Saps FF: PG5 - A Bone to Pick. - Page 4

Fatyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyy is that really you????? pleej pleej temme that where have u kept our real dost fatty........coz i cannot believe that u updated it 😆

Okay sorry........ here is a huge huge huge huge hug for u 🤗

Wat a part yaar........ayaan is really a sweet guy!!!!! but wat is this..... just like KEKTA u are also giving ur lead HERO, a role of 2 secs 🤣 🤣 .......

..... ''MAKING BABIES'' 🤣 U naughty ghosty........ 😆 Yaar i can imagine shubbu's bulged eyes on sapna's demand 🤣 🤣 Tooo gud hai ji....... 👏 This is THE SCENE OF UR FF 😆 😆

And a great scene bewteen sapna n her father..... 👏 👏 i noe our writer will save her father from any kind of disease....... kyun,even lethal disease can't do anything 😉

Now i dunno how i will manage to pass these three months......coz i m sure we will be getting out next update after three months only, looking into ur past record 🤣 🤣 I m sure u won't be breaking ur consistency 🤣

Sorry sorry.........plz try to continue soon yaar.......pleej 😍

Really enjoyed it a lot.......muahhhhhhhhh 🤗

And one more thing......yesterday i came to ur goofa n saw u dancing on

Dilbar dilbar dilabar
Haaaaaaaaaaaaan
Dilbar dilbar
Hosh n akhabar hai
Kya deewanapan hai
Hosh na khabar hai
Kya deewana pan hai
Tum se milane ke baad dilabar........... 😆

I was amused yaar.......and still u haven't provided me the memebership of ur dhansu goofa.........wat shud i do, to get it???? 😆 😆

Veeru jaan... 🤗

How did I miss this one.. Mehak told me abt ur ff and I m like my veeru is writing ff's... does he find time with me buzzing around him.. 😆

I must say u r a professional writer..I have seen such language n writing style in novels...

Chapter 5: Revelations

Keerti held four big binders of all transactions made in the last three years, taking them to Mr. Sharma's office. A surgery scheduled for late afternoon occupied her mind, but Dr. Atul fooling around the Pathology Lab didn't pass her attention. She could hear him singing a 1950's love-song from 20 meters away, along with choreographed steps it seemed. Ignoring him for the moment, however hard it was, she speeded up on her way to deliver the heavy files in her arms.

As she reached his office-door two floors above, the smell of his cologne reached her, the tantalizing fragrance, which not only occupied the air around him, but also that of the air outside his office. She reminded herself to tell him that he'd have to cut down on his use of that particular cologne, for the fear of the nurses being unable to work due to heightened senses of pleasure. Rolling her eyes, and shifting the folders to one arm, a brief knock sounded on Ayaan's door.

"Come in."

"Good Morning, Mr. Sharma. Here are the files you requested at the meeting last week. All the papers in here are organized according to date."

"Oh, thank you, Dr. Keerti," he said, smile dazzling white, eyes shining. He got out of his chair and took the files out of her arms, perfectly gentlemanly, charming.

"Anything else?"

"No, this'll do. I'll give you a call after I look over them though. Thanks once again."

"No problem," she smiled back at him. Heck, how long could a woman feign imperviousness to that smile? Exiting the office, she tried to focus on wondering what he would achieve with doing a follow-up on the hospital transactions, and what exactly he meant by it.

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Sapna took a deep breath and readied herself, putting on her gloves. Turning her back, she waited as a nurse tied the gown-strings around her neck and back. Anjali stood beside her too, going through the same motions, but not quite present. They both hadn't uttered a word to each other for exactly ten minutes, preoccupied with the surgery they were both about to assist in. Sapna ran through tips in her mind that they had learned in medical school to keep pressure and nervousness under control before going into an operation.

Dr. Keerti's voice came booming out of the OT. Both of them looked each other in the eye; Anjali, with a hard, test-me kind of look in her eyes, and Sapna draining her face of emotion.

The test that they had awaited almost since starting their education, through medical school, was now finally upon them. There had been many tests, the written ones. But this was the first of it's kind: the real one. This was where they proved themselves, where the years of learning, those late nights of studying were finally put to test.

Inside lay a challenge, and they had been out too many years, dreaming this dream, to be afraid now. Sapna felt Anjali's hand touch hers, and she squeezed it back. It was show time.

