Difficult times we are all facing because off the lockdown. Everyone stay safe and healthy and most importantly follow social distancing and wear a mask at all times.
Dhruv Meghdha's POV
I walked around the area to see if there were any places that bastard would have locked up Arvindha.
" Bro there's a broken warehouse far north-east from where we are." Sandeep said approaching me with a GPS in hand.
Sandeep had managed to track the call but it was still difficult as we didn't have the exact location. We followed the direction he had mentioned.
Soon enough we reached the warehouse, but there was smoke coming out from inside. Cursing under my breath I moved forward only to be stopped by Sunny, " It's dangerous to break in bro, let's call the team."
" You do that and wait here, I'll be fine." I said and moved towards the entrance leaving no space for arguements.
I cursed under my breath at the minister who had caused this, this was the lowest he could get to, to ruin the Royal lineage. Like that would happen till I'm alive. Finding Arvindha wasn't a problem cause the door had no tough lock on it and it was out with a single bullet shot.
The room was filled with smoke and where I stood the flames had shot up to the ceiling, I was sure the structure won't last long as it was already old.
Entering the room I had to fight off a coughing fit, before my eyes focused on a figure lying on the floor. Panick rose in me thinking she was dead. I rushed to her side, and made her sit up against my knee, and I reached to check her pulse at her neck, as her wrists were bruised.
But for an unknown reason my hands shook and I brushed it off convincing myself it was because she looked just like Juhi. And at that thought I felt my body shake in anger, thinking about Juhi in this condition and involuntarily I pressed hard against her pulse, only to feel it beating steadily but I caused her to end up coughing due to the pressure I applied.
Sighing in relief I picked her up in my arms, just in time to see a beam from above fall downwards and I dashed out and ran till I reached the outside area where Sandeep came rushing towards me.
"Is she alright? " he asked with concern etched on his features.
" For now she is, but her lungs will have to be cleared of the smoke she took in. Open the car door." I instructed. I placed Arvindha on the back seat and made her lie down.
I went towards the driver's seat, and I instructed Sunny to clear things up here.
Arvindha Bhatia's POV
I felt like I was floating and there was immense pain in my head. I felt someone holding my hand and I knew I wansn't dead. This realization gave me strength to open my eyes.
I faced Svasthi's worried face first.
" She's awake." She screamed. Soon Rishab, Juhi and Sandeep's faces filled my field of vision as they loomed over me with expressions of relief.
I tried to sit up and was helped by Svasthi who adjusted the pillow for me.
" Now move, she just got up. Let her drink some water." Vijayanthi ma said as she forwarded a glass of water to my lips to drink and I emptied its contents gratefully.
When I was finally settled, I looked around the room and strangely no one spoke. Especially Svasthi who would have busted me with questions by now.
" Why are you all so quite?" I questioned softly and like a trigger had been pulled, Svasthi launched herself at me hugging me as she struggled to speak while crying. Caught off guard I didn't know what to do but pat her back and tell her I was fine.
" Do you know how scared I was? I thought I had lost you." She sobbed while still holding me like I was gonna dissapear.
Listening to her my heart filled with warmth, " And you thought you could get rid of me so easily huh?" I asked and she punched my shoulder lightly laughing. Atleast I was able to lighten the mood.
Rishab stood to one corner and when I looked towards him, he walked away without saying a thing.
Confused I looked around to see if anyone could tell me what had happened, and then Juhi said " He blames himself for what happened, though we tried to tell me it wasn't. If anything the fault is ours for not protecting you better."
" No please don't say that. I was stupid enough to leave without the disguise despite of knowing the situation here. And see I'm not even hurt" , I said as I raised my hands to prove my point only to see my wrists banged. Oops I spoke too fast.
" I'm sorry Arvindha you shouldn't have to face this." Juhi said and I shook my head at her telling her it was okay.
" You should rest, as you're tired. Plus you had a lot of smoke in your lungs, so take it easy. We'll send you the dinner here only" it was Sunny who said that as he pushed Juhi's wheelchair out of the room.
