FF: Incomplete Life - Ch 21B on PG 76 & Note PG 78 - Page 18

jai is noyicing abni and dat id=s making him uncomfortable. bglad he tptally ignored his mother and stuck to his stance...

paisa wasool update...gr8 work...plz cont. soon..................

hey dil

Good to see the relationship between JB improving, plus the

joy Bani felt when Yash called her momma for the first time

was just priceless.

Dil, what a fabulous update, just wanted to continue reading.

Please continue soon, story is going great.

All the best and take care.

Shocking, haina, that I am updating again so quickly? 😆 Well I had the next part already done and ready to go. But be warned, it's very short. I don't think you all should complain though considering the very long update I wrote for you all just recently. Hope you all enjoy. 😃

The two year leap will definitely start with the next update.

Chapter 11 A:

"Walia---going home early for a change?" Mahesh remarks with clear surprise after noting that it is only some time past eleven. And whereas he knows Jai, he purposely keeps himself busy till the wee hours of the morning until there is nothing else more to do. He muses that this overloading of work will remain an effect from his wife's death for some more time. After all, it will only be a year since Ananya Walia passed away very soon. This difficult stage of his life is still yet to pass.

"Yes, for a change," Jai agrees as he joins Mahesh in walking along the hallway to the elevators, heading down to the main floor. Since morning his mind was not at place and he has been unable to focus on his work. He decided to call it a quits for the day, thinking that he could have at least one night of good rest. There were also no upcoming surgeries to be scheduled for.

"Well I'm meeting up with the guys at the usual bar. Why don't you come with? I can hardly remember the last time you drank with any one of us," he offers, judging that his old friend needs a good drink after the hell he has put himself through.

"No, you go ahead. I'm fine," Jai replies, dismissing the suggestion at once. He felt in no mood to be among others right now. He wanted to be let alone. "Don't be such a buzz kill. Come on, it'll be fine. Just like old times," Mahesh encourages with a thump on Jai's back as they enter the elevator doors. Jai presses down on the ground-level button before throwing his friend a look.

"Maybe some other time," he mutters diffidently, his mind obviously someplace else.

"I won't take no as an answer, Walia, and you know it. I think you need a night out and get yourself sh*t drunk, which I am going to make sure you do. Now come on, I'll buy you a drink."

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Bani places down the phone dejectedly and can feel her insides swirling chaotically. This is the eleventh time she has called him only to be directed straight to his voicemail once again. She must have left at least three messages and all of them left unanswered. She had been originally concerned when the clock struck three o'clock as he is usually at home before then, but it was now past four in the morning and she has grown frantic with worry.

Quickly her hand reaches for the phone once more and hastily her fingers dial digits. Placing the phone against her ear, she hears the dial tone and moments later a woman speaks on the other end. "Nanavati Hospital, please state your emergency."

"Hello, I am calling in for Dr. Walia? He works in the ER. Could you please tell me if he is still there or not?" she manages to say calmly, even though her heart was pounding.

"And who is speaking?" "His wife. He hasn't returned home as of yet. I am getting worried," she admits only to be assured by the woman that she will just check. After a long minute of silence she hears the same woman speak. "Dr. Walia had left the hospital hours ago, Mrs. Walia. He is no longer here."

Her heart sinks as she hears these words and with her voice cracking, she stammers, "Thank you for your help," before placing the phone down once more. Instantly she feels tears rise in her eyes. What is she to do now? Her husband has been said to be missing from the hospital hours ago. Where could he possibly gone? Why hasn't he come home yet? Where could he be?

She wonders if now is the time to seek help from one of the family members, either Aditya, Jigyasa, or Krishna and inform them about his absence. Or if she should get the police involved. He has never done something like this before. If he was late it was always because he was wrapped up in a surgery. Why did he leave the hospital so early and where did he go from there? What if he had gotten himself into an acci---

She immediately stops her train of thought, fearing the very idea of anything drastic as that happening to him. Close to bursting into tears, Bani picks up the phone once more in a desperate attempt to get into contact with him and just as she begins to dial his number she hears a sudden pounding on the front doors. She stills in her actions for a brief, stilling moment before slamming the cordless phone onto its receiver and running to the entranceway.

Unlocking all of the locks, she pulls open the doors in a haste to see whether it is him and becomes breathless by the sight she sees. Her husband slumps against the side of the doorway, barely able to support himself onto his own two feet, and staring back at her with bloodshot eyes. He attempts to straighten up his posture on seeing her appearance and snap himself out of his intoxicated state.

Bani looks at him with welling eyes and a pale face, seeming frozen in her place. She watches as the curves of his mouth twitch, creating a small smile to play onto his lips. She continues to stare at him with disbelief. "Baaanee," he slurs, cutting through the thick silence between them, and gives a short laugh in her direction. As he takes a step forward to come close, he stumbles and falls forward. Bani quickly acts on seeing this and gathers his falling frame into her arms, struggling to balance his towering form and not having it crush her. She finally finds her voice.

