N A N D I N I

With the long sleeve of my cardigan clasped on my wrist tightly, I wiped it over the foggy window of my car letting myself see the view outside.

The outside the world was swirling in cold winds, under the clouded sky with no sun rays peeping in from anywhere yet the city seems to glow. A slow snowfall swept across the streets, contrasting against the quietness. White flakes float against the warm glow of streetlamps falling on the slick black streets, I was cozied inside my car waiting for it to end.

Knowing that the little road ahead which could lead me to the hospital was covered with snow, left me with only one option, i.e, to walk. For some worse five minutes, I sat inside my vehicle shaking-embracing my elbows as I mentally refused to step outside under the snow but I also knew there's no sweet evasion. Spreading my bubble umbrella open, tremblingly and with a huge shriek, I stepped down the car wanting to immediately dash inside and turn the heater back on.

'Ohhh myyy Loooorrddd. Isn't it exceptionally cold today!' Sooner I puffed some cold air out of my cheeks, smoke formed before my lips and cheeks turned red in such crisp weather.

With long steps, destination seemed an arm away before I realised I was already short of breath. The moment, each day, I arrive at the hospital, the first thing I do is smile brightly at everyone not only because it spreads a positive vibe but what's the harm if one smile can make someone's day. Rushing to the locker room, quickly, I dashed my wet umbrella inside and detached my body from the warmth of my coat which needless to say how badly protected me under the snow. Wrapping a fresh white cardigan around my skin, I overwrapped my doctor's apron pulling stethoscope and prescription pad out of it.

"Hi Dr.Nandini."

"Hi Miranda." I smiled at the oldest nurse working here.

"Never thought you'd make it today in such a weather." She always had been a motherly figure and thus explaining things to her was been difficult.

"Even I surprised myself, to say the least. But it's good that I am here as I'll be getting an early leave today plus it's less of patients today because of this sudden snowfall. Let alone the patients, the hospital itself is so lone and quiet." I said placing the stethoscope around my neck smiling at her direction.

"Oh, your early leave reminds me that you have you are having your flat mate's engagement party tonight, isn't it?" She grinned.

"That's right. Perrie is not only a flat mate but the only friend I have in this city since the time I stepped on here and this goes back to the time when we both were three years old." My lips brightened up with a smile thinking about our history.

"I have met her many times at your apartment. She's such a sweet girl." I raised my brows a little faking a chuckle as I myself knew with what kind of brat do I have to share my flat with.

The one who steals my breakfast from kitchen; the one who purposely ruins my dates by spying ruthlessly; the one who purposely locks herself in the washroom knowing that I'm banging at the door for getting late for a shower; the one who never stops screwing up and dumping the blames on my head; the one who almost every night when we share the bed kicks me out of the bed having a wet dream; the one for who everyday I receive a ticket from the cop because she either has drunk and driven or zoned inside a no parking area; the girl who calls my baked cake a shit and the one who calls my life boring. So yea that pretty much sums up Perrie Hawkins, everyone without going into the miserable details.

"Can't say about that much." I replied shortly. "But I really have got a lot to do today. She's depending entirely on me and since engagements venue is our flat itself, there are pretty much a lot of things to be done there."

"Oh that sounds fun then." I shrugged my shoulder giving a helpless glance. "Well, then congratulate her on my behalf and I am sure it'll be an evening for all of you to cherish forever."

"I sure will do that. Thanks, Miranda. See you." I excused myself bidding her bye politely.

I kept walking towards my cabin when suddenly I felt something vibrate inside my apron's pocket and unlocking the phone, I discovered what I scorned the most.

Perrie: U bitch! I can't believe u ditched me today. Like today??!! U knew I needed u to help with my outfit nd where the fuck are u, at the hospital? Seriously bitch?  U chose to ditch me today? SERIOUSLY? U know wat, I'm cancelling u as my chief bridesmaid. RIGHT NOW. And.. and yes Imma take ur Louis Vuitton urban satchel out f ur closet. Like NOW.

