Thank you for all the wOnderful, wonderful comments......I really appreciate them.
bktr, I'd leave the law but my mommy would kill me!!!!!
News Flash guys, now I know this seems to come a lot lately with me but it is something that I have to do. I will be shifting continents this week and sorry to say but for a while I will be out of commission. You guys are going to have to give me at least two weeks to settle in.
Sorry about the gap but I gotta do me right? SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!
PART 5:
The car pulled up in front of Walia Mansion and Krishna, Jigyasa, Aditya and Uday were there waiting for him. Jigyasa was the first to get to him as he alighted from the car.
'Bhaiya!' she exclaimed and flung herself on him, tears of worry falling from her eyes.
'Arre yaar, if I was sick and dying what would you do?' he teased her, holding her in his embrace, his smile very much tired.
'Bhaiya!' she protested and pouted as he laughed gently, 'Well what if the elevator had dropped, huh?'
'But it didn't happen,' he said, as they proceeded up the ten step stairs, 'No reason to 'if' the situation away.'
He stopped in front of his parents who looked reassured now that he was standing before them, knowing he would not in that horrible situation.
He bent to touch first Uday and then Krishna's feet. Like a child they both enveloped him in a hug.
'How are you?' Kirshna asked.
He raked his already unruly hair, 'I guess I'm as fine as can be right now.'
'Come, you need to go change and wash up,' she took his hand and pulled him into the house and up the stairs, barely letting him acknowledge Tony's greeting.
Half an hour later after being fussed over by Krishna and Jigyasa who were running up and down in his room, getting his clothes, insisting on combing his hair, moving his dirty clothes to the laundry basket'Jai was thoroughly amused.
'I should get stuck in elevators more often,' he teased them both.
'Well next time, do it after I'm dead,' Krishna said.
'Now why do you have to go and talk about death?' Jigyasa groaned, getting teary and all set to cry.
Jai rolled his eyes, thinking to himself that he would be happy when the hormones stopped playing havoc with his sister's nerves. He now knew first hand what she would have to go through and he wasn't sure he liked the idea of his sister being put through that much pain.
'Now, now Jigs,' he took her by the shoulder in a brotherly hug and consoled her, 'She only means not to scare her like that again. She didn't mean death-death.'
Jigyasa sniffed and nodded like a sulky little child, 'Now quit crying before that child of yours becomes like you'always crying.'
She elbowed him this time in protest and he laughed, 'And here I was worried about you, yet you're teasing me like this.'
'Okay you two, down to dinner,' Krishna ordered them, shooing them out the door.
At the table, Krishna had made sure they weren't having anything like soup as she knew for a fact what it would do to Jai to see all that right now. Certainly nothing that would remind him of the experience.
'So, how did the meeting go?' Uday asked.
Jai gave the slightest pause gefore continuing nonchalantly, 'Well, it went well. They do have good software and I think it can work. Besides, I need to know who comes into my office at odd hours.'
'Some one comes into your office? How come this is the first I'm hearing about this?' Pushkar asked, not liking that Jai had kept that from him.
'Relax, it's not like anything gets stolen,' Jai said, 'It's just that stuff gets moved around and the cleaners say they didn't do it.'
'What about the cameras?' Pushkar asked.
'Apparently the cameras catch nothing,' Jai said pensively, 'That never occurred to me before.'
'How would it? You're too busy getting caught in elevators,' Pushkar was upset about being kept out of the loop.
'Now boys, be nice,' Uday said.
'But if the cameras catch nothing, does that not mean that the video feeds are being tampered with?' Aditya asked.
'Possibly,' Jai said as he munched away, still thinking.
'I think we need to set up an independent one to find out who does the breaking in,' Pushkar said.
'I'll get to it,' Aditya said.
They ate in companionable silence for a while and then Krishna asked suddenly, 'How is the woman?'
'Bani is fine,' Jai said in reflex, 'Tarun should have her tucked safely away somewhere. I'll find that out later.'
There was silence around the table as everyone had stopped eating and were now looking at him in stunned silence. Noticing the lack of activity around him he looked up to find them watching him.
'What?'
Uday cleared his throat, 'Er'Bani?'
Jai frowned, 'Yes, Bani. Is there a problem?'
'You know her name?' Jigyasa asked.
'I just said it didn't I?' he asked, still confused as to their reaction.
'I think what they're so tactfully trying to say is how come you know her by her first name?' Pushkar supplied.
He swept the table with an incredulous gaze, 'Are you people kidding me? I was in the elevator with that woman for almost four hours and you find it weird that I know her name?'
'Not weird that you know her name'' Krishna began, 'It's just'.there's'.familiarity when you say her name.'
He put his fork down slowly and looked at her, 'I pulled two little boys out of that woman a few hours ago Ma. How can she not be familiar to me?'
