::/Not While I'm Around/::

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A/N: Well, for once, the story is pretty straightforward and relatively easy to understand. I'd just like to confirm one thing, before people come running to assassinate me like in Julius Caesar… when Adi says "demons," he is NOT talking about his excellent father. He's just referring to negative things in general, not any person or people in particular. So you can all chill. :)

Based on the song 'Not While I'm Around' from the movie version of the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Please do check out the video on YouTube (just search for 'Sweeney Todd- Not While I'm Around', because I'm not sure the link will work if I paste it here), because it's truly heartbreaking. I literally cried every time I saw it. Plus, it'll help you imagine the story better.

By the way- Metallic Mist, this story is a sort of tribute to you. I've tried my best to write it in your style (though I highly doubt it'll come anywhere close to yours! :D) Hope you like it!

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More than water, it's relief that washes over her. Temporary though it might be, she feels a sense of freedom, as though all that's weighing down on her slender shoulders is being lifted away, even if just for a while.

Her head is pounding. She gets a sudden urge to laugh- maybe it's the side effect of being married to a man whose love-hate relationship with his head is the stuff of legend in the CID. The clip that holds her curls up seems to be digging into her scalp. Something else seems to be poking, prodding insistently at the back of her head, echoing around inside her skull. It takes a few minutes to realize that it's him, calling her name in an increasingly annoyed tone.

Drying herself off, she dresses hastily, not bothering to take the clip out of her hair even though the curls fall around her face in disarray as she hurries to see what he wants. She's learned the hard way to not keep him waiting, especially when his voice starts rising.

She finds him in the hall, seated on the sofa and bent over to lace up his shoes. "I'm going out," he informs her brusquely, tucking his gun into its regular place of honour in the waistband of his jeans as he gets to his feet. "Don't stay up, I'll be late." That's all she gets before he moves swiftly towards the door. For a minute, she finds herself at a loss for words. "Hold up!" she hears herself say, and before she knows it, she's face to face with him. "What's that supposed to mean? 'I'm going out, don't stay up, I'll be late'? I think I'm entitled to maybe just a little more information than that, Abhijeet. Where you're going, when you'll be back, what you're going out at ten in the night for… don't you think I need to know?"

The familiar dangerous glint flashes in his eyes, and her heart sinks. She knows where this is heading. "Perhaps you've forgotten, Tarika," he says in a tight, deadly voice, "that I'm a CID officer. There's no night and day in our work- it just comes when it does, and when it does, we drop everything and go. It's our duty."

He leans in, speaking through clenched teeth. "And I think you should know this by now. I'm not going out there at unearthly hours to slut around with some random hooker, you know. I'm going because duty calls." Her arm is encased in a tight grip, and she's yanked roughly forward so that all she can see are his eyes, glittering like those of a tiger surveying its prey. "And by the way? I don't need to explain myself to you. I think I've earned that much trust."

With that, he's gone, vanished into the night, leaving her staring blankly after him. The door slams shut, bringing her back to her senses with a jerk, and shakily, she sits down on the sofa he vacated less than ten minutes previously.

It's ironic, really, how everything she wants to say comes to mind only after he's long gone. She works in the same CID that he does. She works on all the same cases that he does. She may not have been there as long as he has, but her career's spanned an impressive number of years nonetheless. She knows exactly how it is, what their duty is.

But she also knows her duty as a wife.

The duty that persistently nags her to keep track of what's going on with him. That doesn't let her sleep when he's out late. That sickens her with worry whenever he goes out in haste without telling her where or why. Something he doesn't seem to have understood till date. After all these years.

Her messy curls spill around over her shoulders as she leans back against the sofa, removing the clip and tossing it aside. Her gaze absently drifts up to the clock hanging on the wall. Ten o'clock. She stares at the smaller hand of the clock, pointing to the hour. Ten o'clock. Ten years of marriage. So different, yet so unchanged.

She closes her eyes, letting out a sigh. Faintly, the sound of soft footsteps against the marble floor seems to reach her ears. The next minute, she feels a tentative touch on her knee, and a small smile automatically touches her lips as she opens her eyes to meet dark, shining ones that are wide and concerned as they stare down at her. When he speaks, it's a standard question, but somehow, today it seems different. "Where's Papa?"

Tarika reaches out a hand to touch his cheek as he regards her with those unfathomable dark eyes, so much like his father's. "I don't know, love," she says, finally giving him a completely honest answer for the first time. "I don't know."

