Broken, not Shattered

Abandonment

~And if you have to leave

I wish that you would just leave,

'Cause your presence still lingers here,

and it wont leave me alone~

~Evanescence~

Joker had been long gone by the time she had woken up after her Sunday nap. She didn't worry, it seemed to be his M.O. most of the time. She spent the evening resting up to head back to work the next morning. When she woke up early Monday morning, she was relaxed and ready to face the day. She arrived and couldn't help but notice the strange looks she was getting from her co workers. Work was good, She dove right back into her job and stayed busy most of the day. Tuesday was better, less of her fellow employees were glaring her way, but she ignored it all.

By the end of that first week, she had to tell off the blonde woman that had been on her all week, Pamela, the office gossip. Pamela was a bitch, snide comments and passive aggressive bullshit, but she was all talk. All it had finally taken to get her to shut her trap was a thinly veiled threat and a smidgen of bravado. Sophie, feeling like a new woman, had no issue telling Pamela off. She'd taken hits most of her life. And even though she had thought she was broken, thought she was too far gone to be able to live a 'normal' life, it had just made her stronger.

The last month or so had changed her. Between the murder of Alex and her strange, quasi relationship with the Joker, she had found a part of herself she had thought died with her father.

Happiness. She was happy.

Before she realized what the feeling was, she'd had a few anxiety attacks. It was too strange, so foreign. Now, she was used to it, she had been able to identify it, and she loved every second of it.

That first week had been fine, nothing out of the norm. Wake up, go to work, come home, eat and sleep. By the end of second week she was kind of missing Joker. She got up each morning, hoping that day would be the day he visited. He never came, but she just continued to work. He had done this before and she refused to worry. She hated that every time she came home and he wasn't there, it hurt. Back to the emotional pain she dreaded so much. When she woke from an erotic dream to find him not there, it was beyond frustrating. By the end of the third week she had almost convinced herself that she had hallucinated it all. That he had never really been there. Maybe she had imagined everything after the disposal of Alex. She had decided to start watching the news each night, looking for a sighting of him. If he had been in the news, she had missed it.

By the one month mark, she had decided she had to move on with her life, still not 100% sure she hadn't made it all up. She decided she needed to do something or she would drive herself crazy. It was simple really, she would keep working on herself. Better herself, one step at a time. First step, she needed a new job. Without any real experience beyond bank teller or cashier, she wouldn't be able to move to something different. She plucked up her courage and enrolled in night classes with her savings. It had only taken a few months and she had been able to transfer to an actual tech school. After three months, she was on her way to being a Vet Tech.

At the 6 month mark, she was doing well in her classes. It helped that she wasn't squeamish. Blood and gore didn't bother her like the rest in the class. She was happy she could help the sick animals. The school, thankfully, had a job placement program and by the tie she would be finished, she already had a job lined up. She had never been so happy to put in her two week notice at the bank. It was the last time she had to look at any of those assholes.