I ducked my head a little back as if the intensity of her yelling directly had hit my chest instead. I chuckled shaking my head as another text followed from the same sender.

Perrie: Nd Caron's Poivre fragrance toooooo.

Okay, to be true, the last text was like a cold dagger but I knew what all it'll take to calm this lady hulk down so I started typing while pasting a soft smirk to my lips.

Nandini: Don't worry love, I'll make it up to u.

Pressing my lips to suppress my giggle after hitting the send button, I switched my phone off knowing her well that she was purposely going to crib to ruin my time at work.

"Hey Murtee!" I turned around finding Tyler getting up his chair at the reception waving at me.

"For the zillionth time its Murthy, Tyler but like always it'll be fruitless teaching you anything, so continue." I answered impassively.

"Whatever. I am here with a bad news, Murtee." I opened my lips to correct him but instead sighed.

"Mmm. Let me guess, your newest girlfriend is turning lesbian..?" I suspiciously stared at him.

"What? No." He snorted cringing his nose. "The bad news is for you." I paused taking in the gravity of the situation. Ducking at him to continue, I gave myself a chill.

He advanced his hand handing me an envelope and in split seconds, I tore it open to read its content in the official letterhead from our hospital.

"What? How can they even do it?" I screeched but he glanced around to see if anyone's heard.

"Maybe because they think you are the best here." He reasoned while I rubbished that scrunching the paper in my fist.

"Oh please, Tyler! How could they-how could they reject my application for leave? I needed this leave to carry on with my research and I specifically mentioned that in my application letter." I huffed.

"I know, Murtee..I know. The management is full of pricks these days." He sympathy didn't touch my burn.

"All my hard work therefore goes down the drain." I shook my head hanging it low. It clearly wasn't possible for me to balance profession and research and nourish each well, therefore, I applied for this leave so that I could finish what I had started since my medical school days. This research was my everything regarding which encircled all my hopes and dreams.

"Hey, don't feel like that. You still stand a chance." He beamed.

Seeing me questionably staring at him, he assured me placing hand on his chest and then between us.

"There's never been any complain against your professionalism till date and according to the policy, if you reject to treat a patient on a personal ground, you'll be straightaway suspended for at least a month." I widened my eyes.

"How about that? In this process, you can carry on with your research work without going into a verbal tiff with the management." He danced his brows in achievement watching my lower jaw hang lower as I jerked my hands in excitement.

"Oh my God! Why didn't this superb idea struck upon me? Tyler, you are such a saviour. I just... I never thought I'll do something so wrong, you know." I giggled in my nervousness.

"Wait up." He went to his desk to bring back a bunch of papers clipped into his clipboard. "Here, my darling you have four-five patients today. Some are old ones who you got to counsel and reject the new one who you think best."

"Right." My fingers fidgeted on their own.

"Murtee, don't blow it up. It's simple. The patient comes and you reject." I bobbed awkwardly hearing him.

"Right. The patient comes and I reject." I repeated after him still fretting for having to do something so wrong for the first time ever.

"But...what if he or she really needs my help?" Skeptically, I quizzed.

"Oh Jesus!" He shrugged his hands. "Isn't this research important to you or you are here just wasting my time?"

"Okay okay, I get it. I got this. The patient comes and I reject." I repeated confidently assuring him with a thumbs up. "But you are so evil." I laughed pointing at him.

"Proudly." He smirked stretching his hands in the air.

*•*

I glanced over the giant clock on the wall while patiently hearing my patient. I always wanted to be a psychiatrist not only because I have it in my genes but because I always wanted to help people. Since my school and college days, friends and friends of friends of mine used to come to me with their multiple problems and I discovered that I got this eternal happiness getting to show them the path to light or maybe, that I felt extremely important when people shared important stuffs about their lives with me which they couldn't share with the most important persons of their lives. There's a different pleasure altogether in pulling someone out of the darkness and I feel I do that quite easily with my magical capacity to understand the state of minds of various people. It's like teaching people the art of standing on their own feet when they just are at the verge of giving up on life.