Svasthi told me she was going to go and talk Rishab out of his stupid thinking, and I nodded my head in approval. I closed my eyes in exhaustion and adjusted myself on the bed. That's when I realised I was in my room in the palace.
Few moments later I heard someone enter the room, figuring it was Svasthi I opened my eyes only to see Dhruv with a plate of food.
A sudden heat covered my cheeks as memories of me accepting my feelings towards him in the warehouse, when I thought I was going to die came back rushing into my head. But now that I was healthy and alive I didn't know how to act. Forget that I didn't even know what to say right now. You should thank him for saving you, my mind said and I agreed with it.
" How do you feel?" He questioned.
" I'm ok I guess. Thank you for saving me today. " I told him all the while focusing on the bandages on my wrists.
He hummed in response, before saying " How could you be so stupid to get out without your disguise? Do you realise how much trouble you've caused ?" He snapped at me.
I don't know what came over me, but him pushing the fault solely on me angered me, I snapped back, " Yeah I'm so sorry for looking like the Princess and walking into a suicide mission, and thank you for saving me though you had no obligation to do it. " I said looking into his eyes equally angered at how he could only see the trouble I had caused and not the situation I was in.
Like realization dawned on him, he opened his mouth to speak but I stopped him saying, " If you're gonna talk about how reckless I was then do it later, I'm tied and hungry. Give me the food. " I commanded.
Taken aback my anger he passed me the plate. But with cuts on my wrists, eating was proving to be difficult and with Dhruv sitting there looking at me, even made swallowing difficult.
" I'm done" I said pushing away the plate after only eating one- third of the rice. Though I was hungry, no way in hell I was going to ask his for help, for all he thinks of me is a problem causer.
" You are supposed to eat the whole thing as directed by Svasthi." He told me and I showed him my wrists having no energy to talk.
Taking the plate from my lap, he forwarded the spoon towards my mouth, and I looked at him shocked. Cause out of all the things I thought he would do, feeding me wasn't on my list. When I still looked at him unsure, he pushed the spoon firmly against my lips, and said " Open up." So I did.
The next ten minutes he fee me and I ate in silence trying to not think too much about his 180 degree change in behaviour. After that he helped me drink water and passed me the painkillers. Just as I finished taking them, Miss.Akansha the physiotherapist entered the room.
" How do you feel? I'm here just to check your wrists." She said and I replied I was fine and forwareded my hands towards her. After inspecting them she told me all was fine and there wasn't anything to worry about as the cuts were only from the ropes and weren't deep.
" You know as selfish as this sounds I'm happy that it was you and not Juhi, cause if she had inhaled so much smoke in her current condition, she could've been paralyzed for life. And all my physiotherapy would have been a waste of time. " she told me with an apologetic smile and somehow I understood her and even I felt relieved.
As Akansha left I realized Dhruv or maybe I should call him Mr.Hotheaded? Was still in the room.
I closed my eyes trying my best to ignore his presence.
" You can stop acting, cause you're terrible at it." I heard Mr.Hothead comment and groaning I opened my eyes only to see him on the chair next to the bed.
" What do you want now? " I snapped still bitter from his previous accusations.
" Look I'm sorry for lashing out at you, but I'm still right. It wouldn't have happened if you hadn't been so reckless." There we go, again he's defending his actions but this time I knew he was right.
Oh really or is it because you have feelings for him now? My brain mocked. Embarrassed at my thoughts and mental arguements I only nodded my head agreeing with him. Cause he was right this time in all honesty.
Soon all the others joined and even Rishab was here. I gestured for him to come forward and when he did I held his ears, " How could you blame yourself for what happened today? Are you also becoming childish after treating children all the time?" I chided and he gave me an apologetic smile.
" I'm sorry Arvi. Now please let my ears go or I won't be able to hear the children cry when I give them shots." He exclaimed trying to get out of my hold and I did let him go cause he's back to his usual self.
" Are you a sadist or what? Happy to hear children cry?" Svasthi snickered from beside him and he shot her a nasty look before turning towards Juhi, " You said you wanted help in organising the excel sheets for medicine stock right, let's go I'll help you now." He said taking hold of the wheelchair from Sunny.
" I'll be downstairs if you need me, there are few patients to be attended too." Svasthi informed me.