He kneels by her feet, leaning against her knees. His small hands slip into hers as he looks up at her, and for a moment she isn't sure if she's looking at him or his father- though, to be honest, she can't remember the last time his father looked at her like this. As she takes in every feature of his face, this little person they created out of a love that was once unshakable, his soft voice rises in a musical lilt. "Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around… Nothing's gonna harm you, no sir, not while I'm around…"

"Adi-" she starts, but his voice grows stronger, a strange sort of anxiety flashing in his eyes as he gets to his feet. "Demons are prowling everywhere, nowadays… I'll send 'em howling, I don't care, I've got ways…"

She reaches out and brushes his bangs off his forehead as he sits down beside her, the anxiety in his gaze and voice changing smoothly to determination. "No one's gonna hurt you, no one's gonna dare… Others can desert you, not to worry, whistle, I'll be there…" His voice rises, taking on a tone much like Dr. Salunkhe's when the older gentleman admonishes her. "Demons will charm you with a smile, for a while, but in time… nothing can harm you, not while I'm around…"

"Really, beta," she chides gently, getting to her feet and walking across the room, attempting to put up a normal appearance. It won't do for Adi to see how much she's really being affected by all of this, how hard it is for her to pretend there's nothing wrong when she's actually crumbling on the inside. Adi's always, however, been too perceptive for his own good. She hears him behind her, a reassuring note ringing in his voice now.

"Not to worry, not to worry, I may not be smart but I ain't dumb… I can do it, put me to it, show me something I can overcome…" She feels his little arms wrap around her waist, the highest part of her he can reach, and she turns around to hold his head against her stomach. "Not to worry, Mum…" he sings, and it's all she can do to not give in to the tears she feels pricking at her lashes. Unconsciously, she kneels down to his level, and he fixes her with a challenging gaze. "Being close and being clever ain't like being true… I don't need to, I would never, hide a thing from you…" His eyes drift significantly to the door, out of which his father disappeared a short while ago. "Like some…" he sings, a pointed note clear in his voice.

It's then that a brief flash of panic strikes her heart. Whatever her problems with her husband might be, it wouldn't do- it would never do- for Adi to become estranged from his father. She can't allow that, no matter what happens. So, gathering up all the strength she has, she forces her features to relax into a calming smile, taking her son's face in her hands. "Come on, Adi," she says in a falsely cheerful tone. "How could you think such a thing of your father? He's a good man. A very good man."

"I know, Mamma," the child says simply. "But I don't think he's very good to you sometimes."

Even though she's given birth to him, raised him with her own hands, it still comes as something of a shock to her as to how incredibly astute he is for a little boy barely nine years of age. But then, this is the CID. Here the children grow up much, much faster than they otherwise would, had they been born into a normal family. It holds true for little Saara and Vinithra as well- evident even at the ages of six and four respectively.

The pressing issue of the hour, however, is Adi. Taking him by the hand, she leads him over to the sofa and sits down, holding him close and cradling him in her arms as he leans his head on her shoulder. "Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around," she sings softly to him, just as she always has ever since he was a tiny baby who clutched her little finger in his whole hand. "Nothing's gonna harm you, darling, not while I'm around…"

"Demons will charm you with a smile, for a while, but in time…" Adi sings, and mother and child hold each other close, their voices blending as each tries to give the other strength. "Nothing's gonna harm you… not while I'm around…"

Tarika finally lets a tear fall into her lap. Adi, lying on her shoulder with his eyes closed, doesn't see it.

When Abhijeet comes home, hours later, he sees his wife and son huddled on the sofa, asleep in each other's arms. Their faces bear identical shadows of what he, with his detective's eye, recognises as anxiety. Anxiety and concern. Mingled with a faint but unmistakeable trace of pain.

Only then does he feel guilty.

~THE END~

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A/N: This was not one of my best. In fact, I think I could have done MUCH better… But I just really wanted to use this song in a story because it's exactly the kind of thing Adi would say to his mom.

Oh, and for heaven's sake, before people start off… this is NOT anti-Abhijeet! The truth of the world is that married life is NOT going to be all sunshine and rainbows, ESPECIALLY if you've had a love marriage. And in the lives of CID officers, I think incidents like this are bound to happen at some point or another. Let me just get a few things straight:

1) Tarika is not a clingy, over-possessive, nagging wife. She is rightfully concerned because she has every right to know where her husband is going and why, especially in a profession as dangerous as his. Not to mention she's alone at home with a nine-year-old child, late in the night. Can you really blame her?

2) Abhijeet is not being portrayed as a chauvinistic, tyrannical husband. He is just shown as exactly what he is- 'duty pehle sentiments baad mein'. As everyone will HAVE to agree with me, nothing is more important to him than his duty. Am I right or am I right? And as such, it is only natural for a man like him to get annoyed when being questioned about his work. Even if it's his own wife doing the questioning.

3) Adi is NOT in any way against his father. He is merely an exceptionally wise child, very mature for his age (like I mentioned, the CID kids grow up way too fast). Not to mention, he has eyes to see and ears to hear. He knows when who needs what, and at the moment, his mom needs him most, so he does his duty as her son rather than Abhijeet's. That's all.

Any more doubts, I'll be happy to clear them in PM, NOT in the review section, please.

Once again, the song credits- 'Not While I'm Around', sung by Edward Sanders and Helena Bonham Carter, from the movie Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.