In Sunshine or In Shadow ✔ [Completed]

Chapter 4.1 - Somewhere Safe

Riddhima was anxious to go home. The hospital room was quickly feeling like a cage, a cage where there seemed to be an endless stream of doctors and nurses coming in to check up on her. She hated it. And she couldn't help but notice that there seemed to be more than usual.

One nurse had come in to check her blood pressure early that morning; another had come by later to check her injuries. After a completely different nurse had dropped off her breakfast tray, Riddhima began to get concerned.

"Why are so many nurses coming in here?" she wondered aloud as she stirred a fork through the dry scrambled eggs on her tray.

"This is a hospital," Viraj reminded her, "that's usually where you can find nurses."

She glared at his response. "Do you think they are coming by to watch me?"

"No I think they are doing their job." Riddhima didn't reply; she wasn't as convinced. Even during her brief stay in the hospital after she was shot by a killer she hadn't had this many nurses filing into her room.

Riddhima turned her attention towards the food in front of her but she didn't take more than a couple of bites before setting it aside. "You should eat," Viraj said.

"Hospital food sucks," she told him. That was true but it wasn't the truth.

"Then why don't I go get you something? A bagel? Muffin?"

"I'm fine, Viraj." She wasn't hungry. She hadn't actually had a real appetite since the attack. Food was the last thing on her mind now.

Viraj let out a long sigh. "What can I do for you, Riddhima? What do I have to do to make this easier on you?"

"Take me home?" Riddhima offered with a fake smile but Viraj didn't take the bait. She looked down at her scraped hands and stubby fingernails, clipped for evidence. Viraj was trying so hard; he was doing exactly what he was supposed to. He was being the concerned brother who was supportive and sweet. She was the one that was messing everything up. "You're doing enough already," she finally told him, "this is just going to be hard."

This would have been the perfect opportunity for Viraj to hold her hand, to take comfort in each other's presence. But he didn't, she was grateful for that. She didn't want to see the hurt in his eyes when she pulled away from him again.

A fourth nurse came in to take her virtually untouched breakfast tray; raising her suspicions again that something was afoot. She didn't have a lot of time to ruminate over the endless chain of nurses that enjoyed coming in to see her. A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.

Angre stood awkwardly in the doorway, a little box of tupperware in his hands. His eyes shifted but never fully landed on her, he didn't want to look at her. She couldn't really blame him; she must look like an absolute mess. "Hey Angre," she said with fake cheer.

"Hey," he said slowly but still had a hard time meeting her eyes.

Riddhima gave Viraj a look and he got the message pretty quick. "I'm going to get some coffee," He said standing up and giving her a smile. She needed to talk to her team member alone.

For a long moment they just looked at each other. Riddhima decided to borrow from one of Vansh’s tactics and wait quietly for Angre to talk. It always worked on her. "I uh…brought this," he said and placed the container on her tray.

She couldn't help but smile when she saw the small pile of dark brown squares. "Mrs. Cassini's brownies," she said. The lovely old Italian woman was the wife of one Frank Cassini, the security guard, and her brownies were the only reason anyone went to the annual office party. "You know these are used as currency in Financial Crimes," Riddhima reminded him with a small grin. "You sure you want to give these to me?"