Laksh helped Sanskar in changing his wet clothes. Sujata gave Swara a warm hug with a big thank you. At least her son talked a little.
Swara just did not know what to say. She herself was feeling overwhelmed now. Keeping a strong face was getting difficult for her. The way Sanskar cried was too heartbreaking for her too. But she kept her feelings aside. This family was Sanskar's happiness.
Sanskar came out along with Laksh. His eyes swollen and bloodshot. He tried to smile for the family but smile was far away from him. Swara took a backseat here. She could understand how much a mother want to pamper her child! She could understand how much a father wants to take care of his child.
Sujata forcefully made him eat something. He ate a little. But his mind was blank. He was doing things mechanically. He was eating on command, smiling on command. But his insides were empty today. He retired back to his room without saying anything. Annapurna tried to stop him but Laksh stopped her.
"Badi ma! Calm down!" Laksh held her in between and hugged her as she cried.
"Beta! You know very well. I never asked God the reason for the bad luck of not being able to become a mother ever. You two are my sons. But I am asking him why he is doing this to Sanskar!"
"Calm down!" Durga Prasad said, "The one who is right, is often the one who gets a lot of hurdles."
"If you all don't mind, can we talk to him? I mean me, Swara and Ragini!" Laksh said and signed the sisters.
Getting the approval of adults, they entered Sanskar's room. He was still sitting on the floor staring blankly at the wall.
Laksh sat near him. He held his hand.
"What if I am really guilty?" Sanskar asked innocently, "I was not in my senses. What if I......"
"Bhai! Just think once more! Do you think you can rape a girl?"
Sanskar smiled, "I have done that!"
"No! No you did not!" Laksh again tried to make him understand.
"Do you think a girl like Kavita would lie about such things. She was so innocent, so naive......"
"Shut up mr. Maheshwari!" Swara said with anger. She was not angry though, but at this point, anger was needed.
"Swara! You....you don't know me!" Sanskar said again, "I have done....."
"I am a forensic specialist." Swara said with an irritated expression, "That too a female. You know very well that it's me under whose supervision the examination takes place."
"But Swara.... " Sanskar tried to intervene.
"No! There is no place of but here. I have seen many cases. 10% of those are false. And I have seen those 10% accused too. That's why I can understand what you are going through right now!" Swara said sitting on the chair and staring at him, "You have to agree that this is my speciality and I know about my speciality more than you!"
"Swara! I have a very bad past!" Sanskar said, "You won't even want to see my face after knowing that."
"Unfortunately, I know everything Mr. Maheshwari! I have seen that girl too. And see, I want to see your face. You know what that means?"
"What?"
"That the story Kavita told you, has as many loopholes in it as there are craters on moon" swara replied and looked at Sanskar with a smile and a wink.
Sanskar got speechless. He looked at her with questions.
"I will explain it to you in detail some other time.But now, let's concentrate on this case.Tell me once, what happened that night!" Swara asked
"What will you do? Witnesses of that hotel are against me. The whole world is against me." Sanskar replied. Hopelessness was covering him.
"Sanskar Maheshwari! I am already irritated by that Sahil. Don't irritate me more!" Saying so, Swara stood up and began pacing around in the room at a fast pace.
Ragini and Laksh stared at Swara in disbelief. She was scolding Sanskar so badly. Just few minutes ago, they had seen her wiping her tears. And now, scoldings.
"I don't remember anything!" Sanskar replied flatly.
"Did you clear your exam by cheating? No na! That means your recalling capacity is good! Recall!" Swara fumed like a school teacher scolding a kid for not doing his homework.
It felt more like an interrogation room. Sanskar, who was famous for interrogating criminals, was now being interrogated by Swara. Fearing she may scold him some more, Sanskar tried hard to remember. He knew that there is no point of arguing with her right now.
"I... I met the tip. He went .. then...wait.... A girl...a girl whose face I don't remember came and asked for something, then I finished the drink....and...."
Swara's eyes twinkled. So did Laksh and Ragini's. Swara's sudden change of expression puzzled Sanskar. Just a minute back, she was scolding him and now, she is smiling.
"I do this sometimes when I am examining victims of date rape!" Swara said sitting near Sanskar and holding his hands, "I am sorry for being rude. But see, you recalled important information!"
Sanskar looked at her weist where the marks of fingers had reddened her skin. Gently, he caressed them. And looked at Swara. He did not care what she said. Bur having her beside him was comforting.
On the other hand, Raginj and Laksh got shocked hearing the word date rape.
"Date rape? But how? There was no evidence of drug in Sanskar's blood." Ragini said.
"But we got a clue na! See, a girl and then drink.. she had definitely mixed something in the drink." Swara said and with a smile looked at Sanskar who was still not smiling. He had lost all the trust in himself.