"Aap----Aap kahan the? Aapko pata bhi hai ke kya time hai? Aap kahan the ab thak?" she frantically questions him, her previous emotions of fear, anxiety, and grief terribly messing with her current state of mind. He simply groans out that he had been at the bar. Bani receives confirmation from the overwhelming smell of alcohol reeking from him. Seeing that he is not in any of his senses and incapable of supporting himself, she places one of his arms around her neck and holding him by the waist, leads him toward the stairs.

With great difficulty they reached to the top of the steps and arrived at their bedroom. She continues to lead him through the room and to the bed, wanting to place him down, but his towering height overcomes her and causes her to stumble down onto the bed along with him with her underneath his frame. She keeps him gathered close in her arms, afraid that he will roll over and crush Yash who is sleeping on the bed not so far away from them.

Relaxed to see that Yash hasn't been awaken from the ruckus created by his father, Bani attempts to free herself from his crushing body that remains slumped onto her. She grows suddenly aware of their positions and the discomforting fact of how close they really are to each other. However, drunken Jai continues to overpower her---causing her to remain in her lain position with him over her. He is as heavy as a rock and she is defenseless in able to free herself from his hold.

"….. Jai…. Jai please, let me go—..." she begins in saying, highly discomforted by their close proximity---no inch of room left for even breathing space. His head remains situated against her left shoulder and she feels his arms snake around her waist, taking it into his possession. She tries once again, growing more and more uncomfortable on feeling his body heat radiating onto her. "Jai, let me go, you are crushing me," she says louder, only to be completely ignored of her discomfort of their situation.

"Hmmm, hold me Bani," comes his husky voice that does strange things to her. "Jai?….," she finds herself tongue-tied and terribly self-conscious of his body pressed against her.

"Just hold me please," he whispers again to her in the silence of the room. Her heart racing fast and her mind going into frenzy, she doesn't know what else to do other than to remain absolutely still. A long silence fills the room as Bani stays paralyzed in her place, unsure of what she should do. She hears the steady flow of his breathing and can feel his warm breath fan her neck, sending tingles against her skin every now and then.

Slowly her arms slide across his back, holding him loosely against her, making both of them enclosed in each other's embrace. She swallows hard as her mind races on about what suddenly had overcome him to cause himself to become intoxicated in this way. It is when she glanced toward her left that her gaze fell onto the picture frame resting on the nightstand by her husband's side of the bed. She stares into the picture of her sister's radiant smiling face and feels herself become gradually relaxed as realization strikes her.

Her one hand trails up along his back and to his neck where she brushes her fingers against the ends of his black hair resting against the nape of his neck. He stirs from this touch of hers but resumes back into a state of severe drowsiness. In a couple of days will be her sister's first death anniversary. It will be a year now since she had left them…..a year that she hasn't been a part of this world…. a long year of pain and loneliness….

"Baaneee…" comes the low drawl released from his lips. Enclosing her embrace tight around him, she silences him with a soft "ssshhh…." Resting her cheek against the top of his head, her fingers trail further up, combing through his thick, jet black hair. He eases himself against her once again and officially falls into a deep slumber of sleep.

What has this man not endured for the past one year? Suffering, pain, loneliness, misery, heartbreak---she cannot even begin to imagine. He has grown into a complete shell, not letting himself out or letting anyone else in. His grief he dealt on his own and in his own way. Out of all of them, including herself, it is he who has suffered the most…losing the reason to live, his love, his heart, his soul, but especially himself. He is the one who has been affected the most. And yet he hasn't said a word about all that had happened to him…. hasn't expressed his grief and sorrow to anyone else, only to bottle it up inside of him that killed him day by day.

His love for her sister was pure. She was the most important thing in his life. And now….. What does he have left now? ---Nothing. Just emptiness.

She hopes earnestly that this difficult phase of his life will be now coming to an end. She cannot see him torturing himself like this and becoming into this man that he is not.

But this man, this man right next to her, holding her so close to him with dear life, this broken man she can feel a connection with…. a sense of familiarity…. this man she knows…..

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Jai woke up to the blinding rays of the sun peeping through the curtains in his room. Groggily he looked around to take in his surroundings, being unable to remember where he was at the moment due to the strong pounding in his head. It took him a full minute to collect that he was in his bedroom, still in bed, when the sun was shining so bright. Confused, as he is usually awake near the happenings of sunrise, he stares into the blaring red digits of his alarm clock which reads 9:23 AM. He groans and sinks his head back into his pillow. He is late. Beyond late. But for some unfathomable reason, he could care less.

Hearing the distant opening of a door moments later, Jai reopens his eyes and lazily looks over his shoulder only to have his gaze fall onto the emerging figure of his wife, dressed freshly in a lemon yellow sari for the new day. In her hand she holds a glass and in the other a certain bottle. She smiles softly at him once catching his eyes. He lays his head back down on sensing her approach.

He watches her place the glass and bottle of medicine (he know could clearly see) onto the table beside him. This is when he realizes that he is sleeping on the wrong side of the bed when he does not see his late wife's picture resting on the tabletop. He grows puzzled and tries to recollect anything from last night, but his mind remains in a hazy blur.

