16. Enemy of her sanity

*****

Ziah sat nibbling on her bottom lips as Kabir kept typing furiously on his laptop. After the sketch was done, Kabir decided to look into the released criminal records and find any connections of the said person.

"Mind asking me this but when can I get out of the hospital? The strong chlorine smell is taking a toll on my sane mind."

Aliya whined from beside her husband and was met with an eye roll from Daiyan who casually gulped down the glass of cold water to quench his thirst.

"I should be the one saying that. But on a serious note-"

A knock on the door was what they heard before Laiha walked in with a toothy grin on her face. The merry look on her face was brighter than what Ziah had ever seen as she gave a curious look to the woman.

"Daiyan miya, your wife is up and is lovingly asking for your wellbeing. Mind sparing a little bit time-"

Laiha didn't have to say anything further as a wide eyed Daiyan quickly removed the glucose needle from his hand and raced out of the room in the hospital uniform. The sight of him running as though he were set on fire made everyone in the room laugh since the newfound happy gleam in his eyes was hard to miss and so was the raging worry that he had been trying to suppress since he had woken up.

"Whipped."

Aliya muttered under her breath and as she looked up, she found Kabir giving her an incredulous look with his glasses perched on his nose and his eyes staring at her with a look that said enough for her to blush shades of beautiful dawn.

"Enough people. There is no need for you to remind me of my boring romance-less life."

Laiha gagged out the words and Kabir and Aliya visibly blushed at being caught in their not-so subtle ways of flirting through the eyes. Ziah giggled at their expressions and watched as Kabir cleared his throat and focused on the task at hand.

Marwan was yet to return as only a few minutes had passed since Aliya had given him a call.

"Ziah, come have a walk with me."

Laiha stretched her limbs as she proposed the offer. The warmth in her expression and the casualty in her words made Ziah nod her head without a thought. She too was getting bored by just staring at the blank walls for what felt like ages.

"Bring a cup of coffee for me when you return!"

The two heard Aliya's plea as Laiha closed the door. Chuckling among themselves, the two took their steps outside the hospital and into the small lawn at the back of the boring building. Herbal plants, especially neem, aloe vera, turmeric and holy basil were spread across the area along with a few marigolds, roses and hibiscus.

"Ziah, mind asking me this but how did you meet, Marwan? I don't want to be rude but I just never saw you around."

The curiosity in her tone did nothing to lessen the tension that had entered Ziah's body. Her once relaxed shoulders stiffened at Laiha's words even though she tried her best to not act fazed. Her heart bet with worry but she gulped inaudibly and gave Laiha a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"D-during one of his missions. Thanks to him that I'm around."

She chuckled at her last words and Laiha raised an eyebrow at the way she had addressed the situation. Her skilled eyes assessed her expressions and Ziah had to stop herself from wrapping her arms around her in a protective stance. Laiha stared at her for a good few minutes before she gave a small nod and a smile to a nervous looking Ziah.

"If I'm not wrong, he works under major Mathur, correct?"

Ziah thought over it for a while. Even though she wasn't fully able to concentrate on her surroundings from a month back, she did remember the old man who had assigned her to Marwan.

She gave a nod to Laiha's question and soon a hushed silence fell over the two. It was nothing uncomfortable though. Just the two enjoying the passing breeze along with the sun's heat that kept increasing in intensity as summer neared the surface.

"You-"

Ziah mumbled the word to herself. A question raged through her mind but she didn't have enough courage to voice it out loud. Because if she did, she'd hurt herself more than she already was.

"Huh, kuch kaha?"

"Nope, must be the wind."

She made a lame excuse and bit her tongue lightly at the stupid sounding lie but by the shrug and lightness in Laiha's posture, she sagged back in relief knowing she was convinced enough to not look suspicious.

Ziah bit the insides of her cheek. The silence around felt like a burning fuel to her hammering thoughts- particularly one question- and she didn't know if it'd be wise to voice it out but when did she listen to her conscience?

"You and Marwan seem pretty close. Must have been easy to work out the relationship, hai na?"

Her words surely took Laiha extremely off guard as the lady's eyes turned wide with a taken aback expression spreading across her face. Her milky skin looked a little pale while her eyes gleamed with the slightest bit of hesitancy.

Laiha quickly stabilized her stance and hummed to Ziah's question. A smile took over her lips as she gave Ziah a gentle look. The warmth that spread in her hazel irises like the first rays of sunlight after a heavy rain made Ziah's insides churn with an emotion she didn't want to acknowledge.

No, it wasn't jealousy for jealousy could only be left if she had the right to call him hers in the first place. What she felt was just a sense of longing. Longing to have a connection as such with someone someday.

"To be honest, I never thought of it that way. Marwan and I were close and still are but to think it'd turn into a relationship was definitely unexpected."

Laiha chuckled towards the end, a soft sound that made Ziah smile.

A smile that seemed of anything but joy.

"You can only imagine my expressions when Madiha Khala discussed it with my mom. Uff, I looked like I had seen a ghost!"

Laiha then laughed. A laugh of genuine amusement and a slight bit of embarrassment. Ziah too chuckled on hearing the contagious sound but the beat that her heart leapt with was hard for her mind to not acknowledge.

"Well, I am sure it was not all that bad."

Ziah pretended to tease Laiha in hopes to calm down the stabs that her heart felt but to no avail did it work.

"Now-"

Laiha looked at her phone that rang with the sound of a notification. Looking at it, she closed it at once and gave Ziah a look before motioning her head towards the boring building again.

"He's here. Let's get the chase started."

Laiha's words held a tone of clear excitement as she stretched her hands. She gave a beaming smile to Ziah who returned it with a hidden look of reluctance. Standing along with Laiha, she tagged along with the woman but stopped half way when Laiha took a different turn.

