It'd been a week since Annika started her work in her new hospital. Everything was going smoothly. Though she was quite apprehensive at first for all the new responsibilities that came her way but with Shivaay being there, it felt a lot more easier. He never left her side. His few words of encouragement were what she needed. More than that, the fact that he was always there with her didn't let her give up.
One such day, she was sitting in her room with a pout flipping the pages of a random magazine. It was 7 in the evening. Shivaay had gone for a business trip for two days. It was still twelve hours for him to come. She had pretended to not care that he was going but now she was terribly missing him. His absence did no good to her tender heart. She was literally yearning to see him, to hear his voice. He hadn't called her even once because he was busy and she being the egoistic one didn't dare to call. Her eyes were now glistening with tears. The more disheartening fact was that she was alone at home. Pinki had gone to attend someone's wedding. Others were busy in their own works.
She went downstairs to fill her tummy as now hunger knocked it. She made white sauce pasta for herself and serving it in a plate, she sat in the dining room.
'Good evening, sweetheart.' A voice fell into her ears which she recognised immediately.
She looked back and instantly stood up seeing Shivaay standing there with his ever charming smile looking at her. She smiled widely jumping like a kid.
'Shivaay!' She squealed.
'So happy seeing me back.' He grinned teasing her.
She stood on her place seeing his grin and composed herself.
'Ohhh! I....i th...thought it's maa....' she stammered trying to set her hair properly.
'I didn't know maa has changed her name.' He giggled looking at her embarrassed face. Although a smile threatened to broke on her lips but she concealed it soon.
'How was your work?' She asked changing the topic trying to avoid any more embarrassment.
'It was good but pretty tiring.' He replied pouring the water in a glass and gulped it gazing at her.
He then took the plate filled with pasta and went towards the room eating a spoonful of it.
'Hey, that's mine.' Annika exclaimed seeing him taking the plate.
'Ohhh! It's so delicious, darling.' He replied in a sultry voice going upstairs as he ate one more spoon.
Annika looked at him with her jaw dropped. But soon a giggle escaped her lips as she hit her forehead. She was glad, really really glad that he was back. Now that empty room won't haunt her anymore. But she wondered how he came so early when he clearly said that it would take him two days to complete his work.
Next day, Annika was checking the stock of medicines that came this morning. She had two surgeries to perform the next day so she had to clear the list of medicines she needed.
After completing her work, she kept those medicines carefully and went to check her patients.
It was 10 in the night, when she left for home. Exactly after five minutes, someone entered inside the hospital stealthily and directly went towards the medicine store.
Twelve hours later,
Operation theatre
Annika was performing the surgery with other doctors. It was going good but she noticed some problem after she injected the required medicine into the man's body. She still tried to stabilise his condition but it was worsening with time. The surgery went for two long hours but unfortunately, the man slipped into coma. Annika was disheartened. It was her first surgery in the new hospital and she couldn't believe it was unsuccessful. She couldn't understand what went wrong.
The patient's family was broken. Annika felt sorry for them.
The same happened with the second patient. It wasn't performed by Annika but she was instantly informed after it was done.
She went back home with a gloomy face. Once inside her room, she let her tears flow. Being a doctor, it was her responsibility to save the patient but she couldn't. She couldn't live up to the hopes of the patients' families. They had trusted her but she couldn't maintain that trust. She sat on the couch crying.
Shivaay came back only to see her crying. He was on his in knees in front of her in a jiffy. Her tears pained his heart.
'Annika! Baby, what happened? Why are you crying?' His voice full of concern and worry. She looked at him before jumping over him hugging him tightly. Her cries turned into loud wails. She clutched the back of his shirt in her fists. He wanted to hug her back but couldn't. She kept crying.
'Jaana, please don't cry. Atleast tell me what happened? Did someone say something to you?' He asked softly fisting his hands trying to control the urge to caress her back.
She composed herself parting from him and explained the whole situation to him only to end up crying again. He sighed not knowing what to say. He couldn't even wipe those tears which were piercing his heart.
'Annika, relax! It was meant to happen but you can't give up so soon. You are a fighter, jaana and you have to fight back. It'll be fine.' His soft voice provided solace to her. She stopped crying.
