New LRL fic: ’Fated’ updt pg 14

Hi guys, well here's my latest fic, which will be very different to the others. A warning, the first part could be a bit upsetting. And it is going to be continued.

They say Paradise is eternal comfort

What should one do,

With a place where the heart

Doesn't throb and burn

With the scar of your love?

(Bedil)

Chapter 1

Alekh is on leave when he receives the call, Neelu has given birth to their second son Jai a week ago, and he has a week left to spend with them before he has to go back to the border.

Neelu watches the expressions on her husband's face. After four years she knows him perfectly. And the way that Alekh's face falls, the way he closes his eyes briefly in pain, can mean only one thing.

Naina.

When Alekh hangs up the phone and turns to her, Neelu doesn't even need to ask what it's about.

"Go as quickly as you can." She tells him, "I'll be waiting for you when you get back."

Alekh nods, thankful that she's so understanding. He quickly packs a bag, and then kisses Neelu and baby Jai goodbye, before going to the next room where four year old Veeru is sleeping, kissing him too and smoothing the little boy's hair.

"I'll be back as soon as possible." Alekh tells Neelu, "But I don't know how long…" and his voice breaks.

Neelu looks at her husband, her heart aching when she sees the pain written on his face. "Stay there as long as you need to." She tells him.

"Can you call the others?" he asks her, giving her the address to tell them, and Neelu promises him that she will.

Alekh drives at breakneck speed towards his destination, knowing that if he doesn't stop, he can reach there in under five hours. Time is of the utmost importance now, every second counts.

He has been expecting this call for four years now, knowing that sooner or later, though he had always hoped for later, he would receive it.

Naina is dying.

**

The reason Alekh was the first to receive the call is that officially he's Naina's next of kin. Her parents died in a car crash two years ago, and Alekh was Naina's first choice to replace them on the necessary forms.

When he had asked her why, her explanation had been very simple. "I know you'll have the strength to do whatever is needed." She had told him. Alekh had prayed that he would never actually need to live up to her expectations.

Five hours later, he pulls up at the army hospital, barely waiting for the car to stop before he jumps out. He runs in, not bothering to stop when the nurse questions him, and heads straight to the ICU.

He can see Naina through the glass, and it's then that the doctor spots him and comes outside the room.

"You must be Captain Alekh Sharma," the doctor says, and Alekh nods, still out of breath from his run. "I need to warn you, her chances aren't good." The doctor tells him, "Even if she survives, she's likely to go into a coma that she might not wake from."

"Can I see her?" Alekh asks him, not really caring what the answer is but feeling that he should ask anyway. Nothing will stop him from reaching her side right now.

"Yes," the doctor replies, "But she keeps drifting in and out of consciousness, I'm not sure if she'll be able to talk to you or not."

The permission is all that Alekh needs and he walks inside the room, stopping by the bed to stare down at Naina, who looks impossibly small beside all of the equipment, wires and tubes surrounding her. He already knows what happened to her, she was injured fighting off a terrorist attack. There's internal bleeding, some of her vital organs have already begun to fail, and Naina is fighting a difficult battle for survival.

Somehow Alekh guesses that she's probably not fighting very hard.

He pulls a hard plastic chair over to her bedside, and sits down, taking her hand. Naina's eyelids flutter before she opens them, looking at Alekh with a gaze that is clouded, not able to focus properly.

"Hey," she tells him.

"Hey." Alekh replies, the word getting caught in his throat as he chokes back tears.

"I was waiting for you," Naina tells him and she doesn't need to explain why, Alekh knows perfectly well.

She was waiting for him so that she could die.

"I'm here now," Alekh tells her, "You just be strong Naina, fight to live." Alekh's words sound hollow even to his own ears, and Naina smiles up at him sadly.

"You're the one who's always been strong, Alekh." She tells him, "And you're going to have to be even stronger now."

"Don't do this, Naina." He begs her, "I know you can survive if you choose to, you've got such a strong will, you could always do anything you put your mind to."

But Naina is already fading away, and Alekh knows that she would prefer to cast herself adrift than cling to the shore. She has already made up her mind, and she's decided that she wants to die.

He has feared and expected this for four years, he has always known it would happen.

"You have to let me go, Alekh." Naina tells him, and there is no fear in her voice, only calmness, and a peace that he hasn't heard for years. "This is how it was meant to be."