"I see you are finally awake. Have some of the nimboo pani and asprin if you'd like. I called in at the hospital and told them that you were not feeling well. I did not say whether you'd be joining later or would remain at home. I thought I'd leave that up to you to decide," she says, taking a rather normal tone with him. Suddenly her features soften as she concernedly begins in saying, "How are you feeling now? Should I bring you up some food to eat? Would you like that?"

Closing his eyes, Jai relaxes against the mattress, making himself more comfortable in bed. He lets out a low, "Hmm" as a response to her question.

"I will be just back," she informs him right before leaving again, but he didn't care. He just wanted to be left alone and go back to sleep…..

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Jai did not get out of bed until near noon, that too, sluggishly rising and making his way to the bathroom. Bani knew that his binge drinking from last night was not the only reason why he was in such a particular off set mood. She let him be. She wasn't surprised when he appeared downstairs, dressed in his normal attire, ready to leave for work. She did, however, insist for him to eat lunch before going. As Jai left for work that day, he aroused much query from his family members as well as staff members at the hospital who were shocked to learn he had skipped out a morning from work.

The next couple of days Bani sensed his silence growing more and more and his uneasiness with himself was becoming more transparent than before. She did not bother to have him open up, though. It was just his own way of dealing with the pain. She knew he would come around.

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The Walia Mansion was unusually silent and hollow for a change compared to the past couple of months. It was as if it had experienced another gruesome death when it was only in fact reliving through one; Ananya's. The day was a long and painful one. The fact that it had been a complete year now since Ananya's passing away seemed to have a heavy impact over the members, who were once more in a silent mourning over their loss. Krishna had arranged to hold an Atma Shanti puja in remembrance for her dead daughter-in-law and to give peace to her soul. All the members attended, including Jai, who sat through it in a stormy silence.

Bani remained lost herself throughout the day, her mind elsewhere—reminiscing old times…. the better days….wanting to remember each and every little one thing about her sister.

She sat slumped against the headboard of the bed, her eyes staring out vacantly, while she patted Yash to sleep in the darkness of the lonely room. He was on the verge of drowsiness, but was taking a much longer time to go to sleep compared to days before. Finally she looks at him when she feels his tiny fingers take a grip onto her hand. She stares down into his sleepy looking face and feels a certain panging occur inside of her.

She suddenly felt terrible on the reminder of how much she had neglected him on this day. She was there to take care of him, but paid him no particular attention---to preoccupied in reliving a pain so deep and self absorbing that made her block out everything else around her. She then realizes that though it is the day of her sister's death, it is also this very day her son was born. Misty tears make their way into her eyes on the thought that though God took away someone special from her, he gave her someone equally special in return. Her son.

He will, however, have to spend the rest of his life living with the reminder on his every birthday that it was the same very day in which he lost his mother. Her hand once again goes back to patting his tiny chest…..

The creaking of the door did not draw her attention and she did not look up to see who the intruder was, already having sensed who it could be. She distantly hears his heavy footsteps across the marble floor and goes back to looking vacantly out of the window---staring at the shining moon standing out in the dark starry night.

She hears his body slump into his favorite chair placed to the far end side of the room moments later, yet her eyes remain where they are.

Jai leans against the back of his chair and only after fixing himself a drink stares out blankly through the large glass window before him, transfixed by the radiance coming off from the perfect moon.

A silence was created between them, sweeping through and one so strong that neither had the will nor desire to break it. It was full of overpowering tension and strain but at the same time a certain soothing effect to their already troubled minds and souls.

Jai places his head back while closing his eyes shut, listening in on the eerie silence and the image of the moon imprinted deep in his mind. It when many minutes passed by that within the dimness of the room he felt a warm hand enclosing over his own. Without opening his eyes, without any exchange of words, without the need for anything, he knew who it was. Slowly he squeezed her hand back…..

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wow ur on a roll here!!! will be back for comments soon

Finally JW reached out to Bani for some TLC.

Mind blowing update Dil.

Can't wait to see how the story progresses as the leap takes place.

Continue soon please.


P.S.You've spoiled us with two consecutive updates

is their one tomorrow, "just joking".

Take care and all the best.

Jai came to bani for comfort in his drunken state. Looks like subconsciously he knows she is there for him. Bani understands his pain.

Felt bad for Yash....no one was in mood to celebrate his first birthday...mourning loss of Ananya.

I can feel Jia's pain but I feel he is not doing justice to Yash. That boy needs his fathers love too.

Like unspoken connection Jai Bani have now.

Waiting to see 1 yr leap...how things stand..esp JB & Yash jai interaction if its improved or not.

Another wonderful part and am so glad to have it delivered it a record time. This one came when it was least expected. Jai's turmoil within himself was very well described. I am happy that Jai is taking his time to get used to this relationship and it is not some quick stuff as that wud be completely unnatural. Its good to see that Jai realizes that its Bani his wife even when he is completely drunk. I was really glad to see him mumbling her name rather than ananya's.for me it only says that he is finally ready to let go of his past and embrace his future. Probably Bani's bonding with his son really made him see things in a new perspective. And it was definitely not short, though yes by your standards. Looking forward to part B and the leap now.

Swathi

hey dear