'Come on Jai, we didn't mean it like that,' Krishna said easily, 'It's just that for a second there I was convinced you had known her before today.'
There was a murmur of agreement as they resumed eating, a comfortable silence falling around the table. Jai picked up his fork to eat, his expression had gone unreadable and Pushkar who knew Jai like the back of his hand shrugged inwardly as he recalled the conversation between Jai and Tarun.
Whatever Jai said, he knew that there was more to this story than he was letting on. He didn't rightly know the full story and only when he did could he guess where his friend was going with this, or what he was planning. For now he would hold his peace, but that brief pause told him that Aparajeet was in for a rough time. It was times like this that Jai's bloodline showed itself. It should never happen that he comes in contact with a person wronged and he would do nothing about it if it was in his power to help. This was why he understood Jai's moving the woman'Bani to a different hospital. The true reason, he would find that out soon enough.
Bani wasn't even paying attention to her surroundings as she and the babies were wheeled into a hospital. It was only they were wheeled to a stop in a homely looking room that Bani stopped to take stock of where they were. The babies were taken away for a routine check and she was checked too by Tarun, to make sure that the elevator environment which wasn't exactly sterile and in which she had given birth, had not caused her to catch some kind of infection or whatever. It was however when they were done and her sons brought in that it finally occurred to her that the faces here were unfamiliar and the surroundings were definitely different from his hospital.
'Tarun,' she asked in confusion, 'Where are we?'
He paused, wondering if he should tell her the truth. Thinking of all that she had been through today and knowing the need to not stress her any further, decided against it.
'I thought it would be better to bring you here,' he said carefully, 'Seeing as you were delivered of twins by a media favorite who is newsworthy news any day of the week, I thought it would be better to give you some privacy in a separate hospital where I would personally be attending to you.'
'Really?' she was elated, obviously having selective hearing right now as she went back to her cooing boys who seemed to be trying to understand their new surroundings.
'I'll have a special nurse who will be attending to you personally so you don't have to worry about a thing.'
'Okay,' she said, totally engrossed in tracing a line along the cherubic face of one of the boys who was still, as though trying to memorize the touch so he knew when this person touched him the next time. 'Wait!'
Tarun stopped on his way to go and speak with the Chief of Staff, 'Yes Bani?'
'You know I can't afford a private ward'how am I going to pay for this?' she turned worried eyes on him.
He smiled gently, 'Consider it my treat for an unusual birth, besides, Chief of Staff here owes me big time.'
'I couldn't'' she began.
He waved her off, 'I'll send the Nurse in soon to help you feed them.'
She needn't have said anything, her eyes said it all, 'Thank you.'
He nodded, 'I will see you first thing tomorrow. Good night Bani.'
'Good night Tarun,' she smiled, and immediately turned back to her precious, precious boys.
She was more than happy to stare at their faces all evening. They were beautiful'just beautiful. Looking at a tiny yawn from one of them she cooed at him.
'Tired aren't you?' she lined the tiny pink lips, 'You took your sweet time coming out didn't you?'
He just stared unseeingly at her. It was funny how she could tell which was which when they didn't even have a single distinguishing feature'well not that she'd seen anyway. The nurses had bathed and cleaned them and being fed, the first boy out was already asleep. Slowly, he too fell asleep. When she was sure they were going to be asleep for a while, she lay back down and closed her eyes, a fresh wave of fatigue washing over her.
It did occur to her to think what would have happened had she been alone in that elevator. But God being so kind to her, she had been in the elevator with Jai Walia. An ironic smile crossed her lips as images flashed behind her closed lid. He had gone from sarcastic by-stander to almost husband-like supporter. No doubt the whole delivery process had put the fear of God in him'.
Thinking on these things, she fell asleep.
'How the hell could you not see him off?' Karan bellowed at Aparajeet.
'What the hell do you mean 'see him off'?' Aparajeet shot back, 'After the spectacle he had witnessed in the office, do you really think I had any face to show him?'
'Damn it!' Karan banged his fist on the table.
'Look, I suggest you calm down and let's seek a solution to the problem at hand,' Pia suggested.
They were in the Conference room again, having arrived late and being told that his ex-girlfriend had just been delivered of twins in one of the elevators that had blown a fuse and had taken almost four hours to correct. And of all people to have delivered her of the babies if the news was true, Jai Walia! Imagine their shock to see it flashed across the news in the bar-restaurant Aparajeet had gone to meet them in after Karan had dragged Pia out of the building.
Aparajeet ran his hand through his hair in frustration. It was just his luck that only that morning he was sure he had sold Jai Walia on the Security software program. Now what would happen they had no idea'the man was after all known for his unpredictable nature in almost all that he did. No one could guess where he was coming from until he got to you'and he never forgot a wrong. Or so they said anyway.
'Think we should call him up and apologize for having being stuck with her?' Karan asked.