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Ayaan sat looking at the pages, trying to put the dates together, summing up amounts, and balances in the accounts, as per the papers deposited to him by Dr. Keerti. Somewhere, one of his calculations was wrong because without it, the current balance in the hospital's accounts didn't quite match up. Ok, "quite" was an understatement, there was a huge amount of difference between what he the total of all transactions in the past three years should have been, and what they were according to the papers submitted. Hence, something was definitely wrong with his calculations. Or, maybe he was just simply going haywire. He cursed the mass of papers in front of him for the thousandth time, thinking to himself that if there had been a database with all this information, this process would have been so much more efficient.

It took him three hours to realize what was going wrong. Transactions dated from three of the last 12 months were missing.

He put down the files he had been looking at and leaned his head back on the chair. Looking out the window, dusk was falling, the sun grazing the horizon. He decided to call Dr. Keerti the next morning in order to inform her that someone had been taking money out of the hospital's funds. He'd thought of checking accounts as a decent start for someone who'd be "filling in" for a director, but had never expected to see fraud at the root of matters.

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Heading towards the parking lot, Armaan and Atul walked together, teasing each other.

"Admit it; Ms. Lovely is the woman of your dreams. It's a phobia, you know, nothing to be ashamed of."

"Oyee, Armaan, lay off, huh?" Atul punched him in the shoulder, laughing. "Save the teasing for Riddhima."

"It's no fun with Basket. She takes me too seriously, you know," he winked, sounding conspiring.

"Chal, chal. Go fool someone else with your excuses." Atul jested, making all of his turn to wink.

"What can I do?" piped Armaan, popping his collar and putting on his shades. "Girls can't help themselves when a savvy man like me is in question."

"I saw Riddhima talking with Ayaan in the caf today, by the way. What do you think they were going on about?" His tactic being rightly aimed, Atul took Armaan by surprise, smiling to himself, gaining the upper hand.

"What? Today?" Armaan returned, dumbfounded. Bingo, thought Atul, I pushed just the right buttons, laughing to himself.

"Haan yaar."

Silence took the place of teasing and laughter, as Atul let Armaan brood over his words.

"Acha, I was just joking, chill maar. Tu to serious hi hogaya." Atul winked at him, openly laughing.

"Really yaar, I don't like this Ayaan guy,"Armaan said, as Atul carried on his tune of "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" in the background, humming to bug Armaan even more.

"Sachi yaar," Armaan said, smacking a file he was carrying on Atul's back.

"What sachi? You just don't like him because I told you he talked to Riddhima. You know, you're not the only one who has the sole right to torture her to death."

"No, not that. I just feel like he's you know…the flirt-kind of guy, a Casanova? I don't get a good vibe from him."

"Is that a pot I hear, calling the kettle black?" Atul said, whistling and looking around the parking lot.

Armaan fixed him with a sardonic look, telling him that "Pot" was going to be driving home, while "Champ" was going to have to ride his lethargic bike all the way back. "You have fun with that, alright, Mr. Smart Alec."

"You heartless beast. I hope you're late for work tomorrow or your "baby" breaks down, so that Dr. Keerti can have a chance to grill and then feast on you."

Armaan blew him an imaginary kiss, only to pretend devouring it with canine teeth. "Dream on!" he added, as parting words, winking at Atul who was already getting on his bike, trying to race Armaan out of the parking lot.

Fatty, I am supremely angry with you first and foremost 😡

You updated and you didn't even let me know?? Kya yaar?? Hadh hoti hai!!

Ok, now moving on to the update....it was awesome yaar! 👏 👏 👏

Even Keerti is all dazzled by Ayaan for a bit, hmmm? 😆 😆

Liked Angie and Sappy squeezing each others hand before the surgery.

And the AA2 scene in the end was adorable! I'm guessing you're going to develop on the AR angle a lot more? Does that mean AA1 will figure in as well? 😉

Chapter 6: A Bone to Pick

Sapna sat sipping flavoured green tea, and sub-consciously listening to Armaan and Riddhima jabber on about something or the other. After a long day, she had no ounce of energy in her to tell them to call it quits, and they continued fighting like cats and dogs, as she let her mind slowly slip away. In another world where she was floating, arrived a spiky smell that elevated her directly to heaven. In the real world, with it came a voice she didn't really want to hear at the moment. Well you couldn't really have it all, she supposed.

'Hey guys. Do you mind?' The Mr. Sharma asked, pulling out a chair and making himself at home before any of them answered.

