Page 22 of Mending Hearts at the Cornish Country Hospital (The Cornish Country Hospital #6)
Eden hadn’t been able to get Mei off her mind for the rest of the shift.
Her mother, Xiang, had arrived within half an hour of her daughter’s call, and by then one of the team from neurology was already with her, outlining the series of tests she would need to determine what was causing her issues.
It wasn’t going to be a quick diagnosis and not even a consultant neurologist could promise Mei straight away that she didn’t have the same disease that had killed her grandmother.
There’d be MRI scans, blood tests, and possibly a lumbar puncture before they’d have the answers.
It was going to be a scary wait for the outcome, and Eden was just glad Mei had her mother by her side.
For a good chunk of her life, Eden hadn’t had that kind of support.
Karen’s alcoholism wasn’t something she could ever have imagined when she was a small child.
Karen had been a doting mother, until the loss of both of her own parents in quick succession had seen her turn to alcohol in an attempt to numb her grief.
It had quickly escalated into an addiction that had seen Eden’s mother putting her own life, and the lives of her children at risk.
Vodka had been her go-to drink, because it was the easiest to disguise, but if she was desperate she’d drink almost anything.
Eden’s father had enabled it by covering up for Karen even after she’d crashed the car with both children as passengers.
Despite the fact that she was still a child, it had felt as if she and Felix were the only ones who could rescue their mother from what would almost certainly kill her in the end.
It shouldn’t have been their responsibility – it wasn’t their responsibility – but it had still fallen to them to seek out the help that had eventually put their mother on the path to recovery.
When Eden was sixteen and Felix was eighteen, and finally confident that they wouldn’t be taken into care, they’d gone to their mother’s GP together to report their concerns, and a referral had been made to a social worker.
It had still taken another seven years of attempts by Karen to quit drinking, followed by relapses back into her addiction, before she’d eventually stopped for good.
Thankfully Mei seemed to have a far more conventional relationship with her mother and she’d seemed a lot calmer by the time Eden had last seen her.
It had been a tough shift all the same, and when Meg had said she’d ordered in end-of-shift doughnuts to be delivered from Americana , Eden hadn’t needed a lot of persuading to join the others in the staff room.
Her parents had taken Teddie swimming again, so there was nothing to rush home for.
‘I can’t believe you’ve barely got back from being off for ages with your broken ankle, and now we’ve got your going-away party next Saturday.’ Isla was pretending to berate Amy, as Eden walked into the staff room, just ahead of Eve. Meg was already there too.
‘Remind me who it was that disappeared to Australia and New Zealand for months on end, not caring about leaving the rest of us behind in the emergency department?’ Amy wagged a finger at her best friend. ‘Anyway, it’s not a farewell party, it’s bon voyage. I’ll be back.’
‘Oh of course you will,’ Eden interjected. ‘I mean who wouldn’t want to leave behind a rock and roll lifestyle to deal with belligerent binge drinkers in A&E on a Saturday night.’
‘Eden’s right.’ Eve nodded. ‘If something’s going to get thrown when you’re in the vicinity, surely you’d much rather it was underwear being flung at the stage, than a chair being chucked at your head?’
‘The size of my knickers, it could be a close-run thing.’ Amy grinned, before putting on her best schoolteacher voice. ‘And surely Dr Bellingham, Nurse Grainger, you’re not suggesting there’s a life preferable to one in A&E.’
‘Of course not.’ Eve shook her head, an expression of mock outrage on her face. ‘What could possibly be better than cleaning up vomit and dealing with people who think they’re entitled to behave however they like.’
‘You do know what a rock star lifestyle looks like, don’t you?
’ Meg pulled back the lid on the box of doughnuts.
‘I think there’s plenty of entitled behaviour and intoxication involved.
You might not get drunks trying to throw chairs, but you could see a TV or two hurled out of the window. All rock stars are divas.’
‘Not Lijah.’ Amy and Isla said the same words at the same time, making them both laugh.