Her phone rang. She picked it up but the information she got from the other side shook the land beneath her feet. She felt her world ceasing. The phone fell down from her hand and she sat with a thud on the couch. He was shocked seeing her condition.
'Medicines....Medicines were expired.' She whispered glancing at him. He looked confused at first but soon realised what must have happened.
He somehow consoled her and both left to the hospital with other family members.
There was a chaos going on in the hospital. Police was there investigating the whole fiasco. Annika ran inside followed by Shivaay and others.
They got to know that the medicines they used were expired. Annika or any other doctor didn't get to know this because the label covers were covered with fake ones which hid the actual information written on the original covers.
Police was informed by some unknown person that this hospital was intentionally using expired medications because they are selling the new medicines at higher cost and risking people's lives by using the expired ones. The whole blame was on annika's name since she was the owner.
'Dr. Annika, you are under arrest.' The inspector spoke shocking everyone to the core especially Annika and Shivaay.
'Ek second! How can you arrest someone just on the basis of a random phone call?' Shivaay asked exasperated. His heart was pounding because of the stress. He won't let them arrest Annika at any cost.
'We have the proof, Mr. Oberoi. We have checked all the stocks and removing the upper covers, it's clear that these are expired.'
'This is lie. Shivaay, this all is lie. I myself had checked everything. I...i haven't done anything. Trust me, shivaay....i......' Annika spoke frantically.
'Annika....annika, relax. I trust you, just relax.' Shivaay tried to calm her but she was going insane with so much blames on her. She was practically being tagged as a murderer. What more could be worse for a doctor? A doctor, who was supposed to be a life saviour for people, the most noble profession.
The lady officer handcuffed Annika's hands who was scandalised. Shivaay tried to stop them but couldn't. Annika looked at him with pleading eyes. He felt helpless not being able to do anything but he couldn't fall weak. His annika needed him and he got to be strong for her. He knew one thing that he wouldn't let his Annika lose in all this puddle and he would do it at any cost. Time to be SSO again.
He blinked his eyes looking at annika assuring her. Police took her away. Everyone went outside where the so called media was present to capture everything. They stood in front of Annika.
'Doctor Annika, how could you do this?'
'Didn't you feel any shame?'
'Who gave you the license of a doctor?'
'Why did you play with those innocent people?'
'Such a shame on the name of a doctor....'
'Bloody cheater...you don't deserve to be a doctor...Such a filthy woman you are.....'
And the accusations and questions went on and on but the last one made shivaay lose all his control as he punched the reporter's face.
'Do you even know who she is? BIWI HAI WOH MERI...how dare you say such rubbish about her? I'll kill you bastard.....' He punched on the man's face hardly while Annika was crying looking at him. He kept beating him while the police tried to stop him. He was unstoppable. He was seething in anger. How dare the filthy man disgrace his annika? The man was half dead but he still wasn't stopping. Omru, Arnav and Annay tried too but he didn't budge.
'Shivaay.' Annika's cracked voice stopped him. He looked at her. She shook her head indicating him to stop and he stopped right there.
The police sealed the whole hospital after locking the main door. "Sealed" was written over the lock breaking Annika's heart into zillion pieces. Patients were shifted into other hospitals.
Her dream which she just started to experience shattered in front of her eyes and she couldn't do anything. Happiness came to her life after so long only to go back again. When she just started to believe that now she could live a happy life, just then God snatched her dream from her reminding her of her cruel fate.
Shivaay looked at her broken self. He felt restless. He felt himself useless for not keeping her happy. He couldn't fulfill her promise. He had vowed to himself to keep her smile intact but he couldn't.
The officers took her away while he kept standing there like a lost soul.........
************
Thanks to everyone who voted and commented on the last part❤❤❤
How's it? 😁😁
The reason why i didn't go deeper into medical terms is that i'm not a medical student. I would have researched but i didn't want to mess my mind with those "ajeebo greeb" names. I hate biology😬😬
Chemistry is bae😍😍
No offense to medical students..dil pe mat lena 😉😉