"No," he tells her, crying now, unable to stop the hot tears from slipping down his cheeks, "It was never meant to be like this. It was all a mistake, this was never how it was meant to work out."

"It's too late, Alekh." Naina tells him tiredly, "It was fated. It was all decided four long years ago."

Alekh knows that she's telling the truth, because ever since they've graduated from KMA, Naina has always volunteered for the most dangerous missions. She threw herself into mission after mission, only taking leave when she was forced to. Alekh knows because he accompanied her on some of those missions, trying his best to keep her safe, especially from herself.

All of this time Alekh has known that she's trying to kill herself without actually committing suicide. Her parents dying two years ago was the last straw, from then on she saw no real obligation to stay alive.

It was all decided four years ago, because four years ago was when Captain Rajveer died.

And for these past four years, Naina has been dying over and over again, praying for a final blow to finish her off.

**

Alekh wonders what they could've done differently, to prevent all of this from happening. In the end it doesn't matter, because nobody can change the past anyway.

Captain Rajveer had left the academy to meet with the boss, in order to try and get the evidence that would prove Navin innocent. Naina had found his note too late, and Alekh still remembers the look on her face as she read it, the way she had turned so pale he thought she would faint, and how she had run from the academy, taken one of the jeeps and driven off after telling him to bring help.

By the time Alekh and the others had arrived, it was all over.

They had found Naina sitting in the middle of the road, with Captain Rajveer half lying in her lap as she stroked his hair with a blank look on her face. Her clothes were stained with his blood, and one cheek was smeared with it as well.

Dr Shalini had stared at the scene, her face turning white. "He's already dead." She had whispered, and Alekh had realised that it was true.

Naina hadn't moved, hadn't responded when they called her name. Realising that she was in shock, Shalini had moved forward to take Captain Rajveer's pulse, hoping that she had been wrong.

But he was already gone.

"Come on Naina," Shalini had told her kindly, trying to keep the tears out of her voice, "Let's go back to the academy. We have to move Captain Rajveer."

Naina had looked at Shalini blankly, as if she had no idea what the doctor had just said to her. Shalini had gestured to the other cadets to help her and Alekh and Huda had moved forward, intending to move Captain Rajveer.

It was then that Naina began to scream, screams filled with such agony and grief that everybody who heard her could feel their hearts breaking. Pooja had already been crying, but after hearing Naina she collapsed to the ground sobbing, while Ali tried to help her.

When they again tried to move Captain Rajveer, Naina lashed out with her hands, refusing to let anybody near him, she bent over him as if trying to protect his body, sobbing into his hair.

Shalini had had no other choice, she injected Naina with a strong tranquiliser, knocking her out and they had brought both Naina and the Captain back to KMA. The whole academy had been in mourning, and five hours later when Naina finally woke up, her friends had been there, ready to try and comfort her, wanting to know what had happened.

But Naina never said a word.

There was one month left until graduation, and in that one month Naina never spoke once. At Captain Rajveer's funeral she had cried silently, but did not say a single thing. From then on she participated in drills and attended class, she even sat with her friends in the mess and ate when they forced her to. But she never spoke a single word. Pooja would come to the mess every morning with red eyes, heart broken and tired from listening to her friend cry all night.

She didn't say anything when Captain Rajveer's photo was hung on the wall of fame, although Pooja had reported that she had cried extra hard that night. Alekh wondered whether it was from that moment onwards that her only ambition had been to have her photo hung beside his.

Brigadier Chandook had called in a psychiatrist to try to help Naina, but she had still refused to talk. He had even considered sending her home, but Dr Shalini had convinced him that it was better for Naina to remain at KMA.

The first time that Naina spoke again had been at their oath taking ceremony on graduation day. Alekh had almost forgotten to repeat the words, he had been so stunned to see her speak. But Naina's expression had been hard, as if she was steeling herself for the future and she had repeated the oath word for word.

Immediately after the ceremony, before her friends could even talk to her, she had gone to the armoury and taken a gun. Then she had held it to Major Nair's head and threatened to blow his brains out until he confessed everything. Knowing that she wasn't joking, he had told everybody assembled about his part in the conspiracy.

Naina had managed to avenge Captain Rajveer's death by having those who were responsible punished, proving her brother innocent at the same time, and her friends had hoped that it would help her recover.

