Blaze of Glory-New jun23- part 5pg 36

After a hard years worth of working as interns, the young doctors of Saanjevni end their journey as interns and start their voyage for their residency. But before doing so, their hard work will be recognized in a Award ceremony where they will honor each others hard work, their collogues, peers and mentors. They will relive the moments that made their journey memorable and worth the struggles and those which made them stronger. But before that, their last night as interns, will be a journey in itself. They will see how far they can be pushed and how much they can achieve, all in a blaze of glory''..

-------------------------------6:00 pm

"Because this is my house, and coincidently my bathroom". Armaan answered.

"But why are you in HERE, in the bathroom?" Atul asked from behind the shower curtain.

"I need to shave and you were taking too long in here" answered Rahul.

"Why are YOU here Rahul?" Atul asked again

"Like I said I need to shave and my roommates are having a party and I can't do it at my place."

"Seriously guys, you couldn't wait 5 more minutes, this is making me uncomfortable" replied Atul

"Champ, again, my house, my bathroom, plus you got the shower curtain that keeps your hebbie jeebies to yourself"

Atul stepped out of the shower in a towel. "Isn't it amazing, we are going to be starting our residency next week."

"Lets try to think of just tonight. We all have speeches to give, I don't know about you all but I'm nervous about mine" said Rahul. "I barely have things memorized".

"I know, right? And Dr. Shubhanker's, speak from your heart rants, isn't helping. I can't speak from my heart, my tongue just happens to be in my mouth" Armaan reached for his Axe body spray.

Atul grabbing the body spray just before Armaan quips "well, at least we know his heart is in the right place:

The boys chuckled.

Armaan reaches for his shaving cream yet this time Rahul snatches it from his reach.

"Hey Armaan, what memories have to included in your speech? Your are talking about our experiences and stuff right?"

"Maybe I should talk about the meaning of personal property" Armaan muttered underneath his breath.

"Whats that Armaan?" asked Atul as he sprayed his himself with the Axe. The spray consequently sprayed through Atul onto Armaan's face.

"Nothing champ, nothing at all. I was just saying how lucky I am to be between the two of you" replied Armaan.

"we love you too buddy" Rahul declared patting foam cream on his check".

Armaan spread his shoulders out to get more room

"Hey Armaan, scoot over, I barely have room to fix my hair" Atul shuffled Armaan to right.

"Rahul you are hogging the whole mirror, you need to scoot" answered back Armaan with a nudge to his right"

"ME?? I barely could see the left half of my face, you guys move over" snapped Rahul.

Before long, the boys were hustling, pushing, shoving and fighting for the mirror in the bathroom. Soaps and soap suds were painted on the faces, specially the eye to hinder their sight in front of the mirror. Toothpaste was lathered on each others ears. Shaving cream was flapped on the entire face, and towels were ringed around their necks all in the name to conquer the mirror. Before long, the three were huffing and puffing on the bathroom floor.

"You know what, I'm gonna be the bigger man and walk away from this! You two can have the bathroom mirror" said Atul, dusting himself off from the bathroom debris and walking out.

Armaan and Rahul sighed from relief '

"Dresser!!!"

The two tumbled into Armaan's bedroom only to find Atul getting ready in front of the dresser!

"Big man my foot! Big mirror is more like it!" snapped Rahul as he pulled Atul away from the mirror and positioned himself in front of it!

"My house, my room, my mirror!" launched Armaan as he pulled Rahul away from the mirror.

Consequently Armaan had thrown Rahul on top on Atul. Rahul and Atul both looked at each other and then at Armaan, and instantly realized what the other was thinking.

"CHARGE!!!!!!"

Both men tackled Armaan from behind and yet again all three ended up on the floor brawling for the mirror.

"First come first serve! I got here first! Go back to your bathroom mirror" hollered Atul from underneath Armaan's neck lock.

"Why should I? I can use whichever I want" bellowed Armaan, who consequently was in Rahul's leg lock.

"why don't the both of you stop acting like babies and go use the bathroom mirror, I haven't even started getting ready yet" snarled Rahul from behind as he too struggled from Atul's arm lock.

