Serve and Protect

Chapter 1: Ungodly Hour

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Note: The story behind this fic is actually quite long. If you can believe it, I came up with this idea way back when I started "In Sunshine or In Shadow" and I'd written various parts of it off and on. I always intended to write it and post it but for some reason other things came up. but I finally found this old fic, dusted it off and decided to see if it would work. It's going to be a little scary, a little graphic, a little intense, but all over, a good read, I hope.

Enjoy.

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She was beautiful.

She had been beautiful when she was a little girl, but when she grew up, as she passed through her adolescent years and into her adulthood she had filled out and moved past her awkward phase. Her hips had spread around the age of eighteen and she had gotten beautiful breasts to match. Her hair had darkened and gotten fuller and wavier, turning into a mess of long brown curls that begged to be played with. But those eyes, those eyes were the same as they had been when she was eight, still impossibly deep drown, sweet, innocent, warm and lovely. The last time he had seen them they had been filled with such fear it made his whole body tremble just to think of it, but now she lived her life in a normal, if not overly careful way. Fear was not a part of her everyday life, she did not live in it, soak in it, breathe, eat and sweat it.

Riddhima Mehra, the One Who Got Away, as they liked to call her. She had, very literally, gotten away. It was a mix up, an accident, a series of coincidences that had led to her disastrous, devastating escape. He hadn't found another like her since. For a long time he tried his hardest to find another one, to find release the way he had found it in the others before her.

But that stupid girl, that Goddamn bitch had taken all the joy from his world, and had thus made him feel insane with the need to release, to calm the noises and tension in his mind.

It wasn't supposed to happen that way. She wasn't supposed to run, or find her way to the police or get away and leave him there without a way to make the aching stop. But away she had gone, the police she had found and ache he had bourn for thirteen long years, no matter who he tried to take it out on. It had taken him a few years to realize that she was the only one that could take away the ache now; she was the only one that could make it better. So he found her. And he waited. He was waiting for the right moment, the perfect moment to make her remember, to put the fear back in her eyes.

It was almost time now-almost time to make her remember.

It wouldn't take long.

He picked up the phone.

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The phone rang.

Riddhima rolled over, pushing her unbidden locks of hair from her face and reached for the phone. She lifted it off the cradle and brought it to her face, swallowing a few times before uttering a groggy greeting.

When no one answered, she spoke again, this time louder in case they hadn't heard her. Still there was nothing on the other end of the line. She waited a moment.

"Mr. Roy, if you are calling me again I am going to have to report you to HR, this is completely inappropriate for a work relationship."

There was still nothing, suggesting to her that it either was, in fact, Mr. Roy calling her and thus he was not answering to save himself the embarrassment and the trouble of having an official complaint made with human resources at their place of mutual employment, or it was someone else who wished not to be known. So instead of torturing herself over it, she hung up the phone, rolled back over and went back to sleep.