But she never had.

Alekh had hoped that their friendship would have been enough to make her want to live again, but it hadn't been. She had fallen so completely apart that it was impossible to pick up the pieces and put them back together again.

And now he sat in an ICU ward, watching his best friend slowly die.

"I kept my promise," Naina told Alekh, "I became a good soldier, I became the best soldier. It was the last promise he made me make to him."

Alekh has never asked Naina what happened the day that Captain Rajveer died, and she has never spoken about it before. In fact it's the one thing that she's never talked about at all, and they've respected that it was private for her.

"He would've been proud of you," Alekh tells her, "But he would've wanted you to live."

"It doesn't matter, does it?" Naina replies, "Because he's already dead so he doesn't get to decide. In the end it was all too late, everything was too late…"

"You know that he…" Alekh stops suddenly when Naina holds up a hand weakly, almost as if she's begging him not to continue.

"Some things are better left unsaid, Alekh." She tells him, so very tiredly as a single tear trickles down her cheek, "In the end what difference does it make what I know or don't know, what I feel or don't feel? It won't change what happened and it won't change what's about to happen."

Even now she won't say it, won't put her love into words. Perhaps it hurts her too much to say the words that the one she loved was never able to hear. Perhaps it's just been too long and after all these years of not saying it she still can't find the strength to speak the truth.

Alekh knows that it's partially the regret that has been killing Naina. The regret of realising that she loved him far too late and never being able to do anything about it. That regret has eaten away at her soul until there has been nothing left in her life except that one unfulfilled desire, a longing that has slowly killed her.

"I've waited long enough," Naina tells Alekh, "It's time for me to go to him now." She looks at him, suddenly able to focus again, her gaze piercing his, "Alekh, you have to let me go."

"Please Naina, just hang on for a little longer, the others are on their way." Alekh begs her.

"I don't think I have that much time, Alekh." She tells him sadly, "You're going to have to say goodbye to them for me. And, give them some messages. There are some things that need to be said before it's too late."

"Tell me," Alekh says, knowing that it's the last thing he'll ever be able to do for her. The least he can do is to fulfill her last desire.

"Tell Ali and Pooja that life is too short to spend it waiting for their parents to give in. I want them to get married as soon as possible, their parents will accept it eventually. But I don't want them to spend the rest of their lives in regret like I did."

Alekh nods, unable to speak because of the tears that are building up.

"Tell Huda to move on with his life," Naina tells Alekh, "It's time that he found a nice girl and settled down. And tell him to never change, never lose that spark, he should remain the same old Huda no matter what."

Naina takes a breath, closing her eyes briefly to try and block out the pain she's feeling.

"Tell Yudi that he's always been the best and bravest man that I know, and that I'm proud of him. There's nothing left in life that he has to prove to anybody. He shouldn't worry so much about what people think."

Alekh can't help but laugh sadly, here Naina is dying, and she's still trying to sort out everybody else's problems.

"And me?" he asks her, "What advice are you going to give to me?"

"You never needed my advice, Alekh." Naina tells him faintly, "You were always the strong one, the wise one. You always knew the right thing to tell me. Just… try not to drink so much."

"I don't want to let you go, Naina." Alekh tells her, openly crying now. "I don't want to lose you."

"You have to," she tells him, "For my sake. Look after Neelu and your children. You have a family now, Alekh. That's a precious thing."

"I will, I'll never let them down." Alekh promises her, "You go to where you're supposed to, Naina. Go to where you're needed, I won't hold you back anymore." He squeezes her hand, and Naina smiles up at him.

"This isn't the end," she promises him, "We'll see each other again."

Alekh nods, finding that he believes her.

Two minutes later, Naina closes her eyes and drifts into a coma.

**

Three hours later all of their friends have arrived, and Naina is still unconscious, Alekh tells them what he plans to do.

"You can't take her off life support," Huda replies angrily, "She'll survive this, I know she will."

"It's what Naina wants," Alekh tells him sadly, "She made me promise that I would do this. It's why she chose me as her next of kin in the first place."

Pooja is crying, holding Naina's hand and begging her to open her eyes.

The rest of them stand there helplessly, staring at their fallen friend.

"Naina gave me messages for all of you," Alekh tells them, and relays them one by one.

Pooja stops crying, and strokes Naina's hair. "Even while going, you're leaving all of us goodbye sms's." she says sadly.

