Chapter 11

-tap- -tap- -tap-

At 3am Naina was awoken by a light tapping on her door, just loud enough to shake her out of her slumber. Naina stumbled out of bed and towards the light switch, she had barely slept at all due to worrying about her situation. As Naina turned the light on Pooja woke up complaining.

"Kya hua, kis ka missed call hai? I was on sleep mode and now they're ringing the alarm?"

Naina just shrugged, "I don't know Pooja, let's see who it is." And she opened the door.

By now Pooja was fully awake and when Naina didn't react after opening the door but just stood there staring she became curious, "Arre Kaun hai, baba?"

This was enough to shake Naina out of her trance. "Sir, aap?"

Captain Rajveer stood in front of her, breathing hard as if he'd run to her room and was trying to catch his breath. His hair was messy as if he'd only just woken up and not bothered to comb it and his shirt was tucked half inside of his jeans and half outside of it.

"Naina," he finally said, catching his breath "I'm sorry I'm disturbing you so late, but I've got to tell you something."

Naina glanced back at Pooja who was now sitting up in bed and looking at them both curiously.

"Ah, Pooja is here too, Sir." She told him, hoping that what he was about to say wasn't anything too personal.

Raj looked over her shoulder and into the room, where Pooja gave him a small wave, "Hi Sir," she said brightly "I was wondering what sms was arriving in our inbox so late at night but since it's you, we're happy to recharge."

"I'm very sorry that I've disturbed your sleep Cadet Ghai," Raj told her sincerely, "I promise this will only take a minute and then you can go back to bed."

"Sure, Sir."

Naina glanced into the hallway, worried that Lolita Ma'am might wake up if they kept talking there.

"Uh, why don't you come in, Sir?"

Raj nodded, and came into the room. "I know I shouldn't be coming to see you so late at night, but it's important that I leave right now, and I wanted to tell you before I left."

Naina was taken aback, she hadn't known what to expect when Captain Rajveer had turned up at her door, but this…

"Leaving, Sir? Where are you going? And at this time of night?" she asked him, worriedly.

"You know that Dr Mishra has been in army custody, well they've finally worked out a deal with her and she's willing to talk."

"A deal?"

"Yes, she's to be given a new identity, serve a prison sentence and then be released."

Naina didn't know how she felt about that, on one hand she wanted the woman to be punished, and on the other, if she was going to confess about who had trapped her brother…

"And so you're going there now, Sir?"

"Yes, she said that she would only speak to me." He paused, looking closely at Naina's face and seeing the war of emotions there. "I know you don't want her to receive any mercy, but if we can find the people who trapped Navin…" Carefully he grasped Naina's shoulders with his hands before continuing. "I promise you Naina, that I'll come back to you only when every single one of them has been arrested."

He let go of her shoulders then and turned to leave when Naina called out. "Sir…"
Raj turned around to see her looking at him with a concerned expression and something in her eyes that he couldn't quite read.

"Just…be careful." She told him, "I'll be waiting for you to come back."

He nodded once, and stepped out of the room closing the door behind him.

Naina wished she'd had the courage to hug him before he left, or to tell him something more than 'be careful', but she wasn't ready to yet and it was hardly the time with Pooja there too. She stood in the middle of the room looking lost and staring at the door he had just gone out of. She could still feel the warmth on her shoulders where his hands had rested.

Pooja understood how her friend was feeling and came over to Naina. Putting an arm around her shoulders she guided her back to her bed. "Don't worry Naina, nothing can happen to Rajveer Sir. He'll complete his mission and then come back to you. Now lie down and let's go to sleep, don't forget that we have a drill in the morning." Then she turned out the light and got into her own bed.

Naina closed her eyes, but she couldn't get Captain Rajveer's words out of her mind. "I'll come back to you…" he had said.

"Just let him be safe," she whispered, she was scared as she knew how dangerous the people who had trapped her brother were. "Let him come back to me."

And finally, exhausted by all the emotional turmoil she had experienced that day, she fell asleep.