Moments passed.

No one made a move.

As if time had stopped.

One was rooted to his place, his body stiff and his mind blank as his eyes stared into space.

And the other on the group, weeping in silence, not from the pain that was radiating in her leg because of the graze wound but rather from what had just come to pass.

What....the hell just happened? Zameer thought. She....wasn't suppose to get....shot. He thought bleakly, feeling his buried emotions surfacing. Zameer felt his body shake so he quickly squeezed his eyes shut as his jaw clenched.

So what? He tried to think rationally but it wasn't of any use. She's our hostage. She's the enemy's daughter. She's collateral for God's sake. She was bound to get hurt. He thought to himself as he tried to collect his disheveled thoughts but he couldn't stop himself from listening to Sadia's pain filled sobs and that became his undoing as his locked emotions ran free and once again trapped Zameer in a whirlpool as guilt slowly started to gnaw at his heart as he looked at Sadia's small delicate body quivering on the dirty ground, her sobs echoing off of the walls.

No, she didn't have to get hurt. It's all my fucking fault He mentally shouted at himself as his brain kept commanding him to move. He needed to move, Sadia needed aid. But more then that, he felt an intense urge to hold her close and....comfort her?

Again, what was with all these confusing thoughts? Zameer was strict man and he always kept his emotions out of his work then why were his wmotions getting so provoked and that too by his own hostage? Why?

Nonetheless, he needed to move and treat Sadia's wounds. But he couldn't bring himself to move, not after what had happened. He felt so pathetic, all his efforts going to waste. It wasn't suppose to turn out this way. He hurt Sadia himself so that Shehryaar wouldn't have to but he should've known how unpredictable is boss was. He should've seen it coming. And now, he couldn't stop himself from feeling this guilt. And that led his confusion to grow.

Sadia was in utter shock. She couldn't believe how brutally she had been treated just now. And what was even more worse, her father had to witness what was happening to her. The look that her father gave her, that utter look of horror, for her, it was burned in her memory. She feared that if she were to close her eyes, she would relive that moment.

How could they do this to her? She was their hostage. Why would they harm her? Wouldn't that jeopardize the whole purpose of kidnapping her in the first place?

Sadia jerked out of her thoughts when she felt her arm being tugged up rather gently.

"You need to get up," Zameer said lowly. Sadia couldn't do much except to silently comply, the pain from her injury was getting too unbearable but it was nothing compared to the pain she was feeling in her heart.

But as soon as Sadia moved, a shrill cry ripped through her throat. Zameer flinched.

"What's the matter?" He inquired, genuinely concerned.

"It hurts!" Sadia cried as her hands gripped around her leg more tightly. Zameer sighed and didn't speak another word as he scooped up the crying girl in his arms. Sadia was so caught up in her misery that she couldn't care less that Zameer was holding her.

As soon as Sadia was in his arms, he couldn't help but feel her warmth as his arms tightened around her. She was so light and her shaking body wasn't helping him feel any better but strangely enough, he felt warm inside, his heart beating fast as he carried her back to the infirmary. On the way, he couldn't help himself from relishing in her warmth. It took everything in him to control his urge to keep holding her. But why? again, why was he feeling this way? and that too towards this little girl?

Sadia sobbed quietly. She didn't like being touched and right now, she wasn't appreciating the close proximity with which Zameer was holding her but her injury was too painful.

Entering into the infirmary, he knew that he had to let her go and Sadia made that a little easy for him when she started to struggle. .

Sitting her on the bed, Zameer called in the medic. Sadia inspected her wound; it was a rather large yet superficial laceration.Being a diabetic had its worse downfall and in Sadia's case, she had poor healing and with a graze wound like the one she got now, she knew that it would end up getting infected and wouldn't heal well. But did it matter? She couldn't care less about herself, not when the image of her father kept on floating inside her head. Feeling exhausted, she lied on her side and buried her face in the pillow.

The medic rushed into the room and before he could move towards Sadia, Zameer caught him by the collar and ordered him to take out the necessary first aid items. He complied and rushed out as soon as he gave Zameer what he wanted.

Zameer took off his suit jacket. Sadia had turned away from him. Zameer rolled up his sleeves.

"Can you sit up, please?" He said as politely as he could, but his voice sounded heavy even to himself.

Sadia was silently sobbing but she had heard him. She felt so tired and drained but she mustered up her strength to sit. She bit on her cut lip hard as she tried to keep in the pain but was betrayed by the fat tears flowing down her cheek from her eye and the gauze around her right eye was also soaked.

Zameer looked away. His chest felt tight. Too tight. He couldn't bear to see Sadia like this. This was not what he wanted. He didn't know why but he just couldn't stop himself from feeling so much shame and guilt. He was at fault.

Zameer clenched his jaw tightly. He just realised how hard this situation would really be.

Even for a cold blooded killer like himself, he was letting himself be affecting by the suffering of his captives and that too who was related to his greatest enemy.

He looked at Sadia's quivering frame.

Yes, he felt guilty for putting an innocent in such a disposition. But then again, this wasn't the first time. He had killed many innocents before without batting so much as an eyelash. Then why now?

Why was he so affected by this.....this delicate maiden?

Why?

Just a day ago, he had reacted in rage when Qadeem raised his hand at her and then, he considered her lovely and cute. He tried to stop himself from thinking like that. She was the enemy's daughter after all. Then why?

Why did he feel like such a failure? Why did he feel as if he had failed to protect her?

He sighed to himself and dismissed his confusing thoughts as he came forward. Sadia flinched and went rigid, her good eye looking at him in pure terror. when she saw him move towards her and Zameer was quick to sense her fear as he raised his hands in surrender.

