Two faced

Chp 23

***
Time: 11:30 pm

In the dark room with just a bit of functional lighting and a 32 inches TV flickering with bright lights as he changed the channels impatiently while stretching his legs tiringly over the maroon fluffy carpet.

He scrambled over different channels in a span of a minute until he fixed his gaze on a channel premiering an action movie. He sighed in solace and stretched his back with the cushions at the back of the sofa while relaxed as he enjoyed the action stunt.

After a few minutes, the door bell to his place rang twice. He abruptly rotated his head towards the blue signature wall clock on the right wall and acknowledged that it was almost  midnight, wondering who it could be at this hour. 

He instinctively switched off the TV and jumped off the sofa while throwing the tv remote in the air which landed on the floor with a soft thud.

Suddenly another door bell jingled in his place and he moved with stampeding steps towards the door and unlocked it to reveal short and thin bodied figure dressed in a jet black jeans and a grey hoodie which partially covered it's head.

In a moment the person took off the hoodie from it's head.
"Maria? What are you doing here at this hour in the night? Is everything okay? He asked her comforting her caringly as she walked inside the place slowly.

He let her inside and made her sit on the sofa nearby.
"I am not feeling well Dr." She complained while squinting her eyes at him.
"Can I get you a glass of water?" He asked her.
"Yes Please." She asked for it and he walked slowly towards the refrigerator in the kitchen while picking up an empty glass from the dining table.

He filled up a glass and in no time, passed it to her and she gulped it a single sip leaving behind no water in the glass. She placed it on the coffee table while he pulled up a nearby chair and joined her.

"Now tell me what happened?" He just uttered a few words when the door bell rang again.

Wondering who would be here at this time, he attentively opened the door and was surprised to see his senior standing in front of him.
"Sir?".

He was a middle aged man with his dark face partially covered by fuzzy grey beard, his face was round with small black eyes and a round nose. He was dressed in informal khakis and grey sandles. He without bothering to answer Afzaal, authoritatively stepped inside and spotted Maria standing beside the couch, shivering panickingly.

Through the whole time Afzaal was just eyeing the whole scene as he was shocked at it.
"What is she doing here at this time of the night, Dr Afzaal Shah?" He asked Afzaal as he turned towards him.

"I don't know sir, she just came." Afzaal answered straightforwardly.
"Oh I see." He replied mockingly sneering at him to which Afzaal again stood there confused.

"Sir, Dr Afzaal called me at his place," Maria took the opportunity to break the silence and Afzaal turned towards her in shock. Sir turned towards her, folded his arms on his chest.

"He said he need to give me an important medicine." She finished sheepishly leaving Afzaal jaw dropping at each word she spoke.

"No sir, she came by her own will, I asked her why, to which she told me she is not feeling well," Afzaal put up his side of story almost shouting this time but was cut in between by Maria.

"Sir I think he is upto something because he was forcing me to take this medicine even after I refused to use these meds." She added on while forwarding a strip of medication to him.
He took it, examined it and turned towards Afzaal
"Afzaal Shah, how dare you?" .
"He has been giving me these medicines regularly though I keep denying him on using these because these make me uncomfortable, li I get tremors, I get extremely aggressive, I start to tremble out of now where, I can't sleep at night......" she added while she forwarded the prescriptions signed by Afzaal.

"Sir, she is lying!" Afzaal pleaded with disappointment and was about to break any moment but despite of that his senior was not even slightly convinced by him. He walked to him and ushered the prescriptions and threw them on Afzaal's face.

"Then why the hell you have assigned her these medicines?" He barged at Afzaal and he stood their speechless.

"These prescriptions are signed by you only on the prescription pads assigned to you by the hospital." he continued ann Afzaal realized that some prescription pads went missing from his office after Maria'a second round of therapy but he remained silent on this matter at that time.

"This prescription pad and the signatures are mine but I never gave her these, there is a misunderstanding." He pleaded one more time.

"Dr Afzaal enough with your story. See you tomorrow in the medical council sharp at nine in the morning. And I guess you are wise enough to determine why." He told Afzaal and left with Maria.

***
The next day
Time: 11 am

It was a highly sophisticated building, with extremely fine interiors with a tinge of professionalism all through the air. As through, the elevator opened to the second floor, the walkway consist of highly illuminated corridor leading towards the reception while the sides lead the conference rooms and the superior official's offices.

The elevator opened smoothly and Sana dressed in a blue striped shirt which was almost till her feet such that only her white sandles were visible, well suited with the white print on the shirt. Her streaked hair were roughly tied in a low pony tail, her face was plain with not even a little makeup and her small black clutch and phone held tightly between fingers of her right hand.

She followed the other people walking out of the elevator, with streams of horror in her eyes she rushed herself to the reception, and inquired about Dr Afzaal Shah.

The receptionist answered her and pointed towards the room located to her right. Sana took a deep breath, started to massage her hands as they were trembling pretty bad and took baby steps towards the room, trying to peek through the tainted glass of that room.

She could see many doctors seated around a huge round conference table, turned towards him, who was seated on another chair in between the room. She could see him presenting his explanation but the officials seem least likely to be convinced by any of his words.

In few minutes, few of them stood up and wrapping up the conversation, gestured as to leaving the room and concluding the meeting. As the door opened, the officials flooded out and Sana immediately cornered herself, partially hiding her identity from them until he atleast came out.

She moved ahead as he exited the room, he still not knowing about her presence, walked outside with his shrugging shoulders, sunken eyes and sweaty face and palms. It looked as if he had lost a big deal. Suddenly he noticed her as they were about to strike, his eyes met her eyes for a moment or two, but he soon he could he turned his eyes down in guilt as he could already see her eyes demanding a million explanations but sadly  he had no answers to any of them.

After Maria had filed a complaint against Dr Afzaal, the council had held him accountable for disguising Maria's depression as Multiple personality disorder just to gain fame as the best psychiatrist of the country.

He prescriped her medicines that precipitated seizures, extreme mood swings and made her violent enough to prove his false diagnoses, despite of the fact that these medications could cause her serious levels of harm to her.

The prescriptions signed by Dr Afzaal, notes to her conditions in his diary about her condition, her blood reports to prove baseline concentrations of the drugs were all taken as evidence. The final decision to the complaint was still awaited but most probably Dr Afzaal was about to be suspended from medical practice for life. 

***

'Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.'