Fan Fiction |
by Livia
Giving her a skeptical glance, Ron made his way into his home slowly. To his suprise, there was no garbage, scattered magazines, or plates with leftovers which were days old. In fact, it was spotless- perhaps even cleaner than when he had left. He didn't believe Leila had cleaned up his apartment AND managed to keep it that way during his stay in the hospital. Besides, he had been released a few days early. As the doctor had put it, "Mr.Ng's state had improved quickly, faster than I expected. In fact, he could go home tomorrow!" Ron had called Tavia and Raymond, only to find that both their phones were off. Therefore, he called Leila and she had came and picked him up the next day. Ron began opening drawers and closets. Knowing her, she would have probably stuffed everything in them, out of sight. It was just a matter of time before he found the right one and all the magazines, take-out, dishes, and perhaps even clothes, would come pouring out.
Leila just watched with a knowing smile on her face as she followed him around the apartment. "You can stop looking now. I told you that I would keep it in good condition while you were gone. Besides, I've been living here for so long and it's the least I can do."
Ron turned around and said her, "Correction. You're not living here for free. You're going to pay me back next Monday."
Rolling her eyes, Leila nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I know." When the last closet door was shut, she had a triumphant smile on her face. "Now do you believe me? I really kept it squeaky clean."
Giving her another doubtful look, Ron smirked. "YOU doing all that? Who would believe that Leila Tong would help somebody clean their house? I bet you threw all the garbage down into the street." He glanced at her, causing her to blush. However, it wasn't the reason he thought it was. It wasn't because that Leila Tong, the daughter of one of the biggest business tycoons in Hong Kong had gotten on all fours and scrubbed the house clean. It was the reason behind why she had done it.
Snapping out of the momentary trance, she decided she was going to let him go with such a remark. "Ohh Ron Ng can tell jokes now huh? Yeah, I REALLY threw it down into the street. In fact, you received a warning from the super. If you do something like that again, you're going to get thrown out of the building."
Ron shook his head at her comment. In the month he was in the hospital, Leila had visited him every other day. At first, he wasn't too eager to see her. She was constantly running her mouth about what had happened earlier in the day and he had no peace of mind. However, one week, it was as if all the evil-doers of Hong Kong had made a deal to create havoc. There was a huge crimewave which gave Leila no time to visit. During those seven days, it was a bit lonely at the hospital. In fact, Ron wanted to see Leila walk through the door and sit on the sofa, leafing through a fashion magazine. When she did finally come, he was glad to see her and have her as company. In those thirty days, he had grown to be able to tolerate her and possibly even trust her.
"I'm going to go take a shower. I smell like the hospital," announced Ron as he grabbed his belongings, including his cellphone and headed to the bathroom.
Leila narrowed her eyes at it. "Why are you taking your phone with you? You're not going to take pictures of yourself in there are you!? Just watch, you'll get electricuted!" She made a face at him before he slammed the door shut. The expression was wiped off her face right after. Leila knew why. Ron was waiting for a call- one from Tavia.
x.........................x
"This one. Or this one?" Raymond alternated the two tuxedos in front of him, switching between the black one and the gray one.
Raymond and Tavia were in the bridal shop which Bernice had specifically selected. Somehow, Tavia was chosen by Bernice to be the maid of honor. It was as if she had no other friends and had to choose her own fiancé's coworker. Tavia meant to turn the offer down but Bernice wouldn't hear of it and acted as if she didn't understand the meaning of "no." Presently, the bride herself was late and the best man, Ron, was in the hospital(or so they thought).
"Well, it's best to match whatever the bride is wearing," an employee piped up, looking at Tavia.
Ray chuckled. "Oh no, she's not the bride."
A hand flew to the woman's mouth, "Oh! I'm so sorry! I thought- uh. My name's Belinda Hamnett, if you need any help, just call." With that, she disappeared in a flash, as quickly as she had popped out of nowhere earlier.
An hour had passed and there was still no sign of Bernice. Raymond and Tavia sat on one of the fancy Italian style sofas, with their choices of outfits beside them. Pressing the button to redial once again, Raymond tapped his foot impatiently. It was just like Bernice to be late but it wasn't quite her character to be tardy for wedding pictures. Afterall, she had said, "the most important thing for a woman is to be married."
An hour soon became one and a half, two, and that slowly passed to three. As time crawled by, the two became more impatient until Raymond's phone finally rung. He immediately picked it up.
