The downward spiral

[Emilee Marshall (DELETED 5316)]

It had been nice to be so close to Enver again, and even though it was only physically and not emotionally, it was something. However, she wasn't afraid to admit that there had been a few times when she'd been alone - as she usually was - that she'd had a bit of a weepy moment to herself. She'd still not told either of them about the real reason she was here, that there was an end and a time limit to it all, and she didn't know if she could. Not yet anyways. They still looked at her as a nuisance and in the way. Sure, they never said it to her face, but you could hear it in the tone of their voice and the look in their eyes - or at least that's what she was reading there. Telling them now, would only force their hand even further and make them feel obliged to look after her and see her. Where she wanted them to come to her, to reach out themselves because they wanted to and cared. That's what she was hoping to change. However, the lack of contact from either one - apart from the bear minimum - was very very telling.

However, something had been going wrong recently. And she'd ended up finding herself in the hospital after one black out. It had been happening here and there, where she suddenly blacked out and when she once more came too - she was not where she remembered being and time had passed. At first, she'd tried to ignore it, but it was happening more and more frequently as time went on. She couldn't ignore it, she knew she shouldn't - but she did. Until, the Doctors had found her instead. Apparently, in one of those black out moments, she'd collapsed and when the people around her couldn't rouse her - they'd called for an ambulance.

The doctors had run all sorts of tests on her after she arrived at the hospital, and they'd found out that she had a blood clot in her brain. So she'd been rushed into surgery where they'd drilled a hole in her skull to remove the offending lump. Basically, she'd had a stroke - which had been brought on by the clot, and so was now under medical care while they fed her all manner of medication and continued to do tsts on her. When she'd finally come around, it was roughly three weeks since she'd passed out and she was completely disorientated and in pain. Her head was bandaged, there were machines all around her making odd noises and she was alone. Calling out, she'd managed to attract a nurses attention who then hurried to her side to calm her down and assure her all was well.

Finally the question had come - was there anybody they could call for her. When she'd said there wasn't - the nurse explained that in that case, she'd be in hospital for a whole lot longer than if she had someone she could be released to. Begrudgingly, she'd admitted there was someone they could call for her then, and had given them Enver's number - though she couldn't for the life of her remember his number and began to get very upset and distressed as she realised there were a few things she couldn't remember. The nurse had given her a sedative and then left the room quietly, planning on checking Emilee's phone to see if Enver's number were in there to then give him a call to let him know his mother was in hospital.

[Enver Marshall II]

"What have you got planned for the two upcoming holidays?" He looked over at his manager as she shifted in her chair across the desk from where Enver sat. "Two?" Jennifer asked him as she opened her planner to see if she had forgotten which two holidays he was talking about. "Canada Day and-" She trailed off, a little confused. And it showed in her features when she couldn't think of what the other holiday Enver had been talking about.

"Independence day." He reminded her, knowing that was an American Holiday and not a Canadian one. Meaning not many would recognize it. "Since I'm not going home, thought it'd be nice to do something here for those of us who can't or won't be going home. I'm sure there's a few American's around here." He added with a nod of his head. "Oh. I just assumed you would be going to California." She smiled politely at the man across from her. "Not this year." He shrugged, closed his own agenda book, then looked at the closed door. "We should get a good list of Canadian movies for Canada Day and narrow the list down and then some films geared towards Independence Day and narrow that one down too. By the end of the week." Enver added in as he stood, indicating their meeting was over and done with. Jennifer also stood after jotting down his words in her notebook and then flashed him a smile, turned and headed out, closing the door behind her.

Enver moved towards the small fridge in his office, but was stopped when he heard his phone vibrate on the wooden desk he had just been sitting at. He turned back, swiped up the phone and looked at the number. His brows furrowed as he looked at the number on the Caller ID, trying to think if he'd seen it before. He let it buzz again, making sure the caller knew who it was they were calling, then picked the phone up. "This is Enver Marshall." Since he wasn't sure who was calling, Enver decided to let the person know who it was they were calling and also didn't add in the second bit. Really, he wasn't the second anymore, given his old man had been dead for at least half a year. If someone was really trying to get hold of him, then they'd know who they were talking to by his voice. If not, they'd hang up without saying much of anything or apologizing and he'd go right back to work.

[Emilee Marshall (DELETED 5316)]

The phone rang a few times before it was finally picked up. The voice on the other end sounded American, maybe a little gruff, but there was a smoothness and a silkiness that made it slide into her ear and made her smile. When this man came to pick up his mother, she would have to make sure to be on shift and in the vicinity. She needed to know what he looked like and see if the voice, which had only so far spoken two words, matched the body. She really hoped it would, and that he was single!

"Good Evening Mr Marshall. This is Lydia calling from Harper Rock General. I'm sorry to tell you, but we have your mother here. She's been with us for the last three weeks and has had major surgery."

Which was a thing, had nobody been worried and looking for her? Wasn't anyone concerned that they'd not heard from her in three weeks? However, it wasn't her place to question - because some families were just, a bit odd.

"She is now getting to the stage where she can leave the hospital - but she needs to be in the care of someone and can't be left alone. Would you be able to collect her? Are you in a position to care for her? Maybe come in so we can discuss options?"

[Enver Marshall II]

There was a pause on the other end of the line and then finally someone spoke. A woman by the name of Lydia. It didn't ring any bells in his head, so he let her keep on talking without greeting her. As she went on, Enver's brows furrowed together and then the male shook his head. Something didn't seem right. Three weeks? Had it really been that long since he'd seen Emilee around?

And why the hell did no one tell him that she hadn't been coming in to the theatre to help out, like he'd been paying her to? His manager was usually on top of her A-game, so this seemed a bit strange to him. Almost as if it wasn't real. A joke maybe. A sick, strange one, but a joke none the less. Things just didn't add up.