"Then you've decided to support Alekh's decision?" Huda asks her angrily, "I think that we should keep Naina on life support, you never know, a miracle could happen."

"It's too late for a miracle, it always was." Alekh tells his friend, "Naina knows where she's meant to be, and right now we have to help her get there."

Ali and Yudi nod their support, both of them holding back tears.

Pooja leans down and kisses Naina on the forehead. "Goodbye my friend," she tells her, "You go to your Shahrukh, at least now nothing should keep you apart."

And Huda's shoulders suddenly sag in defeat, as he realises that all of them are right. Naina has only been half alive for these past years, a living corpse. It's only her body that remains here now, it's time to set her spirit free.

One by one they say their goodbyes, bidding farewell to one of the best friends they've ever had. Alekh is the last to do so; he bends down and whispers in Naina's ear, "We'll meet again, my friend."

Then as Pooja sobs into Ali's chest, and all of them cry, Alekh turns off the life support.

Just as Naina's heart flat lines, her lips curve upwards in a slight smile.

Alekh knows that he's done the right thing.

It is fated to be this way. It was all decided a long time ago.

Naina is finally free to go where she's meant to be.

i literally had tears in my eyes while reading this 😭 😭 plz continue soon

hey great ff

i really sobed while reading this

kya pyaar hai?

omg this is just brilliant writing.. simply awesome.. i ws crying while reading it.. and by crying i mean crying despite trying very hard not to.. wow.. ur amazing.. such beautiful portrayal of emotions and thoughts.. very poignant and touching.. bravo..!!

Chapter 2

Year 2033

Asha Dutt woke from a nightmare that she wasn't able to remember, a scream dying on her lips as she sat up, sweat dripping down from her forehead.

She just hoped that it wasn't a bad sign on the day that she was finally going to be joining the army, the day she had dreamed of for more years than she could count.

Asha had always been different.

She was the youngest of two boys and three girls, the children of a rich businessman living in Calcutta. She had felt like an outsider ever since she was young, different to the rest of her family. Even her mother had sometimes worriedly confided to friends about Asha's strangeness.

As a child she had had the most terrible nightmares, waking in the middle of the night screaming, her clothes wet with sweat. However Asha could never remember what she had dreamed of and all of the doctors and psychiatrists her parents consulted had been unable to say what was causing it.

As Asha had grown older, the nightmares had gradually stopped, happening only occasionally as it had just now and Asha's parents had hoped that the worst was over and that her strangeness would soon end. The rest of the children were perfectly normal. Their two sons had joined the family business and both of their older daughters had completed their BA's before getting married to the sons of rich family friends.

However Asha had different dreams.

Always fiercely independent and quite stubborn, at the age of five she had announced that she wanted to join the army when she grew up. Her parents had hoped that it was a passing phase she would grow out of, but Asha remained determined. They had had no idea where the desire had come from. None of her relatives were in the army, and neither were any of their friends. Her parents, her brothers and sisters all tried to convince Asha to change her mind but she stood firm.

When she was 19 years old she had gained admission to Barrackpore Military Academy. Her parents had agreed to let her go as they had hoped that she would change her mind after realizing how difficult military training really was. However Asha didn't find it difficult at all, she excelled at everything. All of the teachers there were amazed by her ability, she learned fast and was able to complete even the most difficult drills easily. It was no surprise to anybody when she won the best cadet award.

Now after a month on leave, Asha was about to join her new regiment at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. While India was not formerly at war with China, there had been increased tensions lately between the two super-powers. Now that the United States was a less powerful player in world affairs, India, China and the European Union had a far greater influence. While China hadn't made any aggressive moves towards India yet, the population was quite worried now that China had invaded and conquered Burma.

As she got ready for the day ahead, a message arrived on Asha's phone, pausing to read it, she smiled, realizing that it was from her best friend Amiya Chatterjee. The two of them had been roommates at the Academy and had soon become inseparable. It had been a relief for both of them to discover they were being deployed to the same place as at least they would have each other while they were so far away from home.

Asha quickly sent Amiya a message back, reassuring her that she had gotten up on time and would be meeting at the troop pick up point on schedule. It had been Amiya's last comment about dealing with their parents' rhona dhona routines that had really made Asha smile. Her parents had never been happy about her joining the military, and now when she was finally about to be posted for the first time, they seemed to be in denial about it happening and kept thinking of new reasons why she shouldn't be going.