It was in the midst of this that Rahul's phone rang.

"Atul I need my arm dude"

"Use your other one"

"He cant, its too busy inflicting pain upon me"

"Guys, seriously"

"Fine"

"Hello?" answered Rahul

"Rahul? I need you to come to the MilanRouge Hotel, right now"

"Muskaan, the ceremony doesn't start for 2 hours. Why now?"

"Look Rahul, just please come meet me here."

"You are already there?"

"Rahul, please, once in your life, dont ask so many questions, just come"

"Are you ok ... ok look I'm leaving right now. Whatever it is, don't worry about it, I'm coming right now"

"Everything ok? Asks Atul

"Don't know. Muskaan sounds upset , which isn't too surprising, but ill go check out whats going on"

"You are not gonna finish getting ready" wonder armaan.

Rahul shoots a glare in armaan direction "I got 2 hours".

With that, Rahul leaves Armaan's place and drives off toward the hotel.

update 5/31

7:15

(So much time did they spend wrestling over a mirror ROFL).

Rahul arrived at the hotel. As per Muskaan's instructions, he went down to the basement.

"What the heck Muskaan? What are you doing in the basement and more importantly, what am I doing here?" his voice drops off midway as he sees a dark figure approach Muskaan from behind.

Slowly, as the figure, came into light, Rahul recognized him as a patient he treated not too long ago. He and his daughter were in a car crash

He had injured his hand on the job, with extensive nerve damage and excessive bleeding in his right arm. Unfortunately his daughter had too much trauma, and did not survive.

But it was his left hand that turned Rahul as white as a ghost.

The man held a handgun, firmly gripped, without any hesitation or regret in his eyes.

Rahul looked at Muskaan for answers.

Unfortunately, before Muskaan could utter a single word, the man pulled her back and pointed the revolver at Rahul.

"What do you want?" Rahul demanded

"I don't think you are in any position to be asking questions, not especially when you are a sorry excuse for a doctor and human being"

"We did the best we could to save your daughter. She had lost too much blood" Muskaan quivered

"SHUT UP!!!" the man roared now pointed towards Muskaan. "She had life when she came in, she was still breathing, its you lousy doctors who couldn't keep her that way!"

"She wasn't on call for the ER, I was." Rahul interjected, trying to calm the man down.

"I tried the best we could, but she had lost too much blood. There was nothing we could do. You need to understand that. "

The man smacked the gun across Rahul's face. The blow knocked Rahul to his knees, his nose cracked as if it had been flattened by a semi. Drops of blood trickled down his nose.

"Rahul!" exclaimed Muskaan. " Are you ok"?" she rushed over to help him.

"Get back NOW", the man raged. He placed the gun to Muskaan's head.

"Killing us isn't going to bring your daughter back/! Nor will it make you feel better" Muskaan roared.

"I said get back" the man thundered. "NOW". He released the safety lock

"Muskaan, get back!!!. Do as he says!" Rahul bawled.

The man placed his finger on the trigger.

"Muskaan move back" Rahul pleaded with Muskaan.

Muskaan refused to budge, perhaps it was the fear of the gun or it was the distress Rahul was in.

"1" the man counted down

"Move Muskaan!!!!"

"2"

"Muskaan move!"

Rahul finally grabbed Muskaan's arm and swung her back. She landed a few feet behind him. Rahul tried to pull himself up. The man kicked Rahul in his guts, and Rahul plummeted back to his knees

"What the hell do you want from me?" Rahul retorted.

"I want you to feel how my daughter felt. Helpless, the anguish, the torment she felt when you let her die. And you, "he said pointing at Muskaan , "You step any closer to your prince charming over here, and he gets the bullet"

Muskaan nodded in fright.

Rahul wiped the trickling blood from his nose on his right sleeve,

The man walked over to Rahul and trampled on his left hand.

Rahul cried in torment.

"Tell me what you feel" the man barked

"Damn it! I feel like a million needles are being jammed in my hand and I can't do anything about it! What the hell do you want!!!???"

Muskaan witnessed this abuse from the distant, too petrified to move due the threat to Rahul's head.

"Tell me how you feel!"

