Fighting Life

Chapter Thirty Three

Tana slept through the night, though she did not have a nice dream and so, she felt very tired and drained waking the next day. However, this did not stop her, Tana still got ready for work and made her normal progress by driving to the station, catching and train and making her way to the office. Her ankle was doing much better, so she was moving quicker now, but she was still being careful. In the office, when she arrived, most of the lights were off but the kitchen and Clark's office were on. Tana wanted to go greet him, but she was a little worried to, and so instead, she put her bag down on her desk and went to the kitchen, to make herself a warm drink to start the day.

As one would expect, Tana was going to have to cross paths with Clark at some point. She was heading back to her desk, carrying the mug and letting out a small yawn. Clark came out of his office at that point, pausing for a moment when he saw her. He greeted her, like a boss would his employee's and out of respect she returned, as an employee would to their boss. She checked in to see if there was anything that needed to be done and Clark stated he had documents of a new case that he needed her to sort.

Tana started on them without complaint and so this was how she spent the rest of her next ten days or so. Work, home and sleep. As the days went by, she did not communicate with anyone much, just short and simple replies. She did not want to give anything away as to how she felt or to what was going on. It was clear to herself that internally she was not doing very well, however, she was trying hard to keep it together in front of other people, so she would cause them to find out. Thomas knew she had been feeling down, but she kept telling him that she was ok, doing better. She hated to lie, but it was the best that she could do.

With the days passing, Tana found that her anxiety was getting worse, which did not help when Christmas day came and she was meant to be having lunch with her family. Normally she would have offered to have the lunch at her own home, but this year Tana decided not to, because she found that it would be too much for her on her own. This meant that the lunch would be hosted at her mothers house. While Tana did not like to go there often because of the way things were between her family, she had to at least show up. How long she would say would be another thing in it's own.

She pulled up in her car, and grabbing her handbag, Tana got out and when to the front door of her mothers house. She knocked, hearing Christmas music playing inside, Tana rolled her eyes, of course there would be Christmas music. Yet, she knew it would be the type she did not. The hip hop remake song by current a list stars. The songs that were once good but ruined now days. This was going to be a long day.

The door was opened and Tana saw her brother standing there. She said a kind hello and walked into the house, smelling the cooking that was being done. Her mother had told her that their lunch would be at twelve in the afternoon, it was twelve on the dot and walking in she could tell nothing was ready yet. It was the same, every time her mother did something. She was not surprised, seeing that the computer was on and a click and find game was up on the screen. It was typical of that woman, meant to host a Christmas dinner and yet could not turn off her silly games to make sure everything was done on time.

Biting her tongue, tana said nothing, but put her bag down somewhere, looked around and saw that her father and sister were not there yet. She turned to her mother who was moving from the kitchen to the computer to check her game. She asked where her father was. Her mother did not answer her right away, and so she had to ask again. This time her mother paid attention and advised that she had forgotten something and he was going to the servo down the road to see if they had something suitable.

Tana just nodded and sat down, not having much to say. Though her mother sure did. She started talking about a recent issue at her work place, and an injury. She went over and over again about the same point but in different ways. Tana started to zone out, looking off to nowhere, as her thoughts were starting to be taken over the things that had been happening this year. It was a crazy one. Full of ups and downs. Meeting long lost friends.