BEFORE A MIRROR DIMLY (prequel to Now In A Mirror Dimly

Disclaimer: Any characters you recognise belong to Kay Thompson, Meg Cabot and/or Disney.

Rating: FRC

Summary: This is my take (with certain inputs from revsue) on what happened in the run up to the start of her Eloise/PD crossover Now In A Mirror Dimly.

Nanny felt strangely disorientated as she tried to peel open her eyes again. She was fairly certain she wasn't in her own bed anymore, had strange pieces of memory of two young men and a needle. Looking down, she saw something coming out of her arm and following it up she saw one of the young men from before, holding a bag above his head. He smiled and said something that she couldn't make out. Her chest hurt, everything hurt. Closing her eyes tight, she opened them again and realised that she was in the lift. She could see the back of Max's head and it wasn't until he glanced behind him, towards her that something dawned on her. Her arm felt like a lead weight but she tried to lift it up to push off whatever it was that was resting over her mouth. She needed to find out where Eloise was, find out if she was ok… The doors opened with a 'ping' and suddenly she felt the gurney begin to move.

"Elo…" she tried, pulling the mask down. "Whe…" she couldn't form the words though.

"Don't try and talk, Nanny." The man said, taking the mask from her and replaced it over her mouth. She let her head fall to the side and her hand back on top of her. She needed desperately to ask about Eloise but she was just so tired…

"Now, don't you worry," a familiar voice said from her other side. Looking up she saw Mr Salamone walking along beside them, looking nervous if concerned. "Bill is looking after Eloise and I've already put in a call to her mother. She's hoping to catch the first flight out of Montreal."

Nanny tried to convey her thanks and apologies with her eyes, knowing that she'd never manage to get the words out. She felt like such a fool as she felt the trolley being lifted down the steps outside the hotel. She felt her eyes drooping shut again though, and the chatter of the ambulance technicians seemed to lull her back to sleep.

The next time she became aware of voices, it took her a moment to figure out what was wrong with the situation. There was a distinct lack of Eloise's usual noise, that was one problem. The closer to consciousness she grew though, the more that her physical state impeded on her thinking. There was something on her face, and she tried to bat it away, with minimal success.

"Now… Nanny…" came Sir Wilkes' slightly admonishing voice from her left and a moment later she felt his hand restraining her own. Her eyes felt as though they had been glued shut and it took her several attempts to open them fully. By the time she did, she had almost convinced herself that her mind was playing tricks on her but no, Sir Wilkes was sitting next to her bed. Only it wasn't her bed. That realisation seemed somewhat familiar. It was only then that she remembered what had happened… remembered being taken through though foyer of the Plaza while still in her nightgown! She gasped at this sudden realisation, which in turn started her coughing again. Her world shrank back to solely herself as she struggled to calm her breathing but she couldn't help but be aware of Willie's awkward presence next to her. A woman appeared from somewhere, and helped her by lifting the mask away from her face and helped to clean her nose. She leaned back into the pillows that were banked up behind her, trying to regain some semblance of composure.

"That's the treat…" the woman said, reaching for a thermometer. She inserted in her ear and, holding it there, she reached out and took Nanny's own hand. "…well your temperature's dropped again. That's a good sign and the colour's back under your nails. But you need to stop knocking off the pulse-ox monitor…" she added with a smile, clipping something back onto Nanny's finger before turning to Sir Wilkes. "The doctor should be along shortly, we're just waiting for the x-rays to come back." She said before scooting off.

Nanny let her head roll round so that she was looking at Sir Wilkes again. It felt as though her thought processes were coated in treacle, but it was quite plain that he was trying desperately not to catch her eye. She took a deep breath, hoping to be able to say something to reassure him but the pain in her chest was enough to cause her to stop. Pressing a hand to her side, she made a note for future reference that deep breaths were not a good idea.

"Nan?" Wilkes' concerned tone pleasantly surprised her. Looking up, she found him standing right next to the bed, and as she caught his eye for the first time, she was suddenly struck by how warm it was in what, she supposed on some level she had already realised, was a hospital. Her nightgown was sticking to her and the sheets seemed like an impossible weight. Nanny could feel the perspiration beading on her forehead and suddenly she just couldn't remember what it was she had been going to say or even do.

Nanny closed her eyes, just for a moment, only intending to try and re-group her thoughts. She must have fallen into unconsciousness again however, for when she next opened her eyes there were more people around her bed. She saw Eloise moving towards her and knew she was saying something, but it took a moment for her brain to interpret what she was hearing.

"Nanny! You're awake!" She tried to smile at her, recalling that talking hadn't been particularly successful recently.

"Eloise! Shhh!" her mother scolded, before turning and looking towards Nanny too.

