Earlier comments on this chapter has been deleted as they would not make any sense with the revised version of 'Tere Liye'. Just a note to old readers, those comments are still very special for me and I have them stored with me to cherish forever. I just don't want any confusion for new readers.
Hope you enjoy! :)
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The engine of the car snarled obnoxiously as Arnav drove briskly on the road. His mind has as if forgotten the very definition of safety as he navigated recklessly, hearing simply one thing being repeated in his ears -
Khushi was in hospital. She met with an accident.
The sheer panic that had gripped his being the second his brain registered this information, was indescribable. His heart had dropped, literally down the deepest valley of fear and he seriously wished it were a joke but as he checked his phone which had been on silence since his last meeting, and saw the hundreds missed calls from each one of his family members, he knew it wasn't.
Tears clouded his vision as he came to a screeching halt in the hospital compound. He sprinted inside to find the ward number Di had told him when he called her not long ago - just to ask the hospital name and the ward number before he hung up - and sped towards his destination.
Di, Nani, Akash and almost everyone were sitting outside the ward as he hurried forward, eyeing the door that read 51.
"Chotte!"
Di exclaimed upon seeing him coming and he could see her eyes flashing anger when he took a brief look at her but ignoring her bickering over him not picking his phone, he strode right inside the room. The door slammed shut behind him due to the force he pushed it open with.
And that was when he was finally able to breathe.
His right shoulder pressed against the wall as he drifted in relief, looking at Khushi who was sitting upright on the hospital bed in her full consciousness.
A smile was on her face but it couldn't overpower her pale skin that was slightly scrunched up into pain. He guessed that had to do with the bandage she had around her head and right wrist. The sight made him wince inwardly and he clenched his jaw, feeling utterly disgruntled to see her like that.
Next to Khushi sat Payal and NK who after sharing a look with a visibly shaken Arnav, deemed it right to give the couple some privacy.
Arnav shifted his eyes, watching the duo close the door behind them, before breathing out another puff of air.
"Ar-arnavji?"
He lifted his face, to see his wife's distressed one. He knew this contortion was not because of her pain anymore but because of his rattled self.
So he eased up a little bit and walked towards her, slowly, until he reached the side of her bed.
Khushi held his hand and tugged him down to sit next to her.
"I'm fine." She said, gulping hard when she saw his eyes up-close - eyes that were so red it scared her.
Arnav did not give any response. Instead, he freed his hand from Khushi's hold and cupped her face.
"Can't you take care of yourself?" He asked in a whisper, eyeing her bandaged forehead. His voice was a low hiss and moisture finally sprang in his eyes as he added,
"Why is that so hard for you to do, dammit?"
"Arnavji-"
"How did this happen, Khushi?"
"Huh?" Her innocent eyes met his pained and raging ones.
"How did this happen?"
Arnav repeated. His gravelly voice emphasized the words this time as he eyed her sternly, daring her not to answer.
She lowered her gaze, knowing that he might be thinking all this happened because of her foolishness. Well, it actually did and that was what scared her from telling the backstory out loud in front of him.
Moistening her lower lip, she nonetheless began, knowing he wouldn't budge until he gets his answers.
"There was this little boy in the middle of the road. He was feeling losing his consciousness and, and there was a car speeding towards him and I just pushed him but-"
"-forgot to move myself."
He completed, almost in a sneer and she sagged deeper against the pillows behind her. She grimaced, remembering the blow that shocked through her head as the car hit her, just after she'd push the boy to the side into the arms of the people who were just standing and watching the scene unfold. It was by God's grace that the car had already slowed down, otherwise she is sure she would have flown all the way back to Lucknow if the car had hit her while maintaining the speed with which it first came.
"Khushi, seriously?" His frustrated tone again absorbed her attention from her ache and she lifted her eyes to stare into his.
"I was scared." She confessed in a low and trembling voice. "I'm sorry."
Her voice cracked again with fear, but it wasn't fear of his anger. It was fear of the angst that resided in his eyes ever since he walked in.
If this was any other day, she would have given him a good piece of mind for having scolded her but today as she had the first look on his face, she knew he went through hell during the time it took him to get here. A voice at the back of her head reminded her of how Anjali once had described Arnav as someone who loved his own ones with all his heart. That voice was followed by the various images of Arnav loosing it every time she got hurt and she felt more pathetic for having endangered her life like that, when clearly, her life wasn't solely hers anymore. She was a part of him and by hurting herself, she knew she had hurt him too.
She seemed to have forgotten all about the scorching heat of discomfort across her body as she earnestly tried to sooth his agony.
"But I'm fine now. Really. I'm okay."
Through her blurry vision, she saw his eyes softening when a drop of tear slid down her cheek and suddenly losing all rigidness in his posture, he reached to wipe the moisture off her face.
"Hey, it's okay." He whispered, soothingly. Sliding his hands around her nape, he tenderly pulled her head to rest on his shoulder. She smiled, at once wrapping her hands around his waist.
There was a peaceful silence between them until she tried to pierce it with her low voice when the door opened and the next second, the room was swarming with familiar faces.
Khushi lifted her head as Arnav pulled back from the hug and looked behind him. His eyebrows however scrunched together in a frown as he recognized the person in front of him.
"Sheetal?"
"Arnav?"
Sheetal blurted out his name at the same time as he blurted out hers, making the eyes on them equally confused.
"Do you guys know each other?" Anjali asked, looking at them back and forth with a confounded smile while Khushi was just puzzled as to why this random lady was in her ward and how she knew her husband.
Leave that, how did her husband know her?
"We are college friends."
"She works in AR."