"I feel the carpals being crushed, the tingling sensation indicating the blood flow decreasing to my hand, preventing-AAhhh"

" I want both of you to know EXACTLY what you did in that ER, she stood there like a coward like my daughter bled to death and your incompetence did nothing better. So now she will watch helplessly as you endure the same hell."

"We can talk about this", Muskaan cried out.

"I thought I told you to Shut UP". The man fumed, smacking Rahul with the gun again

"We can talk rationally about this. Sir just put the gun down. It's not worth it" reasoned Rahul. "Think about your wife'" Rahul coughed from the blood running down his mouth.

"Ok let's do that, Dr. Garewel. My wife, had one child that was her whole world, she would wake up early in the morning to make her angel her favorite breakfast, send her off to school and the whole day eagerly wait for her return to hear about the exciting stories about her day. Now, she wakes up every morning, sits beside the empty bed and cries for hours. It was too painful for me to watch her so I sent her back to her mothers."

"I'm sorry for your loss. I really am. I don't know what I can do to make you feel better" cried Muskaan.

The man grabbed Muskaan by the hair, and pushed her to the ground, "SORRY!!! You kill her and you have the audacity to say you are SORRY!!!" He then held the gun to her head.

Muskaan could not stop her whimpering, she tried staying strong but feeling the gun on her temples made her heart stop.

Rahul stepped forward, he chose her words carefully as the slightest wrong choice of words would have meant the end of Muskaan and him, more importantly Muskaan.

"Tell us about your daughter, what was her name? What did she like to do?"

"Why do you care?"

"I wanted to get to know her, honor her memory." Rahul managed to convey as the blow to the head and the pain left him in vertigo. He could barely make out where Muskaan was or else he would check to see if she is ok.

"Her name was Alana. She was 5 years old, just started school too". He slowly lifted the gun away from Muskaan. She dazed off into space as he talked about his daughter, her first steps, and her first words. He was lost in his thoughts, his memories.

It was in the midst of this that Muskaan found the strength to crawl to Rahul.

"Rahul, are you ok?" she asked as she placed his head in her lap.

Rahul blinked his eye to bring Muskaan into focus. He could make out her outline but she herself was a blur.

"I'm fine. Muskaan listen to me. We have got to get out of here"

Muskaan nodded, unable to come up with words. She stroked Rahul's hair, just trying to do anything that will relive the agony. She tried to hide her fear, she tried to hide her tears but it wasn't working.

"Muskaan, I promise, i'm ok. You have to get out of here"

Muksaan leaned in to kiss his forehead. Blood was gushing from the blow.

Just then the man pulled Muskaan away.

"Well, well, looks like what goes around comes around. Why, you are not stopping his bleeding?" he yanked on Muskaan's hair.

"Please let him go! It wasn't his fault." Muskaan sobbed

"Fine, he can go. I have no problem with that. You die, he dies, and it's all the same to me."

He placed the gun back on Muskaan's head.

"NO!" shouted Rahul

"Well make up your minds! One of you has got to go! One of you has to feel the helplessness that I felt! One of you has to watch the other die! My daughter, you didn't even know her. The beautiful young woman she was going to grow into. You took all her dreams, her ambitions away from her." the man sniveled. "She wanted to be a doctor when she grew up. She wanted to save lives when she grew up. When she was little,

Rahul, realizing the mans guard is down, pulls himself to his feet, all battered and bruised; he understood that this was his only chance to escape. He threw himself at the man, resulting them both to fall to the floor.

"Muskaan get out!"

Rahul wrestles with the man over the gun

"Muskaan, NOW!!!!"

"But Rahul, what about you"

"GO get help! JUST GET OUT!!!"

Muskaan's pulls herself up and dodges toward the door. She looks over her shoulder and sees Rahul struggling with the man. Hesitantly, she opens the door, and runs for help.

She as ran up the stair steps, deafening thunderous sounds engulfs her. White flashes before her eyes''

update 6/06

Nikki turned into the hotel parking lot and circled around until she found the valet parking, which was towards the back of the hotel. She had been on the road for over an hour trying to find the hotel, and now the valet parking. This was not going to be her night, she could feel it.

