One Shot: Set Free
Aditya stared at the woman across the room, his eyes mesmerised by her beauty.
The honey like brown eyes sparkling with a smile as she talked to their clients, her smile radiant, her cheeks reddened slightly as she chuckled at something the client had said. Her long brown hair flowing in loose curls down to the small of her back flowing gently in the cool breeze that wafted into the room through the open balcony doors.
He wondered whether she should be looking so relaxed especially now that they had both come to learn the truth about their late partners. Should he be so relieved now that he had learned the truth? It had been 7 months since he had lost his wife, he had hated Zoya Siddiqui for nearly 4 months, he then started to pity her until he learned the truth last month. And he had told Zoya the truth about it.
"Zoya..." Aditya placed a hand over her shoulder seeing her standing so still.
Zoya broke out her consuming thoughts and stepped back, she covered her mouth, tears ran down her cheeks as she tried to take in the whole truth to the betrayal she had faced.
"Zoya" Aditya tensed and seemingly looked concerned for a moment. Zoya seemed pale, the colour from her skin seemed to have drained. In all the times, he had seen Zoya cry, he hadn't seen her so broken and this one stung him. He watched as she turned and ran away from him.
He had watched her for the last month, she had changed slowly, her behavior, she almost grew over the past weeks. She had become emotionally stronger, since that night he hadn't seen a tear. She hadn't even avoided looking right at him. Instead, she had met his gaze and discussed their clients and ideas.
But, how did this change come?
Before he could ponder further, the fire alarm went off causing confusion and panic as everyone looked around and started running.
He glanced around and looked directly where Zoya had been standing, he noticed her running towards the back of the building rather than the exit.
"Zoya" he yelled hoping she heard. "Zoya, where are you going?" he shouted once again. The fire alarm could be false, but it also could be real. He pushed through the crowd of screaming, panicking people and took off running behind her though it was getting difficult to follow with the thick crowds of people coming from different directions.
"Zoya" he looked around as many had left and the halls were now slowly getting thinner.
Looking around he noticed the smoke pillowing upwards from the third floor, his eyes widened seeing Zoya on the second floor stair case running up.
"Zoya" he yelled.
She hadn't heard him, she continued ahead.
He turned and ran, his pace picking up, he could the faint sirens of the fire alarms but it sounded it was quite a little distant yet and it wouldn't reach in time.
He reached the second floor and noticed the rubble that had fallen, he noted that some of the third floor had come apart.
"Zoya" he yelled louder as he reached the third floor and saw her crouched down.
Zoya glanced over her shoulder, "Aditya..." she sighed in relief.
"Zoya, what..."
"Mahi..." she pointed to an unconscious Mahi on the ground and her legs trapped by one of the machines.
"How did you..." he questioned.
"I noticed the fire and I saw Mahi fall down as she started running" she explained.
Aditya wondered what the woman was made of, she knew Mahi hated her so much, she knew Mahi was set on destroying whatever life she had left - yet she had come running risking her life.
"Okay, okay" Aditya stood grating his teeth, he had learned the procedure of dealing with such situations when he'd trained to become a pilot.
He walked around Mahi, checking where the machine was on her, he noted the sharp edge had impaled in her thigh. If he were to pull it out, she could potentially bleed out. He looked around, if they all stayed hanging around for much more longer they could possibly pass out and die of the amount of poisonous smoke they were inhaling. This isn't how he thought he'd die, he didn't want to die with the wife of the guy who had cheated with his wife. He shook off the thoughts and looked at Zoya, he could hear her breathing getting thicker and a sort of wheezing.
"Zoya, you need to leave. I'll get her out" he crouched down facing her.
"I'm not going anywhere, Mahi is Yash's sister. Had he been here, he wouldn't have left her side so I'm not leaving her" she shook her head adamantly.
"There is a time and place for your stubbornness, and there's a time and a place for your stupidity and now isn't the time for both" he growled.
"If you want to go; then go!" she scowled. "Help me or leave!" she stated firmly.
Aditya stared taken aback by her demanding tone, a couple of months she hadn't had a voice in that tiny frame of hers.
"Damn it" he cursed as he looked over his shoulder, the smoke was getting thicker, the walls had now started crumbling on the other side.
"Okay, okay" he murmured as he crouched down examining Mahi's leg once more. He stood walking around the unaffected areas of the room, he grabbed a pair of scissors, a cloth and returned to their side. He placed the items down, then started unbuckling his belt.
"What are you doing?" Zoya screamed.
"You've for a dirty mind" he snapped as he pulled his belt out and crouched down. "I'm going to lift this, you're going to put this cloth over her wound" he told her firmly.
Zoya swallowed thickly and nodded, Aditya then lifted the machine, Zoya placed the thick cloth over the open wound, she also felt queasy.
She looked away closing her eyes tightly, Aditya shoved the machine away and grabbed his belt. He wrapped it around tightly around the wound to stop the bleeding as much as possible.
"Right, come on now" Aditya lifted Mahi in his arms and walked forward. Zoya agreed and followed behind him hurriedly.
She glanced over her shoulder as the third floor started giving way, and the walls crumbled down. Aditya picked up his pace and hurried down the steps, he couldn't go to the elevators as they were out of use. He made it outside, sheens of sweat dotted his forehead and arms as he hurried towards one of the many ambulances that had been called to the scene.
"It's an open wound, impaled by a sharp metal object" he explained to the paramedic. "Uh family history is..." he looked over his shoulder frowning when he didn't notice Zoya.
