This story is written in full English, but for those who want to read this story the way it is originally written with mixed English and Hindi dialogue written in English characters, the original version of this story is posted. It has the same title without the words FULL ENGLISH next to it. I personally feel that it truly captures the emotions better, as it would have been spoken like that if those scenes were occuring, but the choice is yours! Also, this is just me translating my own words to English, so there may be minor inconsistencies with the dialogue. Without further ado, let's get started!
Neil was dead. That was the irreparable, irrevocable truth. Oh how badly Akshara wished to change that. She would give anything to go back in time a couple hours and just shut up and suffer the pain from the cramps. She should not have gone out at all, she should have just sent the police to help those girls and gone home, or not have taken Neil there with her.
As she stood surrounded by grief and mourning, and looking at the lifeless body of Neil as his entire family mourned, Akshara felt something in her break. The loss of her babies coupled with the loss of Neil was destroying her, and Abhi just blankly staring at the body of his younger brother in shock broke Akshara even more. She felt her entire head spin and the world started going in and out of focus. Trying to steady herself, Akshara failed miserably and promptly fainted.
Even in his state of grief, Abhimanyu's reflexes were still quick when it came to Akshara. Before she could faint, Abhimanyu had already moved towards her, and as she fainted, caught her in his arms.
Abhi watched as the eyes of his family flickered to Akshara and then just continued staring lifelessly back at Neil's corpse, almost uncaring. No one cared, Abhimanyu realized.
Slowly steadying Akshara and lifting her up bridal style, Abhimanyu carried her to another room of their hospital and slowly laid her down on the bed. Why? Why do you not take care of yourself? You just had a miscarriage, and you are not even resting! Abhi mentally scolded an unconscious Akshu.
Although his world had just shattered minutes ago, Abhimanyu couldn't help but take care of Akshara. "Abhi, our babies aren't here anymore. I just had a miscarriage..." Those words cried by Akshara would forever haunt Abhimanyu. Although he hadn't said anything and had actually told Akshara to get an abortion when he found out she was pregnant and there could be a risk to her life, he had fallen in love with his unborn children upon hearing their heartbeats.
Twins. Abhi was going to be the father of unborn twins just a couple of hours ago, and now, he had lost his younger brother who had practically been his first child and his unborn children. Abhi hated himself. Although he knew that there was no way he could have prevented this, he wished that he had not been in Jaipur.
Perhaps if he had been here, then he would have taken care of Akshara or taken her to the hospital himself. If he had been here, perhaps no one would have died today. If, if, if. The endless possibilities haunted Abhimanyu. Despite knowing that his patient had been critical and he had to go do the surgery in Jaipur, Abhimanyu couldn't help but torture himself with all the possibilities that could have happened if he hadn't gone.
Maybe Taiji or Tauji would have gone, his brain settled on that answer. Yes, if they had gone maybe everything would have been fine. He knew that the surgery was too complicated and critical and only he could have done it. Suddenly, he began chuckling bitterly, haunted by his grief.
After the surgery, the patient's older brother had promised to pray for the wellbeing of his little brother, oh how ironic. While that man had said that, Neil had probably been fighting with those goons to save the lives of those young girls or maybe even bleeding on the ground as the goons beat him, slowly dying. Abhimanyu had imagined coming home to a very different setting.
A few hours ago...
Abhimanyu had come out of the OT and changed after giving the good news to the patient's family that their family member was perfectly okay and would be discharged after recovery soon. He eagerly waited for the airport to arrive and felt like the cab driver was driving so slowly. He couldn't wait to see his wife and Neil. And he had been feeling a weird restlessness for a while, as if something had happened. He certainly hoped nothing had happened, especially not to Akshara.
Akshu, the light of his life, his love, his everything. Sometimes he thinks that his life would have been miserable and lonely forever if Akshu hadn't waltzed into his life and made him fall in love. He would die if anything happened to her, he remembered how depressed and hopeless he had been in that one year of separation. And yet, his idiotic self had decided to jump to divorce despite being so helplessly in love with her.
Abhimanyu got angry at himself everytime he remembered his past actions. His anger truly did render him into a senseless idiot. Despite being so enamored with Akshu, he had given her a divorce notice. All those fights and all those tears and pain he had caused her, completely shattering her faith in him and showing how much he lacked understanding for her. Abhi was so thankful everyday that she had decided to forgive him for all that stupidity and take him back as her husband and give their relationship a second chance.