"You guys have the most worst location ever! I spent 10 minutes circling around trying t find it and before that got lost lord knows how many times I took the wrong exit for your stupid hotel!" she spew at the valet workers. They were taken back by her outrage. One took her key hesitantly and drove off to park the car.

"It's good to see that I am not the only one you pick fights with" said Abhi, who was standing at the main door.

"Oh shut up! What are you doing out here anyways? Get a second job as a doorman or something?" she uttered sarcastically.

"I'm waiting for my car. I have to run back to the hospital for something."

"What? You forgot to bring your over inflated ego with you?"

"Funny." Said Abhi, rolling his eyes. "But no. one of the patients has gone missing, I gotta go look into it".

"Don't hurry back" Nikki replied rolling her eyes.

"You happy you are finally here?"

"Overjoyed!" she bellowed sarcastically. "Wasted time, gas and not to mention I'm a mess all for this ceremony, which by the way, I still don't understand the point. As doctors, doesn't our reward come in helping the patients?'

"Yeah, but'"

"So what's the point in meeting all these overpaid doctors and board members and committee members and shaking their hands and getting stupid certificates, which like Atul said, is gonna take a toll on the environment and'

"No I '"

"Don't get me started on figuring out what to wear, and, then, stupid speeches on our careers, what is the point behind that, I might ask? ALL, all I might add, after working an eight hour shift. And getting here! Best time of my life'"

"I mean'"

"Called the hotel, asked for directions, told me to make a right on North highway, but guess what?! THERE IS NO RIGHT on highway North. Either go STRAIGHT or turn Left. Right turn is shut off due to construction! Construction! So yeah, I'm overjoyed right now" Ranted Nikki.

"Ok'done?" Abhi was confused and humored at the same time. Her ranting and raving and swinging her arms around was an amusing sight. "But I meant here as in at the end of your internship"

"Oh'." Nikki was dumbfounded. "Well, why didn't you say so!?! And to answer your question, yes and go ahead gloat while I say this, I partially owe it to you for making me stay."

"You are welcome"

"Like I said, feel free to gloat" Nikki started waling toward the door. "And oh, if you come back.'"

"When I come back?"

"If you come back, do us all a favor and check your ego in at the door". Nikki opened the door. It didn't budge. She pushed harder yet it still didn't budge. "GREAT!! Now the flippin door is jammed". She continued to push, this time with her whole body.

"May I?" Abhi interjected.

Nikki moved aside.

"If pushing isn't working, there is only one other option'" and he pulled the door open.

A bright light flashed before Abhi and Nikki. The force of what seemed unimaginable proportions threw the two in the air. The heat wave swept over their body.

Abhi unable to comprehend what had just happened tried to open his eyes. Quickly though he realized that the debris had blown into them and it stung when he opened them. He tried blinking them together faster to rinse out the dirt that had gotten in.

Suddenly he remembered "Nikki!!" He tried getting up. His body was stiff and it was dark. "Nikki! Where are you?!"

As soon as his eyes adjusted to the darkness and it became less painful to open his eyes, he looked around. He was trapped underneath the pillars of the hotel entrance. He also saw the carved wooden door, or what was left of it there too. He could see bits and pieces of the flowers and decorations that were used to setup the hotel, all in ruins. The pillars had trapped him underneath but there was still room to move. He pushed the rubble off of him and slowly got on his knees.

"Nikki??!!! Nikkiii!!!! Where are you damn it!!!"

He started digging through and moving the pieces of wreckage around. "Nikki!! Can you here me? Where are you?" he scattered the piles all over in search for her. There was little room to move but he had to find Nikki. If she was down there, he had to find her. The panic over Nikki made him impervious to the sharp pain in his arm from being crushed by the rubble. "Nikki! Talk to me! Where are you?"

Swiftly, he heard a rustle from underneath the broken door. He crawled over there as fast as he could and moved the door up and away.

Buried underneath a foot of debris was Nikki. Smoke and dirt smothered her face. Her eyes were closed. Abhi cleared her hair back.

"Hey Nikki! You ok? Can you hear me?"

