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The Fifth Day Of Christmas - December 29th



Ella poured another glass of water from the jug, the eyes of Head of Department, Julie McAndrew on her. She was drinking it poorly to stay awake, the air was dull and she questioned whether there was actually any oxygen in there as she felt so drowsy. Quickly her thoughts slid back and her tapping pen rested by her notebook.

"What did the final report from SAP show Ella?" Julie asked, Ella's eyes snapped to her, the blank expression telling the woman everything she needed to know.

"The end of year report - did you re-run it from SAP with the overhaul figures?" She asked brutally.

"Er yes, there were only minor anomalies, I've accounted for all but 2-3, I think they are down to temporary resources though, they're no more than $5,000." She said, swallowing hard.

"Ok, maybe a little more focus is needed to pad out this last glitch?" She asked Ella, who nodded obediently.



Patrick hung up as he got her voicemail for the third time. She's left a message on his cell, thanking him for the earrings, asking him about dinner that night, she was working until 7pm. He just wanted to hear her voice, their contact was minimal yesterday, even the sex was squeezed in-between his social schedule.



Edging on darkness, Ella stared out the window at the dwindling daylight. She'd been in the same meeting for 4 hours with only a toilet break and not even a chance to pick up her messages. Standing up, she smoothed down her suit jacket discretely and moved to the front of the board room. Clasping her pen in her usual style of presentation, she began.

"Against total spend on consumables and costs within property across Chase in Human Resources, we've seen a dramatic development in how the budget was spread across the year, this balanced out key interest and therefore saved $72,000. " she said professionally. As she spoke, she wondered how she'd developed this far as a speaker, just being in the job and doing it day in day out was her only source of training.

Her heart raced and she slowed slightly, taking a deep breath. Pausing, she sipped on her glass of water.

"Excuse me." She said politely. Turning back to the projector on the screen she moved towards it and continued to speak. Again her heart raced and she tried to slow it by increasing her intake of air.

She literally stopped as the chest pains increased and she clutched her chest with her palm slightly.

"Miss Annerson?" Julie McAndrews said from the bottom of the table. Ella leaned on the table and stabilized her feet.

"Are you alright Miss Annerson, do you need to take 5 minutes?" She asked. Ella looked up and nodded. She moved shakily to the door but before she could reach, she felt control of her body go, sliding to the floor, she gasped for air and winced as the pain ripped across her chest and down her arms.

"Ella!" Mick called and turned in his chair, rushing to her side.

"Call 911!" He ordered anyone. He enforced Ella to lie down, who remained silent, doing her best to make sure air got in her lungs and that she controlled the pain as much as she could.

"You're Ok - Stay calm Ella. Stay still...." He said softly, her eyes just watched him as he instructed her calmly.



"Ella Annerson - She was brought in!" Patrick heaved, breathlessly. The receptionist typed in her name.

"She's still in the ER, if you go down the hall on your right...." The receptionist said warmly. Patrick jogged down the hall and peered over the row of beds, he saw her Nana first,

"Ella!" He sighed, she looked to him and he grabbed her hard and held her so tight.

"Oh God!!" He sighed into her neck.

"I'm Ok!" She smiled,

"I'm Ok sweety!" She smiled and cupped his face.

"What's wrong?!" He asked impatiently.

"She has an irregular heart beat." Her Nana informed him.

"Again?" he asked, his face measured in worry.

"What do you mean again?" Nana asked, a gentle frown on her graying head.

"Nothing, Nana, don't worry!" She said squeezing her hand. She looked at Patrick who was looking at Ella.

"Nana, why don't you go get a coffee, I'm fine here, let me explain to Patrick..." She said softly. Without persuasion, she made herself scarce and Patrick looked at the machine she was hooked up to .

"Ella-"

"-Patrick, it's really nothing! I just had a lot of stress!" She smiled, she stroked his face softly as he sat on the bed with her.

"Miss Annerson...." The Doctor said picking up a clipboard.

"We just need to run some blood tests, make sure you're all ok, we're gonna put you on a heart monitor over 24 hours, just to be sure...but...I will warn you, I'm concerned. I really need to find out why this happens, your young, fit, healthy...." He said with a smile. Ella smiled back.

"I think my heart is just super sensitive!" She said, the Doctor laughed and Patrick smiled at her sense of humour.

"We'll move you up to the cardiac ward, it's much nicer up there anyway!" He said, she smiled and he smiled back, closing the conversation.



December 27th 2004

Panting inside the toilet, she wiped the sweat from her forehead and made her way back out into the waiting room. Her local medical centre scared her, there were children everywhere and the doctor's didn't look old enough to be out of high school.

The young woman had requested an echocardiogram to monitor her heart rate and after seeing the abnormalities, gave her some tablets to calm her down. Ella explained how she'd been stressed with work and the end of year pressures. The Doctor seemed to understand perfectly and explained she would be ok.



December 30th 2005

"I'm honestly alright, will you stop fussing Trick!" she snapped as they drove to his Mom's house. Patrick could see how flushed she looked and he kept glancing over at her as they made the long drive.

