Thanks to all for voting and commenting on the previous story.
Before the flight had come to a complete stop, Pragya had quickly got up and grabbed her bag from the overhead compartments. Then she restlessly stood in the aisle waiting for the air hostess to open the door. Every now and then a tear would drop from her eyes and she would quickly wipe it away. She still couldn't believe they were no more, all of them. She quickly wipes her tears and forces herself to not to cry and sees the door opening and she pushing people out of the way runs out. She ran through the airport not even realizing the curious looks she was receiving. She comes out of the airport and turns around looking for any familiar face. She didn't know who had come to pick her up. Was it her family driver or theirs?
"Pragya!" Abhishek calls out to her.
Pragya quickly turns to the sound and sees Abhi waving at her. Without even realizing she starts running to him and the moment she reached him she hugs him tight and bursts out into tears. Abhishek hugs her as tears filled his eyes.
He let her cry for a few minutes and then finally he gently tells her, "We have to hurry, Pragya. We can't keep them anymore."
Pragya nods and steps away from him. Abhishek takes her bag in his hand and leads her towards his car.
Abhishek stops the car in front of Mehra mansion and Pragya ignoring everyone's sympathetic and curious looks runs inside and stops in shock seeing all the bodies on the floor. She breaks down and starts wailing loudly. Suddenly, someone hugs her and she cries into their chest ignoring their words about God's decision', fate', be strong'.
Abhishek walks in to see Pragya crying in Malti Aunty's arms. Pragya's relative. He looks at Pragya helplessly for a minute and realizes that he couldn't do anything for her, so he goes to make arrangements for the funeral.
Abhishek was talking to Rajiv regarding the funeral when "How did it happen?" a stranger asks Abhishek.
Abhishek sighs, "Accident."
"You were not with them?"
"No." Abhishek replies.
"Where did it happen?" he asks curiously.
Abhishek turns to Rajiv angrily and Rajiv turns to the stranger, "You come with me. I'll tell you." Rajiv takes the stranger with him and Abhishek turns to look at his parents' body when he notices Pragya next to her parents' body. He watches as Pragya cried seeing their lifeless body. The tears he had been trying to suppress started coming out. He sighs; their family had been wiped out with one accident - His parents, his brother, his bhabhi and Pragya's parents. Pragya's parents had come to stay with their daughter i.e his bhabhi as they were planning to celebrate Pragya's 18th birthday in grand scale. All of them had gone for a movie and due to work he couldn't go. On their way back, they had met with an accident and all of them were gone at once. He closes his eyes in pain, he had been at work when the call came, he had been shattered then. But somehow he had the presence of mind to tell Rajiv to not inform Pragya about the death as Pragya who was studying in a residential school was having her final board exams and just one more exam to go. She was supposed to come the next day after her exams. He had Rajiv inform Pragya's school and have all the newspapers removed. After her exams, someone from her school had informed her about the deaths, and put her on a flight home. Abhishek had contemplated on going and getting her but then he changed his mind as he couldn't just leave everything here and go to get her.
"Chief... it is getting late." Rajiv whispers to him.
Abhishek nods and taking a deep breath he walks towards Pragya. He kneels down next to Pragya and gently touches her shoulder, "Pragya..."
"Abhi..." Pragya turns to him pointing at all the bodies crying.
"It's time, Pragya. We have to take care of the cremation." Abhishek gently tells her.
"No. please no." Pragya pleads him.
"Please understand, Pragya. We can't keep them here like this." Abhishek tells her as he hugged her and let the tears flow.
Pragya nods as she cried hugging him.
Pragya was lying in the guest room, it has been a week and she was slowly coming out of her grief but the shock was still there. She had tried watching the TV in between. It kept her distracted for a while then she would remember either her sister or her parents and the grief takes over. She hears the door open and looks up to see Malti Aunty walk in. Pragya mentally sighs, she never truly liked Malti Aunty. Didu and she always felt that she was a leech who fed off their parents.
"Pragya... come and have your food." Malti Aunty says gently caressing her hair.
Pragya realizes that she was starving and decides to have something. Ever since the tragedy, she was always hungry. She kept eating something. She didn't know why. She nods and goes with her down to the dining area. As she walked down the stairs she notices Abhi with Rajiv, she gently smiles at him. He also smiles back and she walks to have her food. She was never close to him. They were on friendly terms. She was closer to Jeeju and Abhi was close to her sister, and they never tried to talk beyond a casual greeting.
She pulls up a chair and sits to have food when Malti Aunty sits next to her and serves for her, ignoring Pragya's protests. Pragya starts to eat when Malti Aunty asks her, "What are you planning to do now?"
Pragya looks at her curiously.
"You can't stay here always right? Abhishek is unmarried and people are going to talk. You shouldn't have stayed here after the funeral. You know, people are already starting to talk."
Pragya looks at her with eyes wide realizing that she had to move out of the Mehra Mansion. She should be going to her house.
