Remember Me.....

Sleeping Beauty

"HELP ME!" Eve sat bolt upright. She'd opened her eyes onto a room she didn't know, with people she didn't know, feeling about as terrified as it was possible to be without some sort of monster chasing you.

"Please, someone, help me? Where am I? Why am I here?" A couple of kindly faces that seemed to belong to nurses came and took her arms, stopping her from trying to get out of bed.

"You're back, that's good. Glad to see you. Clare - call Dr Grant." The other nurse disappeared. Eve grew more agitated the more she realised she had no clue what was going on. Her head, at first fuzzy, now began to clear - and hurt. She put a hand to her forehead and felt a bandage. With frightened eyes, she turned to the remaining nurse.

"What.... Why?"

"Shhhh Eve, it's ok, you're safe. This is St John's Hospital. You've had an accident. You're going to be ok. Try to relax..." The blonde nurse, whose badge said her name was Jane, laid her back on the pillows. She smiled warmly, "You're safe, Eve. You're safe." She patted her shoulder " the Doctor will be here in a minute. You've given us quite the headache these last two weeks."

Eve stared at her. "Two WEEKS!" She clamped an incredulous hand over her mouth. "I've been here TWO WEEKS!" She suddenly realised she had no idea why. "Wh-what happened to me?... " she looked at the nurse's name badge, "Jane."

"Ah well, there's the thing." Jane smiled at her gently, "we don't actually know." Eve stared at her as if she was mad.

"What do you mean you 'don't know'?" she repeated softly, almost not wanting the answer.

"Wait till Dr Grant gets here, he'll go through it all for you. I promise you're safe and we'll look after you. Try not to get too worked up, ok?" she patted her hand. Eve lay back and stared at the ceiling. Don't get too worked up? She had no memory, a head wound and had been unconscious for two weeks? What was there NOT to be worked up about?

At that, the door opened and the other nurse - Clare - returned accompanied by a man of maybe mid-fifties, glasses and an air of competence that made Eve instantly trust him. She watched as he washed his hands, dried them carefully then walked over to her.

"Hi Eve. I'm Dr Grant - I've been looking after you while you had a little nap. I'm glad to see you decided you would come back to us. How are you feeling?" he smiled and laid a gentle hand on her arm.

"Scared? Confused? Tired?" she couldn't really put into words the jumbled emotions coursing through her. Dr Grant nodded.

"Yes, I bet. All that and more eh? Clare and Jane here tell me you don't remember much?" he bent over her and carefully removed the bandage from around her head. As he examined what she surmised was a wound, he nodded approvingly.

"Good, all healing nicely. Don't even think you'll have a scar." he disposed of the bandage and sat on the chair next to her. "What's the last thing you remember? Don't be scared or try to force it, just whatever pops into your mind." he waited and she paused, trying to gather her raging thoughts.

"Well, I was in a car, I was going to the seaside... and I was ten!" she burst into tears "Oh my God. nothing. Nothing after that. I WAS TEN!" she became hysterical "WHAT HAPPENED!" Dr Grant signalled to Jane and she crossed the room, coming to hold Eve's hand as Dr Grant gave her a couple of tablets and spoke gently.

"It's ok Eve. I can help a little. Try not to panic. Your name is Eve and you are thirty six years old. By your accent you're Scottish and you don't seem to live in London. You wandered into A&E two weeks ago, head bleeding and only able to tell us your name and your age. You seem to either have been attacked or had an accident. You had no bag, no ID, nothing. The police haven't had you reported missing - yet. The only other clue to who you are is this. " he pulled a piece of paper out of her locker, where her now laundered clothes were stored. It was a scrap of what seemed to be notepaper from a hotel or a bar and the name Tom , 7pm July 24th written neatly in pencil on it.

"That's my writing" she said quietly "I know that much."

"Well, it's a start Eve" Dr Grant stood up. "Rest now ok? You're in no state to be going anywhere so rest. I'll come back and see you later on, don't try to force things, head injuries are notoriously fickle. Your memory will, more than likely, come flooding back. It's not like the movies all the time!" he smiled "Maybe Tom will decide to track you down since you appear to have stood him up!" he winked and walked out.

Jane took a set of observations and she too left, promising to return shortly with a hot drink and a biscuit. Eve lay back on the pillows and looked at the piece of paper, stained with bloody fingerprints. What happened? Who was she and WHO was Tom? She twisted the paper this way and that, trying to remember even a glimmer. A brief flash of a smile came and went and she groaned in frustration.

As she lay, the sedative Dr Grant had given her started to take effect and by the time Jane returned, she was fast asleep.

Carefully putting the paper back into her locker, Jane made Eve comfortable. She smiled down at her, poor woman. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose your entire life in one fell swoop. If only someone had missed her. She shook her head as she closed the door, it would take a miracle to piece this one together.

Little did Jane - or Eve know - that the miracle they were hoping for was currently on his way home from America. When his date hadn't turned up the night before he left, he assumed that she'd got cold feet. Now, with hindsight, he wasn't so sure. She'd seemed so genuine. In a dark corner of his mind, a thought began to linger. What if something had happened to her?

As he looked out of the window, coming in to land at Heathrow, he decided that when all the de-brief was done from his trip, he would try to contact her. She was pretty yes, intelligent without question and had a fabulous sense of humour, but she was something else. Something he couldn't quite put his finger on. And that, he decided, made it all the more important that he did exactly that.

Where are you Eve? He wondered. It would take a miracle to find her. He smirked as he remembered his appearance a few days ago. Miracle? Shouldn't be a problem, for a God, miracles happened every day.