"Hello," she said softly, and suddenly it was all Nanny could do not to start weeping. "you had us scared." Nanny couldn't think where it was that the other woman had been, but she certainly hadn't been in New York, which meant…

"Sor…" she tried to whisper. "Sorry."

"Now, don't you be silly." she said, somehow, even standing in the middle of a busy ER, managing to look incredibly glamorous. "We only just arrived but Sir Wilkes has been kind enough to fill us in and the doctor's due to come back shortly…" she said, leaning down to kiss her gently on the forehead. "and then, we'll see about getting you in to your own room." That was so typically her. There was no need for her to be treated like that, there probably wasn't any need for her to be in the hospital at all…

"Well… now that you're here Ma'am." Sir Wilkes said, reminding her of his presence. "I shall return to the Plaza."

"Oh yes, Sir Wilkes! I'm sure Bill would like to know that Nanny has …'monia?" Eloise declared, obviously struggling to remember the word.

"Pneumonia, Eloise." her mother corrected. "Suspected, double pneumonia." Somewhere in Nanny's mind, that piece of information was grasped on to and mulled over. Just as Wilkes excused himself, someone who looked like a doctor came over and picked up the chart at the end of her bed. Nanny followed his progress with half lidded eyes and tried to concentrate on what it was that he was saying.

"Well, the x-rays confirm what we suspected. Double pneumonia, with quite a rapid onset from what we can gather." He said, looking up at Eloise and giving her a smile. She wriggled on her mother's knee and Nanny had to suppress the urge to tell her off. "We wouldn't expect the symptoms to have become quite so serious so rapidly, however if you were rundown… and unfortunately you are of an age where you're going to be more susceptible to these things." he added offering her a sympathetic smile. "However, we're getting you re-hydrated," the doctor continued. "your fever's lowered significantly since you were brought in, but it's still spiking periodically so we'll want to keep an eye on that. Your blood oxygenation level is better too, but we'd expect that when you're on a 90 re-breather."

"So you're going to keep her in?"

"Yes. For at least a few days." he said, flicking through some of the readings on the chart. "I'll go see what we can do about scaring up a bed for you."

"I wanted to talk to you about that…" Eloise's mother said, standing and guiding the physician towards the door. The effort of following the conversation thus far, never mind actually participating in it, seemed to have sapped Nanny's reserves. She could feel her eyes drifting shut again but she fought the urge as she saw Eloise prop her head on the edge of the mattress and look at her with those big eyes of hers.

"Nanny?" she asked, uncharacteristically quietly. With a Herculean effort Nanny managed to push the mask down around her neck.

"Sweetheart?"

"Are you going to be alright?" she asked. The genuine fear in the child's eyes made Nanny feel so incredibly guilty that even if she'd had the breath, she couldn't have put it into words.

"I'll be fine, fine, fine, Pet." she barely breathed. Her head was growing fuzzier now, her thought processes more clouded.

"Come on now, Eloise." the child's mother said, as Nanny felt someone replace the oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. "We have to let Nanny rest." She wanted to protest, but she couldn't even open her eyes. "Now, don't you worry." The other woman said, stroking her hair as if Nanny too were a child. "Just you sleep and get better."

Of all the ways she had woken up in her life, Nanny could honestly say, without a doubt, that the least pleasant was gasping for breath. It was dark and she was certain that she didn't recognise the room she was in but, any more than that she couldn't say. Nanny winced as she coughed and it reverberated through her chest. She was certain that she must have pulled every muscle in her body, she hurt so much.

"Back with us?" asked a soft voice, as its owner padded across and turned on the light. "Alright, Nanny. I know it's hard, but try not to panic." she said, lifting the mask clear and producing a box of tissues . "That's it. Try to cough the gunk up." Despite the nurses encouragement, there was nothing for her to cough up. "Don't worry, it's obviously still not loose enough to come up yet." she said once the fit had passed.

After a few minutes back on the oxygen Nanny began to feel more human than she had in at least a few hours.

"How long...?" Nanny asked. "What time is it?"

"It's about 11pm." the nurse, who had introduced herself as Lucy, replied. "And you were admitted to this ward at about 3.30 this afternoon."

"Oh…" Nanny said, trying to remember what she could of the previous hours. There were vague ideas but she struggled to come up with any concrete memories.

"Try to get back to sleep." Lucy said, checking her drip again before dimming the light. "It's the best thing for you at the moment." This suggestion was easy enough to follow as, yet again, Nanny's body seemed to be conspiring against her.

