There's something magical about tidal waves. Throw a stone in and the tides rapidly wax and wane. Then it settles and that's probably how her life has been. "Go away."

"I've been there before. It's not pretty and it is definitely not fun."

"Get lost."

"Gladly. Although I can't exactly leave a homicidal hot mess unattended now can I?" Santosh questioned calmly, observing the woman before her.

"Oh, how noble of you. Maybe this is why the public is ready to bend over backwards for the station at every back and call." Binni Chaudhary remarked, sarcasm quoting her words. "What should I do to repay this debt you bestowed upon me?"

"For starters, you could get off that edge," the constable said as if she wasn't freaking out on the inside. She took a cautious step before deciding to stop and forgoing the risk of further pushing Binni's limits. "Then maybe we can talk about lunch."

"You really are an airhead." Binni quipped a little in disbelief. She had just come up here for some fresh air and quiet time. Apparently, the cyber expert had found her way here too and assumed she was suicidal. Before the situation could escalate, the vigilante cautiously scooted away from the edge.

"Well there's something we have in common." the constable retorted.

"You are entitled to your incorrect opinion," Binni groaned. "Why are you even here?"

"Call from a resident living in the opposite bundling. She said someone was about to jump. I take it that she misunderstood your intentions." Santosh pulled out her walkie-talkie and turned around. She spoke in hushed tones into the walkie-talkie, reporting that the situation was diffused and dealt with.

"No shit Sherlock."

"Geeze, you are grouchy."

"So I've been told many times before."

Santosh sat beside the woman clad in black and red, making sure to keep a safe distance in case she chose to react violently. "Self-awareness is admirable."

"You are not," as Binni turned her head to give Santosh a warning to leave, she found said girl sitting beside her and it didn't seem like she planned on leaving anytime soon. "What do you think you are doing?"

"I thought you were smarter than that. I am sitting down." Santosh smirked seeing the other woman's annoyed gritting of teeth.

"You know when I woke up this morning, the first face I saw was Saira Tai. Normally, I wouldn't be thrilled about it but my day usually goes well after that. Which begs the question, which black cat crossed my path today that I have to sit here and have this stroke-inducing conversation with you of all people."

"I thought the west side of town had a ban on cats. How could you have come across them?"

"If you don't stop talking in the next two seconds, I will push you down from this ledge myself."

The constable mimicked zipping her lips and throwing the key away. In all honesty, she wasn't sure why she was sitting here in the first place. The report turned out to be a mere misinterpretation, the situation was diffused and everything was the way it should be. She should be heading back to the station and spending all her remaining time with the Mahila Police Station- her found family. Instead, she spared a timid glace at Binni and she knew instantly why she had chosen to sit here.

She knows what it feels like to be in her shoes. She knows there is no escape except one- heaven- when the demons start taking over, screaming words of despair and pushing in an almost tangible manner. The magnitude of which, sometimes floats over her head when they become overpoweringly loud.

There is a corner in her heart reserved for an intense longing for peace- a feeling of being all alone in the dark, searching for the one candle whose light still burns.

She knew and to a certain extent understood what Binni had gone through. Karishma had explained it to her when she came back from training. A crowd doesn't have a face, she had said. But every crowd has a lost wanderer who can't do anything but keep searching for the end of the tunnel, a way out from a heap of people who know where their destination is and how to get there- a position she had been as a teenage victim of sexual harassment. And maybe today Binni happens to be that wanderer.

"From one wanderer to another, sometimes it's better to just stay lost in the shadows because it feels safer. But other times, we need to step out to become the people we were meant to be."

"What drug are you on?" Binni questioned, dumbfounded by the sudden words of wisdom from the cyber expert who distributed their quiet agreement. "I swear it's like all you Mahila thana people are escapees from the halfway house."

"What happened to you wasn't your fault. It's easy to think that way but it's not."

Binni stiffened, a little realisation creeping into the permanent glare. Of course, they looked up our background. Stupid itchy hands peasants. Can't leave things as they are. "How would you know?"

Santosh ruefully smiled at her. "We aren't that different." when she saw Binni's curious eyes back on her she continued. "Our path out of the crowd may be contrary but we are not."

The vigilantes clicked her tongue and smirked mockingly. "And is your path the right one because the government says so?"

"I don't know about the government but it is for me because my principals agree with it. There aren't necessarily a lot of right ones but there are a lot of wrong ones."

Binni turned her eyes to the building in front of them. What the hell? "How can it be the right one if it fails to give justice to its people."

"You haven't watched rang de Basanti have you?" Santosh quipped.

"Tell me honestly, were you dropped on the head as a baby or just born this way?" Binni rolled her eyes. "What does a movie have anything to with this?"

Santosh raised her chin, flatted her stomach and spoke in a deep voice. "Koi bhi desh perfect nahi hota. Usse perfect banana padta hain."

Binni took a moment to let the words sink in before she finally gained the courage to ask. "At what cost?"

"Time, effort, blood, tears and the one that rips you up into the rawest of forms, grief."

Time was of the essence when she tried to seek justice because as they say, a crowd doesn't have an identity. Her offenders escaped before she had the chance to get her hands on them. The effort was wasted trying to get the police officers assigned to the case to actually work on it. Blood was lost when she when on her knees to get her aggressors convicted of their cruelty. Her tears had dried up in the wake of waiting for a new dawn, for a moment when the pain didn't overwhelm her making a single breath impossible to take.

"My time, effort, blood and tears have all been spent to make this country a better place for women like me, like us." the wind refused to manifest the howling anguish that tore through her as memories of a forgotten past came back to haunt her in broad daylight.

The constable willed the world to melt away and dissolve around her. Yet, she could still feel the December chill and weeping rough rooftop floor through her khakis. "And grief?"

Bereavement has been her reliable companion in the passing of time. It came in waves and she feels like they can cry an ocean. But they never blinked, only watching the world continues in this numbing sense of sorrow and disgust.

It ebbed over time. A dark gruesome shadow that has lessened until it becomes a fading silhouette of past memories- the ghost of a floating soundless cloud. Where it once was, holding her hand, she find the hand of countless other women grabbing on tightly, not letting it touch the ground. Where there was pain, so much pain, there is now a form of joy and pride for whom she was and what they achieved together.

"Greif is a passing cloud, miss Sharma." without much warning to her own anonymity, her insides had become wooden, and she turned to the officer with the face of a mannequin. "You don't have to agree with our method but surely you can understand it."

"Maybe someday I will," she stood up and dusted off her pants. "Until then, I will continue doing my job and you can do yours."

"You can bet on it."

Santosh nodded with a genuine smile. "This isn't the final destination. It can always change. We all deserve to give ourselves a second chance." she grabbed her walkie-talkie from where it rested on the ground. "In moments of unbridled rage and pain, we owe it to ourselves to be better people. What defines better is then in our hands." She turned and left the building- vigour radiating through her skin.

Leaving home is so very bittersweet. It is part of growing, of moving onward into new challenges. It is important, to give thanks for what has been, and tie up loose ends for in doing so the future walks upon a clean pathway.

As the constable left, Binni tuned to the cloudless sky, begging for answers to her now confused self.

What defines right? What defines the right path? what does it mean to be a better person?

It was in the stillness of the late evening that she could understand the movie's quote. On the same still evening, she let the first of many tears drop. It was more than crying. It was the kind of sobbing that comes from a person with renowned hope of a country worth saving. She imagined this scenario to be a photograph- static and two-dimensional. It was a spectacle. Her mind was a wave of peace because the transformation of a safer country wasn't gone. it was simply out of reach, for now.

A/N: Don't forget to R&R!