Hearing her, Abhishek turns to Rajiv with a questioning look. Rajiv shrugs helplessly not having heard anything yet. Abhishek turns to look at Pragya and her aunt. He had no intentions of eavesdropping on them but then Malti was kind of loud and he had heard her. Now he couldn't help but listen.
"I haven't heard anything, Chief." Rajiv whispers to him.
Abhishek nods.
"But people are going to start saying if they already haven't." Rajiv informs him softly.
Abhishek look at Pragya to see how she was going to react to this.
"Why don't you come with me to Gurgaon?" Malti asks her lovingly.
Pragya looks at her in shock.
"No, better is if Vishal and I move here. We will stay with you in your house. Someone has to look after your Papa's business and all the properties right? You are so young, what do you know about business? My Vishal is very smart, he will look after everything. And once your result comes, you can join college and continue your studies while Vishal look after the business."
Pragya looks at Malti Aunty in shock. Her son was worse than her. He was a lecher. Already two girls have accused him of cheating them or so she heard. And she could never stand the way he used to look at Didu and her. He used to look at them as if he wanted to pounce on them and eat them off. Pragya shudders and realizes that she had lost her appetite. Pragya starts to get up.
"You are done?"
"I am full." Pragya tells her.
"Okay... then you go start packing your things. We will leave soon." Malti tells her.
Pragya nods and runs to the room as tears streamed down her face ignoring Abhishek who was watching her.
Pragya sits in the room and starts crying. She had no one. No one at all. She was all alone in this world. All she had was the leech of an aunt and a lecher of a cousin. How can she live with them? But how can she live alone? Hasn't Mama always said how cruel the world was to women? She wanted her family, she couldn't live alone. She hears a knock at the door and turns to the door quickly wiping her tears and sees Abhishek at the door.
"Can I come in?"
"It's your house." Pragya tells him as she stood up.
"But this is your room now." Abhishek tells her as he walked in. "I heard her."
"There is no other option, is there?" Pragya asks him as tears spilled from her eyes.
"You don't like her?"
"She has always been living off Papa's money. Didu and I never liked her. Papa and Mama used to say that sometimes to maintain relation we have to ignore a few things. They were always after Papa's money. And her son, he is not a nice guy." Pragya tells him, not even sure why she was telling him. Maybe hoping that he would tell her that she can stay at his place till her college starts and once it starts she can move to a hostel.
"Hmmm. You don't want to go with them."
Pragya shakes her head.
Abhishek nods and turns to walk off when she asks him, "Do you hate me now?"
"Hate you?" Abhishek asks her confused.
"It is because of me that they are dead right?"
"Because they were here to celebrate your birthday?" Abhishek asks her.
Pragya nods her head.
"I was supposed to go for the movie. If I had gone then I would have been driving or we might have had to take two cars. So maybe all of them or some of them would have been alive if I was with them."
"You couldn't do anything, Abhi." Pragya tells him shocked.
"Even there wasn't anything you could do, Pragya. It was not your fault. Everyone loved you and wanted to make your birthday special. And that is it. Rest everything is fate." Abhishek calmly tells her.
"It's not because of me?" Pragya asks him as tears fell from her eyes and the guilt started leaving her.
"No." Abhishek tells her and gently hugs her.
"PRAGYA!" Malti calls her name angrily as she walked in. "What are you doing?"
Pragya and Abhishek quickly part seeing her.
"All this is not allowed, Pragya." Malti tells her angrily.
Abhishek walks out as he needed to think.
"Did you finish packing?"
Pragya shakes her head while she helplessly watched Abhishek walk away.
"Pack quickly." Malti orders her.
Pragya was packing when she hears a gurgling sound. Her heart stops beating and tears fill her eyes as she wiped around in joy, "Aditya!"
The nanny brings in an 8 month old baby. Pragya runs to him and picks him up in joy and starts kissing him all over his face.
"Chief told me to bring him here for a few minutes." Nanny tells her.
Pragya nods and sits on the bed with Aditya on her lap while Aditya excitedly smiled at her.
"He is so happy to see you. You look a lot like Bulbul Ma'm." the nanny tells her. Pragya smiles at her hearing that. "He has been missing her a lot and was crying so much that he got fever. Now he is getting better. But still he needs rest, so just a few minutes... okay?"
Pragya nods and keeps her hand on his forehead and realizes that he still had a slight fever. She hugs him tight as guilt took hold. She had been so wrapped up in her sorrow that she had even forgotten of his existence.
"Pragya, we are getting late." Malti tells her.
"Adi..." Pragya looks at her helplessly.
Malti watches Aditya and Pragya for a while then turning to the nanny she asks her to leave.
Malti sits next to Pragya and gently caresses Aditya. "He is a spitting image of Bulbul." Malti says and sniffs loudly, "How I miss her."
Pragya doesn't reply to her because any blind could see that Adi was a mix of jeeju and Abhi. He had jeeju's forehead, nose and cheeks and Abhi's eyes, lips and dimples.