'Sure. How was your day?' Trust Riddhima to make nice, thought Sapna, her face conveniently lodged in the mug.

'Hm, it was okay. But when are days at work ever better?' Ayaan winked at her, smiling. Which of course, didn't go unnoticed by Detective Armaan Malik, who had not only been rudely interrupted in the 'important' conversation he had been leading up with Basket, but saw a threat to his alpha-male territory.

'Do you guys know each other from before? Definitely seems like it,' Armaan piped in between, finding himself at the receiving end of a suspicious look from Riddhima.

'As a matter of fact, we do. My father and Shashank Uncle are very good friends, which inevitably lead up to our acquaintance from childhood. I've known Ridzie ever since she used pee her pants,' supplied Ayaan, once again with a goofy smile on his face.

'Ayaan!' Riddhima poked him, indignified.

'Ridzie, eh? Nice,' mocked Armaan, suddenly feeling on an edge, helped by the perceived intimacy of their relationship, but keen to change topic. 'So Sappy, how did that surgery go? The one that you and Angie were assisting?' Sapna looked up and away from her tea, sighing.

'Actually, I don't know how I managed to hold out. It was pretty surreal,' she replied, draining her mug of the last dredges.

'First surgery?' Ayaan asked. 'Happens. You guys are fairly new and inexperienced, still.'

Taken aback, Sapna looked at him sarcastically, 'You know, encouragement would be appreciated. Reminder that we're still newbies isn't really the best of approaches.' Picking her lab coat up, she turned towards the locker room, and paced out of the caf'.

Left sitting behind, Riddhima was fast to cover up for her friend, 'Don't mind her; she's had a tough day. Actually, you'll find that one of us is always testy, thanks to the crazy work-load. So, tell me how you're liking Mumbai?'

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In early next morning, Ayaan passed through the lobby, checking his watch. Wearing faded jeans, and a white-collared shirt, his hair dripped wet from a quick shower. Stomach grumbling, he realized he'd forgotten to have breakfast. Crossing a nurse on the way to his office, he asked her if she could bring him some coffee and maybe a muffin. She nodded in the affirmative, full with a loony smile, and drawn-out looks. Sending him off slightly confused by her reaction, she had him shaking his head and attributing it to one of those things he just wouldn't understand about women.

He reached the office and picked up the phone, deciding to call Dr. Keerti. Undoubtedly, he'd have to leave a voice message, as she wouldn't be here so early. Surprisingly, her sharp voice followed three rings, instead of the beep he was expecting. 'Hello, Dr. Keerti?'

'Well, you called right? Maybe you should know?' she replied. Damn, Ayaan found himself thinking, this woman manages to berate and mock on the phone too.

'Yes, this is Ayaan. How are you?' he decided to refrain from making any smart comments, partly because he didn't want to bring down the storm on himself, and partly because this was a serious matter.

'I'm fine. You called?' she stifled any of his attempts at prolonging small-talk by getting to the point.

'Yes, it's about the transactions accounts that you gave me yesterday.'

'Umhm, I'm listening.'

'Well, I gave myself the chance to go through them all yesterday, and there's something about them that I'd like to talk to you about. Preferably in person.' There was a pause from her side, as she thought of what he could possibly want to talk about.

'Okay, I'll arrange a meeting, 3.00 PM today?' she checked by him, just as he realized that she meant to include the interns in this.

'No, Dr. Keerti, I don't think you understand. There's no need to have a meeting, we can arrange to talk alone.'

'Mr. Sharma, I think it's you that doesn't quite understand. I've meant to include my interns in this prospect, and they can hear anything that I can, which requires a meeting. 3 PM, then? See you there.'

And just like that, she hung up on him, leaving him wondering whether a matter as such should be introduced to interns, if anyone, before anyone else. Women, he thought. The day had barely started, but two had already managed to confuzzle him.

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Sapna walked into the conference room, and saw everyone else already sitting around. Quickening her step, she found a chair and almost collapsed in it, but not before uttering a rushed, 'Sorry!'

'Interns,' Dr. Keerti nodded at them. And then, 'Dr. Sapna,' and a cool stare. The separate mention called for a reprimand later, and Sapna found herself apprehensive about the near future. 'Mr. Sharma has something to announce, which is why he has called this meeting. I'd like it if you gave him your full attention.'

Sapna spun around to face Ayaan, and with it turned her stinging eyes on him, looking savvy as ever, leaning back on his chair.