"Mr. Maheshwari! Sometimes we need to trust ourselves too. I know you loved Kavita and trusted her without a second thought. But now, have a little faith in me! Please! " Swara said.
"But ....."
"No! No but! I know you can't do this, not now, nor 5 years back!" Swara said. Sanskar again looked away wiping his tears, "Now enough of self blaming. Whose words matter to you more now? Ha... You loved her that time.... It's good to trust a loved one. If you can trust her that time, you should have trust on me this time!"
Sanskar looked at Swara. Though she did not realise what she said, Sanskar understood her meaning.
"Can I ask you for one thing Swara?" Sanskar said.
"Hmm!"
"I just want to hug you once!" Sanskar said. Her hug had the capacity to make him forget everything. He didn't realise when he fell asleep on the bed.
Swara looked at Laksh who was wiping his own tears. Ragini was hugging him back. Swara knew how much Sanskar meant to Laksh. He was not able to bear his brother's suffering.
Swara left Sanskar sleeping in the room. She looked at Ragini. She knew Ragini was thinking the same.
"Jiju! Don't leave Sanskar alone for even a minute!" Swara said. She had sensed something. She knew Sanskar was not calm. She knew it was just the calmness before the storm.
"I won't! Don't worry!" Laksh assured, "But will you please stay here for some more time!"
"Jiju! I need to go to the lab! I will conduct the test one more time!" Swara replied, "I can't let a beautiful person become so miserable."
She entered the lab. She reached where all forensic books were kept. She took out all of them. She needed to find the drug and how to prove it's existence in the body. Night went like this. She looked at the time. It was 4 in the morning. she had very little time. She was feeling exhausted though. She took out her phone and opened Facebook just for scrolling. A thought creeped in her mind And suddenly, she opened the Facebook account of Kavita. Though it was private, she got the name of her graduation college. It was bhabha institute of pharmacology.
Sanskar woke up suddenly from a nightmare. He felt as if the whole world was blaming him. The voice of Kavita was haunting him. The face of Ayesha was haunting him. He was feeling dusgust from his own reflection. He tried hard to suppress the feelings but he could not. He saw Laksh who had just dozed off on the couch.
"I am the reason for everyone's misery! It's better to end thia life!" Sanskar's thoughts were overpowering his conscience. He looked one last time at the photograph of his family. He looked one last time at the photograph of Swara.
"I am sorry!" That was all he could muster to say. And then, with a firm decision, he stood up. He opened the drawer silently. His service gun was not there. He knew Laksh had removed it from there. He then found a blade in his room. He never feared pain. And this pain was gonna free him of all the pains.
Swara, in the lab was busy thinking about the degree that Kavita had.
"Kavita has a degree in pharmacy." Swara's forehead frowned. Before she could think of anything else, her phone rang. And the thing she was dreading came true.
She rushed to hospital. She saw Ram holding his chest, sitting on a bench. He was tensed. And so were Sujata and Annapoorna.
"Jiju!" Swara said in trembling voice, "What happened?"
"Swara! Sanskar slitted his wrist!" Laksh could only say this much.
A chill of fear ran in her spine like an electric shock.
"What?" She asked.
"I.... I was trying to be awake. But... I don't know when I doszed off! And suddenly, I heard a voice of Someone falling down. I saw Sanskar lying in the pool of blood. It's all my fault Swara!" Laksh was blaming himself. But how would he kept himself awake the whole night. He himself had not slept for a minute when he had heard of Sanskar's arrest. His condition was stressworthy too.
Swara never knew what pained her more, the news of Sanskar trying to attempt suicide or the news that doctor gave them next.
"Blood loss is too excessive. I am afraid his condition is deteriorating fast. We are trying our best!"
Swara felt her heart getting stopped for a second. Why Sanskar! Why didn't you trust on yourself!
"Suicide was never the way! My son!" Ram was saying this to himself.
Swara understood that Sanskar was not able to show his face to his family. The burden of guilt was becoming unbearable for him. But at least once, he should have called her. She would have given her every happiness for the sake of his well being.
Wiping her tears, she took some water in a glass and forwarded it to Ram.
Trying to console everyone, her own heart was bleeding in pain. Though she tried hard not to cry, but she was holding her own wrist so violently that it had gone red again. She saw Ragini rushing towards her.
"Nothing will happen to Sanskar!" Ragini tried to pacify her. Swara knew nothing except the prayers. So engrossed was she in chanting God's name, that she forgot the track of time.
And to her displeasure, she saw Sahil entering the hospital. She felt her blood boiling but stopped seeing the expressions on his face.His face did not have that winning glare but tension filled lines.
He saw Swara staring at him only.
"Dr. Bose! How is Sanskar?" He asked.
Swara looked at him with dreadful glare. Before he could say anything else, Sujata came near him. He looked at Sujata and all his childhood came in front of him. How whenever he did something bad, he used to hide behind her to avoid scoldings. How she used to make pancakes for him! How she loved him like his own child! And this mother had tears in her eyes now! Something inside him broke.