"Three weeks you say?" Enver asked, questioning the woman before he continued on. "Come on lady, who the hell is this really? She put you up to this for some strange reason? How much is she paying you for this gimmick? There's no way in hell you're calling me after three damn weeks of her being in a hospital and no way in hell my manager, that's been working for me for almost two years now would not inform me she's not been coming in to work." The male scoffed, brought the phone from his ear and looked at the caller ID again. He'd keep this number around in case it called again and he had to get the police involved.

"I suggest you come up with a better storyline the next time you want an autograph or something, then some three week sob story ********." With that Enver hung up the phone, moved to his mini-fridge and scrolled through his phone book to find Emilee's number and pressed the call button.

[Emilee Marshall (DELETED 5316)]

Lydia tried to get a word into the tirade that came from the man she'd called, and she couldn't help but grimace at the fact he was right. They'd been through Emilee's phone, but there was no ICE contact, just a lot of names that they had no right calling to let them know about her health without her permission. She had no answer for him however, regarding the manager not telling him she'd not been in to work - though what a woman of eighty something was doing working was another thing all together. Honestly, she was tempted to get social services involved, in case this man was forcing his mother to work against her will or something. After all, Emilee had seemed less than keen for her to phone him.

The line went dead, and she'd not managed to say a word to him - and she couldn't help but sigh. Families were weird. Some more so than others. And she was very glad hers was on the normal side of things. She'd just got up from the desk, when the phone in her hand started to ring. Flipping the screen, she looked and saw that it was the man she'd just called - obviously phoning his mother to ask what was up. Really though, what sort of family was this who played such sick jokes on one another! Her finger slid along the answer area, before she brought it to her ear.

"Good Evening Mr Marshall. This is Lydia. Again. Staff Nurse at Harper Rock General. Can I help?"

[Enver Marshall II]

Help?
This lady was nuts! She called him, spouting off about his mom being in the hospital and here she was acting like he called her?

"Yeah, you can come off it and tell me what you really want for starters." Obviously the man didn't believe the woman still. "But alright, we'll keep playing your game and dicking around, wasting both our time until we found out the real reason why you're calling." He knew he was being a dick, but deep down Enver didn't care. The woman had a lot of galls calling him, pretending his mom was in the hospital and had been for a long length of time that he hadn't even noticed or been told she hadn't been showing up to the office to help. Something Enver had been resigned to do, but thought it'd make time pass quicker for his mom, she'd see all the things he'd accomplish here, see that he was established and fine and go back to Cali.

"Alright. If she's in there, why don't you describe her? Just to make sure we've got the right woman and this isn't some other Emilee Marshall." Marshall wasn't that uncommon of a last night, so it could have been possible that there was an Emilee Marshall there, just not his Emilee Marshall.

[Emilee Marshall (DELETED 5316)]

Lydia sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. No wonder that poor old woman hadn't wanted her to call this man. If this was all she had in the world, she wouldn't wish that on anyone. The guy was being a complete and utter *** right now, and this wasn't the reaction she normally got when she called people to tell them their mother was ill and in hospital. Her eyes glanced to the sheet in front of her, scanning down to where there was a number for social services, deciding that once this call was over, she was calling them right away to make sure that whatever happened with this man, Emilee was looked after properly.

"Sir. I'm afraid I'm a very busy woman as the wards have a number of people waiting for medication in a few minutes. Your mother asked us to call you, gave us the number to call, and we did. I'm afraid I don't have time to play these games with you Sir. Harper Rock General, Ward 3, ask for your mother at the nurses station and someone will take you to her. However, I'm afraid I really must get on now. So please do have a good evening, Sir."

She was well aware that she'd used Sir more than she'd needed to, but she was being overly polite to make her irritation known. Hanging up on him without giving him a chance to answer, she sat for a few minutes to calm herself and then redialled the desk phone, calling social services as she'd planned. She quickly described how ill Emilee was, and then her conversation with Mr Marshall and got the assurances from social services that they would make a case and keep tabs on it all to ensure Mrs Marshall's well being was being taken care of. Then it was time for her to do her rounds.

It was all in his hands now.

[Enver Marshall II]

"Yeah. Right." Enver scoffed as the woman went on and on about where his mom, supposedly was and kept calling him sir. He knew that tone all too well. She was annoyed, but she was the one that called him! He hung up after she let the line drop, sighed and shook his head. Was it possible his mom really was there?

He scrolled through his contact listing, sent a text to see what, if anything his mom would do and then sighed when a few minutes went by and no response was given. "Third ward it is." He muttered to himself, before Enver stuffed his phone in his pocket, and let his mind drift in to his wife's. Hey gorgeous. Got some things to do in the city and check up on. Might be something, might be nothing. I'll let you know when I get there. Enver finished the thought up as he left, got in his car and headed to the hospital.

After parking his car, the male headed in to the hospital and stopped at the desk. "Third ward. Still accepting visitors and what's the quickest way to get there?" He cleared his throat, looked around and listened to what the older guy behind the information desk had to say. Visiting hours for about 45 more minutes and down to the right, then hand a left at the red square, and go a little further and up some elevators. "Thanks." Enver tipped his hat to the guy, who was in the middle of asking Enver if he was that guy he saw in some film a couple years ago. But Enver didn't acknowledge if he was, or wasn't before he was following the directions the guy gave him.

The desk wasn't hard to spot, but it seemed a little busy. He looked around, thinking he might be able to find his mom's room by himself, but after a quick glance, he realized that wasn't going to happen. So he waited until some woman with a young kid left the station after getting some information of her own, then walked up to it and cleared his throat for the second time tonight in the same place. "I'm looking for Emilee Marshall's room?" He took a step back and looked around as some beeps were heard down the hall.