The New trainee AR FF part 9 pg 11 - Page 6

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Chapter 8: Therapy Riddhima style

I never give the cops a free pass. I always make them work for it. If cops actually did their jobs right, my kids would still be alive."

Oh shit.

The whole courtroom is silent and Riddhima is still glaring at the Defense lawyer. "Do you have any further questions?" the judge asks the defense attorney.

"Let her go." Shashank whispers.

He just stammers and the clears his throat "No sir, I mean your honor."

The judge looks to the DA "Rebuttal?"

"No your honor." He says quietly, reflecting the mood of the court.

"Then we'll break for lunch. Miss Gupta you're excused with the courts thanks." The gavel hit the bench and Riddhima flew out of her seat.

"Don't let her get away." Shashank spoke quickly as he rose, trying to get through the mass of people to Riddhima, but she's too quick and exits out a side door. "Dammit" Shashank curses and turns around to go out the way we came. My body is following him, he seems to know where he's going, but my mind is still processing everything.

Riddhimaa had kids…and they're dead now…and she's not…where is the dad…I yelled at her and told her that Shashank didn't deserve her shit…oh god, what did I do?

We make it outside and around the side of the building but only in time to see her pull away on a crotch rocket. "I wish she'd stop riding that thing, she's going to get herself killed." He mutters then runs to the car we came in, and starts the drive back to the lab.

"Why aren't we following her?" I ask but he shushes me while he dials the phone.

"Shubhankar?" he says talking on his phone. "She was in court today; the defense lawyer didn't know and asked her the question. She's in the wind. I'm dropping off Armaan at the lab and I'll pick you up." He snaps his phone shut and is quiet.

"What the hell is going on?" I finally ask.

"Not now Armaan." He says politely but sternly. I don't speak for the rest of the ride; this is clearly a family emergency which he's having a hard time dealing with. We pull up to the curb outside the lab and I see Shubhankar standing there. I hop out; he nods to me, and then takes my place in Shashank's car. They drive away without another word and I head into the sanctuary of the office.

I'm lost here without her.

I look around this place and it looks completely different. I never noticed before that there are no pictures anywhere, only books, files, and other work items. I look in her desk and can't find one single picture or personal item. Her pill drawer suddenly has new meaning. After about a half an hour of snooping, I go to the cafeteria to get something to eat. I suppose I'll just go home for the day afterward, having not heard anything from Shashank or Riddhima. I'm standing in line when I see a man I don't know, come up to the guy in front of me.

"Hey Ishaan, CSW is in the ring." He says quickly and both of them immediately run out of the cafeteria. I follow them very quickly. They run into the gym facilities and over to the boxing ring. I push through the crowd to get a better look and nothing prepares me for what I see.

Riddhima is full out sparring with a huge guy, in a black tight top and black gym shorts. He throws a right hook, she blocks it which leaves him wide open. She takes the opportunity and spins a very well formed round house kick to his chest. He stumbles back, catching his breath before taking another lumbering swing at her. All the guys around me are cheering for him but it clear he's slowing down. The fight only lasts another three minutes before he taps out.

"Is that all you've got Pranav you jerk!" she yells at him like the venomous creature I met on my first day here. While a couple of other guys helped the guy called Pranav out of the ring, she turns to the crowd. "Which one of you f**kers are next!"

I finally remember that Shashank and Shubhankar are out looking for her. I hop into the ring "Bella, Inspector Gupta and Shubhankar are looking for you." I plead with her.

"I don't want to be found." She says quietly so only I can hear.

"YEAH, ARMAAN MALIK!" The guys in the crowd shout out.

"Are you here to fight or fool around you spoiled idiot!" she grits out, Satan back in full swing.

"Riddhima, we should go find Inspector Gupta." I repeat…and then she punches me…hard. It doesn't take me down, but she's defiantly got some force behind it.

"What the hell Riddhima!" I yell back at her.

"Either you're here to fight or get the hell out of my way and let one of the other idiots in here, pick!"

"I'm not letting these guys go after you, not like this, you need Inspector Gupta." She is completely feral and I witness the animal I saw Meera trying to cage, out in full force.

"Then it's you. Too bad, I didn't want to destroy your pretty face." And she launched into a full assault. I block every single one she throws with ease, but I'm retreating in doing so.