‘Okay, I’ll grant you that, from what I’ve seen at least.’ Meg shrugged, as Esther and Zahir came into the staff room together.
It was almost a full house. It was nice to see Meg and Eve opening up a bit more and joining in with the kind of joking around that got the team through the day.
Eden was starting to feel much more at home too.
A&E staff tended to bond quickly, and the three of them had all joined in fairly quick succession, but it was only just starting to feel as if their personalities were coming to the fore.
She still didn’t know that much about Eve or Meg’s lives before they started at St Piran’s, but she guessed they had their reasons for holding back.
She understood that and there were definitely parts of her own story she was happy to keep to herself.
For a moment her thoughts turned to Drew, as they often did, and the realisation hit her that he was the only person at St Piran’s who knew her whole story.
Eden was still putting on a bit of a front with her colleagues, because deep down she wasn’t the same happy-go-lucky version of herself she’d have been ten years before.
Life had a way of changing people, not always for the better.
Despite what she’d been through with her parents, she’d still been an optimist before Jesse had come into her life.
He’d been the one to take that away and she was determined to get it back.
In the meantime, she was going to fake it until she made it, even if that meant hiding a part of herself from most of the people around her.
Just being able to have a chat and a laugh in the staffroom made her feel more like her old self.
‘Okay, even if it really is just bon voyage and not farewell, we have to do something to mark the occasion. The question is what?’ Isla passed Amy a doughnut from the box as she spoke.
‘Oh, we’re still having a party. I’m not going to see any of you guys for two or three months at least, and I never had a leaving party when I switched from permanent staff to agency, because I was still on sick leave.
I think that gives us more than enough of an excuse to have a get-together.
I don’t think we’ve had one since Gary and Wendy’s wedding. ’
‘Did I hear my name mentioned?’ Gary, another of the A&E nurses, who was in his early fifties, pushed open the door of the staffroom at that precise moment. ‘Or was it just that the doughnuts were calling to me.’
‘Both.’ Eden smiled. ‘Amy was just outlining what’s going to happen at her leaving do… sorry, I mean her I’m-off-but-I’ll-be-back party.’
‘Will there be doughnuts from Americana? If so, I’m in, regardless of the rest of the plans.’ Gary licked his lips, as he pulled a chocolate glazed doughnut from the box.
‘There’ll definitely be doughnuts, and plenty of other food. Plus music and drinks, partners are welcome too. The more the merrier.’
‘Are you going to bring Felix, Eden?’ Eve was clearly attempting to sound like she wasn’t bothered either way, but Eden had seen the way she’d looked at Felix on the day she’d introduced them.
She was used to people noticing her brother, it happened all the time, but before she could even answer Meg responded for her.
‘Of course Eden isn’t bringing her brother, she’ll be bringing her mysterious Scot instead. That’s if he’s allowed out of the underbelly of the hospital.’
‘Now you’ve got me intrigued.’ Gary obviously meant what he’d said, because he’d even put down his doughnut.
‘Meg’s just letting her imagination run away with her.’ Eden shrugged. ‘She’s talking about Drew, one of the pathologists. He’s been giving me some advice about Teddie, that’s all. He’s got family experience of autism, so it’s been helpful.’
‘Well, romance or no romance, you’re welcome to bring him and your brother along with you.
The question is, should we have a barbecue or get a food truck in, or both?
’ Amy smiled and Eden’s shoulders relaxed.
She was grateful to her for changing the subject, because she really didn’t want to get into a conversation about whether she might be interested in Drew like that .
Conversations of that sort naturally led to questions about past relationships, which was a subject she definitely didn’t want to get into.
It was pointless talking to them about Drew anyway, he wouldn’t want to go to the party with her even if she invited him.
She was sure of it, from the things they’d talked about and the difficulty he’d admitted having in certain social situations.
What she didn’t want to admit to herself, let alone to her friends, was that she’d have loved to ask him along, if she hadn’t already known what the answer would be.