"We should take him with us. He needs a mother. And he is our boy, right? Our Bulbul's son." Malti tells her.
Pragya looks at Adi as she wondered whether they should be taking Adi with them. Did Abhi know to take care of a baby? But then he did remember Adi while she had completely forgot about him.
"How can we trust Aditya with Abhishek? Once he gets married and have his own children, he will ignore Aditya. And what about Aditya's properties? He is the heir to his father's properties right? And not to forget he is Mohan Mehra's eldest grandson. What if Abhishek cast him aside once he gets married?"
"You don't have to worry about Adtiya Mehra. He is a Mehra and he will live like a Mehra." Abhishek tells her furiously.
Malti gulps seeing Abhishek and she quickly gets up. "I was just worried about him. He is like my grandson. Anyway we are leaving. We are taking Aditya with us. Come Pragya, let's go."
Pragya looks at her in shock then she turns to Abhishek and sees him watching her but his expression was mild and not furious like a second ago. Pragya slowly gets up and walks towards Abhishek and offers him Adi. "Adi will stay with you. Whenever I feel like seeing him, I'll come and see him."
"You don't get to decide that." Malti furiously tells her.
"I do. I'm alone in this world. I am not going to drag down Adi with me."
"You have us."
"I know what your intentions are." Pragya tells her furiously. "I am helpless and that is the only reason I am tolerating you."
"How dare you talk to me like that? I am your guardian now and I decide about you."
"You are not her guardian." Abhishek snaps at her. "She doesn't need a guardian. Now wait outside I need to talk to her."
"You think I'll leave her alone with you?" Malti asks him furiously.
"When you are under my roof, you do what I tell you. get out, NOW!" Abhishek furiously tells her.
"Pragya come with me." Malti orders her.
"You wait outside, I'll come." Pragya tells her.
Malti furiously looks at her and decides to take care of Pragya's insolence once they go home. And she walks out and Abhishek slams the door shut on her face. Adi starts getting agitated with all the noises and Pragya quickly starts rocking him.
"Happy birthday, Pragya." Abhishek gently tells her.
"Birthday?" Pragya whispers in shock.
"The bakery called asking when we'll be collecting your birthday cake." Abhishek explains.
Pragya looks away realizing that it was indeed her birthday. What a birthday? This was like the end of her.
"Pragya... I wanted to talk to you about something."
"What?"
"I know you don't want to stay with them and you can't stay alone also. You can stay here as long as you want but she is right, people will start talking and it might ruin your life."
"I know you can't help me, Abhi. But thanks for thinking for me." Pragya tells him as she looked away.
"So I was thinking... if you were to marry me."
"Marry you?" Pragya turns to him in shock.
"Yes. You are 18 now, you can marry now. And I need your help in raising AD."
"But how can I marry you?" Pragya asks him shocked. "We don't even know each other properly."
"I know, Pragya but this is the only option we have right now. Other than that, is you take complete control over your life and the business. Can you do that? If you are confident then I'll help you in any way I can."
"I don't know anything about the business." Pragya tells him helplessly.
"I know... if you want I can teach you but that would again mean you'll have to stay alone somewhere and I don't like you staying alone. So... marry me."
"But..."
"I know, I am 10 years older to you. It is a big age difference; I know that but people have married with even bigger age difference and made it work."
Pragya thinks about it as she wondered what to do. She definitely trusted and liked Abhi way more than she liked her so called Aunt and her cousin. But marry him because she had no one? Isn't that taking advantage of him and his kind heart?
"AD needs a mother and a father."
Pragya's eyes fill with tears and she confesses, "I forgot about him. I remembered him only when the nanny brought him in."
"Even I forgot him the first day, Pragya. But I have had more time to deal with this than you and you would have eventually remembered him."
"I am a bad mother."
"He doesn't think so." Abhishek says gently smiling pointing at Aditya who had slept off in Pragya's arms.
Pragya looks at Adi and smiles seeing him. She loved him with all her heart. Maybe she did love him like a mother loved her son, but what did she know about raising kids? She was just 18. Her mother used to say she was still a kid.
"Is there anyone else?" Abhishek asks her.
Pragya shakes her head in no.
When she remained thoughtful, Abhishek finally tells her "I am just as lonely as you, Pragya. Even I don't have anyone else other than AD and you."
Pragya looks at him in shock and realizes that not only she even he needed someone. "I'll marry you."
Abhishek and Pragya walk out of the room to find Malti waiting at the door. Seeing Pragya, she quickly moves towards her. "I am sorry, Pragya. I am still in shock and grieving and that is why I behaved like that. Sorry, Pragya. Come let's go home. We'll decide about Aditya with a clear mind." Malti tells her lovingly caressing her.
"I am not coming, Malti Aunty."
"Why?"
"I am going to marry Abhi."
"With whose permission?" Malti asks her furiously.