"Bernice?" It wasn't her. "I took the day off though...fine. I understand." With a sigh, he flipped his cell closed.
"What is it?" asked Tavia.
"They want us back on the job. Somebody was murdered."
After instructing Ms.Hamnett to tell Bernice that they had left if she ever arrived, the two left for the crimescene.
x.........................x
Arriving in a wooded area near the Hong Kong airport, there were already two policecars and two other cars which belonged to Eddie and Deric on the scene. A crime scene investigator was explaining her findings to Deric while the man who had found the body was giving a statement.
"She was killed less than two hours ago, a rough estimate is from one to one-thirty. However, the original crime scene wasn't here. It was obvious she was dragged here because of that long line from the highway to here. There are faded rope marks which shows that she was tied. There was a visible struggle and there are two injuries, a blow to the head and a stabwound in the stomach, which was the cause of death."
"Well, I work at a construction site nearby. I was taking a taxi back after lunch and it broke down. So I decided to walk since it's good exercise you know? So I'm walking, then I see something in the ditch. I look closer and I see a person and I immediately called the police."
Raymond and Tavia peered into the muddy hole in the midst of all the shrubbery. The body had been covered with a black plastic sheet until it was to be zipped up later in a bodybag. Because the victim had been dead for a meer two hours, the body had not begun to rot or smell yet. Looking at the caucus, a feeling of unknown dread filled Raymond's stomach as he approached it. It wasn't the first time he had witnessed a crimescene, yet in the back of his mind, he had an awful notion that it was somehow Bernice.
"Raymond, wait!" shouted Eddie just as Raymond uncovered the sheet. Seeing the body, Tavia took a sharp intake of breath. As for Raymond, he turned around and ran.
Tavia chased after him. She was needed at the crimescene but not knowing why, she followed Raymond. Finally coming to a stop five minutes later, they stood along the highway as trucks, cars, and airport minibuses whizzed by next to them. Standing in total silence, Tavia realized she didn't know what to say or where to begin.
"I knew something was wrong," said Raymond, his voice quivering. "I should have known better. She was two hours late and just yesterday she told me to remember to be on time."
"It's not your fault. There's no way you could have known. Besides, it's not like you could have stopped it," Tavia tried reasoning with him.
"If only I hadn't proposed to her, she wouldn't have been going to the bridal shop. If she wasn't where she was, she wouldn't be dead. YOU were the one who told me to rethink the relationship! This whole thing, it's your fault!" Raymond yelled at Tavia.
She was speechless. How could he place all the blame on her when it was an accident? Remembering how she had felt when she was given news of Bosco's death, Tavia decided to deal with Raymond in a patient state. "I understand how you're feeling now but-"
"No, you DON'T know how I'm feeling now!" he cried, interrupting her. How was she able to understand? He had been with Bernice for over ten years. TEN years. That was almost a good half of his life. They had a plan to get married and now just like that, she was gone.
Knowing that everything she said would go into one ear and out the other, Tavia didn't stop Raymond from leaving. She just stood there silently as he left in the red taxi cab. Maybe all he needed was some time alone, to straighten things out.
x.........................x
After watching Raymond go into the taxi, it was the last Tavia had seen of him the whole day. She had tried calling him a couple of times while she was at the station but she was directed straight to his voicemail. As she walked up the hill to the Wong mansion (her car was in the shop), she found herself unconciously dialing his number again for what must have been the seventh time. Looking up momentarily, she was suprised to see who was waiting for her at the gate.
"Ron?" she said, not really sure if it was him. Wasn't he supposed to be out of the hospital in three days?
"Hey," Ron greeted her with a smile as she approached him. He wrapped his arms around her in a hug, which she quickly withdrew from.
"When did you get out? How come you didn't tell me?"
Ron studied Tavia's face. She had a look which showed she was glad to see him, however there was something else...Not having the heart to say that she would have known if she had bothered to visit him, he shrugged. "Just earlier today. The doctor said I was fine and could leave just yesterday. I tried calling you last night but your phone wasn't on, so I left a message. You didn't get it?"