'We could call him,' Aparajeet said rubbing his eyes, 'But not today. It would be too obvious we're trying to salvage something. We'll call him first thing tomorrow'give him the usual BS about having heard later that night and hoping he's okay.'
'That could work. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out if we still have him in the bag or not,' Pia said.
A silence fell over the room and no one spoke for a while as if they were all trying to figure out what step to take next in case the present one didn't work out. Karan spoke first.
'Aren't you even going to find out?' Karan asked into the silence.
Pia and Aparajeet both looked confused.
'Find out what?' Aparajeet was genuinely clueless.
Karan shook his head in disbelief, 'If she and the babies are okay.'
For a moment he looked as though he didn't comprehend what Karan was saying, then it dawned on him. An angry look then crossed his face.
'Why should I care?' he snapped in irritation, 'That idiot may just have cost me the opportunity of a lifetime to get in with the big dogs on my own, and you ask me to find out how she is?'
Karan shook his head, 'Look Aparajeet, we all know that those kids are your no matter what you say. The least you can do is find out how they are.'
'Look whatever okay? I'm going home'this is not how I saw today ending. See you guys when I see you.'
With that he left them sitting there and headed out. He sat in his car and released a breath he hadn't known he was holding. Damn that woman, he thought, she just had to show up today itself. Couldn't she have picked tomorrow? He recalled her bursting into the office and giving him an earful'well he and Walia, but what the hell men, she shamed him in the worst possible way! In front of a client! One thing was sure, he wouldn't spare her if he lost the deal.
Starting the car, with a squeal of tyre and rubber on tar, the car sped away into the night.
Jai was escorted to his room by Jigyasa and his mother, neither one listening to his plea to stop treating as though he were five. Needless to say, the had pampered him like a prized bull until he had fallen into fatigue induced sleep, his mother and sister chatting away until they realized he was no longer conscious. They left him to sleep in peace.
Sometime during the night, Jai began to toss and turn'his sleep fitful as he wrestled in his dream'a dream that seemed all too real.
She was screaming in pain, drenched in sweat and absolutely terrified. The elevator seemed to swing and lurch and though he tried to console her that nothing would happen, found himself getting as scared as she was.
'Save me!' she cried, hanging on to him as though for dear life, 'Please save me!'
But what could he do? Their precarious position made it almost impossible to do much. The elevator lurched again and she screamed, clutching her stomach protectively but there being nothing she could do to save the babies from what seemed like impending death.
'Hold still!' he said, 'I'll'.'
The rest of his words were lost as there was a snapping sound, elevator gave a final groan and began to free fall to the bottom of the building. Last thing he heard were her terrified yet helpless screams as they plunged to their deaths'''..
He jackknifed to a sit up, truly drenched in sweat and breathing erratically. He looked around the room to make sure he was at home and in his room. The dream had been so real'. His throat had gone dry with the terror of what he had had to face and worse still, what he had had to go through to bring those children into this world only yesterday.
With a shaky hand, he reached out and filled a glass with water, drinking thirstily. Knowing fully well he would be unable to sleep, he threw back the covers and went into the bathroom to wash his face. He returned and went out to his balcony where the early morning breeze blew gently across his skin, cooling the otherwise heated surface. The first rays of sun had begun to ting the skies a wonderful pink glow at the eastern end. And just like that, another day. He was sure his mother wouldn't let him go to work so he felt he was going to have to sneak out.
He thought about her again''.Bani. It was a nice name, and she was a nice girl. Young too. It was obvious that a small town girl would be taken in by the bright lights and the glitz and glamour of the big city Mumbai, and sadly, she had fallen victim to the worst kind. None other than Aparajeet. The conversation in their Conference room came back to him. The girl had at least given them a tongue lashing befitting of what they deserved, but that didn't provide what she was going to need to take care of those two boys.
He remembered the second birthing. What on earth had possessed him to do what he did? Stranger still, it seemed the child had listened to him! He really was amazed by the whole process of giving birth'..truly it was a miracle! But the pain'..Lord she had been in so much pain. And she was so small'.how did she ever get to carry twins in the first place?
Stupid question, he knew the answer to that one. Still, she must have gone through a lot in the nine months it took to carry those children to term. She obviously did it all alone'.all alone.
His jaw tightened at the thought. No woman should have to go through a thing like pregnancy alone'but here it was the sad fact. A though occurred to him and a slow smile crossed his face. Well then, it would make for a great past time'.
The sun had now cast different hues across the morning sky and it all came together in a glorious announcement of another day that God had created. He wondered how she slept, if she slept at all'.
The following morning, Bani woke to the cries of her children. She was quick to sit up and had just swung herself over the side of the bed when Tarun walked in, bright and breezy.
'Good morning love, how did you sleep?' he asked, coming in and giving her a brotherly hug.
