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seven
LIFE HAD A STRANGE IRONY TO IT.
Yelena had done her part. She became a nurse, went to war, barely survived that one, only to return home to her beloved London to another between dangerous gangsters. She couldn't avoid it either, considering her older brother was the one in charge of the Jewish faction, one of the two main gangs involved in the conflict over territory, money and power.
Alfie tiptoed the line between paranoia and rationality, when it came to his sister's safety. He nearly lost her once. He never knew true fear until the moment he received a letter saying his sister was severely injured by a bomb deployed by the Germans. She returned home eventually, but she was never truly the same. Doctors explained that Yelena's head injury affected her memory and they could not tell the extent of the damage or if she would ever recover what she lost. The woman could still recall her childhood and her teenage years, some of her adulthood, but her time at the front and other areas of her mind were extinct. Alfie was there with her for every step of her rehabilitation, picking up the pieces of his sister and tried so hard to put her back together.
Yelena understood the source of Alfie's concern, but she desperately wished her life could go back to normal. She was sick of her brother's goons following her every move, and his incessant hovering and need to control every single aspect of her life. Things never seemed to work in her favor.
As Yelena waited impatiently outside of Alfie's office, she was growing bored. Ollie came to keep her company as she sat, her legs crossed over the secretarial desk. She had discarded her coat on a nearby coat rack yet was getting tired of waiting and considering leaving the brewery as she was going to be late for an appointment with her doctor.
Ollie was kind enough to bring her a newspaper so she could keep busy. The woman insisted that he stay and help her fill out the crossword, an activity she used to do as a kid. Her brother's employee was reluctant at first, but once she insisted and perhaps guilt-tripped him into helping her given the gaps in her memory, he couldn't say no to her.
"Alright last one, and then I'm leaving," Yelena gave up. She reached a point where she just wanted to finish her crossword and get going. She'd give Alfie an earful another time. Just as she uttered the clue the door to her brother's office opened. "8 letter word, synonym of irritating."
"Alfred?" Ollie offered up, causing Yelena burst out laughing as she nodded. Ollie straightened up from his leaned position on the wall as Alfie and Thomas exited the office, the former not seeming too happy with the conversation he seemed to walk in on.
"That's 6 letters, you prick."
Thomas bore a strange expression as the context felt familiar, especially when his field of vision landed on Yelena writing in the proper answer onto her newspaper, a smile gracing her features as satisfaction filled her now staring at her finished puzzle.