Her dreams were filled with disconnected images, confused with her recollections. She was searching for Eloise in the Plaza but she couldn't find her in spite of, for some reason, knowing that it was incredibly important that she did. Running down the corridors, she opened door after door but seemed to get no closer. The temperature was rising, but she was convinced on some level that she had to find the source of the heat to get to her charge. She was in the lift, when suddenly flames began licking their way through the floor. It was stifling, and as she was backed into the corner, she began to panic. There was smoke filling the small box and she was struggling to draw breath. She pulled at her collar, desperate to stop it from strangling her but she just couldn't seem to breathe. The acrid smoke caught at the back of her throat and it felt to Nanny almost as though she were drowning in it. Then there was a cool breeze from somewhere. Looking up, she saw someone was prising the doors apart and she reached for the hand that appeared to help her up. Her knight pulled her up, freeing her from the inferno and she clung to him as he swept her into his arms. Her slight, dark haired saviour was familiar and she realised quite suddenly that she had expected him to appear and save her. It wasn't until he was lying her down on what appeared to be a hospital bed that Nanny realised exactly who it was her knight had been. Sitting there next to her was Sir Wilkes, a bunch of roses resting on his knees.

The dreams continued on and off, variations on a theme, repeating over and over. At certain times she was convinced that she had stopped dreaming and that she was awake. The light would be different, suggesting the passage of time and sometimes she would see Eloise and her mother sitting there, and she wanted so much to speak with them. Time and again however, she felt herself slipping away, her hold on consciousness seemingly tenuous and fleeting. This continued for two days, she later found, as her fever continued to spike due to a secondary bacterial infection. When she woke up on the third day, she felt so much more like herself that it seemed almost impossible for her to believe she had been as ill as they were trying to tell her. At least until she had began coughing again, and the familiar pain had knifed through her.

"Well, I'm glad to see that you're feeling better." Dr Weaver said, as she listened to Nanny's chest.

"Much better." Nanny re-iterated, pulling the frustrating mask away from her face in order to help herself be understood. "Can I go home?" she asked. The young doctor chuckled at this.

"Not quite yet." Weaver replied. "Your blood-oxygen level is only at an acceptable level because you're still on 90 oxygen. Besides, I want to see you drinking and eating again properly before we even think about letting you out."

"And you really are going to need to rest, Nanny." Eloise's mother declared, as she and her daughter stepped through the door. "Heaven knows, it's going to be hard enough to get you to do that in here."

"I never was any good at doing nothing, nothing, nothing." Nanny said lightly, inwardly cringing at the thought of being forced into idleness.

"Well, I think you'll find that it'll be a while before you have the strength or energy to do a great deal more than rest." The Doctor warned.

"Oh tush, tush, tush. I'm sure I'll be up and about in no time." she said with a conviction that she only half felt. As the physician left, Eloise scampered across the room and practically vaulted onto the bed.

"Oh, Nanny! You look so much better!"

"Thank you. I think…" she added.

"Put that back on." The other woman said in an almost scolding tone. "You heard the Doctor. You need that oxygen."

Nanny conceded, admitting if only to herself that it certainly made her feel better. Eloise proceeded to tell her all about what had gone on at the Plaza in Nanny's absence and all of the exciting things that her Mother had been doing with her.

"It would have been even better if you had been there too though." she said almost forlornly.

Nanny was touched by this but found that, once again, she was suddenly impossibly tired simply from listening to the child tell of her exploits.

Late the following day, Nanny was much relieved when the oxygen mask was replaced with a tube that ran under her nose, meaning that she could talk much more freely. She had been allowed up and was sitting in an old fashioned chair by the window, when her visitors arrived. Having slept most of the day away, much to her irritation, she was once again hugely confused as to times and days. She was just trying to create some sort of time line in her own head and establish what of what she could remember had actually happened as opposed to having been merely a product of her feverish imagination when Eloise's voice could be heard from outside.

"Well, hello there, Love." she said, rearranging her dressing gown around her. "Now there was no need for you to bring more flowers!" she admonished when the child produced a ridiculously over the top bouquet from behind her back.

"But, we haven't brought you any flowers before." Eloise said, looking quite confused.

"Oh…" Nanny murmured, trying to take this in. There had been two vases of flowers in her room when she had woken yesterday, an intricate display whose card indicated it was from Mr Peabody and the staff at the Plaza, the other bearing no card at all. Or so the nurse whom she had asked about it had said. Nanny had automatically assumed that they had been from her employer but now… "Well. Thank you very much in that case." She said, taking them and smelling the blooms. "Let's get them into some water shall we, Pet?"

