Fighting Life

Chapter Thirty Nine

Keeping so busy, for Tana it almost felt that her weeks were going by very quickly. She did wish sometimes that things could slow down, but being an adult meant things just kept going and going. Busy with work and distractions on the weekend, Tana was surprised when it was mid may, Tuesday nineteenth and after a busy day helping Clark in court, they had returned to the office to do some study. Tana was the student and Clark was still helping her learn. She kept telling him that he could give up and go home, but he wanted to keep his promise and help her out with her studies. There were some exams coming up and they would going to be difficult, so Tana needed to e ready for it.

It was night, the sun was down and the office lights were the only source for somebody to see. Tana had left Clark's personal office to go to the office library and look for a book about civil verses commercial law. There was a question in the exam work book that she was not familiar of an answer with and so she wanted to study it a little so then she could understand how to answer.

Finding the book, Tana noticed it was on a shelf more then a head height higher then she was. Tana was short, not the shortest one would find, but enough that she could not normally reach top shelves at shopping centres, or even in her own kitchen. So trying to reach the book was a lot trickier then she expected Tana was running out of stretch to get it. She was on tip toes, wobbling just a bit as she tried her best. To give herself just that extra bit of height she held the shelf and stepped up onto the bottom ledge of the shelving unit. It gave her that extra needed height and her hand grasped the book.

All of this took a few seconds and so did the action of her foot slipping and with a gasp, Tana felt herself slipping and gravity pulling her backwards. No scream came out of her lips due to the shock and her body freezing up. She even closed her eyes, waiting for her back to impact with the floor. However, after a moment, Tana felt herself land, but not painfully. She opened her eyes and in surprise found herself caught in Clarks arms. He had caught her, she had not even known he had been close enough to catch her from the fall.

They were silent, both in a moment of shock and surprise, looking at each other. Tana noticed that at some point she had grabbed hold on Clarks jacket and so when he corrected her, to stand her back up on her feet, Tana found herself facing him, very close.

"You need to be a little more careful." Clark said, almost like a whisper.
"Sorry." Tana said her cheeks turning pink.

It was a very strange and awkward moment, and aside from friendly hugs of comfort, it was the first time Tana had found herself so close to Clark like so. Well, apart from that time when Jenny had tried to attack her in the court room and Clark had pulled her to him protectively. Maybe this was just one of those moments again, but Tana could not help her heart racing.

What seemed like they were in that stance for a long time, it was only seconds as well, before both seemed to come to term on what had happened and to how each were holding the other and standing so close. Tana felt her face heating up again and stepped away from Clark, letting go of his jacket, and mumbling a thank you for saving her from the floor. Not meeting his eyes, Tana who was also still holding the book without haven paid attention to it since she slipped, now held it to her chest and walked around Clark, leaving the library.

She stayed silent, reading the book when Clark walked back into his personal office, silent as well, as she went to his desk and did something at the computer. It was obvious that both of them were unsure what to do or what to say to each other at that moment. While the whole situation had been quite innocent, it had obviously made each of them feel uncertain about the moment.

After some time, things got a bit better and they started to exchange comments again, their uneasy embarrassment seemed to be past and it made things easier when Tana made a small joke about something, that actually made Clark laugh. He was not easy to make smile or to laugh out in front of others, she he did and that was the icebreaker. It was comforting for Tana, knowing that things were normal again and after a couple more hours, they were finished with the study and Tana was sure she was all full of knowledge ready for the coming exams.