"You think my face is pretty?" I ask back, thinking stupidly of myself. Out of all that, that's what I pick up on?

She ignores my comment and starts attacking me again. I simply block her attacks while sizing her up. It's easy to see that her style if mostly Jujitsu with Judo tendencies. She is a completely offensive fighter, and thinks nothing about defense. "Fight you loser!" she screams.

It's either me or someone else in here, and judging from the tenor of the crowd, they really want to take her down. I relent and give her what she wants. I launch a blitz against her but keep my force measured. She blocks most of them as we dance across the ring, but fails to block a punch to her solar plexus. She goes down with the wind knocked out of her.

"Riddhima stop this." I plead but she takes advantage of my distraction and swipes my legs out from under me.

When I hit the deck, she stands up. "Again" she hisses while recovering. I'm back on my feet quickly and she charges me. I don't give her another opportunity to corner me by launching another blitz on her while advancing. This time the punch she doesn't block lands on her face, and she goes down.

"Ooooo, YEAH!" the crowd cheers and I want to tell them to shut the hell up.

Bella stands up with blood coming out of her mouth. She spits more out and looks at me "Again!" she grits out. I can't do this to her, there has to be a way to get her to stop. This time when she charges me I get hold of an arm and spin her around, using her arm to make her stop. She bashes my nose with her head and tries to complete the assault with a round house kick, which I catch and force her to the ground with. I finally get her in a choke hold by lying on top of her. She needs to tap out or she's going to pass out but if I release her, I know she'll come after me again. Her struggles are getting weaker and weaker and just when I think she'll never give in, she goes limp.

I let her go immediately while she coughs and sputters. I take this opportunity to drag her to the edge of the ring by her foot. I hop over the ropes myself then drag her out under the bottom rope.

"I'm not done." she coughs out.

"Yes you are." I answer back firmly. She staggers to her feet and I start to lead her away from the mayhem when I get inundated with the crowd.

"It's about time someone took that beast down!" one guy says while shaking my shoulder. "How long have you been studying that stuff!" another man makes an attempt to congratulate me on my victory. I hardly see it as such. Riddhima gets further and further away from me before she is stopped by a man just a little shorter than me with dark brown hair and average build. They are clearly arguing but I can't hear what they're saying. I try to get out of the crowd but they don't notice that I'm basically trying to push them out of the way. Suddenly he pushes her back from him by her shoulders, she retaliates by thrusting out her foot into his knee…and it bends the wrong way.

His screams fill the air as he goes down.

Everyone turns towards the scream and I can finally get away from the crowd. Riddhima doesn't attack him again but while he's on the floor, she presses her foot into his throat. I finally get close enough to hear something.

"Am I strong enough now!" she yells at him pissed off as hell. I don't slow my pace when I get to her. I just put my hands on her arms, pull her off of the guy, and keep walking. Thankfully she doesn't fight me on this. We're almost to the door before I look at the poor sap that just had Riddhima break his knee. I see the other guys helping him up so he is officially tomorrow's problem.

When we out of the doors, I start guiding her to the sanctuary of our office. "Who the hell was that?" I question, exasperated at everything that has happened.

"That was my cheating Ex." She hisses out.

I suddenly don't think the guy on the floor is a poor sap anymore, and that I shouldn't have pulled her off of him.

I finally get her to the office and put her in her chair. I remember a pack of tissues and hand sanitizer I found while rummaging through her desk earlier and pull them out. I dab her split lip with it before applying some of the sanitizer. She winces but makes no other move. I look up to see her and find her looking back at me…puzzled.

"Tum yeh kyun kyun kar rahe ho?" she whispers tenderly, her adrenalin high having worn off.

"Because someone should, because I'm sorry I yelled at you. God Riddhima, I'm sorry about your kids, I" she jumped out of her seat like someone had lit a blow torch under her, and pressed herself up against the wall like a scared animal.