"Don't raise your voice." Abhishek warns her.
"Pragya, have you gone mad? You'll marry him?"
"Yes Malti Aunty. You don't have to worry about Adi and me, we have Abhi." Pragya tells her confidently.
"Pragya, he is marrying you for the property. Don't you understand his intentions?"
"He is marrying me because he needs, and I am marrying him because I need him. You want to take me with you because you want my Papa's properties. I am not stupid." Pragya tells her.
"You can't decide that. After your parents died, I am your guardian."
"I don't need a guardian. I am 18 years old. I am an adult now."
"Who has your house keys?" Abhishek suddenly asks her.
Pragya looks at him confused as she thought who had the house keys. It might have been with her parents but now that they were gone where would their keys be? She turns to Malti Aunty and sees her getting uncomfortable. "Do you have it?"
"No." Malti replies.
"Hand over the keys to Rajiv." Abhishek orders her. He wondered how she got the keys, he couldn't put it past her to search the bedrooms or take off from the items they got from the Police that were on their family when they died. Abhishek calls out to Rajiv and Rajiv comes to him.
"Take the keys from her. Then have someone clean the house and neatly cover everything up and lock it and give the keys to Pragya."
Rajiv nods.
"Pragya, do you want to take anything from your house?" Abhishek asks her.
Pragya nods her head, she didn't know what but there were things that she could never say goodbye too.
"Tell Rajiv what all and he'll bring them here."
"I want to go there." Pragya tells him hesitantly.
Abhishek nods and tells her, "I'll take you then."
"Thank you."
Abhishek shakes his head at her.
"Take all your things and I want you out of Pragya's life." Abhishek tells Malti.
"Look at you two. Your family hasn't been dead for a week and you are planning a wedding."
"That is not your concern." Abhishek tells her furiously then turning to Rajiv he tells him, "Change each and every lock. I don't trust her." Abhishek tells him.
Malti furiously starts cursing but Rajiv drags her away.
Pragya turns and walks back into the bedroom to check on Adi. Seeing he was still sleeping, Pragya removes the pillow from the side and sits next to him. she gently caresses his head. She hears Abhishek walking in and doesn't look up at him.
"She is right. Our family just... all of them... and we are thinking of marriage."
"They will understand, Pragya." Abhishek tells her and then he adds smiling, "they will be happy too."
"How do you know?" Pragya asks him curiously.
"Mom use to always say, if Pragya was a little older we could get Abhi and her married." Abhishek tells her.
"Really?" Pragya asks shocked.
"Yeah... but that time you felt too young to me." Abhishek tells her confused, he didn't even know why he was telling her this... he had always taken it as a joke and a irritating static of his parents... maybe he was telling her because he wanted to ease her mind.
"Mama used to say the same." Pragya tells him shocked.
"What?" Abhishek asks her frowning.
"If Abhi was a little younger we could have got Abhi and Pragya married... but you were like really old then."
"I am not that old." Abhishek tells her smiling.
"I know. It felt old." Pragya tells him smiling.
Abhishek smiles seeing her happy, it felt nice to see her smile and smile with her.
"Maybe we would have eventually got married." Abhishek tells her shrugging.
"Maybe." Pragya agrees.
Abhishek smiles at her and Pragya smiles and on an impulse she moves towards him and hugs him. Abhishek without even realizing hugs her back finding a little joy after the emotional turmoil. "They will be happy, Pragya."
"Yes." Pragya agrees. "When are we getting married?"
"Is tomorrow fine? Or do you want to get married on your birthday?" Abhishek asks her curiously.
She had thought her life had ended a while back and now she was starting a new life, so why not start on her birthday itself?
"Today." Pragya tells him.
"You sure?" Abhishek asks her slightly shocked.
Pragya moves back and tells him why.
"Okay then." Abhishek replies smiling. "I'll make arrangements."
By evening they were married.
Abhishek and Pragya have a quiet dinner and they decide to go to sleep. They both walk into Abhishek's bedroom and it was like normal. Nothing special have been done for their suhag raat as they both didn't even think of it. Once they both entered the room, they both were nervous about sharing their room with someone of the opposite gender.
"Where is Adi?" Pragya asks him.
"AD is in the nursery." Abhishek replies.
"We'll bring him here?"
"Yes. Good idea." Abhishek says relieved and hurries out of the room. Pragya was about to follow him out when he comes back with Aditya. Pragya smile seeing Adi happily talking to Abhi and Abhi smiling at him happily, not even understanding what he was saying.
Abhishek gently puts Adi on the bed, Pragya gets on one end while Abhishek gets on the other. Abhishek turns off the lights and Pragya sits up in fear.
"Don't off the lights."
"What happened?" Abhishek asks as he turned on the lights.
"I am scared of dark." Pragya tells him worried.
"Oh." Abhishek gets up and switches on the balcony lights and leaves the curtain open so light streams in. "Is this fine?"
"Yes." Pragya nods.
