Broken Bonds

This is Your Chance

A few weeks passed by and Vicky had slowly begun to feel an improvement. Her nightmares, however still horrific, were now only happening once every so often and she had continued to go to therapy. She continued to stay with Joe and Bessy, who's baby bump had begun to grow by the day, and although they had made it crystal clear that all they wanted was for Vicky to feel comfortable and not to worry about trivial things, she couldn't help but feel guilty over not being able to pay her own way. She agreed that a few weeks back wouldn't have been a good time to throw herself into a job, but now she felt ready to get back out there. She had attended several job interviews, but unfortunately suffered a panic attack at all of them, unable to see the whole thing out until the very end. She had been grateful that the various people who had interviewed her had been understanding and showed concern but following all of them she had been met every time with a rejection phone call telling her they thought she should focus on her mental health. She had voiced her frustrations to Bessy, who had pleaded with her to slow down, but Vicky just couldn't shake the awful feeling freeloading from her generous cousin gave her. One afternoon, Joe returned home from filming to find Bessy and Vicky going through some old family photographs. He gave Bessy a gentle kiss on the lips before getting comfortable in his favourite armchair.

"How was the shoot?", Bessy asked as she continued to sort through the photos in her lap.

"Well, Murray's definitely lost this episode", he snorted as he peered over at the photographs. "Hey Vick", he said, grabbing her attention. "You still want a job?", he suddenly asked.

"Joe. Can we just drop this please? We already spoke about it", Bessy rolled her eyes.

"Whoa, you know I'm on your side when it comes to wanting her to slow down", Joe fought back. Vicky couldn't help but chuckle at them bickering over her like she wasn't in the room. They were going to make great parents, she thought. "I just - I just know - after how long it took us to get the show on its feet - how shitty it is to wanna work and not get anywhere with it", he explained. Vicky became intrigued as to where this was heading. "So, I was thinking the other day; what sort of job could we get you where you can feel comfortable and, maybe, be around a familiar face or two. And then - it came to me!", he said, clapping his hands together as he shuffled to the end of his seat.

"What came to you?", Vicky raised her eyebrow suspiciously.

"Well, let's just say I spoke to the guys down at Tru TV and they may or may not want you to work as their new audio assistant", he teased.

"What?", Vicky said breathlessly.

"You'd have to go to an interview tomorrow, but I'll be there too, and the jobs a training position so it's pretty much yours if you want it", he grinned. Vicky silently flung herself from her seat as she threw her arms around Joe's neck.

"Thank you. Thank you so much Joe", she told him, holding back the happy tears that threatened to fall. She was so grateful to him for giving her a chance. She had no idea what she would be doing as an audio assistant, but the thought didn't bother her, she was just excited to feel normal, whatever normal was. The next morning, Vicky awoke at the break of dawn, even though her interview wasn't until 11am, out of sheer excitement as she took a shower and put on her smartest outfit, which was a white button-up blouse tucked into a black knee-length pencil skirt with matching shoes and a black purse that Bessy said she could borrow. She began to take her long brunette locks and brushed them up to the top of her head, twisting it into a neat bun as she added bobby pins so that it would remain in its neat state. It was soon 10:15am and Joe and Vicky had begun the drive to the Tru TV studios.

"How're you feeling?", Joe asked her. Vicky took a deep breath as she checked her reflection in the side door mirror.

"A little nervous", she admitted.