"Don't make me hear it don't make me hear it no no no no no!" she begged on the verge of hysteria with her hands in front of her like she was pleading with someone intent on causing her harm. Her feet were still trying to get away even though she was up against a wall. I tried to come closer trying to calm her down but she started mumbling incoherent phrases with complete agony in her eyes. I now understood the reason for the sedatives in the drawer. I pulled it open and grabbed two handfuls of bottles, pushing them toward her. She took them from me, sunk down to the floor, and quickly took some pills from two of the bottles. After swallowing them, she started rocking back and forth with her arms wrapped around her legs, her knees touching her chin, still muttering to herself with her eyes closed.

I had no clue what to do.

I picked up the phone on her desk and thankfully, one of the buttons on it was labeled "Dad Cell". He picked up on the first ring.

"Inspector Gupta." He answered flatly.

"Ummm, Shashank? This is Armaan. I'm here in Riddhima's office with her and I don't think she's okay."

"How long has she been muttering?" he asks clearly worried.

"Only about three minutes sir. I gave her the pills in her desk and she took some, was I supposed to do that?"

"It's fine, we'll be there in fifteen minutes. Stay with her, don't let her out of your sight."

They were here in ten. She just muttered the entire time I was waiting for them. I stood back as they tried to get close enough to help her.

"Riddhima?" Shashank asked while he and Jake approached her slowly. She opened eyes and slowly looked at them, the meds having kicked in.

"Mujhe mat bachao. Mujhe mar jaane do, I deserve it." She said sleepily. When I saw her eyes, I saw that red fire. The same as it was at the club that night.

Oh god. That was a look of desire, the desire to die.

That's why she picked a fight in the club with those guys that were invading her space, and why she went home to a complete stranger's house. She did it to taunt death. I am very grateful to whatever god is out there, that it was me that found her instead of some real threat that could have so easily ended her in her inebriated state.

"Armaan we'll take it from here." Shashank says while Shubhankar picks her up.

I followed them instinctively "I want to help." I protest.

"It's alright son, you did good. You didn't sign up for this. We'll take care of her, and I'll call you and let you know how she is doing." He said in a more authoritative voice.

"Please" I whisper wanting nothing more than to somehow help her. They don't wait for my answer before ushering me out of her office. Not knowing what else to do, I go home.

"Armaan? Did you lose the bet?" Muskaan laughed as she answered the phone.

"No M, I didn't and there are no words to describe how f**king far from funny it is." I chastise her.

"What do you mean?" Muskaan is serious very quickly.

"I mean I saw her on the witness stand today. The defense attorney asked her if she planted evidence and somehow it came out that she used to have children and they are dead because the cops didn't do their jobs right."

"Oh my god." Muskaan whispers.

"Yeah, and that's not even the half of it. She took off afterward and her Dad and friend went out looking for her. I found her in the police gym beating the shit out of a guy at least twice her size. I tried to talk to her and she came after me."

"Armaan, is she still alive?" Muskaan asked worried. It wasn't a secret that I'd been into martial arts for enough years to kill someone with it.

"Yes, but I busted her lip and almost made her pass out. Afterward I had to literally drag her out of the ring to get her to stop. Then her ex accosted her, and she broke his knee. When I finally got her back to the office, she completely flipped out. I gave her some meds to calm her down, and Shashank and Muskaan finally showed up to haul her off someplace. They wouldn't let me come with her." I finished my recount of what was probably the worst day of my life. I'd never hit a woman before, and even an opponent as good as Riddhima didn't dissuade my guilt, but after hearing the vile crass things the guys were saying about how glad they were that I'd put her down, the thought of any of them touching her pissed me off something awful.

"What happened to her kids?" Muskaan asked softly.

"I have no idea and I don't think anyone is going to tell me anytime soon. I think it's a pretty taboo topic."

"Couldn't you just Google search or something?"

Muskaan is brilliant.

"That's actually a really good idea. I'll call you when I find something."

"Alright, I'm going to tell the family everything. Do you want me to inform Mr.Chopra? If they're not holding up their end of the bargain, perhaps we can get you home."

"NO!" I shout immediately. I'm not sure why, but the thought of leaving Riddhima right now causes a shot of panic to run through my system.

"Ummm, ok. I guess I'll talk to you later." She says suspicious of my outburst.

"Good night" and I hang up.