Abhishek turns off the other lights and gets on the bed.
Pragya tries patting Adi to sleep while Adi was getting cranky. Then Abhishek took his turn but Adi remained cranky throughout. Finally giving up, Abhishek calls for the nanny. Few minutes later she comes in and picks up Aditya.
"What happened to him?" Pragya asks her concerned.
"He doesn't like sleeping on the bed. He prefers his crib." Nanny tells her.
"He always sleeps in the crib?"
"Yes."
Baffled Pragya turns to look at Abhishek and he was looking equally stumped.
"I'll take him to the nursery then?"
Helplessly Abhishek and Pragya nod their head.
Abhishek locks the door after the nanny leave with Aditya. He comes back to the bed and gets on it. Pragya was so nervous that she started breathing loudly which was making Abhishek all the more nervous. Finally not able to take it anymore he says, "Relax."
"You relax first. I am not going to rape you." Pragya replies to him.
Hearing her Abhishek couldn't help but laugh out loud. She looks at him shock but then hearing him laugh she couldn't help but laugh too. After a while the laughter dies and they turn to look at each other and smiles at each other. "Good night, Pragya."
"Good night, Abhi."
Next day, Pragya was watching the nanny give Adi a bath and she smiles seeing how excited Adi was playing with the water. She wondered why she never remembered about Adi, he had helped her deal with her grief a lot, even Abhi did. The sudden marriage did help a lot, it had taken her mind off many things though there were new worries now, it was something she could deal with.
Hearing Adi cry, Pragya turns to him and sees that he was done with his bath.
"He is getting hungry." Nanny tells her as she wiped down his body and started putting his nappy for him.
"I'll get his milk." Nanny tells her.
"I'll watch him till then. Bring it my room." Pragya tells her as she took the baby from the nanny.
Pragya walks into her new bedroom trying to calm down Adi who was crying due to hunger. Abhishek turns to look at her concerned.
"He is hungry." Pragya tells him and seeing Patil changing a bulb she looks at Abhishek questioningly.
"Night light for you." Abhishek explains as Patil leaves.
Pragya nods smiling at him happily and sits on the bed with Adi on her lap. Trying her best to calm him down when he tries sucking on her boobs. Pragya freaks out and jumps up in shock as she tried to move Adi a little away from her while Adi tried to suckle on her.
"What happened?" Abhishek asks her as he hurried to her.
"Take him.. take him."
Abhishek quickly takes him and starts rocking him. "What happened?"
Pragya turns completely pink not knowing how to explain.
"What happened, Pragya?"
"He is trying to drink..." Pragya whispers to him turning pink.
"Drink?" Abhishek asks completely confused.
"My milk." Pragya whispers to him.
"Huh?" Abhishek looks at her in shock and then realization dawns, "Oh!"
"You can't give him?" Abhishek asks her curiously.
"I don't have any!" Pragya tells him exasperated.
"You don't? Why?"
"You have to get pregnant for your body to produce milk!"
"Ah... okay... didn't know that." Abhishek says as he looked away.
"If you listened in class then you might have." Pragya mutters still furious at her embarrassment.
"Calm down AD... we'll get you other milk! That is not in production yet."
Pragya gasps out loudly in outrage. "Can't believe you said that!"
"He is not going to understand a thing." Abhishek tells her chuckling.
"But I understand!"
Abhishek shrugs in reply.
"And if he doesn't understand that why do you say it?" Pragya asks him outraged.
"Don't want anyone scolding my boy for not listening in class later." Abhishek tells her cheekily.
Pragya glares at him and starts to walk out when the Nanny comes hurrying with the milk bottle.
"Have to change his nappy." Nanny tells Pragya and starts removing Aditya's nappy and starts cleaning him up. Once he was clean, Pragya takes the nappy out and tries to put the nappy for him. Seeing her struggling with it, the nanny gently asks her, "I'll put it?"
Pragya nods and passes the nappy to her.
"We need to check his fever."
"I'll check." Pragya tells the nanny and takes the thermometer and starts to put it inside his mouth.
"No... No." Nanny quickly stops her. "That is not how you check fever of a baby." She takes the thermometer and keeps it on the baby's underarms. Pragya watches her as her eyes filled with tears.
"It's almost gone. Most probably he'll be fine by evening." Nanny tells her smiling happily. Pragya smiles at her and quickly leaves from there.
Pragya was sitting and crying in her room when Abhishek comes in looking for her.
"Pragya, I am going to office for a little while." Abhishek tells her as he walked in and seeing her crying he stops in shock. "What happened, Pragya?" Abhishek asks her as he walked towards her. Pragya starts wiping her tears as she looked away. "Are you missing your family?" Abhishek gently asks her as he kneels down next to her.
Pragya shakes her head amazed that she hadn't actually thought of them much or cried over them today.
"Then what happened?" Abhishek asks her and then he asks her in concern, "Are you upset about earlier?"
