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Dan had knocked him out.
Or he had passed out. One of the two.
Either way, he was angry. As soon as his eyes opened, anger was the first thing to come to him. Then panic. Ravi sat straight up. His gaze was spinning but he realized where he was. His room. His bed. His gaze skipped around. His phone, on his bedside table, next to a clock that read 9:07.
9:07?
Ravi miscalculated the length of the bed in his haze and tumbled to the floor. He felt like he might throw up even though he hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
Pip. Was she dead? He shoved the door open, hitting the wall. He flinched. That sounded like a gun. At least, it did to him, staggering down the stairs. Is that what that cut was? Pip, bleeding out via gunshot? His mom was sitting on the couch, downstairs, an ill look on her face.
She looked up. Her gaze softened. Why did people keep doing that?
“Hey, did you get some s-”
“Where’s Pip?” He interrupted. Ravi never interrupted his mother, and for good reason. His mom’s gaze sharpened. Good. That’s what he wanted. He wanted people to be worried like he was. Mad like he was. Why was no one concerned?
“I don’t know, Ravi. At her house?” Oh. She didn’t know. “A police officer brought you here saying you passed out, eh?”
“I have to go,” Ravi mumbled, looking around for his keys. She started scolding him but he really could care less. Keys. There. They jingled as he picked them up. He had a key to Pip’s house on the chain. He hoped he’d get to use it again.
“Ravi-”
But he was out the door.
She followed him into the driveway, shouting for him to stop, but he was in his car before she could get to him. She was almost as angry as him, her tone bleeding through his car walls.
Driving away, it was the least of his concerns.
Pip. Pip. Pip.
He went to the station. That’s where they took her after Stanley. If she wasn’t there, she was at the hospital. The office door clattered loudly behind him and he jumped. Jane looked disappointed but not surprised to see him.
“Is she here?”
“Pippa?” Jane guessed, sliding her engagement ring up and down her finger. Nod. Jane hesitated. “..I’ll ask Hawkins. Take a seat. It might be a minute.”
She didn’t have to ask to know that Ravi wanted to see her. If she was here. If she was alive.
Wait. He couldn’t sit. He was stiff as a rock. He was shaking again. I’m so sorry, Pip’s not with us anymore. No. No, that was wrong, that had been what the police officer said all those years ago. I’m so sorry, Sal’s not with us anymore. Crept around the word dead. Killed. Murdered. He couldn’t go to another funeral. He couldn’t have said another last ‘I love you’.
You don’t think I can do it?
You’re a shitty ass boyfriend!
You’re not helping.
Leave.
If I’m so shitty, why am I your girlfriend at all?
“Please,” He hissed through his teeth, shaking as he grabbed the counter. His eyes were welling up again, so he screwed them shut. “Pl- please, let me take it b- back. Don’t take her- not h- her.. I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry...”
Time was warped.
It didn’t count in this place. This hell down the street. Ravi could scream, he knew he could, his voice had come back. But he really couldn't. He was stuck in a prayer, a fleeting hope. Please.
The door opened and his head snapped up.
Jane, with her soft gray-black hair, reappeared in the doorway. Chief Hawkins was behind her and on his arm was a thin, brunette girl.
His girl. Pippa Fitz-Anobi. Breathing. Alive. Ravi felt his face crumple.
He staggered away from the counter and his arms wrapped around her frame. Hawkins must've dropped her arm because both her arms were around Ravi now too, leaning on him with all her weight. Pip was so cold, but he could feel her heartbeat. Alive, it whispered.
Ravi was a crying mess, stammering incoherent words even he couldn’t understand. She only held him tighter. Pip put her head into his neck, Ravi lifting her slightly as they both just hugged. He could feel drops of her tears on his shirt and feel her shoulders tremble. It was terrible but it was good.
Alive.
“I love you,” Ravi muttered because he swore it would never be the last time again. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Her voice was worse than his had been. Scratchy. Breaking. But it was her’s. Pip’s.