He was so thankful that he got back in his senses and told her the truth about how he still loved her and didn't want to actually divorce her, it was just a result of his uncontrollable anger at her leaving without any warning, leaving him to fend for himself in a world that he didn't want to be in without her. He knew now that she had been helpless, but all that anger had just burst forth when he had finally seen her and found her after so long.
Abhi promised himself everyday that he would never, ever, ever repeat that mistake ever again. He would learn and try to control that bursting, senseless anger of his to the best of his ability. He didn't truly think there would ever be a day where Dr. Abhimanyu Birla turned into a calm and peaceful person, but he could try to be less temperamental.
Besides, he was truly happy with his life right now. Akshara was pregnant and they were expecting twins, of which he hoped at least one was a girl. Abhi wanted a little princess that was just like his precious Akshu, so full of light and life. Neil and Aarohi were also expecting, and no matter how much Abhi disliked Aarohi, he was truly happy for his little brother. His wife may be an absolute liar and manipulative person, but maybe her child and Neil's love would truly change her for the better. He knew that no matter how she was, Aarohi did love Neil.
"Your stop has arrived," the driver called out, pulling Abhimanyu out of his musings.
Thanking the driver with a smile on his face and paying for his fare, Abhimanyu rushed into the airport, checked in, and boarded his plane to go back home. Home. The place that Abhi used to hate going back to every time, but now could hardly wait to go back home to his adorable wife, even despite her crazy pregnancy cravings in the middle of the night.
I mean, who even eats carrots with ice cream. Akshu blamed Abhi's health freak nature mixing with her love for ice cream in their babies, which never failed to bring a laugh to Abhimanyu's face. Upon seeing her adorable scowl, he quickly promised that it was only temporary and she could go back to enjoying her ice cream without carrots once the babies were born. At her cute pout, Abhi had to resist so hard not to kiss her right then, because then they would get distracted and the ice cream would melt, leading to him getting an adorable little scolding from pregnant Akshu and then would have to go back out to buy ice cream all over again. The scolding wasn't really punishment, in fact it was so bemusing, but the trip was literal pain, as he had to be away from Akshu for a little while.
Wow, Abhi realized. He really had turned into a sap since he fell in love and married Akshu. As Abhi spent the rest of the flight preparing for all the things he would do when he got home, the Birlas were calling Abhi time and time, only for his phone to not receive it, as he was in a flight.
When Abhi landed, he decided to finish all his remaining five minutes worth of work at the hospital before reaching home. This way he could spend more time in peace with Akshu. Upon arriving at the hospital, he was met with expressions of grief, mourning, and even a little pity. Confused, Abhimanyu went to go find someone from his family to explain why everyone was acting weird and staring at him. Did this have anything to do with the restlessness he had been feeling for a while?
He was met with Akshara's weeping face and felt his world shake. Did something happen to the babies? Was she okay? But as he asked these questions, they fell on deaf ears, as Akshu was in no situation to listen or even understand what he was asking.
Akshara just wrapped her arms around Abhimanyu, and promptly burst into a fresh wave of tears. Not knowing what happened, Abhi wrapped his arms around her and tried to comfort her.
"Abhi, our babies aren't here anymore. I just had a miscarriage. And Neil...." Akshara wasn't able to finish the sentence as she burst into more tears. Miscarriage. Akshara had a miscarriage, his babies were gone, something major had happened, and his Akshu was suffering. Steeling his resolve, Abhi wrapped his arms around her even tighter, comforting her without words that he was there for her, no matter what had happened, but as the second part of her whisper registered in his head, Abhi was lost on how to comfort himself or Akshara.
And Neil... That whisper that he heard from Akshara told him everything he needed to know. Something had happened to Neil. Slowly leaning on him for support, Akshara guided Abhi to the room where Neil lay, suffering as the doctors rushed around in an attempt to stabilize him enough to perform surgery and save his life.
Upon entering the room and seeing his little brother in such a state, Abhi rushed to his side and tried his level best to encourage him to stay strong and fight, fight to live, fight to see the birth of his child that was growing in Aarohi's stomach, fight for his family, fight to get to be the dad he always wanted to be.
It was all useless. Neil only kept asking for one thing. A promise.
"Bhai, Bhabhi, promise to me that if anything happens to me then you will take care of my unborn baby. Please, promise me," he asked, reaching out his arm for Abhi to grasp. How was Abhi supposed to promise him that? Neil was supposed to live, he was the one who was supposed to take care of his child, but just to calm him down, Abhimanyu eventually promised.