'Funny enough, quite well,' she smiled as she stretched.
'Good morning boys,' he leaned over the crib and spoke to them and they immediately stopped crying, sensing the presence of someone else, 'Hope you didn't trouble your mother much during the night.'
'They were little angels,' Bani said, picking up the boy who had come out first, 'This is one is such a crier.'
'Is he now?' Tarun was amused, 'He did come out first na?'
'Impatient I think,' Bani said with a smile as Tarun cradled the second one in his arms, 'You look right at home.'
'I have birthed a lot of children since I began to practice silly, and this is the first time I get to carry a sister's child.'
Bani stared at him in stunned silence as he cooed to the silent baby in his arms. This was the first time he had called her sister'steady tears sprang to her eyes as she watched him. It warmed her heart that at least in this cold and horrible city, there was something good that came out of all this. He had indeed been a brother to her. For all the help he had given her, there was no way she could repay him.
'Tarun,' she said softly, 'How long am I going to be here?'
He looked at her now and hesitated. Her question just reminded him that he had not spoken to Jai Walia just yet. After all he needed to inform him of where she was and how she was doing.
'How about I let you go take a shower first, get some food in you so you can feed these hungry little lads eh?' he said instead with a warm smile, 'Then we'll talk.'
'Tarun'' she began.
'Doctor's orders,' he said firmly, replacing the baby and taking the other boy from her, motioned her towards the en suite bathroom, 'I took the liberty of getting you something clean to wear. If I get your size wrong, then don't blame me. I am a man after all.'
She smiled in return of his cheeky grin and with one last look at the boys, entered the bathroom and bolted the door. No sooner had she done that than Tarun replaced the baby and pulled put his cell, stepping out of the room. He dialed Jai's number.
'Hello,' came Jai's baritone voice from the other end.
'Morning Jai,' Tarun said easily.
'Morning, how are you?'
'Much better after a good night's rest. You?'
'How do you think I slept?'
Tarun chuckled, 'Yeah, but give it some time and I promise the shock will wear off and it'll be like nothing happened.'
'That's what you say, but then again you are a doctor,' Jai said, the gentle smile clearing his voice.
Tarun took a deep breath, 'I brought Bani and the boys to Aastha Memorial Hospital. The Chief owed me a favor.'
'And they are under close watch?'
'Yes.'
'Tell me, what was the role of the father in her pregnancy?' Jai asked rather uninterestedly.
Tarun knew Jai was not one to waste words. Every action, every word had a purpose and a meaning, and since Tarun owed nothing to Aparajeet, he freely disclosed what he knew.
'He didn't play a role at all. He refused to accept the children as his. Claims she was sleeping around on him, the b******d!'
Jai chuckled, 'Those are strong emotions Tarun, not good for a doctor to get too emotionally involved with a patient.'
'She had no one Jai, even you would get a little mad if you had been there throughout the pregnancy.'
'I hear she lost her job,' he stated.
Tarun took the hint, 'Yes. They fired her the moment she began to push for him to take responsibility.'
'Poor thing, that woman,' Jai said again.
'So what now?'
'How long can you keep her there?'
'How long are we talking about?'
'Two weeks?'
'That might not be as easy as it seems. She thinks I'm the one who arranged to have her here.'
'Keep it that way,' Jai said with an air of finality, 'Make her stay there. I don't want him bothering them. I'll keep you informed.'
'Your call,' Tarun said, and they disconnected.
Tarun stepped into the room and had just seated himself next to the bed when Bani walked out in the pale green salwar kameez he had bought for her.
'Thank God it fit, else I would be too traumatized to try to ever buy women's clothing again.'
She laughed as she walked over to the crib, 'Don't you have work today?'
'I'm on call later on in the day,' he shrugged, then got serious, 'Bani, you never did tell me what you were doing in that building.'
She sighed, 'What do I tell you Tarun?'
But she did narrate the whole thing to him, especially the fact that Jai Walia sat through the whole thing! Even more, all that had occurred in the elevator before the birth. Now a lot of things were beginning to make sense! His hiding them away, his questions about Aparajeet, why he had taken any kind of interest in the situation, and now, what Tarun was as sure as there was a God, that Jai was going to do to Aparajeet. A slow smile curved his lips'.
'What are you smiling at?' she asked when she had finished the story.
'You my dear, are a very lucky woman,' he said, tweaking her nose.
'I know,' she smiled at the twins.
Tarun was talking about the man who had suddenly become more than just the man who delivered her of her babies. This gave him another reason to smile, for whatever reason, he was sure Bani would not suffer at all from here on out. Being a good observer of people, he knew the questions Jai asked were the things he intended to do something about.
Well Aparajeet, count your blessings while you still have them, he thought with a smug smile as the nurse entered with a lavish tray of food for Bani.
END.
29