He pulled away, lip trembling. He froze slightly when he did though. Ravi hadn’t gotten a real chance to look at her before he hugged her. Imprints were on her skin, like sleep marks, except Ravi knew they weren’t from sleep. They were from duct tape. Her skin was red and raw. Her hair was frazzled. She was in clothes too big for her, replacements. There was a bandaid on the side of her forehead.
He said the only thing he could think of. “I- I thought it was Dan.”
“No, it was Jason Bell.”
Suprise must’ve shot through his eyes because Chief Hawkins started talking, Ravi glancing up at him. “Police are currently looking for him. No public statements can be released, I hope you both understand.”
Two nods. Pip laced their hands. It was grounding, even if both hands were shaking. “Can she go home?”
“No, not yet. We still need her here.”
“I’ll be okay, Ravi.”
“Can- can I stay?”
“I mean, you can stay out here but you may not come back with us. I strongly advise you to go home, Mr. Singh.”
He opened his mouth to object but Pip replied for him. “Ravi. You- you need sleep. I’ll be back sometime next afternoon.”
"No-”
“Can we talk alone?” Pip asked. She looked so feeble but she was still so sharp. Ravi was the only one who noticed the tremble at the end of her words. Detective Hawkins paused. “Please. This is Ravi, not a threat.”
“Ms. Fitz-Anobi.” It was Jane this time, wearing a pointed expression. “Ravi put a police officer against the wall today.”
Pip looked up, confusion written all over her expression. Ravi avoided eye contact. “It was Dan. He dismissed all charges.”
“Jane, they can have a minute. Ravi was only worried,” Hawkins decided. Pip relaxed slightly, hand shifting in his. Jane begrudgingly followed him out of the room, the door closing with a faint click. Ravi immediately pulled her close again.
Her warm breath tickled his neck. “Hey, hey, I’m right here.”
“I thought you were dead- I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean anything I said-”
“I know.” His grip on her tightened, pulling her even closer, if possible. “I was exhausted and I- I still am. I didn’t mean anything I said either.”
Ravi pulled away, touch turning gentle like she was made of glass. Pip inhaled, shoulders shuttering. She did look exhausted. “What happened in there?”
“I can’t tell you here,” Pip sniffed. “I- you know, breach of confidentiality.”
“When can you?”
“Tomorrow afternoon.”
“Al- alright, fine, tomorrow at noon, I’ll be here and drive you home. We can talk then.”
“The title is literally after- noon, Ravi.” A smile tugged at her mouth. He tried to smile but it died on his lips. He couldn’t. Not before he knew exactly what Jason Bell had done.
He played with her sleeve nervously instead. “What can I do?”
“Be here at noon.”
“Anything else?”
“Bring something to eat, the food here sucks.”
That did pull a laugh from him, defeated and wet with crying. “Okay, Sarge. I love you. Use Hawkins’s phone if you need me.”
“Okay. I love you too.”
His voice broke. “I love you so much.”
Forehead to forehead now, Pip echoed. “I love you too. I know you think you didn’t do enough but you kept me fighting in there. It was you.”
A tear glided down her cheek as Ravi kissed her. They pulled away after a long moment. They muttered ‘be safe’s and last ‘I love you’s, but no, not the last I love yous. There would be more. So many more.
Pip disappeared back behind the door.
But she wasn’t gone this time.
Ravi stopped at the boba shop before he picked Pip up.
She took her boba like she took her coffee; black. He asked specifically for no ice. Pip said the ice ruined it. He didn’t even care about the ridiculous price. Then he’d driven to the station. It was eleven forty when he got there.
He left the AC running in his car so the boba would stay cold. He refreshed his lock screen over and over.
Still 11:59. Still 11:59. Still 11:59. And then suddenly- noon.
Ravi swallowed the dryness in his throat, glancing at the door that stayed stubbornly shut. A different desk clerk kept eyeing him. Ravi couldn’t stop comparing this to waiting by the window in the foyer at four yesterday. She’d only been gone five hours but it felt like at least ten.