"It's a good progress that you have stopped popping your pills now. You don't need them now anyway." I smiled at the teenager who grinned at her parent beside her.

"I feel light after talking to you, Doctor." She smiled while I studied her reports scribbling few notes on my pad.

"Always a pleasure." I uttered before they got up to their feet to leave showering their countless thank yous and blessings upon me.

Watching the door swing close behind them, quickly, I took a sip from my almost cold coffee and making my way to the powder room before I got to attend another patient.

Coming out, I found the files on my table scattered and the door of the cabin wide open. This hospital being one of the best in the city, needless to say had a lot of public figures coming here and if any of their medical files reached an ill hand, it'll be the end of the world for me. I walked towards my table and grabbing few files up, I nurtured them seeing if things were in proper order. When satisfied, I walked up to the door and shut it close but unfortunately, when I turned around on my toes, I shrieked dropping the files to my feet.

For quite some time, batting my eyelashes like a statue who is only alive, I kept gawking the man standing ever so close to my body having the most daunting personality and intimidating features. All I was able to notice in that state of petrification was that, the man was abnormally tall having the most amazing hazel eyes in the world with layers of dark circles accompanying them. He had a beautiful skin although major parts of it were hidden under his growing stubble. His hair was ruffled and lips were pink and dried. Something about him screamed that he was straight out of the grave as in my 25 years of age I haven't seen any pairs of eyes as dead as his. A crooked smirk took over his face perhaps as he noticed me observing his sculpted jawline in spite of the stubble he masculinely is growing and I noticed a tinge of wildness together with trick in them. His muscles were well defined even under the loose shirt he was wearing making him a man who looked wrecked with the most gorgeous features on earth. I cleared my throat realising how close we were standing and least to say that the heat of his body was kind of dangerous. There was something about him, rather everything about him that begged me to stay away from him and especially those magnetic eyes.

I heard my phone ring on the table and awkwardly, making the space between us I ran to receive it before it died.

"Hey Murtee! It's important." I heard Tyler all anxious and exaggerated.

I stared back at the man who gave me the look as if he's already hearing our conversation. Tearing my eyes away, curling fingers around the hem of my apron I cleared my throat indicating Tyler to continue.

"This is the perfect opportunity for you to reject this patient."

"Patient?" I pulled my brows together not being able to collect anything at all.

"The tall muscular angry man who entered your cabin just now? I'm talking about him only. Just reject." Dubiously, I glanced back at him observing him leaning on the door with the crooked smirk that still was alive.

Holy mother of God, if anything at all, he was the last man I imagined to be my patient although he had this psycho streak in his dark brown eyes.

"Don't look at him!" My heart jumped hearing Tyler squeak over phone and I aborted my eyes from him immediately. "He's an absolute asshole. He's a prick, he's a monster.. pretty much he's everything you should stay away from, Murtee."

My eyes stiffened at his magnetic personality as Tyler kept describing him in the way no sane human being would ever prefer.

"Wh-what. I'm not getting anything. First of all, why did you send in the patient without my consent and what the hell are you talking about.." I cringed my brows shaking my head furiously.

"Murtee, believe me he's trouble. I have studied his case history and he has busted the windshield of his previous doctor's car. He has needled another doctor. He has scared his third doctor so very much that the poor man underwent a heart attack." My breath got stuck right in the middle of my throat as I processed all the newly learnt information inside my brain.

Before I could ask Tyler to come inside to my rescue, I heard that idiot already disconnected the call. For few fraction of seconds, my shocked eyes still couldn't absorb what my ears did minutes before.

How this man could be so much felonious! How. Someone please explain.

"Heard my pretty little introduction?" He smirked taking the receiver out of my loose grip and placed it rightly on the telephone.

I took a step back as reality broke in my thinking capacity automatically creating distance between us and I neared my chair opposite to him.