"Sahil!" Sujata said his name, "Beta! Why?"
Sahil did not have any answer. He just looked at her and then, the weight of her question was so much that he was not able to keep his gaze up.
Sujata closed her eyes and let tears fall down. She sat on the bench beside Swara.
"Swara! Beta, Sanskar talked to you only! He will talk to you only! Ask him to get well!"
Sujata's words were too heavy. Swara looked at the crying mother who was feeling doomed seeing her son in this condition. She looked at Sahil who was standing speechless.
"You won Mr. Rathod! I hope your revenge is completed now!" She said and lowered her gaze again. With her hands, she held Sujata's shoulders and made her stand up.
"Aunty! Have faith in God! Truth can never be defeated!" Swara said trying to stay firm. But her voice was breaking too.
"I.... I never knew that Sanskar could do this! I... I never wanted this! Yes! I wanted punishment for him but this..." Sahil was at a loss of words. Swara wanted to say a lot of things. But her heart was overwhelmed now. She knew she would cry if she try to justify herself. And if she started to cry, Sanskar's family would break.
But, to her surprise, she saw Durga Prasad standing up from the bench. Sahil stood with his gaze lowered.
"You know Sahil, I can suspend you immediately if I want to. Nobody will raise a question." Durga Prasad said looking at him in his eyes, "I also know the law more than you. I can apply section 306 on you, you know na what is it?"
"Abetment to suicide!" Sahil replied, "But sir! I...I did not tell such things to him!"
"Exactly! But who will believe you? And since Sanskar had tried to take his life, media is giving the benefit of doubt to Sanskar too. People are sympathising with him. Just imagine if I do this, what will happen to you?"
Sahil did not say anything.
"But I will not do anything like this. Because as a police officer, I won't do anything with a bias. I hoped this from you too. You did not do that. You judged Sanskar too early."
"Sir... I... I did not mean to!"
"Okay! You did not mean to. But is your intention going to inject life in your ex friend. Go and try finding the real offender first. For now, I suppose you have understood that you were wrong." Durga Prasad ordered him. And sat near Annapurna. The old eyes were not having any tears left.
Sahil nodded at his command. He again looked at the family staring at ICU from outside. He wanted to apologise, specially to Swara! But she was nowhere to be found.
He turned around and found Swara near a window. She was looking at the morning sun spreading the sunrays in all directions.
"Dr bose! He .... He will be fine soon!" He tried to say. Swara looked at him and tried to gather some words. She wanted to say a lot of things to him.But she couldn't. So she looked away.
It was evening. Sanskar was still not stable. His oxygen supply was increased to ten folds. His body was not accepting blood transfusion. She was sensing hopelessness in the environment.
Even the doctors were trying to pacify the family. Students of the college were offering water to the family. The staff was readily available for them whenever a medicine or something else was needed.
"Ma'am!" A student of forensic second year came near Swara and forwarded a chocolate to her, "Please have it. Sir will be fine!"
Swara nodded with a smile. But her eyes had emptiness.
"Swara! You have been here since morning! Take rest for sometimes!" Shekhar said.
"Papa! Why? Why did it happen?" Swara asked innocently. Shekhar did not have any answer to the question.
Swara went home when Sujata forced her to. She fell on the bed. She was so tired that without thinking anything, she instantly fell asleep.
She did not remember how, but her sleep was broken by a wierd message. That was some news headlines.
GHB aproved for the treatment of cataplexy.
She was about to cancel that news when something striked her mind. GHB, but how?
Her sleep got conpletely vanished. GHB is quite rare to find and very rarely used as date rape drugs nowadays. It was very rare to detect it in blood and should be tested within 4 hours. After 4 hours, it can only be find in hair samples and a specific test for it should be conducted which is obselete now.
This was the exact definition she wrote in her second year forensic exams when elaboration of common date rape drugs was the question. When she wrote about DHB, Ram personally called her in his cabin and appreciated her for the mention of GHB.
"But don't worry! You won't find GHB ever in your career. It is so rare to find. Only in big pharmaceutical companies. It's so costly." Ram told her.
Swara went downstairs. Sharmistha was awake doing sone chores of kitchen.
"Swara!"
"Choti ma! I can proof Sanskar's innocence. I got a clue."
Sharmistha smiled and patted Swara's back. "Sanskar is out of danger now! Laksh called me to tell you. You were sleeping so I did not want to wake you up."
Swara felt a blanket of warmth wrapping her. She looked at Sharmistha who was smiling ear to ear. She wanted to hug her tightly and before that, Sharmistha did that.
"Calm down! And scold him from my side too!" Sharmistha said.
"Has he got conscious?" Swara asked.
"Not yet!" Sharmistha replied.