All The Small Things You Do | Katie McCabe.

What if's are intrusive thoughts.

It was finally time.

Finally time for Tatum's return since her injury.

2 months of waiting and working hard, and it has finally come.

The problem she's now facing, however, is Tatum has a bad habit when she comes back from injuries.

She overthinks.

She can't get the thought out of her head that what if she's came back too soon. Despite the countless hours training and in rehab, it's different to a proper match. What if she falls on her shoulder and it's not completely healed and she's out for a longer term? The world cup is coming up, she can't take that risk.

She had spoken to Katie about it last night, their relationship only growing over the last month. They've managed to see each other in person about every 10 days or so, taking it in turns for who travels when. Tatum was due to fly out tomorrow for Katie's birthday to surprise her, but first she has to get through this game.

She'd spoken to Katie, telling her about her worries and her anxious thoughts, and the Irish woman had done everything she can to reassure her, and it had worked - at the time, anyway. But she has slept since then. And now she sat in the changing room, faintly hearing the cheers from the fans, and all those anxieties had came flooding back.

"¿Qué pasa, pequeña?" (What's going on, little one?) Tatum was interrupted by a voice talking to her. She looked up and found Ale coming to sit next to her. Tatum's cubby a few further down from Alexia's seen as she was number 22, in between Keira and Ingrid. Alexia was ready for the game, captain's armband resting firmly on her arm, whilst Tatum sat there with her boots not even on her feet yet and her socks bunched down at her ankles.

"¿Qué pasa si no está bien?" (What if it's not okay?) Tatum replied, rolling her shoulder softly.

Alexia smiled and put an arm around Tatum's shoulder. "Do you really think, errr, that they play you, if you are hurt? They wouldn't risk you. You are, uhh, ready. I promise you. Confía en mí y confía en tu cuerpo. Te cubro la espalda, todos lo tenemos.(Trust me, and trust you're body. I've got your back, we all do.)"

Tatum nodded in response. When she broke her leg before the Euro's she was angry, she thought that that was it, she was going to miss the Euro's, and her career was done, she wouldn't be the same because she wouldn't trust her body to have her back. She had spoken to Leah about it in length, and something the blonde said has always stuck in her mind. As athletes, we treat our bodies like temples, we treat it with loyalty and trust, constantly giving it what it needs to grow and be strong, and we expect it to repay us back in a similar way, but that's not always the case, because at the end of it, we're only human, and life is life. All we can do is our best, and that has to be enough.

Tatum eventually continued getting ready, Alexia staying sitting next to her just incase she needed her. She followed her rituals, putting one shin pad on, pulling her sock up to it's full length before pushing it down so it just covered the shin pad, never having liked her socks being high as she feels like it constricts her. Once the socks were in place, she could pull her boot on, tie it, and then make sure the bottom of the cut socks sat right. Once one leg was exactly how she wanted, she did the same routine on the other leg. She kissed her tattoo for her dad, and then kissed her other wrist which she had tape on, Nova's name written on it.

"Estas lista?" (You ready?) Alexia asked, standing up and patting Tatum on the back.

"Vamos."

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