Pragya shakes her head in no, "but I haven't forgiven you."
"Then what is it?" Abhishek asks her concerned; he couldn't see her crying... she was his anchor. Hers and AD's responsibility was on him now and that was helping him move forward. If she falters then he would fall.
"I am the worst mother. I don't know anything." Pragya wails as she hugs him.
"What happened?" Abhishek asks though he relaxes realizing it wasn't anything major. Just the jitters she was experiencing being a mother all of a sudden like he was feeling of being a father. "Is it because you don't have milk?" Abhishek asks her trying his best to not laugh out loud, but he had to say it to get her mind off things and calm her down.
"WHAT!?!?" Pragya furiously moves back.
"It is not that?" Abhishek asks her faking innocence.
"NO! And stop talking about it!"
"Then what is it?"
"I don't know how to change a nappy or take a baby's temperature!" Pragya says crying.
Abhishek smiles at her and hugs her, "Even I don't know, Pragya."
"You are a guy. I am a mother. I should know."
"I have seen Purab doing it but I don't know. And trust me when I tell you that I have seen bhabhi struggling the first few days with all these too. Even she didn't know anything. But once she became a mother, she slowly started learning. She did make mistakes and everyone helped her. Like that, you are going to make mistakes. I am going to make mistakes. But we both are going to do a lot of things correctly too."
"I am scared." Pragya whispers to him. "What if I turn out to be a bad mother and a bad wife?"
"Don't you love AD?"
"Yes."
"See that is the first step in being a mother. A good mother. You are going to be a good mother, Pragya. Your worry for AD already shows that you are a good mother. Regarding being a wife... I'll make sure you are a good wife." Abhishek tells her with a sexy smile.
Pragya's mouth drops open hearing him.
"Now be happy and enjoy being a mother." Abhishek tells her.
"Thank you."
"You don't have to thank me. It's my duty."
"You are a good husband already." Pragya tells him smiling. "And a good father too. I see the way how you look at Adi. He loves you."
"I have been around him all his life and he loves you also." Abhishek tells her smiling.
Pragya smiles at him.
"I'll come in two hours or so." Abhishek tells her. Pragya nods her head.
Abhishek starts to walk out and stops. He turns to her and tells her, "You don't have to forgive me for the milk comment."
"I know, you don't deserve forgiveness for that."
"No... that's not right. You don't have to forgive me because it is not my fault that you don't have milk." Abhishek tells her cheekily and laughs all the way out hearing Pragya screaming at him.
It's been a month since their wedding and Pragya was slowly getting comfortable with her new duty as a mother and a wife. She was more of a mother to Adi and a friend to Abhi than a wife. He still teased her about the milk thing. She was happy with her new life and as time went by she was missing her family much lesser.
"Pragya..."
"Yes?" Pragya answers him without looking up at him as she was busying changing Adi's nappy.
"Can I teach you a little about the business?"
Pragya looks up at him. "You can't manage everything?"
"It's not that, you should be involved in your father's business." Abhishek tells her. "And suddenly, getting all the responsibilities of our companies and your father's too. I feel as if I am not able to give my attention to everything."
"Rajiv was saying that you were doing a great job." Pragya tells him.
"Rajiv is just being loyal."
"If he is loyal, then he would be telling you when you make mistakes right?"
Abhishek nods as he looks away.
"I can't concentrate on business now, Abhi. I have to look after Adi. I'll be starting college in a couple of months. Once I learn to balance all this I'll help you in business. Right now, I can't Abhi. I am sorry."
"It's okay. I just asked." Abhishek tells her smiling.
"Maybe you should try building a system or something so that you can give equal and necessary attention to everything as it deserves."
"Hmmm." Abhishek nods.
"Or you could like let go off Papa's less important companies."
"No... he had worked really hard on everything and the people working in those companies will suffer. I'll think of something."
"I am sorry that you are burdened with everything." Pragya tells him.
"It does help me keep my mind off things and I do enjoy this workload." Abhishek tells her smiling.
"Then it is good." Pragya tells him smiling happy.
"I see you have learned to change nappies." Abhishek tells her smiling proudly.
"Finally learned it!" Pragya tells him smiling proudly.
"Now only if you could start producing milk, you'll be a perfect mother." Abhishek tells her.
Pragya screams furiously as she kicked him. Abhishek chuckles. "There is no use kicking me, Pragya. I can't do anything about it."
"It is your fault you idiot. Only when I get pregnant will I start producing milk. And who is supposed to get me pregnant here?" Pragya asks him furiously.
Abhishek looks at her in shock with mouth wide open. Seeing his look, Pragya realizes what she had said and gasping loudly she runs out of the room.
"Okay! She is your wife and very beautiful too but this is not the time to think about sex. She has been through a lot." Abhishek kept telling himself as he got ready for bed. He looks up hearing Pragya come out of the shower and looks away suddenly realizing how alluring she looked. For some reason he never realized how sexy Pragya was and suddenly that is all he could think about. She had put the idea of getting her pregnant in his head and now he couldn't get it out of his head. Pragya nervously gets on the bed and pulls the blanket over herself. Abhishek turns off the light leaving the night light on.