Nikki gradually opened her eyes but closed them again. She let out a faint moan as she pivoted her neck.

"Good," Abhi sighed in relief. "Just keep breathing. We are gonna get out" he reassured her. "Listen I'm right here, ok. I'm gonna call for help. Just stay tight. You hurt anywhere'". The rest of Abhi's words were caught in his throat. As he was helping Nikki up, his hands became soaked in blood.

"Oh my god, Nikki'."

Nikki clenched Abhi's hand. "Abhi it hurts, it hurts so much! I'm gonna die."

"You are not gonna die" Abhi assured her.

He realized that the blood was coming from her leg, and after a quick checkup, he recognized that she had a deep cut in her lower right thigh.

"Nikki stay still. You don't want to rupture more blood vessels or tear more tissue. Stay still'"

Nikki started to get up to see where she was cut but only saw a pool of blood by her body. She became jittery and freaking out.

"Oh god, oh god, Abhi I'm gonna die." She stuttered.

"No, listen to me. Nikki listen" he tilted her head to look at him. "Listen, listen, you are not going to die, you are going to make it, all you gotta do is focus. Ok. Focus" he said in the most calm and collected way as he could although he too was trembling from seeing so much blood. Abhi untied his tie from his neck. "Nikki, now listen. Stay with me. Ok? I'm gonna tie your wound with my tie. Ok? But you gotta stay still. The pressure is gonna stop the bleeding, but just stay still."

Nikki couldn't stop freaking out. "So much blood and we are trapped in here'"

"You gotta stop this. Ok. First thing first, we gotta stop the bleeding. Ok? Just breathe, calm down. Ok breathe in' breathe out. Got it? Just keep doing that now. Deep breaths. Good, keep going."

Abhi turned his attention to the wound. Nikki's dress was stained red from the blood. He hadn't even begun to understand what happened. He just knew he had to stop the bleeding somehow. He wrapped the tie around her leg and tightly tied it and he wrapped it once more and another knot and another knot. That should be enough pressure, he thought to himself.

"Just stay still and breathe, ok"

"This isn't gonna work, I mean how long will that hold?" Nikki wept. "How long are you going to stay here, just go. I'm a goner" Nikki moaned.

Although Abhi had no intention of leaving her, he became more aware of his surrounding.

"Can anyone here me out there?" he called out. "We are trapped here!"

He crouched down and tried to lift the pillars above his head. They were too heavy to budge and he didn't want to move the other pieces in fear that they would have been buried alive. He decided to wait for help. He crawled back to Nikki. He took off his dinner jacket and wrapped it around Nikki. He prayed that she didn't go into shock; he had to maintain her body temperature and keep her calm.

"Is anyone coming?" Nikki asked.

"They will. Don't worry."

"What happened?" Nikki asked faintly.

"We had a fight and brought the house down." Abhi smiled.

"Right" Nikki smiled. "We are going to get out of here, right? Nikki asked wearily.

"Yes, and until help arrives I'm gonna stay right here.

"Please don't let me die Abhi. I'm so scared; please don't leave me here to die'"

"I don't have any plans to" answered Abhi. "Like I said, I'm going to stay with you until help gets here. Alright? I'm not letting go. You hang on to that, and ill hang on to you. How's that sound?"

Nikki nodded.

Abhi sensed she was becoming uneasy and anxious again.

"How about we forget about this place? Hmm? Who is to say we are here? We aren't here. We never left Saanjevni ok? We are on roof top, after a long days work. The stars are shinning. Now listen carefully, you hear that, the birds are out flying away, free. You are up there, up where nothing can touch you."

Nikki smiled weakly. It was working; her nerves were calming down'.

"You with me Nikki? Nikki???"

Her eyes were closed and she lost consciousness.

"Nikki come on, don't quit now!" Abhi tapped padded Nikki's cheek. She was still unresponsive. Panic set in or Abhi.

"Is ANYONE there!!? We need help!!" screamed Abhi. "Damn it, ANYONE!" he cried out. Abhi looked up at the debris he was buried under, tried to see above it all, hear anything at all. Any sign of help. "Help us, god, help us'"

Nikki came to.

