A Danger That Lurks In The Darkness | A TPQ AU |

XXIV | Rudy, You're Not A Loser

MINI
"YOU don't remember anything?"

Sheela tilted her head, her face crumbling into an expression of shame. "No. It's all..." she splayed her fingers, like she was mimicking an explosion, "a blur."

"Could he have injected you with something to cause memory loss?" Rudy wondered aloud.

Mini felt her frame tense. "Could he have?"

Sheela shut her eyes, leaning back against the pillow, her sheets crumpling. "I don't know."

Her hand hovered above bruises on her wrist, as she stared off into space.

Mini felt the words crack in her throat. "I'm sorry,"

Sheela looked up, her brow knitted in confusion. "For what?"

"For dragging you into this," she muttered, tugging at her bangs.

"It's all over now." She steepled her fingers. "I'm back."

Silence settled in, which Sheela broke: "It... should come back in snatches, right? My memory?"

"About..."

"...What happened. About what happened. I want to help."

Rudy said, "You don't have to. We'll be—"

"But I want to." She scrunched her face up. "I'd said something, didn't I? When you both found me."

"Yeah. You'd said, 'They're going to kill us all'."

Her face blanched, as she said, a nervous laugh breaking through her voice: "I wasn't myself, then. I was very drugged. It was probably because of the... haze."

The three of them heard a knock on the door.

Sheela's doctor, who was staring at the clipboard in his hands, said, "Detectives, I'm sorry, but Ms. Jagan needs to rest—"

"Right."

They left, as Sheela cast them a mournful glance. "Be safe, you two."

She only heard Rudy's breath catch and heard him exhale, as she felt her own throat unstuck.

"You... be safe too," was all she could manage. Another apology bubbled up to her lips, but she swallowed it down, a tiredness enveloping her. This tired feeling did not pass, but from it, another kind of determination took root. This wasn't the time for apologies. This was the time for payback.

————

RUDY

HE felt tired. He also felt angry. These two emotions were warring inside him, as he lay on the floor of her apartment.

The carpet irritated the back of his neck, but he stayed there, spread-eagled.

"Come up," Mini offered. Her apartment looked less like an apartment, but more like the filing room back at the precinct.

Her glasses slipped down the bridge of her nose, slightly crooked. He had the urge to straighten them. Ignoring it, he flexed his fingers, and got up, balancing on his elbows.

"I'm good here." He grabbed the topmost file from the pile next to him, and held it up.

"You'll hurt your back," she said, crossing her arms, a stubborn look etching itself on her face.

The anger and frustration inside him melted: leaving behind a hint of amusement.

He sighed, realising that there would be no winning in this battle (not that he minded losing against her), and crawled toward the sofa, heat creeping up his cheeks.