You existed in some corner of my world...

In a world where your lover's friend became your lover without a second thought – your enemy's enemy does not become your friend. Mauli laughed in her head at the messed up thought. So messed up was the sentence that its two parts did not reflect back to the same person. She stopped the thought before it came – before her mind brought up a forbidden topic and instead focused on the latter part of her former thought.

It was still messed up.

Kunal was not her enemy. Therefore his college rival did not become her friend either. She was hardly aware of their history. She had no idea who had a problem with the other first. But sure enough her ex – husband (soon to be ex – husband) had told her quite a lot about Dr. Aatish Randhawa.

He was the devil to the saint in Kunal, the fire to water. As nature declared the two never went along well. So it took Mauli by surprise to find out that the so called 'bad boy' had gone to work with an NGO, sometimes pitching in with the UN, working on warzones and putting his life at risk.

Her ex husband shook his head at her innocence.

"It's good PR," he had explained tossing away a magazine that carried the photograph of his archenemies with a backdrop of a Syrian camp. "Didn't I tell you? His mom is in politics. I'm sure she gets a truckload of votes by putting this picture on her campaign. Or perhaps banda himself might be interested in joining his mom's party..."

"You seem lost Mauli," Dr. Ranee Roy's voice called her back. The older woman with chin length gray hair and stormy eyes had been her mentor when she was a young doctor fresh out of med school. Mauli used to venerate the woman – her courage and her passion for her profession. It was an irony that she herself ended up being another replica of Ranee; a woman who was betrayed by everything other than her profession. Perhaps it was one of the reasons why she felt a tug of necessity when Ranee reached out to her. Why she decided against all the advices of her well wishes that she would take up this job.

Ranee worked with the same NGO and they wanted a gynecologist. At least not in the warzone, Mauli's mother had said with a note of relief. Right, they wanted one in the camp where they were resettling people. It was only a month's job to hold a few clinics and offer the war beaten people a chance of getting proper care and advice and there was no real danger...at least not as much as there could be.

Mauli blinked and looked back at Ranee. There were reaching the end of their long drive. She could not directly land in the area and Ranee had offered to bring her to the camp. Her jeep looked much like an animal of the desert than a once sleek vehicle and she chuckled as she pointed out the bullet hole on the side of the windshield recounting the time when they had to leave it and take the UN truck to run for shelter.

Mauli couldn't help but flinch at the story. Unbidden Nandani's voice whispered in her head. "It's dangerous in there..."

"I've heard about this Dr. Aatish," she suppressed the ghost of that whisper with her own louder voice. "Not all good things though."

Ranee's eyes crinkled as she laughed.

"Oh you are going to hate him. You are going to love to hate him!"

Three hours later Mauli wondered why she even doubted Ranee's words.

**

A bead of sweat trickled down her nose, throwing a splash of rainbow as it caught the florescent light and her vision blurred for a moment. The hand that held the emergency lamp up wavered a fraction and the cold barrel stationed at the back of her neck pressed against her skin reminding her of the consequences of a single mistake.

And the man – the god forsaken man who brought this doom upon her curtly admonished.

"Stop fidgeting!"

For the life of her – Mauli swallowed the words that rushed into her tongue and promised her god that if she lived to see the end of this – this blackmail in the name of a surgery she was going to skin him with her bare hands. Damn the consequences!

Was it her fault that they were thwarted on their way by terrorists? That those at the camp became hostages for the time being? Was it her fault that this crack nut of a doctor decided to bite off more than he could chew?

Could somebody please open their mouths and tell him she was not a nurse or an intern for god's sake? Why was she stuck here holding a light for this makeshift surgery? And who on earth would perform a surgery like that, with no proper sterilized space, no proper lighting?

Instead Mauli bit her lip and kept staring ahead. She was going to kill him if they do not.

She recalled his words from before, his tone so deadly clam like ice against the fire of violence their captors had unleashed.

"He won't make it," Aatish addressed the leader of the group. "Your guy is going to die if he delays anymore. How long were you on the run?"

The nonchalant question frustrated the man his finger still contemplating whether to push against the trigger or not.

"If he dies so do you..." he growled and pointed his gun in turn at all of them. "Everyone of you!"

Aatish cut in. "But if he lives tonight...you leave us for good."

"Aatish..." There was a warning in Ranee's tone. She knew better than to advice against the bargain but her opinion was clear. It was an unnecessary risk. They just had to hold out until help arrives.

"There is a dying man Doc. We could save him in the meantime."

Mauli frowned over his last statement in her mind. PR it was all PR, a mental image of Kunal she had conjured up reminded her. His unnecessary good will had only made it certain that by the time help arrives they could all be dead bodies!

"Aatish?" Ranee's voice brought her back once more and Mauli noticed that Aatish had stopped what he was doing. With his hands frozen clutching their instruments his eyes shifted to a point over her shoulder.

"Keep your gun off her."

His words took her by surprise and the light wavered again.

"Shut up and do your job."

"Well I think you're wiser than that," his voice was slow and calculative. He was yet to make a move. "I'm sure no one's going to blame us if we let him to bleed out here now. You might kill us, it won't bring him back. From here on you are responsible for his death."

He stared at the man behind her and Mauli stared at Aatish. The world around them did not dim away or the atmosphere did not suddenly brighten up with the epiphany. But something crackled in the air; a spark of fate as she realized that this man however twisted he was took up a risk for her; a stranger who had every intention to kill him a moment back.

**