Pippa was exhausted... She had worked herself to the bone; learning to cook and clean was hard work. Her hands were red and raw from scrubbing things and... and... Ahhh, and. It had been nice to have something to do to keep her mind off of her dead family... Except, of course, in the wee hours of the morn when nobody was supposed to be scratching about except for drunkards, the sots, or the occasional courtesan leaning out the window in the cool night air. She had crawled into bed and fallen into it, but her mind was keeping her wide awake.

It happened as if the whole world were against her getting a wink of sleep. Her eyes were just starting to grow leaden, the weight of it pulling down the delicate lashes until... until... Until nothing, for just as her eyes would have closed, there was a noise at her window. Her lashes shot back up, pupils dilated a little more. Surely she was imagining the noise she heard!

She lay still, eyes wide open, the breath halted in her lungs. Then her eyeballs shifted as far to the left as they could pan, waiting with bated breath until she heard the very quiet rustle of someone lurking in the darkness. Pippa rolled, suddenly, deciding now was not going to be her time to die! She did not spring out of bed as she imagined herself doing in the heat of the moment. Oh, no, it was... more like a stumble? Yes... And then, to her horror, instead of tackling the woman, she flopped onto the floor.

"AH!" she cried out at first, then scrambled to roll onto her back and yell, "Doctor---" NOOO, OOOH NOOO! Shit! She froze up in that. There was a chance for a hand to go over her mouth in that space of time when her brain farted, if only to smother the pending, "Wells!"