want to sit down…I want to see Pats".

"You have 3 seconds to decide or I'm sending you home", Saffy informed her mother without looking up from what she was reading. Knowing Saffy wasn't joking Eddy reluctantly sat down with a thump on the chair next to her daughter, only to slip off onto the floor. After another warning being hissed in her direction from Saf, she crawled back into a chair and started reading Hello Magazine.

After what seemed like, and in reality was hours both Eddy and Saffy looked up when they heard 'Saffron Monsoon' called from the from desk and they were pointed towards the nearest treatment room. Eddy decided that she needed her name to be called as well, and wouldn't let Saffy go in, until the receptionist called 'Saffron and Edina Monsoon to treatment room 1 please'. Explaining what had happened took a lot longer with Eddy trying to interrupt every other word, but eventually Saffy was sent on her way with 4 stitches in her left palm and a bandage around her hand.

"Mum do you want me to see if we can go up and see Patsy now?" Saffy asked her mum, looking down at her bandaged hand and sighing. She wouldn't be able to finish her work now, she wrote with her left hand! But she was reassured that the stitches would dissolve after a week and she'd be fine to use her hand again. Eddy nodded, excited at the prospect of seeing her best friend again, and together they made their way up to the ward Patsy was recovering on.

Saffron resisted the urge to reply 'that's about normal for her isn't it' when her mother expressed concern that Patsy was still unconscious. They were informed upon arrival that she had had surgery and the glass was all removed, they were just waiting for her to wake up. Looking up at the time Saffy saw it was 2.40pm and Christopher was going to be arriving at her house in just over 20 minutes and she was no where near ready to see him! After mumbling something about needing to ring her father she ran out of the hospital and dialed Chris' number. The dialing tone connected yet the phone kept ringing, finally when she was just about to hang up, he picked up the phone

"Hello?" his soft voice enquired,

"Hi, it's Saffy…" she began, a childish excitement running through her like electricity but before she could say another word he had put the phone down on her.

In complete and utter dismay, she called his number again but it immediately went to answer phone and after listening to his 'please leave a message' she contemplated what to say.

"Hi it's Saffy, I'm not sure why you hung up on me and now won't answer the phone, but I just wanted to say I've been in hospital but I'm fine. Only I won't make it back to mine for 3pm. If you get this message please let me know and we can arrange for you to come at another time that is... if you still want to, right um bye". Saffy rung off and trudged back to the ward, not sure what to make of the situation with Christopher. Perhaps he didn't want to speak to her, or meet up anymore. Her first boyfriend and she had already messed it up…