After three hours on Google, pizza, and every conceivable variation of the name Riddhima Meera Gupta, I give up. All I can find is some forensic paper's she's written for journals. I finally head for the shower and wash off the grime of my battle with Riddhima. When I look in the mirror, I see that my lip is a little split as well. Nothing compared to what I did to her, but it's something. I spend the rest of the day numbing my mind on TV as it's hurting from the crazy day I've had. I keep checking my cell for messages or news from Shashank, I'm repeatedly disappointed. When it's an acceptable time for bed, I go to sleep with visions of Riddhimaa freaking out in my head.

I make it into the lab fairly early, hoping for news on Riddhima. I stop by Shashank's office but he's not in yet, it's the same story with Shubhankar. I head to the office. I open the door and am shocked as hell to see Riddhima sitting at her desk with ear buds in.

"Riddhima, oh god, are you alright? What are you doing here?" I say in a rush over to her. Her knuckles are red and slightly swollen while her lip doesn't look much better. Her clothes are once again black, but its track pants and a tee. She also has black framed rectangular glasses on, which I've never seen on her before. She takes out her ear buds slowly and stands up.

"Main theek hoon Armaan, please khud ko pareshan mat karo mere liye." She says softly. The sound of my name on her lips stirs things in me that I haven't felt since that night with her. "Ummm" she stammers and I realize that I'm staring at her and not saying anything.

"It's no trouble at all. I was worried about you, Inspector Gupta didn't call me." I say kindly in return. I know she's volatile and I've never seen this version of Riddhima before. She's soft more than anything.

"So, I don't really know how to do this so here." She picks up what looks like a tin foil wrapped rectangular prism. "Kal tumhe maarne ke liye sorry bola chahti hoon." She says and sits back down, facing away from me.

"What is it?" I ask while I'm unwrapping it. "Aloo ka parantha? You made me Aloo ka parantha?" I say surprised and smell it.

It smells wonderful.

I immediately take a big bite, not bothering to cut a piece like a civilized human.

"Mmmm, thank you." I say with my mouth full while relishing the taste. I haven't had anything homemade since I got here, with the exception of the occasional sandwich at home. "Main pichle do hafte se ghar ke saamne wale Mc Donald's se kaam chala raha hoon." I say while continuing in my mastication of her divine bread.

Riddhima giggled…and it was a magical sound.

"Anyway, we're on call today so we can't start any big projects but if you want to help me mix up some batches of solvent, you're more than welcome to join me.

"Sounds great." I say muffled, having taken another bite of the bread.

"Okay." She says with a more confidence and an actual smile. She stands up and motions me to follow her as opposed to her normal routine of just expecting me to follow. This new, almost normal like behavior is so strange and even more strange, I don't feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Leaving the parantha on my desk, we go to the chemical store room but just as we fill up our cart with what we'll need, her pager goes off. She picks it up and looks at the display.

"We're on" she says in a flat tone that she hasn't used all morning.

"I'll suit up and meet you at the rig?" I ask confirming that I'm still going. She nods and I head to the locker room…I'm remembering to bring the spare clothes and shoes this time.

I make it to the automotive area before Riddhima does and see Shubhankar.

"Shubhankar!" I call out over the noise while walking toward him.

"Hey Armaan, how's it going?" he says cautiously, like he doesn't know what to expect.

"I'm fine; Riddhima and I got called out so I'm just waiting for her." I say casually.

"Riddhima is on call today?" he says annoyed.

"That's what she said and I don't question what God says." I laugh a little at the end; thinking of when Riddhima paged me to her office.

"You know, you're alright Malik." Jake says slapping my arm, laughing a little himself. "Hey, me and Shashank are getting together tomorrow for a beer, wanna come?"

Oh hell yes, I might finally get some answers then.

"Where did you have in mind?"

"It's just a local bar, nothing like Mumbai but it's a police watering hole."

"Yeah, I'm trying to keep a low profile and last time I went out into public, some school girls chased me screaming that they wanted to marry me and have my baby, so I'll pass but thanks anyway." I said casually. Although I did want answers, I didn't want them that bad. I'd ask Riddhimaa herself before I let the baby momma patrol find me.

"Hey no worries, we'll just do it at Shashank's place instead."

YES!

"In that case I'd love to. What time?"

"How about you come over for the India vs NZ game? It starts at 4:30 and we can order pizza or something."