'I didn't mean to do it in this fashion, but I must. If you remember, I asked for all the transactions made in the last three years, and Dr. Keerti,' he bowed his head towards her, 'supplied me with those yesterday. I was able to go through them, and study the accounts. However, I wasn't expecting it to be as hard or time-consuming as it was, but after having had figured out what was going on, I suppose it makes sense.'

'And what exactly is that?' asked Armaan, wondering what in the world all the suspense was for.

'Fraud. Transaction copies from three of the last twelve months are missing, and there is only one explanation for that.'

'What?' stuttered Anjali.

'Simple as what I said, someone has been taking money out of the hospital funds,' he answered her.

'Are you sure? The papers could have been misplaced,' Dr. Keerti asked of him, the cool mask unnerved not for a moment.

'Indeed. They could have been misplaced. On purpose,' he looked at each of them, eyes sharp and bright, seeing the news unfold and implant itself on each of them. Anjali and Riddhima looked shocked beyond measure, while Armaan had a questioning look on his face, and Atul sat confused. It was Sapna's reaction that was most curiosity-inducing for him however: clearly and furiously seething.

'What are we going to do about this?' asked Atul, prompting everyone out of their thoughts.

'We're going to find out who did it, of course,' said Sapna, her voice honed, razor-sharp.

'No.'

'What?' she turned to look at him, and saw Ayaan looking at her incredulously.

'Because there is no point in finding out who did it.'

'What do mean there is no point finding out about who did it. You said it yourself, there is a serious case of fraud going on here, and it is the most obvious thing to find out who it is that's doing this.'

'I think I would know what I said. Finding out who did it is only going to bring about waste of time, and if I may ask, how exactly do you plan to 'find out' who did it?'

'Waste of time? We'll be trying to look for the person that's behind eating up from the hospital's fund , that is used for patients and service of the community. You think that is a waste of time? It would be unfair to the people who get treated in this hospital if their money was displaced, and I think they deserve better than that.'

'You forgot about the part where we're actually supposed to find out who did this, and how exactly?'
Unknowingly to either of them, the exchange was becoming quiet a one-on-one tennis match for the others. They watched as Sapna's voice got higher and higher as she spoke, the look of disbelief becoming more and more apparent on her face, and as Ayaan rebutted her coolly.

'Of course there is a way to find out. There is a way about everything. But more importantly, why exactly is it that you're against finding out so staunchly?' she asked, putting Ayaan on defense.

'Simply because the time we spend finding out who it is will be wasted. A rather more sensible approach to the situation would be to figure out how to deal with the lost amount and make up for it, as well as monitoring future financial transactions. Unless you want this issue to be publicized about, and for the financial administration to be put on the spot, it would be smart to bury the hatchet now.'

'You think that will solve the problem? Whoever has been counterfeiting with the transactions needs to found and made to cough up the money.'

'You think whoever it is has left behind fingerprints enough for you to trace it down? People who do this are rarely ever dim-witted enough to leave proof. And if we keep the matter between us to keep it quiet, you think a few mere interns can find a supposed master-mind who's been behind this scene?'

Personally targeted, Sapna looked at him with burning eyes, her surliness fast turning into full-blown anger. As she opened her mouth however, interruption in the form of Dr.Keerti took place.

'Dr. Sapna, Mr. Sharma, that's enough. I know this is something that has shocked us all, but I would rather not have you both disputing over first impulses. Let's keep our minds cool and think about this professionally. I suppose we all need a bit of time for this to sink in, so get back to work for now. But make sure that it sinks in deep enough not to come babbling out of your mouth at first opportunity. Or more, for that matter.' And with that, she stood up, and left a glower, or more specifically two among the remaining group.

Phew! FINALLY an update out of Fatimaji😛😆😆....I couldn't help but notice that the last comment was (by me) back in May and now you update in Oct😲.....don't rush yourself so much also yaar😛😆....J/K!🤗

Awesome as always! Armaan going a little 'alpha-male' on Ayaan was funny😆😆.....I really like the way you've sketched Ayaan....a cool, suave sort of guy.....his being 'confuzzled' by women was funny as well😆😆

Is this going to be like a big mystery around the money being stolen from Sanjeevani?? When will the lowe showe begin, yaar?😆😆

Loved reading it🤗

p.s. Should I set a timer for six months from now to come and check for an update again?😈😆😆....Man, I'm so mean😆😆