Tavia tried to recall what she had been doing the night before. Raymond had called her about how they were to meet the next day to try on wedding outfits. Bernice had given him a stack of wedding magazines, complete with stickies with notes on ideas of what they could use for their own wedding. She then instructed him to look through all of them, giving her his opinion the next day at the bridal shop. Knowing that she would choose anything and everything, Raymond ended up consulting Tavia for her suggestions and ideas, which resulted in her cellphone battery dying. Figuring nobody was going to call her, except possible Leila, she decided to shut it off while it charged- possibly the reason why Ron wasn't able to reach her.
"Oh..I probably didn't have battery in it or something," replied Tavia.
Ron nodded. He decided not to mention how he had left a voicemail. Even if she had missed his call, wouldn't she have checked her messages in the twenty-four hour time frame?
"And, I think I forgot my phone at home so I didn't know about the message," she added. She could tell Ron was a bit upset about how she was acting, or rather, kind of ignoring him, so she gave him a reason for it. She hadn't been able to visit him at the hospital because of all the cases at the station already. Tavia didn't want to add the whole phone issue on top of it.
"So, I was thinking of getting something to eat since I haven't seen you for so long," he suggested.
With effort, Tavia gave him a tiny smile. She just wasn't in the mood to go. Even if she did, she'll end up not eating anything and Ron would probably suspect something was wrong. After all the events which occurred, the last thing she wanted to do was be questioned. "Actually, I'm kind of tired. Maybe tomorrow?" Tavia glanced at Ron for his agreement as she shoved open the gate.
Ron was disappointed but could do nothing but agree, "Yeah, sure."
"Bye." Tavia waved at him and as he turned to leave, she took another step into the Wong estate. However, at that very moment, she felt her cellphone which she had stuffed into her pocket earlier, slip out. It fell onto the ground. She prayed silently that Ron had not heard but he did. For a moment, neither one of them spoke as they both stared at it on the cement driveway. "Ron, I could-"
"You said you left your phone at home. Why did you lie?" he demanded.
"Actually, I saw your message but I didn't have a chance to check it today. I was worried that you'll be upset so I said that I didn't bring it," she explained. It was the truth for the most part. However, Ron didn't seem to be quite satisfied with her answer.
"Didn't have time?" he repeated. "Like you didn't have time to visit me for two whole weeks? Even Leila went to the hospital more often than you did? What have you been doing that takes up so much time? You explain to me Tavia."
Tavia closed her eyes momentarily, frustrated that he had suddenly exploded on her. Adding that on top of Raymond blaming Bernice's death on her, she was about to burst herself. However, she didn't want to take it out on Ron. "Listen, can we just talk about this tomorrow?"
"No, we're going to settle this NOW." Ron wasn't sure where their relationship stood at the moment. All he wanted was everything to be cleared up and all misunderstandings solved. He didn't want to be wondering a second longer if Tavia really wanted to be with him or not.
"What's the difference? We'll get everything cleared up eventually if it's today or tomorrow. Does it really matter?" said Tavia impatiently. She didn't want to deal with this, not now.
"Yes it does! I don't even know what you want. I don't see you for a whole two weeks and you don't even bother to visit me! I call you and you're never home. I'd like to know what the hell you were doing all that time. AND just now, you could have just said that you didn't check my message. You didn't have to lie about not having your cellphone! I just thought that since I didn't see you for so long, maybe we could just go out tonight and this is what happens."
Tavia stared at him in disbelief. So it was HER fault now? HE was the one who came up with the plan that entering the police force was the best way to get closer to the truh about Bosco. She needed to gain everyone's trust that she hadn't entered the force despite what she had said during her interview. They needed to believe she had changed for the better: that she wanted to help individuals in need, not to get revenge.
"It's Raymond isn't it?" Ron asked quietly, in contrast to how he was a moment earlier.
HOW could Ron assume something like that? He didn't trust her. Tavia was hurt that this was what their relationship had come to only after a month of seperation. Ron had no faith in her. "Since you won't believe anything I say, I guess there's nothing else to discuss."
After saying her final words, she picked up her cellphone and shut the gate behind her.
.....................................................................................................
Thanks for all the wonderful comments you all left behind, telling me to update and all! xD Sorry for not updating for so long! Like I said, I was on vacation. After coming back, I was just a bit jet-lagged and lazy to update. Also, I've been working on a new story, so maybe check it out when you have time.
The Fiancé- www.winglin.net/fanfic/tf
Who was the one who left a comment about throwing Bernice into a ditch? LOL...now you know what the idea you gave me was! xp Also, I'm starting school in two days, so apologies in advance if there are little updates in the upcoming months!