Ravi couldn’t stop imagining what had happened. He checked his phone again.
12:00.
Still?
Ravi’s leg bounced up and down. He figured that each bounce was one second. So he’d count. It gave his mind something to do other than obsess. 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60.
12:01.
Ravi stayed in the waiting room, bouncing and counting, for twenty minutes.
To be fair, Pip had said after-noon. He was at thirty-six when he heard the door open. Ravi looked up, phone clutched in his hand. Hawkins came out first, then Pip. She was in different replacement clothes. Pip put on a smile for Ravi but he could see through it.
Hawkins said something about information confidentiality and no podcast and that Pip might need to come back before letting her leave with Ravi. As soon as she was close, he found her hand.
Pip squeezed thrice.
Ravi held the door for her and she squinted at the sun. They didn’t talk as they walked across the parking lot, hand in hand. Ravi climbed in the driver's seat and watched Pip walk around the front to the other side. She didn’t look like she had gotten much sleep either. Some of the tape marks were gone, others left irritated lines of red. The bandaid on her temple had gone from a white to tan. Good. At least they took care of her.
The door opened and Pip climbed in, sinking into the leather. Ravi felt a smile grow on his face. It felt unnatural, slightly forced, but he wanted Pip to see it.
He lifted the boba from the back seat cup holder. He had put it back there because that cup holder was next to the vent. When she’d told him that the ice ruined it, she’d complained that she still wanted it to be cold but not watery.
Her brown eyes landed on it and Ravi’s unsure smile. A smile flooded her face. “You- you bought me boba?”
He added, “No ice.”
“Oh,” Pip managed to say. Her eyes glazed over and suddenly her lip was trembling. Ravi’s smile dropped.
“Hey, wh-”
“I thought I w- would never see you again,” Pip whipped her tears with the heel of her palm before Ravi took it. Another tear slipped down. How could a person look so beautiful while crying? A smile spread on her lips, but it was sad.
He whispered, “I know, Pip. I know.”
"I love you. Thank you for buying this even if,” She scoffed, “it is stupidly priced.”
“It’s only twenty-five,” Ravi dismissed, kissing her cheek. “For you, I’d buy a hundred dollar drink every day, except then I’d be broke, and then what good would I be to you?”
Pip hit his arm, but a happy smile was growing on her face as she took the cup. Not quite as genuine as the one on his lock screen, but it would have to do.
Ravi handed her the straw and she stabbed through the plastic. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to spoil the moment with Jason Bell as she sipped her boba, but he wanted to know what had happened.
Pip shivered, AC still blasting, so Ravi turned it down and pulled his hoodie off for her. She must hate those clothes. That’s the same sort of thing she had to wear after Stanley died. Pip blinked and then smiled slightly, wordlessly taking the offering.
“You wanna go straight home?” was code for do you want to talk about it? Pip’s head popped into the hood, sliding her arms into the sleeves of his black hoodie.
They found eye contact. “..no. I want to talk about yesterday.”
She picked her boba back up as Ravi asked quietly, “Which part?”
“Let’s just start with what happened to me.” That’s Pip. Straight for what was on his mind, even if the cup had started to tremble a bit. “After you left,” wince, “I went on my run. I got a call from the non-IDed caller again. I tracked the number and then, stupidly, I responded. Basically told him he was going to jail and that I knew who he was. I was going to go to the police but then- then someone put me in a chokehold. I passed out and I woke up wrapped in tape in a van. Not my face though, just my legs and arms. I screamed but there was tape over my mouth.
“I put my DNA all over the fucking car. Hair. Fingerprints. Skin.” She listed off, a glint in her eye. From tears or determination, Ravi couldn’t quite tell. “I thought I was going to die a- and I didn’t want to end up as a cold case. Then the car stopped and I- I remember crying and my head hurt so bad, but I clearly remember Jason Bell opening the truck and pulling me out. I fought but I couldn’t do much tied up. I screamed, or, I tried.
