One more time : Where Oblivion meets Obsession

#19–ONE MORE TIME

"Boss, You have any idea what you just did?" He snapped barging into Shahmeer's room.

"I know what I did. And don't take that tone with me." Shahmeer warned brushing his hair.

"Okay give me one good reason for saying no." Rajat asked, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Okay for one thing, Jahangir's younger daughter is just seventeen. It's like ten years younger than me." Shahmeer said. He wasn't sure but that's what he had heard from the sources.

"And..." Rajat continued.

"I have never even seen her."

"And..."

"And many more Rajat. Why are you being a desperate grandma? Worried about my marriage and all huh."

"Because this was a trade. Perfect trade yielding highly profitable results. Not something uncertain like going to Indonesia on a phone call. And what happened to you all of a sudden? Boss this is so not you. You were always worried about Business. It was always your top priority. Even Above your family. The Shahmeer I have known in these years, If he had to marry a tree or a duck for good commercial interests, he would do that. Then?"

Shahmeer had no answer. Was Rajat right? What happened to him out there? How unburdened he felt while saying no without thinking or caring about anything. And how certain was he of that decision. Why?

"Is it about that girl?" Rajat asked, narrowing his eyes at Shahmeer.

"Which Girl?" Shahmeer asked, trying to sound indifferent but nothing escaped Rajat's eyes.

"M-y-r-a." Rajat said each word separately. "She is not coming back ever. Why can't you just accept that and stop messing up your mind and business? We have nothing to do with her now. Although I am going to avenge what she did to Fiza one I come across her." Rajat said and walked out slamming the door shut leaving Shahmeer with his tangled thoughts.

***

—Indonesia—

"Sorry all this happened because of my carelessness. It's all my fault." Devraj said looking down guilt ridden.

"No it's not it. It could happen to anyone." Yousuf patted his shoulder comfortingly.

"Don't worry we'll find her. We always do." Shermon said in a determined voice.

"Umm. Mr Shermon Tyler, All the other teams left. Mine should leave too." Devraj said. "I advise that you should leave too. Agent Rose's treatment can be done anywhere. The bullet has been removed from the calf. Now it's just a flesh wound." He shook hands with Shermon and left.

"Just so that you know, we have only 5 days. After that we have to go back." Bryan said worriedly.

"Actually you have to go back now." Yousuf said.

"What? Why? It's five days before we stop, isn't it?" Bryan hissed and Shermon remained silent. He knew the deep insight behind Yousuf's words. He felt more guilty and helpless. Bryan continued blabbering but stopped hearing Shermon's voice, "Yousuf is right Bryan. We've to leave."

"What? You're abandoning her!" Bryan snapped in a harsh tone. "You can't do that!"

"Try to understand. We people are equally involved as Mye. Those men are searching for us too. There is very little possibility that they haven't got Myra. So, you need to leave. All of you. I'll stay and look for her." Shermon explained.

"No Shermon. You have to report back." Bryan reasoned. "And let's face it, Nisha is more loyal to our seniors than she is to our friendship. Only one of us can stay, with a low profile and not being caught right? Then let it be me. I was in the backseat during the mission. They haven't seen my face which gives us an advantage. And you tell Nisha that we all are back and Me and Myra are just sightseeing in the neighbouring countries a little. How's that?" He asked hoping Shermon would agree.

"Accepted." Shermon nodded with a hug. Bryan knew how much Myra meant to him, to all of them. He was proud of Bryan today. Normally Bryan would skip or pass the risky part of his work to someone else but not today. He stood up fearlessly. Not that he wasn't afraid, but Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage means There is fear but something else is more important than fear.

The person who has nothing for which he can fight, nothing which is more important than his own life and safety, is a hopelessly miserable creature and is just a slave to routine and daily life.

Shermon sighed walking away dejected. He took out the letter from his pocket and stared at it.

'Why are the women in my life unhappy? Why do I let them down? First I failed as a lover and now as a friend too.'

***

With a slight struggle, Myra's eyelids opened slowly and scanned the place. She was in some wooden cottage. It was calm, soothing and beautiful. It was like a minimalist cottage with just some necessary furniture but had a beauty of its own. She was on a small bed, which was placed on a little raised mezzanine, wooden stairs leading downwards on the wooden floor where there was a small fireplace, a few cupboards, a small round table with two chairs and an armchair. It was illuminated golden with a small chandelier containing glass jars in which burned real, wax candles.

She was alive. She sighed in disappointment and tried to move her neck but inhaled a sharp, painful hiss.

"What happened?" She heard the deep voice and her eyes met those haunting coal black eyes giving her an extreme shock.

"Sh... Shahmeer?" She tried to sound loud but ended up hurting her cheek in a painful whisper.

"Shh. Don't stress yourself. You're okay." He said softly brushing the disturbing hairs on her forehead backward.

She continued speaking despite the pain, "What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" She tried getting up by resting the uninjured palm on the bed only to be pushed back into the bed. She was weak and injured and he effortlessly controlled her.

"What are you doing?" She hissed angrily in a low voice.

"Don't get up." He said slowly but firmly.

"I don't want to be here with you. I need to leave." She said angrily, desperately hoping he would understand. She was afraid of her crazy mind, bothering thoughts, these alien feelings. She had to stay away from him. That was the only way to stay sane.

"You can leave but only after you are healed. right now, no. Your whole right side hit the engine during the fall. Luckily there was tall, soft grass down there and not rocks so you survived otherwise there would have been a major explosion. Your face, head, arm and... thigh were bruised badly. Thankfully your legs are okay and there was no bone damage or internal bleeding." He said looking around.