"I don't know why I said that. It just slipped out of my lips." Pragya nervously whispers to him. "How could I even possibly think of something like that."
"If you haven't ever thought of it then you wouldn't ever say it." Abhishek tells her his male ego hurt that she hadn't thought of it while he had been obsessing about it whole day.
"I haven't!" Pragya tells him panicking as she turns to him.
"Why haven't you? You are my wife."
Pragya looks at him wide eyes not knowing how to answer him. Why didn't she ever think of it? He was good looking, sweet, a darling and her husband. Then why didn't she?
Seeing her looking so lost and confused he sighs, "Go to sleep, Pragya."
Pragya turns to the other side wondering why she never thought of having sex with her new husband.
Half an hour later, Pragya prayed to God to put her to sleep because she couldn't get the idea of having sex with her husband out of her mind.
Things changed between them dramatically from the next day as the easy comfort they had found in each other was completely gone. They both struggled with their attraction to each other and feared the other would realize it and get uncomfortable as it was too soon for them to be intimate with each other. The harder they fought it that difficult it was for them to ignore it.
Abhishek was getting ready for office when he hears Pragya come in and looks up, and mentally groans. She had stopped wearing salwars as her self-imposed mourning period was over and she was back to her usual clothes. This instance she was wearing a sleeveless top and knee length skirt that showed off her sexy legs. She was all legs. He had noticed that. He smiles at her and turns and takes his shirt and wears it.
Pragya smiles at him and sighs seeing him wear his shirt. He had such sexy abs. it was one hell of a turn on for her. She sighs. Her thoughts were making her a borderline nymphomaniac.
"Where is AD?"
"He is sleeping. Call him Adi. He is getting confused with all these names."
"I prefer AD to Adi." Abhishek tells her.
"You tell people to call you Abhi and now you started doing that to Adi also."
"Why are you cranky?" Abhishek asks her frowning. She had very little patience lately.
Because I am sexually awakened!!!
Pragya shrugs at him.
As time went by they talked less to each other as they tried to stay away from each other's path as much as possible which made them miss one another.
"I am missing him, Adi." Pragya tells Adi sadly as she sat with Adi alone in her room.
Adi curiously looks at her.
"I don't know why I am missing him. I just want him with me all the time. He is so irritating at times but then most of the time he is a sweetheart. I love him!" Pragya sighs dramatically. Then realizing what she had said she jumps up in shock.
Adi looks at her in shock.
"My God! I love him. what do I do now? What do I do?"
Adi pointedly looks at her.
"I can't go near him. Then he'll understand what is in my mind right? Then he is going to get uncomfortable."
Adi gives her a disinterested look.
"Yeah... yeah... what if he gets uncomfortable... then things would be difficult right? I will have difficulty facing him."
Adi gives her an irritated look.
"Oh! I am already having difficulty facing him... I get it. But what can I do?"
Adi turns around and grabs his toy and starts playing with it.
"I get it... stop irritating you and talk it out with him."
"Hey! What are you two doing? Talking about me?" Abhishek asks as he walks in.
Pragya turns to look at him in shock wondering whether he heard them talk.
"What?" Abhishek asks her smiling.
Pragya shakes her head and smiles at him lovingly. He was a true darling. Oh! How I love him!
"What?" Abhishek asks her smiling sweetly.
"Nothing. I'll come now." Pragya says and quickly hurries out fearing she would make a fool out of herself in front of him.
Abhishek watches her walk out and turns to Adi who was smiling excitedly at him and has been making noises trying to get his attention.
"AD!" Abhishek says happily smiling and walks towards him. He picks him up and kisses him. "What was your Mama telling you? Anything about me?" Abhishek asks him.
Adi giggles in reply.
"Ah! I wonder what? Does she say that she is missing me? I am missing her terribly."
Adi stops giggling.
"Yeah dude... it is that serious. I think I am falling in love with her. She is all I think about. I do think about you... but she is like always there around me. And I miss her. I always want her with me. That should be love, right? It feels like love to me."
Adi looks at him in wonder.
"Yeah! Daddy in love with mommy!"
Adi looks at him without any expression.
"Even you have no idea what to do? Even I am clueless dude. I want to tell her. I want to scream out to the world that I love her but then isn't it too soon. All of our parents just died like two months ago. She might need more time right? What do you think?"
Adi turns around and hits his head on the pillow.
"Okay... did that mean... what a mess or what are you waiting for?" Abhishek asks him confused.
After putting Adi to sleep, Pragya walks into the bedroom hoping to talk to Abhi. Just a simple hi and a how are you would be enough. They hadn't talked for a very long time.
"How are you?" Pragya asks him as she walked towards the bed.
