"Our hearing will be the last one for the day. I confirmed with the bailiff. There are eight cases ahead of ours," Arjun remarked, his temples receiving a gentle massage from his index and middle fingers as his eyes remained closed.

The heaviness behind his eyes added to the throbbing ache wrapped around his head like a vise. "Sir, are you okay? You look pale."

Avantika's concerned words forced his eyes open. His side has had enough of disconcerting events from the morning, and he did not want to add to the pile of discouraging factors by revealing his brush with a panic attack. "I'm fine. Just too much of chaos for my liking."

He let out an exasperated sigh and turned to the concerned associate with a slight smile which failed to reach his almost closing eyes. "Where is Madhuri?" he asked, looking around for the woman in question.

"She fainted after you left, sir. I asked her to sit in the car. I thought the AC could help her since it was scorching out here," said Avantika, pointing towards the parking behind her with her thumb.

"That was a good idea, Avantika. I'll go see her."

Avantika nodded as her boss made his way towards the car. The worry for the woman was not the only reason for his choice of place of rest. His wobbly legs and debilitating headache made an excellent case for him to resign into an air-conditioned cabin, like that of his car.

His tired gaze met the exhausted figure of his client, who rested with closed eyes against the passenger seat's headrest. The built-in cooling system in the front seats justified Avantika's choice for Madhuri's resting place.

Arjun opened the door, and the click of the door opening jolted the resting woman out of her reverie as her eyes flew wide open and her lips fell apart. "Madhuri, relax. It's Arjun."

The stream of guilt, the bubbling of despondency, and the vice of inadequacy flushed fresh tears into her eyes. "Sir, I'm so sorry! I-I should have been more careful. I-I should- "

"Somehow stop yourself from fainting?" asked Arjun, arching his eyebrow whilst he shook his head and closed the door. "It's not your fault. That woman is your trigger, and she never cannot push your buttons."

Madhuri hung her head and eyed her hands lying limp in her lap. "You never took those anxiolytics, did you?"

Madhuri's head jerked towards him, appearing no different from a deer caught in the headlights. She shook her head in the negative, averting her eyes away from the dissecting gaze of her attorney. "Why?"

Her jaw clenched, and she continued to look out through the window of the car. The gusts of the chilly wind from the AC vent and the turbulence in her heart made a shudder run down her spine.

"They made me feel weak. I-I... I never couldn't control anything in my life, and now... I cannot control things that are happening in my head without a tablet."

Arjun took a sharp breath to refrain himself from speaking his mind. The woman had plunged into him in a whirlpool of bottled emotions with her words and wrenched out the defensiveness hidden behind the facade of indifference. "I told you even Di took these medications- "

"And Di must have had valid reasons to take the pills. You said she was doing her post-graduation. She had higher stakes. How can I equate my situation with hers?"

Arjun resisted the almost indomitable urge to burst into laughter. Not only did her words hit a nerve and brought back memories of his bullying in law college when his batch-mates had discovered his pills, they had also triggered a visceral annoyance at her refusal to budge from her position of self-depreciation.

"It is not about your situation being the same as hers or not, for God's sake. And if you ask me, refusing to see the truth, refusing to accept the reality and the help you need, and living in denial are actual signs of weakness. Not taking anti-anxiety medications or antidepressants."

The film of tears covering her eyes, which had the reticulate branching of red streaks obscuring the sclera, dazed her vision. She blinked in rapid succession, nibbling on her lower lip to regain the focus. Arjun inhaled a sharp breath, which he held in and allowed the tension to dissipate from his stiff muscles.

Suppressing the urge to pile onto her insecurities, he chose his words carefully. "The forces dragging you down might be beyond your control, Madhuri, but regaining your footing and staying above the surface are still in your power. It might mean making difficult choices, even ones you're not ready for, but you still have control."

Madhuri looked at her attorney from the corner of her eyes. Choice and control. Two words that did not belong to her in the two decades of her existence. Conditioning of her mind had left her with little choice and the conditioning of others had left her with scarce control.

"There is not a single human who did not have a weak point in their life, Madhuri. But it is the actions taken at that point that determine whether it is a phase or a constant in the life."

"What... What do you want me to do, sir?" she asked, unable to wrap her head at the prospect of not having a path delineated by an authority figure or the one deemed ideal by those around her.

"You are my client, and I want what is best for you, but I cannot dictate what to do with your life. I can only suggest, and this is my suggestion: accept and act. For once, ignore every other voice inside your head except your own."

The voices in her head had morphed from external critiques into her own self-criticism. They had become a chorus of negativity, undermining her, belittling her, and reminding her of her failures. However, she couldn't disregard the voices of her brother, her supportive friend, the empathetic doctor, and her stern but caring attorney.

She could not discount their efforts to pull her up and her own earnest, albeit hidden, desire to fly without bonds. She could not, and she decided she would not. Not anymore.