"How long have I been unconscious?" She asked after gulping down the information.

"Three days." He replied.

"Three days!" She exclaimed in shock. "Wha- How- Whe-" She stopped, looked at herself and she was wearing a loose T-shirt bigger than her size and a loose three fourth pants. "And w...who changed my clothes?" she asked, clutching the T-shirt, getting self conscious, although she had pretty much guessed the answer.

"The first time, at the hospital, the nurses did, then I had to change the dressing a few times." He said awkwardly rubbing his hand on the back of his neck.

Her blood boiled at that information. "I need to go." She said, trying to rip off the bandage on her healthy hand which held the saline when he stopped her, "why do you have to be so stubborn? I saved your life."

"Thanks but you didn't have to." She snapped back.

"Yes I did. You saved my life once and I owe it to you."

"Yes and I paid a good price for it." She said bitterly and he knew not what to say. He just knew she was vulnerable now and he couldn't let any harm come to her.

He took a deep breath and continued, "Myra..." he said softly and she realised his voice still held the magic when he said her name. She could still feel the same knot in the stomach she had when she first heard her name on the phone. "I am not asking for much and this is for you. You will get better and then we both can go on ways but now, we're in a foreign land where we know no one but our enemies know us."

"Whatever you say will not change my opinion about you. Why should I trust you huh?" She snapped, "Why should I believe you are not taking advantage of my helplessness to fulfill some of your ulterior motives? Or that you don't want revenge for what we did to your lawyer?"

She lived in a world, where even if a snake was not poisonous, it had to pretend that it was so nobody harmed it.

"Well if you can't trust me, I can't help it. But you're not going anywhere in this condition." He said firmly.

"Shahmeer I need to contact my team. Need to tell them I'm safe. Where is my walkie talkie? Or my phone?" She said looking around.

"I don't know about your phone. I just picked you from the place, nothing else."

"How did you find me?"

"My chopper was about to land in Indonesia, a few kilometers away for some business when my guard looked down through the binoculars and saw you lying there injured and bleeding. Finding no other way to save you, I took you with me."

"Oh great. Now I have nothing to contact them. I can't even let them know I'm alive or ask how everything went." She muttered.

"What were you doing here? How did the chopper crash? Why were there bυllet marks all over it?" He asked it all in one breath.

"That is none of your business." She snapped, leaning back slowly and closing her eyes because of weakness.

"So you changed your mind?"

"Hell no. I am just..." she felt her head spinning strongly and the last thing she saw before falling asleep was Shahmeer injecting something in the glucose drip beside her head and a warm hand on her forehead.

***

—Shimla—

The Mansion was silent and dim today. No matter what, Myra's presence and Bryan's words brought some grace to it.

"What happened to agent Rose and Myra was sad. Other than that, good job agents. From The place you discovered, we saved most of the workers but couldn't save one-tenth of them. One of the young guard boys realized something was fishy and pulled the keys of grenades on his belt. The place exploded leaving nothing but ashes. The government's input was asked and it doesn't belong to them. They had no idea how it happened. Really you are the gems of UDF worldwide." The female senior said proudly.

"Thank you Mam." Shermon responded.

"Just stay indoors for a few weeks until it all cools down. And try to bring Myra back to the states. Her treatment can be done here."

"Yes Mam." Shermon said and the call got disconnected.

Shermon, Yousuf and Rose looked at each other in disbelief. How were they going to get up this one?

Myra regained consciousness after a few hours and looked at herself. She was wearing a different color T Shirt from last time.

"I'm sorry it was time to change the bandages." Shahmeer said politely seeing her angry face.

"Why don't you just kill me? That would be better than humiliating me like this." She said banging her hand on the nearby wooden window frame earning a sharp pain in her fist.

"If I could see you die, I wouldn't have risked myself to save you." He said fumbling through the first aid, without looking at her. Uncapping the ointment, he began to reach her freshly injured fist when she pulled her hand away.

He angrily stood up from his place. "You know what... That's it. I have had enough of your stubbornness." He said in a deep, harsh voice. Walking to the cupboard, he fetched something and her eyes widened when he returned with a pair of long handcuffs. "What are you-"

He pulled out her wrist and locked one end of the cuffs to her wrist and the other to the metal work on the headboard of the bed.

The chain was a few metres long allowing enough room for movements yet restraining after a certain point.

"What the hell do you think of yourself?" She snapped in anger trying to break open. "Shahmeer open it now or you will regret it."

"Keep yelling." He said watching her failed attempts but deep inside he was getting restless as her wrist was getting bruised in the process.

"I'm going to get myself out of these and then I'm going to kill you!" She said angrily, pulling it again forcefully causing a slit.

Shahmeer held her hand and sat beside her. He couldn't see her in pain. Sighing defeatedly, he said, "Why are you so stubborn? Can't you... just for a few days forget who I am, forget who you are and let me take care of you until you heal? If I had to hurt you... claim you... I had my chance. Many chances. Back at my home, in that cell, when you were unconscious for days, I can do it right now..." he said holding her face securely in his strong arms bringing his lips closer. Her eyes widened and her throat went dry. She tried to move her face away but his grip was strong enough to prevent her movement while gentle enough to not hurt her. She was caught in a whirlpool of emotions in her heart, the sensations erupting in the pit of her stomach and her mind losing all sanity and battling the odds.

Kiss him!

Push him away!

Her conflicted mind had paralyzed her actions.