Their answers were again simultaneous. Arnav's eyebrows perked at her response but with a shrug, he looked at Anjali again, responding solemnly, "She's an old college friend who recently joined AR. Today." He added the last bit, now seeing Akash's confused face.
"But that's not the point." He said just immediately. "The point is, what are you doing here?"
"Chotte." Devyani stepped forward to stand next to Sheetal. "She is Aarav's mother. The boy Khushi Bitiya saved. We called her from the boy's mobile."
Arnav blinked, nodding at both of them as he looked at Khushi.
While almost killing herself. He wanted to add, but knowing that it would be rude to the mother in front of him, he swallowed his displeasure and kept mum.
"And I wanted to personally meet her, the one who risked her life to save my son." Sheetal said, now approaching Khushi with teary eyes.
"Thank you so much. You don't know what you've done for me. If it weren't for you then maybe today I would have-"
"Sheetaliji." Khushi intervened, smiling at her husband's friend cum employee. "It's fine. You don't have to thank me and as far as Aarav is concerned, he is okay as well. So, relax."
Sheetal wiped her tears, reciprocating Khushi's smile when her eyes suddenly caught the sight of Khushi's hand intertwined with Arnav's. She stared at it with a lost expression until she heard Khushi's voice again.
"Don't mind me asking Sheetalji, but where were you? How come Aarav was alone and that too in the middle of a road?"
Sheetal sighed at the tincture of disappointment in Khushi's tone and looked up to see everyone having the same question in their eyes.
"I didn't know he was alone." She started, once again sighing to herself. "I had left him with a nanny this morning when I left for job interviews. I would never leave him alone but I guess the nanny I found last minute was too quick to be trusted." She finished with a twist of her mouth as she shook her head in despair.
"It seems like my whole trip to Delhi has been a big mistake. First my landlord delayed the date to give me the keys of my apartment, then Aarav fell sick and now, now this nanny has conned me." She gritted and stared at the floor for a while, whilst others deemed it right to sympathize with her in silence, without probing into her personal issues.
After a minute or so when she regained her posture, she glanced up, again smiling at Khushi.
"Anyways, I'll take your leave now. And, thank you once again. Bye."
Pulling her bag on her shoulder, she retreated towards the door when her phone rang, attracting stares of the Raizada family, except Arnav who was simply having an exchange of whispers with Khushi.
Fishing out the phone of her pocket, Sheetal reached out to hold the door handle.
"Mr. Mehta, I was just about to call you. About the keys- what?" She shrieked, leaving the door she had opened. Her shout startled everyone, even Arnav and Khushi who now looked at her keenly.
"Wha-what do you mean you gave the apartment to someone else?" Sheetal asked as bewilderment spread across her face, soon to be replaced by anger. "And now you're telling me this? After ensuring that I'll get the house, now you're telling me you can't have a single mother stay in that community on your guarantee?"
There was another pause and this time, everyone was even more interested in Sheetal's conversation for what they heard shocked them as well. They watched with pitiful eyes as Sheetal took in a deep breath, her eyes filling with tears.
"You don't understand. I need this place. Where would I go? I have a son- hello? Hello?" She brought the phone in front of her eyes and her shoulders sagged as she saw the line going dead.
Unable to remain a mere spectator of someone's distress, Anjali stepped forward and rubbed Sheetal's back.
"Are you okay?" She asked, her delicate heart clenching as Sheetal sniffed and swiped her hand across her face to wipe off her tears.
"Yes, yes I'm fine." Sheetal answered, her voice strangulated. "I'm sorry you all had to witness that. I, I really need to get going now."
"Hey, wait!" This time it was Manorama who spoke. "But where are you going to stay?"
"I don't know. But I'll figure it out." Sheetal's low voice was quick to respond and she tried leaving again, until Manorama's remark stopped her - again.
"Hello Hi Bye Bye, figure out?" Manorama almost snickered as she shook her head. "Do you want another phati-I mean Khushi to get under another car in order to save your son in the future or what?"
Sheetal's surprised eyes traveled to look at her whilst Devyani groaned, "Manorama!"
Manorama frowned at the chiding stare she got. "What? I'm just saying. Today she was out looking for a job when this happen, tomorrow she will be out looking for a house where it might happen again. Haven't you heard the doctor? That small packet is really sick and needs rest, not a tour around the city."
Though bluntly, Manorama seemed to have spoken the truth as it made everyone contemplate over the situation.
"Mami is right. Aarav really needs rest." Anjali muttered, feeling her heart go out for the little boy who was sleeping in the next ward due to exhaustion. She then looked at everyone who went silent, then at Sheetal who seemed to be on the edge of having another breakdown due to helplessness and in that moment, only one thing passed her mind.
"Maybe he could stay with us?" She suggested out of blue, attracting a few taken aback stares, including Arnav and Sheetal's.
"What?" Sheetal asked, confused and shocked.
Anjali nodded, looking at everyone.
"It's just a matter of a few days. They can stay with us till Aarav is well again. Then we can help her find a house because right now, I really think Aarav needs a proper care and environment." Anjali paused, then looked at Arnav who was already staring at her.
"What do you say, Chotte?" She asked, "After all she's your friend. What do you think?"
Arnav resisted an urge to roll his eyes at the word 'friend' and was about to respond when Khushi tugged at his arm, softly.
"The boy really is very sick."
He looked down at her to see her eyes squinting into puppy eyes and he knew her pure heart might already be crying at the sad story that she just heard. He felt bad too, mainly for the child who was suffering for no reason at all. Thus, with an exhale, he simply gave Anjali a nod as a green signal.
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