"Jason acted like I wasn’t even there. His words were toneless. Jason covered my eyes and he took me to his warehouse, the Green Scene one, and tied me to the shelf before he took off the tape on my eyes. He talked to me after that and,” Pip sucked in a breath, “Jason is sick, Ravi. Mentally. He told me that he hated me, not because I put his daughters in jail but because I made his second wife leave. ‘The only one that ever listened,’ he said those words. Jason basically believed that women were not to speak out unless spoken to, listen to their husbands, all of it was just- just insane.
“And he told me a story. Jason told me that one day he was on a walk and he saw Becca with a dog. He hadn’t allowed her to get a dog, in his words, and she was struggling to keep it on the leash. The dog had slipped out and so he called it. He was on the other side of the river and the dog bolted in,” Pip’s voice was breaking now, looking up. “It was Barney. Jason killed Barney-”
“Hey, hey,” Ravi muttered, pulling her into a tight embrace. His mind was spinning. Fuck. Pip pulled away and took a shaky inhale. “You can take a break.”
“No, I- I want to finish,” Pip said, voice husky and smaller than he’d ever heard it. So Ravi nodded. Another inhale, “...um.. he- he tied my face up and left.. I tried to break free but I fucked it up- I dropped the- the screw." Ravi's grip on her hand tightened. Pip seemed to refocus. "And moisture was stuck in and I was out of breath. My nose clogged up. I tried to get free but I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t breathe and I was panicking, so I guess I passed out. I assume he left me there to go get a lighter. He had poured kerosene on me and had left to go get a lighter- he wanted to burn all evidence of him with me.”
“But then the police found you and brought you back here,” Ravi reminded her firmly. Pip’s grip squeezed his hand, lip trembling. “And now he’s- they’re going to find him.”
“And put him on trial? What- what if he walks free j- just like Max?”
“Then we move to Britain.” That choked a laugh from her. “Or Australia.. or I could just kill him?”
“I think Australia has nice weather,” Pip said quickly. The two shared a small smile, but hers faded before his. Thoughts clouded her eyes. She was scared.
“Hey.” Ravi tilted her chin up to eye contact. “I will never let him near you again. Ever.”
Her voice cracked. “Okay.”
“C’mere.”
Pip folded into Ravi and he made to keep his arms above her shoulders when holding her. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t want to yell again, didn’t want to get mad, didn’t want to scare her, but he was so mad.
Mad at Jason. Mad at himself for not being there. For letting him. But anger wasn’t what Pip needed. Ravi just needed to take some of what she was feeling, make it a little easier to breathe. Her head burrowed deeper into his neck and his heart swelled. He wanted to sob but he also wanted to keep it together for Pip. She was taking all of this so, so well.
Ravi pulled away but kept both Pip’s hands. “You are the strongest person I know, you know that?”
An almost smile twisted her expression, sniffing, “Thanks.”
“Whatever you need, I’m here.” Ravi tried to not let nervousness creep into his tone. “I’ll get you a new phone.”
“I can-”
“As your boyfriend, it’s my responsibility to spoil,” Ravi began, tucking her hair behind her ear, but then froze. A beat passed before he stuttered, “I- I mean, I- well, if I am,” He retracted his hand, “It’s okay if- if I’m not-”
Pip stifled a laugh as Ravi’s face glowed. “Ravi, we’ve already kissed and said I love you more than five times. Wouldn’t it be a bit weird if I didn’t want you to be my boyfriend anymore?”
“That doesn’t matter, you don’t-”
“Ravi. I still want you to be my boyfriend.” Her hand brushed his. “Do you still want to be my boyfriend?”
Ravi rolled his eyes, but not unkindly. “Of course. You already knew that.. do you want to go home now?”
Her expression ironed out with apparent relief. “Yes, please.”
“Okay. Let’s go.”