"That was one hell of an introduction." I spat grabbing my chair noticing his smirk grow wider and prouder. "Please have a seat but you should have knocked before entering."

He took the seat opposite mine paying no heed to my allegation while incredulously, I managed to keep my eyes on and off him clutching his file from the table. If he did all those things that Tyler just now accused him of, then why the hell he was not in jail and standing right in front of me! There's a limit till which the psyche of a broken person can be mended but not of a criminal and setting such a man free was definitely a threat to mankind. With my fumbling fingers, I managed to turn pages of his case history and the more I did, the more sorry I felt for myself.

• Alcohol abuse

• Agoraphobia

• Attention deficit hyper activity disorder

• Erotomania

• Generalised anxiety disorder

• Major depressive episode

• Mood disorder

• Obsessive compulsive personality disorder

• Parasomnias

• Psychosis

• Selective mutism

• Somnopathy

• Stockholm syndrome

• Violent outburst

I gawked the man who sat easing his back rolling the paperweight with his slender fingers because I failed to understand how every vital disorder on earth was in his medical history file.

"That's one hell of a medical history too." I spoke awkwardly watching him snicker egoistically.

"See Dr..." he turned my nameplate on the table while my body stiffened.

"Dr...Nandini Murthy, I want you to decline my case." I exhaled lightly hearing him make my plan easier.

"And..why would I do that?" I quizzed although I was thanking him in my mind.

"Because you do not want anything to happen to you which has happened to my past three doctors." He smiled in the most evil way.

"Then why are you here at all...with a scheduled appointment?" I capped my fountain pen.

"That is some question I prefer not to answer. But the moral of the story is.. you decline my case and I leave the hospital happily so that no one gets hurt, if you know what I mean." He smiled like a saint.

This transformation of this gentleman was truly something medical science needed to work on and honestly, I have never heard anyone threatening any other person in that saintly way with crusts of intimidation underneath that magnificent tone.

This was everything I wanted.. to reject the patient, get suspended and concentrate on my research and he brought me the knife with his own hands; the ideal opportunity. Although I knew he needed my help more as a Doctor and that I was choosing my personal dream over the vow as a doctor but I guess, choice was limited in both of our sleeves.

I needed to reject him and he demanded to be rejected.

I refused heal him whereas he chose to remain broken.

"Alright. I.. am saying no to your case." I uncapped the pen putting my signature on the records of the hospital as his dead cunningly flickered between my moving pen and me; might be because he predicted the job to be much more difficult.

"You are very smart." He answered in a raspy voice.

"I think you are everything I prayed for." I smiled a little signing the documents.

"Excuse me?" He repeated.

"Here, I did my job. You'll soon get an email from the hospital itself stating the reason. But how is that gonna serve your purpose? You still will be forced by your family or anyone who's managed to force you here to some other hospital and there the doctor might not be as smart as I am." I spoke without an expression.

"You are the last doctor I was forced to consult. After you, the chapter ends." My level of confidence touched the rock bottom as I gaped my signature knowing that I deliberately ruined the life of a patient who could be healed.

"Alright then,.." I continue pensively. "Good luck."

I knew what I did was worse than I imagined it to be but the damage was done and there was nothing I could do to revoke it.

"Thanks, Doc." Winking at me, he stood up to leave grabbing his coat while I wheeled my revolving chair facing the giant window to watch the serene snow hit the ground soundlessly, thinking to myself how situations sometimes hold us captive and how sometimes we sell ourselves to those situations.

^_^

I fixed the gorgeous customised necklace standing before the mirror in my bedroom hearing all the laughter and happiness reaching my ears from the floor below.

"Nanz, Perrie is calling you!" I twitched my lips hearing one of our friends screeching all the way beating those loud woofers about which we definitely were gonna get shits of complains the next morning from our loving neighbours.

"Coming." My tone was equally high pitched since I needed that moron to hear me clear.