"You go ahead. I'll just get a cup of coffee for everyone lest Aliya decides to throw a fit."

She rolled her eyes playfully towards the end and Ziah could only chuckle as she gave her a nod and made a beeline for the hospital room alone.

Turning the door knob, she stepped in to see the room filled with people. Daiyan had still not come back and she didn't expect to see him for another good time. Aliya sat tapping her finger impatiently on her knee as her eyes stared at Kabir's laptop that was glowing with what Ziah could now assume as the information on the driver.

Beside Kabir, stood a disheveled looking Marwan trying to put his full concentration at the words that Kabir was saying but the look in his eyes told a story far from it.

They looked dim and filled with exhaustion. The light that usually surrounded his magnificent irises seemed missing and unconsciously, a deep frown made its way on Ziah's expressions.

"Daiyan ko abhi bulaye or should we give him a little more time with Parizad?"

Marwan asked with an urgent tone as he ran a hand through his out-of place looking hair. The dull energy that he had left with after confronting his father was still around and he knew it wasn't going away anytime soon.

He tried to put his focus on the task ahead but everything seemed too exhausting at this point. The constant throbbing in his temple, the soreness in his muscles that seemed too stiff and his tried eyelids that just wanted to close and experience immense rest were irritating him to no end but he still acted unbothered and unfazed.

And just like always, he gave more priority to others than himself.

"Ziah, my coffee?"

Aliya's playfully stern tone made Marwan look up. His eyes connected to Ziah's as though it were the most obvious of actions. The frown in between her brows evaporated into thin air as her wide eyes gazed into his. Marwan's once irritation-filled look now had been replaced with the slightest bit of warmth as he offered her a smile only to be left flabbergasted when she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Ahm, am I in trouble?"

He tilted his head to the side while his eyes didn't stray from the female who now stood inside the room with her arms crossed across her torso and an accusatory look in her hypnotic eyes.

"When was the last time you took complete rest?"

Her question sure caught him off guard as he stilled for a second before quickly straightening up and giving her a weird look. The fluttering in his chest could have been mistaken for the flapping of the butterfly's wings upon finding the pollen it loved the most and as he detected the care and worry in her voice and eyes, he didn't know how much more he could keep his tongue tied and mind out of the path that he knew would be dangerous to board.

"Coming to think of it, Marwan, you do look like a zombie just out of the coffin."

Aliya scrunched her nose as she gave a once over to his form. Kabir chuckled beside her but quickly zipped his lips when he found Marwan's glare shifting from his wife to him. Aliya nudged his stomach with her elbow, her eyes scolding him slightly while he only gave her a sheepish look before putting his concentration back on the laptop that was filled with the criminal database of the asked person.

"I am perfectly fine-"

"Jhoot toh na bolo commander babu. You look seconds away from falling cold on the ground."

Ziah jumped when out of nowhere Laiha's voice resounded in the room. Turning around, she found the woman trying to enter the room while balancing the tray of cups in her hands. Ziah quickly opened the door wider for Laiha to enter and the latter gave a smile of gratitude before settling the tray at the table in front of the couch.

"Ganging up on me isn't going to work. I'm not sparing you guys of my gracious presence until Daiyan confirms the man and we officially get ourselves a case."

"Then I think you should be ready to be kicked out within a few minutes."

Ziah placed a hand on her heart upon hearing Daiyan's voice from the doorway. She took deep breaths to control the sudden panic attack that she had received twice in less than 5 minutes just because people forgot the meaning of the word 'knocking'.

"You left Parizad alone?"

Ziah turned around and asked the said man with a displeased scowl. Daiyan raised an eyebrow at her words but chuckled nonetheless and shook his head.

"Not on purpose. She needs rest aur maine socha till the time she's sleeping, I'll check up on you guys."

"What about your discharge?"

To Kabir's question, Marwan jumped in to give the answer instead of Daiyan.

"By tomorrow. The guy looks fine but the doctors still need to do a final check."

"Yet he's roaming in the hospital from one room to another."

Laiha shook her head in mock reprimand as the others around her laughed at her words. Daiyan rubbed the back of his neck as he chuckled and made way towards the hospital bed that was awfully stiff and uncomfortable but it'd do until he was out of this Godforsaken place.

"Kabir, the input?"

Kabir was quick to turn the laptop screen towards Daiyan who visibly tensed at the picture that showed on it. Ziah watched as a nerve in his jaw ticked and he gave a curt nod of confirmation before the room went deadly silent even though they already knew it was bound to happen.

And after the silence followed the chaos that had Ziah wincing on her spot.

"The freaking bastard!"

"It'd take less than 60 seconds for me to reload my gun. Haven't used it in a while so this should be fun."

"Let me get in touch with commander Mathur. He would be quick at connecting the dots if any."

"Guys, I think the coffee is getting cold."

A shunned silence fell over the room as they gawked at Ziah who fumbled on her steps due to being the sudden center of attention. Hues of pink made way onto her soft cheeks as her ears turned pink with mortification.

"I agree."

Marwan nodded at her as he picked the cup and Ziah breathed in a sigh of relief but was left with thoughts of drawing high curtains of haya around her when he winked at her and sipped the bittersweet liquid casually;

- As if he just didn't do anything to make her heart an enemy of her sanity.

**********

Jealousy? Nah, it's just sadness that seems to be pretty entertaining from the author's perspective *wink wink*

Ahuh, we are so close to facing the bigger storms and my hands are itching to pen down the destruction that's about to come!! *gives a toothy evil smile*

Now now, Laiha doesn't seem all that bad, does she? Honestly, I like her, sweet and considerate-

A perfect match for our Marwan...

(Ziah giving me her best glare all the while polishing the kitchen knife.)

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