Undercover - a CID Sachvi Fanfic

The Mission

Purvi had only joined the CID team for about seven months now, and already felt a part of the family. She was the only female candidate chosen fresh out of the training camp, so she was equally proud and nervous before her first day. But the kind words of introduction by ACP sir, and the warm welcoming smiles all around the bureau had laid her doubts to rest. A few days working with them, and she knew this was a place where she would always be respected as a capable officer and never underestimated for being a woman.

However, Purvi was still the youngest in the bureau, and could not escape being protected and, sometimes, downright coddled by the rest of her colleagues. To tell the truth, she actually enjoyed the little gestures. She was an only child and had always longed for company. So, she looked up to all the other officers like elder brothers. Well, all except one that is.

On her very first day, during her round of introductions, her heart had fluttered weirdly when gazing up at Inspector Sachin's gentle eyes and warm smile. She had needed a moment before she could gather herself enough to shake his extended hand, and liked to think she had managed a strong enough grip, even though her hand was nearly swallowed by his much larger one.

She had dismissed the reaction as a momentary stupidity, a fleeting attraction that would go away with time, but to her consternation, it just seemed to increase as she got to know him better. As if it wasn't enough being handsome and charming, the man was a genuine and righteous soul, a gentleman through and through, unforgiving to wrong-doers, but with a soft side nonetheless. She soon found herself waiting for the opportunities when she would be paired with him on a raid, or the little things like how he would always hand her a cup of tea before getting his own, when they stopped for a break on the way back. She always loved the informal conversations in the car after a successful mission, where she would get to know little tidbits of information about the people she worked with, but she treasured the ones with Sachin that much more.

Purvi was woman enough to recognize that she was past the point where she could ignore her budding feelings for Sachin, yet she couldn't seem to gather the courage to even think of trying to give him a hint. For one, she had no idea if he would even consider a relationship beyond work with her. Duty was their priority, and honestly, she didn't know if she herself was ready to try something just yet. Come to think of it, she didn't even know if he was single! Well that solved her dilemma then. Time to rest any thoughts of making an advance on her senior colleague. She was still fairly new to the job, and she would never allow anything to jeopardize her work or this friendship.

"Purvi? Purvi!" Purvi jerked out of her errant thoughts to see the very object of her musings standing before her. Sachin was standing hunched over her desk, waving his hand in front of her face and giving her a strange look. Obviously, he had been trying to get her attention for some time. She hurriedly stood up. "Ye-yes Sir?"

"Kahaan khoyi thi? Kabse bula rha tha mai", Sachin said straightening up. He was in his customary attire of formal trousers, a fitted waist coat and a dress shirt, burgundy today.

Purvi took a moment to decide this was her favourite colour on him, before hastening to answer, "Kuchh nahi! I was just thinking about the last case, that's all. Which reminds me, did you finish writing your report? ACP Sir only gave you till today, remember?"

A smile crept to Sachin's lips, as his eyes twinkled with mischief. "Well, technically, I didn't. But relax. It's done and waiting on ACP Sir's desk."

Purvi gave him a look. "Don't tell me you photocopied Freddy Sir's report again! ACP Sir can make out when a name and signature are scratched out by hand in a typed report, you know? Not to mention when two reports are exactly same word for word!"

Sachin grimaced. "Yeah, not one of my finest moments, I'll admit. But in my defense, I'd just returned from an undercover mission, it was midnight, and I was exhausted. Be glad that I at least remembered to change the name on the report. But don't worry, this time I got Vivek to write it for me, after you'd gone home yesterday!"

"What?!" Purvi shook her head. "That guy barely writes his own reports on time! Can't imagine how you managed that. Might have taken you less time to write it up yourself than what convincing Vivek took."

Sachin smirked. "Nah, what's the point of having wonderful juniors if you can't get them to do your grunt work once in a while? And the convincing took less than a minute. I just had to remind him who saved him when the glitter bomb prank went wrong and covered Abhijeet Sir instead of Freddy!"

"That was him?" shouted Purvi. "That got everywhere! I found glitter in my hair for days afterwards! I should have known! I knew it couldn't have come from an evidence bag in any of our previous cases that exploded accidentally, like someone insisted."

Sachin threw up his hands and put on his most innocent look. Purvi tried to glare, but burst out laughing after about 2 seconds, him joining her. They would have gone crazy dealing with murders day in and day out if not for lighthearted moments like this.

"Anyway, what're you doing here so early?" Sachin asked after they had recovered.

"I got a call from ACP Sir to come to the bureau as soon as possible", Purvi replied. "Said he had to brief me on a new mission. But when I arrived, there was no one here. Sir asked me to wait for a while as he got held up somewhere on his way here."

"Oh, Sir called you too? He said the same thing to me", said Sachin. "I thought it was another solo undercover job. But I guess more of the team will be involved."

"Probably", Purvi nodded. "Sounds interesting. Let's wait for ACP sir and find out what it is."

"No need to wait anymore, Purvi", called a familiar voice from the door. "I am here."

In sync, Purvi and Sachin turned around to face their boss. "Good morning Sir!" they chorused.

ACP Pradyuman smiled at them. "Good morning. Sorry I'm late. Had to deal with a small issue on the way here."

"No problem at all Sir", said Sachin. "Hope everything's okay?"

"Yeah yeah, don't worry. It was nothing", said ACP and turned to walk into his office, gesturing for them to follow. "Let me get to the reason I called you two here this early. I have a mission for you. It's covert, dangerous and potentially long. Some suspicious activities have been going on in a residential complex close to Nashik. Children have been disappearing with no demands for ransom. They turn up after a couple months by themselves but each and every one of them have been too traumatized to speak about what happened to them."

Sachin nodded. "Do you want us to go speak to the residents Sir? Try to get the children to talk?"

"Yes, and no", said ACP. "I want you to find out what's happening, but not as CID officers. You see the members of this complex are mostly young couples and they tend to be a close knit group. I suspect whatever's happening has to be an inside job. The perpetrator might get suspicious and flee if we go around questioning people. So nobody should be aware of your true identity for as long as it takes to uncover the culprit. It might be a week or might take several months."

"Understood Sir", said Sachin. He had a lot of experience working undercover for long periods of time, but for Purvi, it would be a first. She was equally excited and nervous, for reasons more than the usual. "When do we start?"

"As soon as you are done packing", replied ACP, handing them two files from his desk. "We've arranged for a small apartment in Surya Residentials for you two. You will pretend to just be moving in, get familiar with the residents and investigate. All the information we have till now are in those files. Keep in contact, and all the best!"

Purvi and Sachin had just turned to go when ACP called, "Oh and one last thing, the residents are mostly young couples. Since you need to blend in, and make it as authentic as possible, from now till the end of this mission, you, Sachin and Purvi, consider yourselves married to each other!"

Author's Note: My first CID fanfic! I've recently started watching the show again, and this plot just wouldn't let go of me. I don't think anyone still reads these but if you do, and this story interests you, do drop me a vote and a comment! Based on the response, I'll decide whether to continue this.

Stay safe and stay happy!