Despite her protests, it was another three days until it was finally declared she was to be allowed home. She spent the time she was awake, reading and doing her embroidery, which Eloise and her mother had been more than kind in supplying, though she found that her attention span was much reduced. Her only complaint on the matter was with regards to the fact that contrary to her requests they had singularly failed produce any of her clothes. Up until the previous day however, her activities had been widely curtailed by her being hooked up on oxygen, in any case, or she would almost have suspected that it was a conspiracy to stop her from venturing too far. Speaking of the oxygen however, Nanny was somewhat reluctant to admit, but couldn't really help but acknowledge, that, she was missing it. Though they had been reducing the percentage she was being fed over the intervening days and she had been as grateful to be rid of that tubing as she had been the drip, she noticed its loss much more intensely. She became short of breath more readily and tired more easily than she had become used to the previous day but Nanny wasn't about to have something so minor put her down. She was feeling remarkably better and, as long as she avoided breathing too deeply and initiating a coughing fit, she was, in her own opinion, perfectly capable of getting back on with things.

She was sitting on her bed waiting when Eloise and her mother once again made their predictably noisy entrance to the ward and then her room.

"Good morning, Nanny!" Eloise said, bounding across the room and jumping at her.

"Good morning, Petal." Nanny replied, ruffling the child's hair.

"We've brought you some clothes so you can come home with us." she continued.

"Well thank the Lord for that!" she said smiling. "I would hate to have to ride home in my night things. But," she continued looking up and catching her employer's eye. "I told you there was no need for you to escort me. I'm perfectly capable of catching a taxi on my own, you know."

"Indeed you might be, but I'm not likely to let you now am I, Nanny? At least not today." Eloise's mother said, cocking her head to one side. "Now, I spoke to the nurses at the desk and the Doctor is going to come by and sign your release papers in a couple of hours, on the condition that you've eaten your lunch. So. Eloise and I are going to disappear to Bloomingdale's but we'll be back at one. Ok?" Nanny knew it was a rhetorical question so didn't bother to argue.

Once she had been left alone, Nanny set about getting dressed for the first time in a week. The task was not a complex one, though she was relieved to find everything she needed. Standing before the mirror in the watery sunshine, she stood and surveyed her image slowly. She supposed she would have realised, had she thought about it that it was inevitable that she would have lost some weight. After all she barely had an appetite even now and she had been running a substantially high fever for several days. However, her nightgowns hadn't highlighted the issue in the same way her blouse and skirt now were. Well, she supposed, there were certainly worse problems and this one would be easily enough sorted.

"Lunch is served." one of the nurses declared, backing through the door with a tray, rousing her from her contemplations.

"Thank you, Dear." she said, turning towards her and steeling herself to try and eat what she could. Nanny was certainly not about to be told she had to spend a minute longer in this damned place, solely because she had not eaten her greens. Again, it was Eloise, who heralded their arrival back on the ward and Nanny used this as a cue to push the tray away. Doctor Weaver accompanied her escorts into the room and took a pointed glance at her half-finished meal before saying good afternoon.

"Right…" Weaver said, looking over the chart. "I'm going to sign you out." Nanny sighed in relief. "But!" she continued. "This does not mean that you're in the clear. You're going to have to be careful, you need to get plenty of rest and eat properly and drink plenty of non-caffeinated, non-alcoholic fluids. Otherwise you could be back in here with a relapse quicker than I can well…"

"Don't worry. She will!" Eloise declared.

"Now see here, here, here!" Nanny protested, she did not need a six year old telling her what to do and what she should be eating and drinking. "I'll be just fine, fine, fine."

"I'll keep an eye on her." Eloise's mother said lightly, her hand resting on Nanny's arm. Her sheer, unadulterated joy at the prospect of being let out was beginning to be tainted. Dr Weaver on the other hand, smiled at this.

"Well I'm glad there'll be somebody around to ensure that you take it easy." She said. "Take this to the nurses' station and they'll give you your release papers and hopefully, we won't be seeing any more of you."

"Well, thank you." Nanny said taking the sheet from her.

"I wanted to get Maggie to take us back to the Plaza." Eloise declared as they rode the lift down towards ground floor. "But Mother said that we didn't want to let you get cold." she added with a disappointed sigh. She was more animated than she had been all week and Nanny was glad to see her unrestrained enthusiasm return.

"Oh well, maybe next time." Nanny replied automatically.

"The taxi is waiting outside." Eloise's mother said, exchanging a look with her over her daughter's head, as they stepped out of the lift. The whole process was beginning to take its toll on Nanny, she simply couldn't wait to get back to the Plaza. She was more than ready to go home and, above all, she was ready for things to return to normality.

A/N: well that's it…

All over. I suggest you now go and re-read Now In A Mirror Dimly (if for no other reason than you can then leave me notes about all the mistakes I've made – lol)

Thanks to Revsue for letting me do this (and for beta-ing the outcome) (!)

Hope you've enjoyed it.

Linds