As Neil turned to Akshara, she immediately rushed to his side, telling him to fight and that he would be the one taking care of his child, but just to placate him, she too promised. Just as she promised, Neil's hand dropped, and Akshara was moved away as the doctors rushed to try and get Neil's heart beating as the flatline sounded. It was a useless endeavor, Neil was gone.
Back to the Present...
Abhi watched lifelessly as the heart monitor continued beeping, reminding him that Askhara was still alive and needed him. His entire family needed him, but what was Abhi supposed to do? He had arrived with such happiness and in a matter of moments found out that his babies were gone from this world, watched his little brother die helplessly in front of his eyes, and now, Akshara had fainted.
Akshara needed to understand that after a miscarriage she needed to take care of herself, she was in no situation to keep undergoing the amount of mental and physical stress she was taking. As Abhi watched the sleeping form of Akshara, he wondered what he was going to tell Maa and even Aarohi.
Maa would break, and how would Abhi handle it, his Maa was his world too. As Akshara stirred, Abhi pushed all that away from his mind and just focused on Akshara, afterall, his Akshu needed her Abhi a lot right now. She was clearly grieving both the death of her babies and now Neil too.
"Abhi, I am sorry, I am so so sorry," Akshara sobbed, as fresh tears sprang to her eyes. Abhi shook his head, and wiped away her tears, before helping her sit up and tightly wrapping her in his arms. The hug comforted her and soothed Abhi, calming him down a little from how tense he had gotten due to all those emotions.
"I was feeling a lot of pain in my stomach, so Shefali bhabhi told Neil to take me to the hospital, and then .." Akshara continued as she retold the events of the entire day on how they had to go to a different hospital and then got the phone call from the girls and how they went and called the police and then Neil decided to take action and then the goons.
As she started breathing heavily as she got to the part where Neil got injured and one of the goons hit her, Abhimanyu wrapped his arms around her. Akshara kept crying on how it was all her fault and she should have never even gone there, and she seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack.
"Shh. Calm down, I have found out what happened and you are not at fault. What happened to Neil was an accident. You calm down, your health is very weak and sensitive right now, and you should not be taking any stress right now. Please calm down." Abhimanyu tried his best to calm down his wife.
Akshara took a few deep breaths and then calmed down as she listened to Abhi's steady heartbeat, glad that he wasn't mad or didn't blame her for what happened to Neil. Akshara was so heartbroken by what had accidentally happened, and she didn't know what she would have done if Abhi hadn't been there to say exactly what she needed to hear right now.
Even after all that happened, her Abhi was still by her side taking care of her.
"Are you okay, how are you feeling? After Neil.... " Akshara tentatively asked her husband. Abhi didn't say anything, but as his eyes filled with tears and his grip around her tightened, it was all she needed to know that he was not okay.
Silently crying, Abhi stopped bottling his emotions for a while and burying his head into the crook of Akshara's shoulder, Abhimanyu broke down into sobs as he poured his grief out in the comfort of their privacy and Akshara's comforting presence. Since he had witnessed the event, Akshara had been the first to ask him about his grief, making Abhi realize that he truly needed Akshara above all else. She had the power to calm his anger and make him express his emotions so they didn't bottle up and make him explode. He was so grateful for his wife's presence at that moment.
"You get well soon. I need you a lot. Without you, I don't know how I will be able to see my little brother Neil for the last time. I don't know how I will be able to say goodbye. I don't want to step a foot into that house until you are with me." Abhi told Akshu as he shared his grief with her. Besides, he also had to make sure that she was perfectly okay after that painful miscarriage, but Abhi didn't want to hurt Akshu by bringing up the topic of their unborn babies that would never be born right now.
Even though it was left unsaid, Akshu could feel the understanding of Abhi and how he wanted to comfort and take care of her after her miscarriage, afterall he was her Abhi. But right now, she would leave that unsaid and just find comfort in his presence. She was in too much grief to talk about her miscarriage.
Although Abhi didn't blame her for what happened to Neil, could the same be said for everyone else, like Aaru, who already blamed Akshara on multiple occasions for the death of Sirat mumma that Akshara hadn't even been that related to. How would she face Aarohi? How would Manjiri maa feel?
Pushing these negative thoughts from her mind, Akshara just hugged Abhi, while slowly fading out of consciousness due to all her crying and exertion finally catching up to her once again.
As Akshara came back into her senses and her vision cleared, she saw her Abhi reading her reports and upon seeing her consciousness, he closed the reports and moved to hold her hand and sit down next to her.