"Probie!" Riddhima yelled from a rig a couple of bays over. Both Shubhankar and I turned to see her. "We need to go!" she yelled but not hostilely.

"Gotta go, God is calling. Can you send me directions?" I call back to Shubhankar as I walk to meet Bella.

"Not a problem." He waves me off. I get to Riddhima and she sits in the driver's seat. I take my place beside her and toss my bag in the back. She doesn't immediately start the car but rather turns towards me.

"I have to ask, are you sure you want to do this? I mean I can get someone else to show you some chemical analysis stuff while I'm out or something, but there is some shit out there that you don't want in your head. So, this is your last chance to save yourself." She asks actually concerned.

"I'll be fine, just show me the ropes." I say. I didn't go through two weeks of hell only to crap out now.

"Alright" she says, and starts the car. She puts on a calming piano piece that I recognize as the Chopin Etudes.

"You know Chopin?" I ask surprised.

"You know Chopin?" she asks surprised back.

"Sure, I know lots of his pieces. I just didn't take you for a Chopin fan. I know you like St. Matthew the Passion, but that's a Bach thing."

"You know St. Matthew?" she asks even more surprised.

"There's a lot you don't know about me." I say casually. Not the least of which is that she was the best night of my life.

"Touch." She replies. The rest of the drive is silent until we pull up underneath a huge flyover.

"Where are we?" I ask.

"Underneath the DND. What a case to cut your teeth on. We have a body and the first officer on the scene said it looks like a beating. Last chance." She warns me.

"I'll be fine." I affirm again.

She opens the center console and hands me an ID badge. "Clip that to your collar. It won't be in your way there. I do so and she does the same to hers.

"Ok, here we go." And she opens her door. I follow her to the back and help get our stuff ready. She hands me a surgical hair cover and I laugh.

"What?" she asks a little annoyed.

"I was just thinking that this is one way to hide my hair. That's how I normally attempt to go out in public without getting hassled, wearing a hat. My hair is most noticeable feature."

"No it's not, your eyes are." She says simply while going about her work. Her comment shocks me. The thought that she has noticed my eyes actually makes me happy. She dons the same hair cover and hands me some eye protection. I snap some gloves on and we start towards the scene.

"Get behind me." She says when we get to the tape. I do so and she starts rolling her head from side to side. She shakes her shoulders then gets very still.

"What are you doing?" I ask quietly.

"I'm looking at the entire scene. Don't look at any one item in particular, look at everything at once, what do you see?" she says quietly. She's not timid, but rather teaching.

I do so and see nothing but chaos. There is garbage everywhere, a couple of ratty old cars, a dumpster a pile of cardboard, just shit everywhere. "I see chaos." I answer.

"Correct, and that tells us that we need to look for things that are in place, as opposed to out of place. Those are the things that wouldn't be here on their own. Let's go." She steps under the tape and holds it up for me. Slowly she proceeds to the lump of human, covered in brown clothes. He's lying on his stomach with his face towards me. I concentrate on minding my surroundings, rather than look at him. Riddhima is snapping pictures and putting down markers on either side of us, constructing the bridge to the scene.

"We probably won't find any shoe prints here, pavement isn't good for that, unless it's in blood." She informs me. I still look for them though. We get close to the body and she tells me to wait. She squats down to look at a piece of brown broken glass. Before I know it, she has photographed it, put a marker on it, and is on her way. We get to the body.

"Dispatch was wrong. They said it was a homeless on homeless killing. Another street guy didn't do this. He left the boots, those are pretty good shoes for a homeless guy. Another street guy would have taken them. After the ME gets here, we'll need to take those with us to rule out his shoe prints." I nod and she continues her work. Riddhima takes rule out samples and pictures. I just stand behind and watch her. Every now and then she stops and looks at everything like she did before.

"Paydirt. Come here probie." She says casually.

"What?" I ask her. She lays down a tape measure by a pile of broken brown glass.

"We might have our murder weapon here. Might even be able to raise some prints off of it." She says collecting the pieces into a paper envelope. She labels it and passes it back to me. "Take what you have so far and put it in the rig. Then get the guard officer to watch it. Come back afterward and mind where you walk." I comply immediately. I've been lucky so far as to not see the extent of the injuries on the body, and I don't want to start now. I get the attention of the officer and leave him to guard the evidence, but not before he tries to get an autograph.