Abhishek looks up from his laptop surprised and happy, he had been avoiding her all these days and today she came and talked to him. "I am fine. You?"
"Good." Pragya tells him as she got on the bed next to him.
Abhishek keeps his laptop away and gets settled on bed.
"It's been a while since we talked." Abhishek tells her.
"Yes."
"Very busy." Abhishek says trying to make excuse for his behavior.
Thinking he was asking her she replies, "Yes."
Abhishek and Pragya looks at each other wondering what to say. They wanted to talk but whatever they wanted to say, they didn't know whether the other was ready to hear it. When the other remained silent, disappointed they decided to go to sleep.
"Pragya." Abhishek gently calls her.
"Hmmm?"
"Are you happy?"
"Yes. Are you?" Pragya asks him turning to look at him.
"Yes." Abhishek tells her as he smiled at her.
"Good."
Abhishek takes her hand in his and smiles at her. Pragya happily smiles at him. it felt nice to have him hold her hand.
"What else?"
Abhishek shrugs.
"Say something, Abhi."
"What?" Abhishek asks her smiling.
"I don't know. Anything. I miss talking to you."
"I missed you." Abhishek tells her.
"You did?" Pragya asks smiling happily.
"Yeah." Abhishek tells her smiling happy seeing her reaction.
They were silent again not sure what to say. Everything felt awkward between them as they didn't know what to say other than the most important thing. As they remained silent the tension started increase and soon there was a nervous silence.
Pragya starts clearing her throat to bring in some sound.
"Oh God!" Abhishek says finally giving up and he sits up facing her.
"What?" Pragya asks surprised as she also sits up to face him.
"I love you. I am freaking crazy about you but I know it is too soon for you and it is not even right on my part to tell you this now. We both have been dealing with our loss and new life but I can't hide my feelings anymore. I love you and there is no pressure. You can take as much as time you want... though I prefer if you didn't take much time... what I am saying is... I love you and I wanted you to know." Abhishek tells her.
Pragya looks at him in shock.
"Pragya... say something..." Abhishek says when she remained silent for a while.
"You are such an idiot, Abhi." Pragya tells him smiling unable to hide her joy.
"What?"
"So was I." Pragya tells him laughing happily. "Even I love you." Pragya tells him as she hugged him happily.
"You do?" Abhishek asks her surprised.
"Yeah!!!" Pragya tells him smiling excitedly.
Seeing her smiling so excitedly at him, he leans down and takes her lips in his. Pragya wraps her arms around him as she kissed him back happily.
"Pragya, we should get you to start producing milk."
"YUCK, Abhi! You are sick!" Pragya says outraged as she pushed him away.
Abhishek chuckles at her "Couldn't help it, Pragya."
Pragya pouts at him and Abhishek leans towards her and kisses her again. "I love you, Pragya Abhishek Mehra."
"I love you, Abhishek Mehra." Pragya tells him smiling happily as he gently lay her on the bed.
"So?" Abhishek asks excitedly.
"NO! Go away!" Pragya tells him nervously.
"Not yet?"
"There is too much traffic on the site." Pragya nervously tells him as she waited for her results, three of her friends had already called after finding their result.
"She is so nervous, AD." Abhishek whispers to him. "But I am sure she will pass."
"Oh my God!" Pragya says in shock as she started calculating again and again.
"What happened?" Abhishek asks her in concern as he walked towards her then stops in shock seeing her burst out into tears.
"Pragya?" Abhishek hurries behind her as she fell on the bed crying loudly.
"It's okay, Pragya." Abhishek gently tells her feeling bad for her.
"I studied so hard." Pragya says as she cried loudly.
"It happens at times, Pragya." Abhishek gently tells her.
"I am going to send for re-evaluation." Pragya tells him as she cried.
Abhishek's heart was breaking seeing her crying like this. "We will do whatever it is we need to, Pragya. which paper is it?"
"All the papers!!" Pragya says as she took her laptop and started googling to find out what were the procedures for it.
"You failed for all the papers?" Abhishek asks her shocked.
"WHAT?" Pragya screams in outrage. "I passed!"
"Then why are you crying?" Abhishek asks her confused.
"I got only 89.4%. I wanted to get 90% at least!!" Pragya tells him crying.
"Shut up and get out." Abhishek tells her in a serious tone.
Pragya looks at him in shock.
"Do you know how much I got for my 12th? 46.4% and we partied for three days straight because I passed."
"I wanted to get 90%!" Pragya moans. "Seriously, when your parents die and go to heaven. You expect these kinds of favors from them."
"God, Pragya! You are so good in bed that at times I forget you are still in your teens." Abhishek tells her helplessly.
"What? What does that even mean?"
"Nothing. We'll send for re-evaluation." Abhishek tells her and walks out with Aditya. Once he was out of her ear shots he tells Aditya, "It means, it makes me feel that I married a child bride."
I know towards the end it was all messed up and blah... I just couldn't think of anything else. Please like and comment
- Lazy