Chapter #2

He woke up suddenly: fraught with his heart pounding violently in his chest. It took a moment to remember where he was, and why, but everything came back to him as soon as he sat up. Immediately his eyes went to the closed bedroom door. He stood, unable to ignore the compelling need to enter the room. Mehek was in trouble; she needed him. He practically ran to the door, casting aside the one barrier that lay between them. Subtly was a non-issue now, if he had come up with a reason to explain why he was there in the dead of the night, then he would just have to come up with one.

He found only the nurse awake, vainly trying to subdue her agitated patient, who at first glance Shaurya thought was in the midst of a seizure. The nurse's calmness when he asked if he should call for help, belied the fact that they were dealing with an actual medical emergency, but it was more than clear that all was not well. When he reached the bed, he finally got a hint of the issue. Although she still slept, Mehek was well trapped in some terror that had invaded her rest.

"She has been like this for a while now. It's not abating in the least," the nurse stated. "I'm worried that she may hurt herself, if she doesn't come out it."

 As if to give truth to her words, Mehek's sobbing, interspersed with incoherent mutterings grew more vocal, more desperate. Unconsciously flailing in the bed, Mehek fought the caregiver's firm grip, as her breathing became more erratic.

"She may need sedation. I think we should call..."

"Go, Shaurya commanded. "I will stay with her while you confer with Dr. Arora."

The pair switched places, with Shaurya taking the extra step of moving the sleeping woman from the edge of the bed and getting into it; sitting up against the headboard and pulling her body to his. He held his wife, imploring her to calm down and then began shushing her with additional soft words of comfort. Perhaps it was his imagination, but he swore that she settled a bit the more he talked, and so he kept at it. He poured his heart out, hoping that somehow, he was reaching her, in speaking all the things he had yearned to say to her in the last months when she had been gone. He spoke of their love to reaffirm the troubled woman he embraced that she was safe now that she was back home with him. He repeated this, as much for his benefit as hers, for until that moment: when he finally had her back in his arms he hadn't understood how much, for his own sanity, he had needed to express the thoughts he had internalized while he had searched for his beloved. It was a catharsis that allowed, after so long, his stress to evaporate and his own heart slow down to a rate he swore it hadn't been at for weeks. His release became her comfort and vice versa.

The pair were fast asleep when at last the nurse returned with the young doctor in tow. Having expected the worst from what she had been told, Sareena was left surprised. Although perhaps she shouldn't be: the man's love for his wife was palpable so it was not surprising that he would be the one to be able to assuage her distress.   However, it was Mehek's position that proved the more telling revelation.  While Shaurya had come to lay on his back in the bed, holding his wife to him with one arm, it was Mehek who had practically draped herself over his body. Her head rest directly over his heart and she had basically entwined herself around him with her limbs. One hand had reached out to capture his bandaged one, and her legs were completely entangled with his. It was if she was couldn't bear to be apart from him; this man who when she was awake, she had not acknowledged at all. Sareena examined the intimate scene before her, amazed. "It's as if her subconscious recognizes him," she wondered aloud, noting also that not a trace of the acute anxiety the nurse had described remained on Mehek' face. In actual fact, neither did it on her husband's, who looked completely transformed in his untroubled sleep. If she was to take an educated guess, she would say that both husband and wife were for the first time getting the peaceful rest that probably had eluded them both in recent months.

"Leave them be," Sareena advised, "But just to be on the safe side, wake up Mr. Khanna before Mehek rises, so he can move back into the living-room."

*********

It had to be this bed, Meera thought as she stretched her arms above her. She couldn't remember the last time she had woken up feeling so refreshed, and with such a hearty appetite. She felt raring to go, to do what she had no clue, just that she wanted. She was probably being overzealous, since if today progressed as her days had of late, she would be ready for a rest before noon. She, frowned wondering if this was something she should speak to the doctor about. The nurse who had been attending her had advised her not to get up yet, at least until after her meal or the doctor had come. That had been a while now, and she hoped her one or the other would soon happen.

