Legacy: AD One Shot!!!

Hey ppl!

Took a small hiatus from Revival to write this!
It is entirely different from anything I have written before about Aaryan and Deepika. So please let me know what you feel about it! :D

She sighed tiredly, looking up at the empty house. The shadows had lengthened and darkness had tiptoed around her, engulfing her in the layers of the past, of the future that would now never be.

Ajay chachu, Neha chachi, Boxer mamu and Shotgun uncle had left an hour before.

She put the kettle on the stove, adding milk and sugar. As the milk boiled, she put in two teaspoons of her favourite Madurai coffee. She lifted the kettle neatly and strained the confection. Gingerly taking a sip, a small smile spread on her face. Perfection of a good blend of coffee.

Coffee. Something that Ma despised. Something that she loved at the same time.

She picked up her cup and drifted off to the master bedroom of the apartment. She took in the meticulously made bed, without a crease. A roller on the dressing table and a light perfume. She sat on the bed and looked at the mirror.

The face that stared back at her had long arched eyebrows ... something that reminded her profusely of Ma. But the deep brown chocolaty eyes were a legacy from somebody else. She opened the bedside drawer and reached in for Ma's most priceless possession.

It was photo. A man and a woman stood side by side. She was staring up at him, with the same inexplicable expression. He was looking at the person who was taking the photograph. His eyes were the same as hers. Deep brown pools, the direct window to his soul. He was jesting, his face freezed in the middle of a smile, his laughing eyes, tantalizingly happy...

The brief moment was suspended in time. She used to come in this room since her childhood, tiptoeing to the drawer and pulling out the photo, hungry to feast her eyes from the person she would now never now. Hungry for what might have been. Hungry for what had been.

She remembered something from the past.

She was sixteen. Lying on the bed with her eyes closed, she heard the door open. She opened her eyes and looked up at the luminescent clock above. It was nearly 2:00 am.

She lay still, trying to judge the latecomer's actions from the noises. There was a pause, and the Ma came to the door of her room. She entered gingerly, tiptoeing in fear of waking the girl. She leaned over and kissed her. A small drop fell from Deepika's eye on her cheek. She lay still. A few minutes later, Deepika got up, and walked to her own room.

She sat up. She touched the wet spot on her cheek with her finger and her eyes welled up. She got up, and walked down the corridor to the door at the end.

It was not fully shut and dim light crept out into the dark corridor. She pushed it open, and stood in the doorway, looking inside.

Deepika was still in her office clothes. The navy blue suit was crumpled and her eyes were weary from fatigue. Standing there, She realized, even at fourty five, her mother was still beautiful.

Deepika was sitting on the floor, with a photo frame in her hand. She walked towards her mother quietly and sat down beside her.

And even though she knew from hurried conversations, Ajay chachu and Neha chachi's glowing words, Boxer mamu's and Shotgun uncle's praises, newspapers, other people and Ma's tears, she asked, "Who is that?"

Deepika looked at the girl sitting next to her - a splitting version of the man in the photo, and said, "That is the only man I ever loved."


She's brow furrowed as she noticed a thick black book lying underneath the photo. And behind it, there were nearly twenty to twenty five more. She had never seen them before. She fingered the faded gold lettering on them. Trapped between guilt and knowledge for more, she decided to choose the latter over the first. ma would have wanted her to know, she reasoned.

With a sigh, she thought back, and then pulled the one with the year before her birth.

21 June

Today's case shook me. A direct hit on Special Squad. I was frightened for the firt time in my professional life. Frightened for the man..Aaryan Khanna...


What Neha tells me is true- I know it...Does he?

She flipped a couple of pages before skimming to the entry she was interested in.

5 November

The page was drenched in tears, and so were the next few pages. There was not even a single word written on any of them.

Instead, she moved on to the next month.

15 December

Aaryan may have gone, but he has left something behind - our child.
I am pregnant.

And the child will take up both our names. Even though we were not married, he would not have wanted any of his child to be fatherless.

Neha agrees with this.

She smiled at the manuscript lovingly as the words reverberated in her ears. 'He was the only man I loved.'

She was a love child, as far as she knew. And she was proud of it, because the destiny had treated the two lovers harshly, and snatched up the man who was her father. And now her mother had gone away, leaving her all alone. She had gone in style, just like the man she loved, in a fierce encounter. At the age of fifty three, Deepika Ghosh, Chief, Special Squad had passed away, leaving her legacy behind her.

She put down her cup and kissed the picture lovingly. Her own tear fell on the glass surface as an ache rose in her heart.

She picked up the cup and the photo.


The next day, she walked proudly into the office, ignoring the gazes of condolence. She looked at the empty cabin and a huge urge of unshed tears gripped her heart. She just kept the photo on her shelf.

"Aaryana! New case!"

She looked back to see Deepen wave the phone at her. She got up immediately. Duty called.

(end cue, SS music)

Hey!! Nice start.......amazing thinking....Hope we have lot to go in future.... Congrats!! 😊 😊 😊

@nik : Hey Nik! Thanks for your comments! I am afraid this is it! Just a one shot! :D

Love it 😊
I KNEW the name would be Aaryana though!!
it's actually really sweet....I love it!

I cry happily and am proud of this legacy..... So so sweet........ Hope to get more one shots like these dears.... It was awesome and the way you said it clearly indicates Aaryana's life without her parents and who are with her.... As usual our team has done it.... 👍🏼

WOW Pooj!!!!😊😊

wonderful imagination.... wonderfully written..... 👏
simply awesm...👍🏼
wow.... n names.... Aaryana n Deepen.... ⭐️
earlier it ws AD... nw may b... DA....😳
keep going girl....👍🏼

Originally posted by: Aaditee

Love it 😊
I KNEW the name would be Aaryana though!!
it's actually really sweet....I love it!

Haha, you know me better! 😃
Glad that you liked it!

@Di:

Oh no Di, don't cry, look I am wiping away your tears! :D
I am glad that you liked it though!

@Sehar:

Hey! Thanks for those wonderful comments!

@Deepti:

Hey, i never thought of it that way, but look, wow wow wow! :D
What can i say??? AD and DA, the legacy lives on! :D