"How are you feeling? Better? Are you feeling in pain or weird anywhere?" He started bombarding her with questions.
"Calm down Abhi, how will I answer so many questions? I am fine, but I am feeling some pain in my stomach, but that is to be expected after yesterday..." Akshara quieted as she recalled the events of yesterday, Neil's death, her miscarriage. But then she focused back on Abhi, who was softly shaking his head at her.
"Don't keep on thinking about that and taking stress, because that will ruin your health again. I have done a few more tests, but their reports haven't arrived yet. When they arrive we will find out what is the best medicine for your stomach pain and also what extra care you need to take. Until then, take a lot of care of yourself and don't bend down." Abhi told her the results of her other reports which indicated she was fine, but the reports concerning her miscarriage and current diagnosis had not yet arrived. However, Akshara wanted to get out of the hospital so badly.
"I know you want to get discharged from the hospital." Abhi gave her his trademark I-know-what-you-are-thinking smirk, but it was rather small. Gently shaking his head, Abhimanyu continued "You are so lucky that your husband is a doctor and can take care of you. That's why you are getting a discharge."
Akshara softly smiled at that. Abhi knew her too well. He knew that she hated being admitted to the hospital, which was funny because she spent a lot of her time here as she came to visit Abhi or meet her past patients who had liked her music therapy.
"Also, today is the day of Neil's antim sanskar (funeral) and we all need to be there." Suddenly, the atmosphere took a somber turn as the realization again settled in that they would never be able to joke and smile with Neil ever again.
"Bade Papa brought white clothing for us here. He also came to check on your health, but you were sleeping so he left. I will go get food for you, and after we change I will take you to Birla Mansion." As Akshara opened her mouth to protest eating hospital food, Abhimanyu silenced her with a look and put a plate full of hospital food in front of her. Then, he proceeded to give her a move on look that clearly told her to get started on eating.
Making a pout, Akshara took a tiny amount and slowly put it in her mouth. "I will change and be back, and if you haven't finished all the food, then until you finish everything you will not get a discharge and I will not give you what I brought for you."
This worked like a charm, and by the time Abhimanyu had finished wearing his white kurta for Neil's funeral and brought Akshara's white dress with him, Akshu had finished all her food and made a face. She had a lot of time though, as Abhimanyu had made a quick stop on the way to tell Rohan to send him the rest of Akshu's reports when they were processed and ready, to which Rohan replied that he would do it immediately. Then, Abhi finally arrived back in Akshu's hospital room.
As she showed him that she was done, he smiled and gave her clothes to change, but before that gave her the fresh orange juice from the store nearby that she loved. This was what he had specially gotten for her. As she realized this was what he brought, she gave him another soft smile and drank the juice. This would give her strength and change the horrible taste of hospital food. It was healthy and she liked it, so Abhi thought that it was a win-win situation.
Then, she slowly went to the bathroom to change into the dress for Neil's funeral. She got it all dressed, but the doriyan wasn't being tied by her, so she gently called out Abhi.
Abhimanyu was near her in a second and after she unlocked the door, he gently walked in and tied the doriyan for her. Then, he softly hugged her and pulled her out of the room. After arriving at the main desk and signing the necessary paperwork, he took her to the car and drove to Birla Mansion.
Akshara gently intertwined their hands together to gather her strength and prepared to meet Neil for the last time, and also see Manjiri and Aarohi. They both got out of the car and after mentally preparing themselves, walked hand-in-hand into Birla Mansion, unaware of what awaited them there.
This concludes the first chapter of this book. I always felt that it was wrong to show Abhimanyu, who cares so much about the tiniest of Akshara's injuries, even when he is angry, to just blow up at her, blame her for everything, and then divorce her and leave her to fend for herself right after a miscarriage.
Also, he had just recently fixed his relationship after the one year separation track and divorce notice disaster, so I felt that after their open conversation about having trust in their relationship, he should have been shown to be more thoughtful and less blaming and angry when faced with a situation similar to the entire Anisha fiasco.
I feel that it was just a way to make another separation track by the makers and bring in Abhinav, so this story will show what would have occurred if Abhimanyu had been understanding and caring towards Akshara after the miscarriage. Plus I love #AbhiRa and really wanted to write a story about them!
P.S. This story will obviously not have Abhinav in it, unless I decide to bring him in another way, but this story will not have any AkshNav for sure, so should Kairav end up with an OC or should I find some way to bring Muskan into the story, thus having to also introduce a different Abhinav and Neelamma.
See you all in the next chapter! - Etheral