In the living room, Sareena removed the blood pressure cuff from Shaurya's arm. His numbers had been great, and this was one time she wished she had some previous report to compare against. It was natural to presume that the man who had been under constant stress for the last ten weeks, would have put his own wellbeing on the backburner, so before he went gung ho into full restoration mode of his spouse she wanted to ensure that he was fit enough to care for the two of them in the first instance. She saw she was already losing him, when he became distracted by the arrival of the room service order, presumably for Mehek. Hastily the man intercepted the server and took the tray that he would have delivered to the bedroom.

"Wait," Sareena called out, and approached the man anxious to meet his wife.

Shaurya stood still, assuming that the physician wanted to review the meal that he had ordered for his wife. He smiled as Sareena did just that, aware that she wouldn't find fault in any of the dishes, as he had followed her instructions to the letter.

"And your breakfast, Shaurya? What are you having this morning? Anything more than the coffee you were drinking when I arrived?"

"Uhh..."

Sareena retrieved the tray from the man, and turned to the server who had remained in the suite. "Please bring Mr. Khanna some breakfast. Something comparable to this will suffice." She then refocused on the man in question. "Your health is as important, Shaurya, especially right now. It is not only your wife who needs to recover. And especially since you will, in the interim have to be responsible for her as well, it is paramount that you do not neglect yourself. I will take the tray in, as I would like to speak to Mehek about what we will be doing today. In the meantime, you eat your own meal."

"But..."

"No buts Mr. Khanna," Sareena remarked as she headed for the bedroom.

 She probably would have take back everything she had thought about the resort manager, Meera thought, after Shaurya had knocked on the door and offered to take her tray. He wasn't dressed for work today. The doctor had said that he was going to accompany them to the medical center today to get his injury checked out, but she hadn't believed that until this very moment. She was happy that it looked like she was wrong though and smiled at the man, ignoring Dr. Arora's interest in her actions.

"Namaste Shaurya, how are you?"

"Fine thank you, and you Ms. Sharma, did you rest well?"

"Haan I did."

"And your breakfast, Ms. Sharma?"

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him to call her by her given name, when she suddenly realized that she didn't want him to at all. If not familiar, there was something charming about the way he said it. Unware of it, she frowned, as she wondered why this was so.

"Ms. Sharma?"

She blinked, and pasted a smile on her face. "Nahi, I mean... breakfast was delicious. I am completely full." She glanced over to the full glass of water that she was expected to drink. "In every sense of the word." She glanced at Dr. Arora, who looked about to speak. "But I shall, do just as you have instructed, doctor."

Shaurya watched as his wife drank the contents of the glass. Sareena had advised that it would be best to get a scan right away instead of waiting for any bloodwork to comeback; she was that certain of Mehek's pregnancy, so better to err on the side of caution and have her arrive to the hospital already with the full bladder that the scan would necessitate.  How they intended to handle disclosing her pregnancy to her, he had no idea, and he could only imagine what Mehek's reaction would be if the doctor's suspicion proved correct.

*********

The knife she had held seconds ago clattered to the floor, its impact bringing Shaurya out of the reverie back to the time when he had gotten his life back.

"Ah...ahhh, oh God," Mehek cried out suddenly, leaning forward and grasping for the edge of the workstation.  In the process, she upended the cutting board holding the vegetables she had been slicing. Her eyes wide, she immediately turned her head towards the man who had been her salvation in these past months, attempting to call out his name. All she could manage was to mouth it, before her breath was taken by the mounting grip that tightened her stomach.  

"Mehek!"

She was too far gone; so lost in her pain, that she didn't notice his slip up and when she did say something, Shaurya became too upset to be concerned.

"I-I think I've waited too long, she ground out."

"What..."

"You n-needed the...help today, Shaurya. You would have never..."

"Of for God's sake, have you been...how long have been in labour?"

"Don't shout at me..."

Shaurya's answer was to lift her into his arms. Mindful of the spilled vegetables at his feet, he gingerly stepped around them, and called out to his executive chef who stood ready to do anything else his boss would require.

"Chef," Shaurya called out.

The man answered him as he expected him to.

"Hina has been notified. She and the medical team will meet you in the suite, Shaurya Sir."

"Su-uite...wha... ohh...it hurts Shaurya."

Shaurya hastened his exit.

He had never carried anything more precious; never would have a greater purpose than he would have now.

"Breath Jaan, just breath, thik hai...I've got you

Chapter 3

[NOCOPY]

crtkelly2017-11-11 08:38:56