Remembering Tara's baby girl, " Svasthi how is the baby? Is she healthy? Did she get her BCG vaccine? " I questioned.
" Yeah she's healthy as a horse and don't worry Rishab took care of her vaccination. Now you get some rest, I'll get back to you." She said as she reached to hug me.
Dhruv was still here but I didn't know what to say to him. Plus all the feelings were making it even harder to be around him. For one I didn't know if he would ever like me, cause in all our interactions so far he was just plain rude.
Ok not that I had many interactions and yeah he wasn't completely rude, but still. I was pulled out of my thoughts when I saw Dhruv move closer to my bed. As he stood in front of me I noticed there was a bandage going around his shoulder and disappearing into his shirt collar.
" What happened to your shoulder? Are you fine? Is it serious? Do you need me to check?" I asked in worry and scolded myself for not realizing earlier he was injured.
" Its nothing just a wooden beam scraped me when I got you out. I'm fine. " he answered me and that too politely rather than snapping at me or ordering me.
I nodded my head and asked " What happened to the minister?"
" Of course he escaped after leaving you there. And still there's no evidence to prove his crime so that I can put him behind bars." Dhruv spoke barely containing his anger.
" I'm sorry for asking but what kind of a relationship did Juhi and the ministers son have? Cause he was acting all apologetic towards me even when he abducted me." I couldn't help but ask cause this has been bothering me all day long and I didn't want to ask in front of Juhi.
" No that's okay. Given that you were put in her place, I think you deserve to know about it." He sighed and lowered himself onto the chair.
" Juhi and Rohan were engaged for six months before the king and queen broke off their peace treaty after getting to know their true intentions. But Rohan fell in love with Juhi during that period of time and so did Juhi. So things got nasty when the engagement was broken off. Rohan tried to convince the king that he had nothing to do with his father's plan but the king didn't trust him and refused to let them be together. Three months passed and Juhi was still recovering from a heartbreak, trying to focus on her dancing career, when Raghuveer planned an accident that killed the king and queen." When he finished the story , my mouth was hanging open, cause out of all things I hadn't thought of them to be lovers.
I had thought it was just a platonic peace treaty.
But oh boy how wrong I was.
And suddenly thinking about all that Juhi had to go through without any of it being her fault made me empathize with her.
I remembered the suggestion Dhruv had made and I decided it was the least I could do, if at all if it could help with their current situation. Plus after hearing how dangerous it would've been for Juhi to have been in my place today, I decided to take a leap of faith and help her as her friend.
I know Svasthi is gonna be angered but that can be dealt with. Veer ajja always said you should never back off from helping someone especially when you are in a position to give help. And I was the only one who could help them. Making up my mind I turned my body towards Dhruv,
" I'm willing to represent Juhi in the press conference." I told him with conviction and his eyes widened at my sudden declaration.
" Are you sure Arvindha cause then there will be no backing out." He told me sternly and I knew he was speaking the truth once again only trying to make me aware of my choices.
" I'm hundred percent positive Dhruv, and I'm not backing out until Juhi is ready." I told him.
Then what he did next shocked me cause he gave me a full blown smile with sincerity shining in them. If I could get lost in his eyes I totally would.
Of course you would, your head over heels for him, my brain reminded me and I just told myself shut up cause it made no sense to argue with ones inner conscious.
" Trust me Arvindha I'm never letting you get hurt as long as I'm here and I promise to keep you safe. Just trust me." He told me as he held my hands in him, and small tingles rose where he placed his hands and I had to stop myself from sighing due to the ticklish sensations.
" I trust you Dhruv." I told him looking into his eyes.
" Then I'll go inform dad and ajja about this, they'll be elated. You have no idea how much you've helped us." He left the room and I fell back onto the pillows, hoping I had made the right decision and praying to my mom and dad to guide me.
Thinking about that made me realise I hadn't called Veer ajja. So I made a note to myself to call him first thing tomorrow in the morning, and also to get myself a new phone cause Svasthi told me I had lost mine in today's fiasco.
Do vote, comment and like.
It motivates me a lot to write quicker and update.