Idiot.

I mean seriously, I'm here, helping to process the scene of a homeless guy that looks like he was beaten to death, and this cop is concerned about a piece of paper with a name scribbled on it? I'd rather hang out with Riddhima and the dead guy. The ME van pulls up as I return to Riddhima.

"The ME is here." I tell her while she sorts through a pile of trash. She nods her head in acknowledgment.

"I'm just about ready to release the scene to them." She says absentmindedly. She collects a few more things before calling the ME over.

"It's all yours. Make sure you get the clothing to trace." She snips. The ME gets the gurney out of the van and heads into the scene. We're still in the scene when the ME rolls the guy over onto a sheet of plastic.

"STOP!" Riddhima commands and they do so. She whips out her camera and starts taking more pictures. I look and can see what killed him. The back of his skull is pulverized. I quickly look away so I don't lose it. "Probie, give me a medium bag." She asks hastily. I do so, still not looking at the morbid injury. Underneath him, clutched in his hands, is an unopened bottle of whiskey.

This guy died defending a bottle of booze.

She collects it then instructs the ME to continue. We get back to the rig. "You don't need to change your suit here, but you'll probably want to change your shoes here." She then walks around to the other side of the rig, allowing me my privacy.

For shoes?

It didn't take long before the ME assistant comes over to me. "Dude, its Armaan Mallik! I hoped I'd get a chance to meet you. My name is Ritesh; it's nice to meet you." He picks my hand from my side, shaking it like he's meeting the Dalai Lama. "Hey, do you want to go party tonight, some of us are going out and I'm sure you could use some time away from CSW. She's a real piece." He laughs at his less than witty comment.

"Ritesh!" Riddhima hisses as she comes back "Leave him alone and do your job." He just looks at her and retreats like a coward.

"Let's go." she huffs out, and I gladly comply.

We get back to the lab and run the evidence to the evidence room. There are lots of forms to fill out but Riddhima glides through it. "Hey, go get changed, turn in your suit to laundry and meet me in chemical." She says normally. I do so but she beats me there.

She has the chemicals we put on the cart this morning to make solvents. "Hey." I call out as I approach her.

She smiles "Hey. Okay, the first thing I need to ask you is how you're doing with what you saw this morning."

I took a deep breath in and decide to be honest. "It was different than I thought. I tried to avoid looking at the guy but when the ME rolled him and I saw the head injury, I think that was really my tipping point when I really wanted to get out of there. It wasn't overwhelming like I thought it would be, just uncomfortable."

She just nodded her head "That's normal. Remember, at any time if you want out of this, just say the word."

"Thanks, I appreciate it, but I want to see this through." I offered. A small smile tugged at her lips.

"Very well. Now are you up for some remedial chemistry?" she giggled a little, motioning to the cart of chemicals.

"Yes God." I answered.

"Ummm, tumhe mujhe voh bulane ki zarurat nahi. You can call me by my name." She said nervously. While picking up a large glass flask.

"So main tumhe kya bulaun Riddhima Meera Gupta, Ridz, Ridzie, Meera?" I recited the many variations from my Google search. I heard her gasp and the flask shatter as it hit the floor. I looked at her and her eyes were closed, but her head was shaking "no" very minutely. Her breathing picked up.

"Kya hua? Riddhima?" I asked starting to get worried. She suddenly took in a deep breath, held it and opened her eyes.

"Oh my God" she croaked out on the verge of tears. "Voh tum the, mujhe yaad aa gaya."

Could this be happening?

"Tumhe kya yaad aa gaya?" I asked hastily.

"Sab kuch."

……………………………………………………………………………………..

I guess there will be a lot of questions regarding this chapter. I hope that you guys can understand why I made them speak in hindi as well as English. If you didn't get it just ask me I'll explain. I know this is again a cliffie but I will update today again hopefully so u guys wont have to wait that much. Thanks for reading. Do comment

Love

Sagarika

P.S. ME stands for medical examiner. I am writing this with the help of my forensics obsessed friend. If you don't understand something, remember all you have to do is ask.

FAB PARt!!!

another lovely part!!