"Zoya" he called. His heartbeats raced and fear crawled along his spine as he couldn't see her anywhere outside. He didn't think twice and went running inside without a care of the firemen yelling behind him.
"Zoya" he shouted as he ran back in the direction they had come from.
"Aditya" Her voice weak and almost like a whisper reached his ear as he arrived on the second floor. He found her trapped between the fire, it was as if it was surrounding her.
Zoya stares at him, the fire was high and violent as it surrounded her. The black thick smoke pushing through the crumbling patches of ceiling.
"Aditya..." she murmured as she turned her head looking for some path way to leave.
"I'm going to get you out, okay!" he told her and searched for something to help him to pull her out from the ring of fire.
"Aditya..." Zoya noticed the flammable object that was around the corner. The fire was spreading dangerously closer.
"Shit..." he murmured.
"Go from here, go" Zoya told him.
"No, I'm not going anywhere" he shook his head, he couldn't see a fire extinguisher around. His eyes drew to the flammable object, once the fire touches that, this floor was going down. He looked at Zoya, she smiled faintly, tears slid down her cheeks and she looked like she was accepting her seemingly supposed fate. This isn't how this is going to end.
He jumped back as a flame sparked forward and continued to spread rapidly, Zoya closed her eyes tilting her head up.
She wasn't going to accept this, and he wasn't going to let her. He shucked off his jacket, and rushed towards the water found, he pulled the bottle off and threw it over the jacket. He then pulled the jacket over his head and ran through the fire, Zoya opened her eyes surprised as she felt his solid chest almost pushing into hers.
"You're not going to accept this, this doesn't end like this" he told her firmly and pulled the jacket around her.
"What... what are you doing?"
"Saving you, like always" he responded softly.
"Come on" he held onto her and pulled her across, they'd pushed through the ring of fire however they weren't safe yet.
Zoya ripped her dupatta off noting it had caught on fire, Aditya pulled forward as more of the ceiling fell down.
"Come with me" he wrapped his arm around her shoulder keeping her covered with his wet jacket. Aditya hissed pushing Zoya forward as red hot fired rubble fell on his forearm instantly burning his skin. Zoya couldn't think long as he grabbed her and continued to run towards the exit. Aditya broke out coughing as he finally reached outside with Zoya with him.
Paramedics rushed to their aid offering them oxygen and getting Aditya into an ambulance to get his burns checked out. Zoya stood inhaling oxygen through the mask watching the paramedic examining his arm.
"He's going to be okay, right?" she asked.
"He'll have to have it checked and bandaged, it's mild luckily. It hadn't damaged more than the first layer of skin" the paramedic answered.
"If only you hadn't been so slow, I wouldn't be here" Aditya stated pulling the oxygen mask away.
"If you remember, I told you to leave" she scowled.
"So, your dead body could accuse me of murder?" he taunted.
"I would have left you" she informed.
Aditya smirked, "You couldn't leave the behind the girl who you know hates you, how would you have left me?"
"She's my sister in law so I'm bound, I'm not bound to you, Mr Hooda" she replied.
Aditya thought deeply over her words, he wondered as to why he had chased after her? Why had he almost cost his health and himself to save her?
Zoya stepped back and turned heading towards the ambulance where Mahi was being looked over. Once the paramedics ensured her that Mahi was going to be just fine, she watched them leave to head towards the hospital.
"Zoya" Aditya called just as the paramedics informed him they were going to have to take him to the hospital to have him checked.
"What?"
"This morning..." he paused for a moment, "you looked relaxed and... maybe happy. You didn't cry since that night, why?" he questioned.
"Now isn't the time for your questions" she stated crossing her arms.
"You want a ride to the hospital?" he asked. "You could ride with me in the ambulance".
She shook her head and climbed in the ambulance, "It isn't your permission I need" she informed. "You don't know the hospital or this ambulance" she added.
Aditya smirked, the doors closed and the paramedic at the front started the engine and drove.
"You didn't answer my question" Aditya reminded.
Zoya sighed heavily, she chewed on her lower lip and looked around for a while.
"Zoya" he prompted, he was curious to know what had made push herself to change.
"The night, you told me the truth and it hurt. It hurt to know that I was at fault for pushing... Yash to... towards someone else, it hurt but it set me free as well" she confessed. "The truth of my relationship set me free, I wanted answers for months, I wasn't getting them and when you told me, I felt hurt and relieved at the same time" she whispered, her voice heavy and thick.
Aditya somehow related to her feelings, he nodded silently and thought over the changes he'd seen in her, the painful truth seemed to have set her free. She wasn't shackled and clinging onto the perfect image of her husband, she wasn't clinging on blindly trying to persuade herself and everyone that her husband loved her immensely, she wasn't clinging on to the blind trust she seemed to have held on for so long.
"Why did you save me?" Zoya inquired arching her brows.
"Technically I'm your owner, so I was bound" he answered sarcastically.
"There's a time for stupid jokes, this isn't it" she narrowed her eyes.
He only smirked and closed his eyes, whilst Zoya watched him silently almost as if admiring him.
This is my first OS on AdiYa... I've kept the open ending so you can imagine where the story goes from here... (for me, it was a good place to end the one shot)
Whether I will write another one shot I'll think about it, no promises.
Hope you've enjoyed it though.
I've just kept up to date with the show by random viewings of the show here and there, I'm waiting for an emotionally stronger Zoya before I watch the show.
I do like the pairing of Harshad and Jennifer.
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