I tilted to my profiles checking myself out in that red off-shoulder Ralph Lauren dress that reached my knees. Shaking my head spreading the waves in my hair, I grabbed my red coat which exactly complimented my dress. That's the thing about winter and fashion. When you need to flaunt your curves in that pretty little dress, the temperature always starts dropping to the level where you have to look like a stupid banyan tree with layers and layers of coats and mufflers.

Raking my mind to see if I failed to make any arrangement in right manner, I reached the sliding door of my balcony wishing to push it close to save myself from this hypothermia. Sliding the glass close after trembling enough in the cold wind, I pulled the thick curtain to cover it wholly and turned to leave until something stopped me.

I took two steps back slowly removing the curtain aside to see if the suspicion of my mind was legitimate in any way. Sliding the door again, I went out in the chill gaping down my balcony because Jesus knew why I was feeling like when I closed the door, I saw someone's reflection on the glass from the other side as if.. as if someone was watching me getting ready and more or less, the most shocking part of this being, his reflection was a photocopy of the tall angry patient from this morning. As if he was the one watching me from the other side of the street.

Stupid. I know.

Shaking my head at my stupidity, I slid the door again drawing the curtains neatly before I shrugged the waves loosely falling till my waist with my fingers to add more volume.

2 hours later:

I stood in the kitchen sipping on my red wine while the apartment was still bustling with its after party. Happiness was in the air as people genuinely celebrated the togetherness of love. Perrie and Sean had been together since college days and one could tell that one fine day, she was going to be the one who'll finally steal his surname.

"Babyyyyy!" Perrie came running to me while raising my brows, I placed my wine down on the kitchen counter pulling her in a hug.

"Thank you for every bit of this evening." She charmed holding me tight in her embrace.

"You deserve the world, Perrie and every happiness in it but yes..except my Chanel and Prada collections." I threatened while she nonchalantly shrugged. Fashion and brands were just our things.

She raised her hand showing me the big solitaire on her ring finger and we both jumped on our feet as I brought her finger close to take in a good view. We both literally shrieked and I hope one understands when it comes to the engagement of your best ever friend. We hugged once more and I was happy until my eyes which through the window of the kitchen by which we stood saw the glance of that patient staring intently at us.

"Perrie...um do you by any chance see a man standing over there?" Separating from our hug, I questioned her pointing at that direction and to my luck this time there was nothing.

"What, man?" She gawked the window and back at me. "You need to get a grip on those red wines now, Nutty." She scowled.

"You stupid, you don't need to stop calling me that in public but..." I looked over the window but decided to give my suspicious mind a rest not wanting to ruin the happiness of my best friend on the best day of her life.

"Anyway..yea. I kinda feel tipsy. But you should go in and join your fiancé for a dance." I suggested fixing her dress.

"Okay I'll get running to my love now and I must see you there in five, okay?" She turned around to me. "And easy with that wine."

"Okay, teacher." I cooed like in the childhood we did in classrooms and swearing under her breath, she rushed to the room where all the fun was going on.

I rotated to the window finding no one to be there. Might be, I thought, Tyler's words got into my head and that I should stop ruining my fun too. I decided to close the window which I did without going into much of debate and grabbed a new bottle of classic red wine from the cellar in the kitchen. I bought a little time going into the details scribed in tiny fonts on the bottle while turning on my high heels when suddenly a shriek broke through my mouth and the bottle slipped off my grip.

The sound of glass shattering into pieces didn't reach anybody for the bottle didn't break as a long muscular hand had it covered just inches before it touched the marble floor. I fretted to look at the face of the man because I knew the cause of my shriek and the way he gave me that nasty look meeting my eyes the minute he caught the bottle, bending on his knees, I learnt the definition of storm. I knew shits were gonna get real because it was no more an idiotic cake of my imagination.

"Y-you?" I choked realising that it was no more the wine but the man in flesh and blood.

"Hello, Doc." He winked in a way like a hunter stares at his prey before taking its life.