"Relax, I'm only going to treat your injury." Zameer said. Sadia read his defeated expression and her mind recalled what he had said to her a few moments ago:

'I'm sorry'

He had said that to her. He was sorry? Why? He was the reason for her current position. Then why did he say something like that?

Zameer saw the dazed look on Sadia's face and took that as his que to start. Sadia was frozen in place so when Zameer proceeded to touch her, she didn't move at all. Carefully, he inspected the injury. The blood had stained the pale blue cloth of Pajama. With a pair of scissors, he cut through the cloth, he enough to reveal the whole wound. He focused solely on the task at hand even though it was difficult since he couldn't help but look at her flawless skin: it was so pale and smooth to the touch. He wanted to linger but couldn't allow himself to.

Zameer could not bring himself to look at Sadia in the eyes so he focused all of his energy in cleaning her injury. Although it was a graze wound, the bleeding wouldn't stop.

"The bleeding wouldn't stop." He uttered under his breath.

'I'm sorry'

All that Sadia's mind kept hearing was what he had said to her earlier.

He didn't mean it! Sadia thought bitterly as anger and resentment grew in her.

"W-why?" She murmured in a broken whisper as she stared into space.

Zameer stopped momentarily, taken aback by what she said but he couldn't blame her, he could see that she was in shock so he chose not to answer. He cleaned the wounded and dressed it up. Afterwards, keeping good distance, he went to her face and cleaned the cut on her cheek. When he went to her lip, he felt so tempted to trace his thumb on her bottom lip but he was quick to stop himself from thinking any further and quickly did away with cleaning her lip. He noticed that the gauze around her eye was also dirty and stained so it needed cleaning.

Sadia was growing livid at Zameer's silence. She at least deserved to know why all of this was happening to her. And she was surprised at herself, she seldom became angry or gave into her emotions, except for her fear but right now, looking at herself and what she was reduced to, she couldn't help but think that it was all the fault of the damned man who uttered a mere 'sorry' for God knows what reason and now was trying to clean her wounds. How pathetically ironic.

"I'm going to change the dressing around your eye." Zameer informed but from the dazed look on her face, he knew that she wasn't mentally present at the moment. Carefully, he removed the gauze from around her forehead.

Sadia was so lost in her own thoughts that it took her to feel coldness on the right side of covered face to realise what was happening. When the cotton pad was revealed, Sadia's eyes snapped at Zameer. Zameer also noticed and before he knew it, Sadia's palm hit him across the face. He didn't see that coming as he froze in place. Sadia quickly covered her right eye before the cotton pad could fall off and jumped off of the bed. She screamed in pain from the pain in her leg from standing up so quickly but all that she knew was that she needed to get away from Zameer. She staggered away and created some good distance between herself and the demon responsible for the misery that she was in .

Zameer was shocked as he looked at Sadia and was even more surprised when he saw her glaring at him. She had never looked him the eye. She always avoided eye contact but right now, she was glaring at him and that too with so much resentment.

"D-don't!" She hissed under her breath. "D-d-don't tou-ch me!" She hissed darkly. Zameer swallowed hard and tried to find his voice as he raised his hands.

"Dr. Sadia-"

"Don't you dare!" Sadia snapped, her voice low yet powerful, convening the coldness and resentment in her towards the man who was responsible for her current situation.

"It's all......your fau-lt," Sadia felt bitter tears rise in her eyes, stinging her right eye but Sadia couldn't care less. Zameer was further taken aback as he looked into Sadia's good eye; it was filled with so much anguish yet, he could see something else too. something that he thought he would never see; he saw a fire in her. His breath hitched in his throat and his chest tightened.

'It's all.....your fau-lt'

Yes, it really is my fault. He concurred as his shoulders sagged in defeat.

"Wh-at did I-I ever d-do to y-ou?" Her voice broke as she looked at Zameer. Zameer's eyes fell down. He couldn't bring himself to look at Sadia anymore as her words kept ringing inside his head.

'Wh-at did I-I ever d-do to y-ou?'

Those words. He knew that he would get to hear them sooner or later. And he knew what he would say and do, but right now, after hearing her broken voice and looking in her eye that was full of pain and despair, he couldn't bring himself to do anything. His shame grew that caused his neck to bow down. Zameer clenched his fists tightly by his side. His guilt and shame wasn't allowing him to think rationally.

This girl, this young woman, who was nothing but just a job for him, was causing him to feel like this. And he couldn't deny it because it really was his fault. He didn't mean her harm even though he knew how the situation would turn out but he was surprised again and again at his own behaviour and at his own feelings; His reaction when Qadeem had hit Sadia, his own thoughts, his own frustrations at seeing Sadia hurt.

Why was he getting so involved? He had never been this involved with his victims before. Yes, he would greatly empathise, especially when it concerned women but why this one particular woman? Why her? This was not like him.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he saw Sadia wipe away her tears at her cheeks.

"I didn't......do anything to you?" Sadia whispered as her chest raked with sobs. "Why.....did you.....get me mixed up in this? What.....did I ever d-do.....to you?" Sadia sobbed. Again, that strange protective urge engulfed him and without realizing, he found himself walking towards Sadia. Sadia whimpered and scrambled back, her back hitting the wall.

"Get out!" She whispered, turning away from Zameer as she grabbed her head, the pain from her leg causing her to slump down against the wall. Zameer felt utterly defeated. He wanted to comfort her but he knew that he couldn't. They were enemies and enemies didn't comfort one another. So, with a heavy heart, Zameer pushed his emotions aside and sighed. Turning away, he took his suit jacket and walked out.

The air was too heavy that it became hard for him to breath.

And he needed to breath, he needed to think.

************

Chapter 13 has been updated on inkitt