"Hey, you are back' good." She sighed. "Pain relieved any?

"Its gone slightly numb. How about you?" Nikki's voice was faint. Her word came out in lisps.

"I'm fine. "

"This must be a record for us, no?" she stammered.

"What do you mean?"

"Going this long without fighting"

Abhi smiled. "Yeah."

"You must be going out of your mind, feeling trapped and all."

"I was 'earlier' when I thought you weren't waking up'."

Nikki smiled, her eyes, for the first time, shined in the darkness.

"Is anyone here?" a voice called out from above.

"Yes! Yes are down here! We need help! Can you hear me?"

"Faintly son, but yes. I'm the fire Marshall. My men will have you out. How many are down there with you?"

"There are two down here. My friend is injured."

After that seemed likes hours, the rescue workers finally reached down to Abhi and Nikki.

The paramedics also came down with a stretcher.

"She has a deep gash in her right leg, I don't think its arterial but she's lost a lot of blood" explained Abhi.

Nikki had been unconscious for a while now and her breathing had gotten frail over time. Her pulse was dangerously low and lowering by the minute. They strapped her down to the stretcher and puller her out, Abhi right by her side. Abhi looked over his shoulder at the hotel, only to see a building engulfed in flames'

update june 15

"Please everyone evacuate the hotel! Please exit through the SOUTH entrance!"

The hotel staff and the guests quickly rushed out of the hotel. Panic had set in and hurdles of people poured out of the door. Fear, anger, confusion mixed with anxiety, adrenaline, and alarm made the situation worse. The thick smoke made it impossible to see ahead and all the air seemed to vanish under it.Families lost track of their loved ones as it became as everyone fended for themselves.

Shubhanker fought against the crowd to get back upstairs. Navneeta had been hanging out with the others right before the evacuation and now he had to get her out of there. He and Kirti were in the main lobby at the time of the explosion but Navneeta had gone upstairs to the second floor with the interns. He fought his way up two flights of stairs, dense smoke and the hoards of people running against him, running for their lives, he couldn't get very far. He struggled against the storm of bodies hitting against him to get to his angel. Kirti came with him, struggling to keep her balance, not to be washed away with the wave of bodies leaving the building. When he finally got to the entrance to the staircase, firefighters were steering the guests out of the building.

"Sir, you need to get out. It is not safe for you to go in there"

"But I need to get my daughter out of there."

"You cannot go upstairs. I assure you your daughter will be evacuated from the safest exit; our men are working on it"

"I know where she is, it will only take a second, let me just get to her."

"Sir we have orders, we cannot let you go back inside."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CANNOT GO INSIDE?! MY DAUGHTER IS IN THERE!"

"Sir, we will get your daughter out. Our men are evacuating the whole building, right now; you need to get to safety."

"It will only take a minute, let us just run upstairs to check." Kirti tried reasoning with the fireman.

"Ma'am, the staircase is too unsafe for you to go alone, our men are risking their lives to get everyone out, let us do our job, please!" the fireman said.

"Clear!" a voice called out and a fireman rushed out to the lobby. "The first 5 floors have been evacuated."

"But my daughter?" Shubhanker asked

"Sir, if she was here, she was escorted outside. Please for your safety, please cooperate with us."

The three firemen ushered the couple by their arm through the lobby and outside the south door.

Once outside, Shubhanker realized this was the back of the hotel. He scurried around in panic looking for Navneeta. "Navneeta? Navneeta! Honey where are you?"

He rushed over to every kid he could see, searching for that one familiar face. Terrible thoughts started to encompass the father, unable to control the fear. "Navneeta! Daddy is here! Where are you?" he ran to the front of the building, only to find it in crumbles on the floor. Shubhanker dashed a look at all the faces and all he saw was despair, children crying for their mothers and fathers, mothers calling for their family members, bodies stained with blood being taken away in stretchers, faces covered with ashes'

He ran back to the building and charged towards the door. "My daughter is still in there! I have to get her out!"