The fluttering inside her chest moved to a hard thump and twinges of discomfort grew greater in strength as the journey progressed. She gasped suddenly and Patrick pulled over immediately.

"Ella!" He said quickly, he clambered out his side and ran round, opening the door.

"God Ella!" he gasped as she flopped out the door and into his arms. He called 911 on his cell and within 10 minutes an ambulance was at the scene to get her to a hospital.

Ella had begged him not to tell her family, arguing there was nothing to worry about. It was just stress, she'd had it before and everything would be fine.



Her eyes were closed as she sleep peacefully, the only movement was in fact the move of her heart rate on the monitor. Patrick smoothed his palm over her hair and watched her, if this was how it was going to be every year when she had end of year reports to do, this job wasn't worth staying in.

The cardiologist came in, she was a short woman with a big mission. She smiled at Patrick as she stood at the end of Ella's bed.

"Could we talk outside?" She asked gently, careful not to wake Ella.

"Sure!" he said, moving slowly away from her, also being careful not to wake her, he closed the door behind him and the cardiologist looked at her paperwork.

"Ella says she thinks these are stress related?" she asked, Patrick nodded.

"Yeah, she has a bunch of critical dead lines this time of year, meeting after meeting...she does 16 hour days sometimes..." he said.

"The thing is, Mr..."

"Patrick...Stump"

"The thing is Patrick, for the last three years, at this time of year, she's had Arrhythmia....it concerns me for a few reasons, one, because they're getting progressively worse, two, they're repetitive and three, because they're a lot more reactive than just stress related anxiety." She said, Patrick listened carefully.

"I would expect to see higher blood pressure readings, maybe palpitations. But for a young woman of Ella's health, we should not be seeing this type of irregularity." She added.

"What are you saying? I don't understand." He said honestly.

"If she had a condition, it would affect her more than once a year....this is a reaction to a trigger, and speaking honestly, trigger's are hard to pin down. They can be anything from the smallest incident to fairly significant events in a person's life.....but the trigger is always an emotional one, a mental one..." she said softly, her eyes studying Patrick's as he looked through the window at Ella.

"Unless she deals with that trigger, these are just gonna keep happening, keep getting worse until it reaches a place that I don't want to see her experience."

"Her Mom." He said.

"Sorry?"

"The trigger is something to do with her Mom." Patrick said, then looking back to the woman.

"Her Mom killed herself Christmas eve 2003..." he said.

The woman stared at him.

"I'm gonna call a really good therapist on our mental health team...see if he'll come down and have a chat with her..." she said. Patrick hardly acknowledged the gesture and just nodded slightly.

"She should be able to go home in the morning." She smiled. Patrick smiled slightly and she walked away.

He stayed at the window a little longer.

"Oh Ella, what is going on your head?" He whispered.


The nurses asked him to leave in the next half hour so she could rest. Patrick had explained to her what the cardiac doctor had said to him but she shrugged it off.

"I know it's stress!" She laughed gently.

"They don't think it is!" he said firmly. Her eyes penetrated his and he held her stare.

"They think you're having these episode's because of something called a trigger.....they're more powerful responses than those seen with stress....and if it was stress, I'm pretty sure you'd be getting them more often I mean you're stressed at other times of the year too Ella..." He continued.

"What do you mean a trigger, have I got something wrong with me?" She asked.

"No...But it's something emotional......I think it's your Mom." He said. Ella opened her eyes wider and glared at him.

"This is nothing to do with my Mom!" She snapped, the switch in her disposition was fairly remarkable, her shoulders had hunched and her fists balled up slowly. The heart monitor beeped and Patrick looked up at it suddenly, so did Ella.

He didn't say anything at all, he just slowly looked back at her as her eyes watched machine.

"The machine says different." He said in undertone.

"The machine is wrong." She said bluntly.

"Ella..." He said her name slowly and the l's rolled off his tongue in a way she loved.

"She's dead. That's all there is to it." She finalized. He nodded and took her hands, softly unclenching them and putting them around his face.

"I love you!" He whispered.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, Patrick fully aware of his limited time with her.

"So...I had us dinner booked tonight at Moto...." He said.

"You did? Wow....Me and my cranky heart are sorry about that!" she smiled, he laughed and shook his head at her bad joke.

"Well it is the 5th day of Christmas..." He smiled, his eyes seemed to be enchanted and she seemed to be carried away by them.

"You're so dreamy...." She smiled, stroking his hand.

"5 courses....of which 2, were desserts...." He said biting his bottom lip.

"Aw man!" She whined, folding her arms.

"I don't know what to do give you to make up for it! I lost the deposit!" He laughed. She frowned slightly and pouted.

"So sorry!" She whispered.

A nurse loitered by the door, catching Ella's eye.

"Time is against us!" She smiled.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning." He said, stroking her cheek.

"Give me a first kiss!" She said, he leaned in and pausing before he kissed her, he just looked right into her eyes.

"I'm kind of nervous..." He whispered.

"Me too...tongues?" She asked. He let out a laugh.

"A little.." He shrugged,

And with that, their lips met like it was the first time.

"You never waste your kisses..." he said softly to her.

"The last has to be like the first!" She smiled.