He was quickly stopped by the cops. They struggled to keep him outside as the fire was abetted by the high winds. The gusts spread the fire more rapidly that they could fight it; it had spread upwards and inward. The blazes terrified Shubhanker and as they soared into the hotel, so did his adrenaline. He began to throw punches at the cops to get back inside. He wasn't about to abandon his daughter in this crisis and no one was going to stop him.

Kirti came rushing to his side; things had gotten out of control and fast. He was frantic and not listening to anyone. Now he had become violent and his blows to the cops were not going to help. Kirti tried to pull Shubhanker away from the cops, just to make him understand, but she was no match for his outrage. Even the gaseous blasts were not registering with him; he wanted his daughter safe and sound and right there and then that's all that mattered.

A few more officers came to the scene and pulled him away from the door. They dragged him kicking and screaming to a light post and it took four men to hold him down and handcuff him around the light post. Then one of the officers signaled over a paramedic.

Kirti saw a paramedic loading an injection and quickly realized that it was to sedate him.

"WAIT! Wait! You don't need to do that! Look, I'm a doctor! Ill calm him down."

The paramedic hesitated for a while but then nodded in agreement and walked back to assist the others.

Shubhanker was still struggling with the cuffs. Although they were made from titanium steel, he would not give up trying to break free of them.

Kirti sat by his side.

"Shubhanker. You have to calm down."

"How can I? My little girl is in there!"

"They will get her out, you have to have faith."

"In what? In who? My little girl has faith that daddy will always be there for her. ALWAYS! I'm letting her down!"

"Shubhanker, why are you thinking that way? I have complete faith that she will come out of there safe and sound. And if I let you go back in there, what am I going to tell her when she is looking for you? How is she going to feel that you went in there looking for her?"

"How is she going to feel when she learns that I left her in there? I left her to her fate, the same fate which robbed her of a mother's love growing up, and the same fate that made her celebrate her birthday alone while her dad was called into work? How can I trust that fate to return her safe and sound?" he was now weeping on Kirti's shoulder. His wrists were bruised from the struggle and he was emotionally exhausted.

Kirti looked around again for any signs of Navneeta. It was then that the despair, the terror and the helplessness of the situation dawned on her. There were tens of dozens of people waiting outside, the media was there, the cops, ambulance and the fire trucks all flashed their lights brightly. She felt vulnerable, useless and scared. Having no control of the situation, having no way of helping anyone, not even the love of her life, created a warp inside her. The dark hole in which she wanted to stop feeling, stop seeing all this. As a doctor, she always took control over every situation, assed the damage and began treatment accordingly. But how did that apply here? How can she help lost parents? Lost children? Burns and cuts could be heeled, but how does one start healing their heart and soul from such a tragedy.

She didn't even realize that she was no longer at Shubhanker's side but wandering though the crowd aimlessly. When she came to, she heard a familiar voice. It was Padma's. She was talking to one of the officers. Kirti slowly walked up to her.

Padma turned around and smiled in relief.

"It's so good to see that you are ok"

She reached out and hugged Kirti. Kirti was still stunned at the happening to fully realize what Padma was saying.

"What'what happened? How did this happen? I mean ' this was supposed to be such a happy night for all of us'." Kirti stuttered.

"They said that there was construction going on in the basement and because of some reason the propane tanks exploded and caused this fire."

Kirti faintly nodded

"Where is Dr. Shubhanker?"

Kirti pointed in the direction of the light post. "Navneeta is still in there" she explained faintly.

"They will get her out. Have some faith."

Kirti turned around and looked Padma in the eyes. "And if she doesn't? What then?" she sobbed.

"You can't go there. WE can't think that way. Right now Shubhanker needs you to'"

"I know but how do I do it? I have never seen him so helpless' his world revolves around his girl'"

"We can't loose hope. Neither can you. He needs you now. We can't think this way. We need to stay positive. My girls are in there too'We gotta hold on."

Kirti nodded. She looked up at the hotel again which was engulfed in flames.

Suddenly a helicopter flew over them. Due to the high winds, it was moving rather slowly as it made its way to the hotel rooftop.

"Looks like they are going to get them out using the chopper'"

CONTINUE SOON NICE CONCEPT GOOD LUCK MY NAME IS LEKHA JUST FOER U TO NOE

hey dear😊