The latest one was that she could actually serve her country much better by starting up a business instead, by helping to increase its prosperity. Asha had really rolled her eyes at this one. "Think of it this way, Baba," she told him, "I'll be protecting the people who are increasing the prosperity."

The day had finally come for her to join the army properly as a trained soldier and protect the borders and Asha couldn't wait. It was what she had wanted her whole life and today her dream would finally be true. Asha wasn't taking much with her, their uniforms would be provided once they arrived so all she had to pack was some casual clothes for their time off and some small mementos, photos of her family, friends and batchmates.

Finally it was time to bid farewell to her family. She had asked them to say goodbye to her at home instead of at the pickup point, knowing that they were all likely to make a scene, especially her mother. Sure enough, her mother was already crying, and Asha embraced her gently.

"Ma, don't cry." She told her, "I'm going to be perfectly fine, we're not at war right now."

"But what if war breaks out?" her mother asked emotionally, "You're our youngest child, Asha, I couldn't stand it if we lost you. Can't you change your mind?"

"No, Ma." Asha told her, "You know that this is what I want. There's no greater duty than serving your country, you should be proud that you're sending a daughter to do it."

One by one, her brothers, their wives, her sisters, and her nieces and nephews came forward to hug her goodbye. All of them knew that there was no use arguing with Asha, ever since she was born she had never given up until she got what she wanted. The last of all to say goodbye was her father, who hugged her briefly and then looked at her serioiusly.

"Be safe, Asha, and make sure that you keep in contact with us often." He told her, "You know Rajesh will be up there reporting on the situation so at least there'll be somebody there to look after you."

Asha felt like groaning, the last thing she wanted on her first assignment was to have to see Rajesh. She had to see him often enough at her parents stupid parties anyway. She knew that their families were expecting them to get married eventually, that in fact it was all but arranged already. But Asha wasn't one to give in easily and she certainly wasn't about to marry someone that she could barely stand.

"Baba, I'll know Amiya there, remember?" Asha reminded him, "I don't need Rajesh or anybody else to look after me, I'm an officer in the Indian Army."

Her father nodded, "Yes, yes, I know you don't need anybody to look after you." He said reassuringly, but Asha just knew that he would tell Rajesh to look in on her anyway.

At last they said their final goodbyes and the driver dropped Asha and her bag off at the pick up point, where she quickly made sure that her name was crossed off the list and then went in search for Amiya.

It wasn't as easy to find her friend as she had hoped, now that women joining the armed forces was more acceptable, even more were doing so. As a result, almost a third of the soldiers waiting to be transferred were female. Finally Asha found Amiya chatting to some of the other new pass outs, these ones from a different academy.

As soon as she saw Asha, she gave her a warm hug.

"We're finally on our way!" Amiya exclaimed, "This is what we trained for two years for, and now we get to prove ourselves." She winked at the girls in front of them, "We'll bring glory to Barrackpore Academy's name!"

Asha laughed at Amiya's enthusiasm. She came from a very patriotic family and was the third of four daughters. Amiya's father had initially been disappointed that he had no son to send to the army, but he had soon realized that he didn't need one when he had a daughter like this.

"Calm down, Amiya." Asha told her, "We haven't even reached the border yet. Let's at least see what the situation is before we start thinking about bringing glory to our academy's name."

"Now that's spoken like the best cadet passout of 2033." Amiya replied with a grin, slinging her arm around Asha's shoulders.

Within half an hour all of those being transferred to the border had arrived, and they climbed onto the troop transport aircraft which would be taking them. Much of the journey was passed singing and with noisy chatter, but it was a short trip, taking less than an hour.

The moment that the aircraft touched down, and Asha stepped off, she had a strong feeling that she was now exactly where she was meant to be. Everything she had done in her life so far, every decision she had made, had been driven by a strong sense of destiny.

There was one thing that Asha believed in life.

Everything that happens is fated.

Is your story based on reincarnation?

it seems like a reincarnation track... interesting.. do continue sooon..

i love it soo much............LRL ROXX JUSS STRATED WATCHING IT!!
this ff is awesum aswell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
continue soon
u better will be waiiting--->>>>

luv you andreamcl...........cont soon 😉

Chapter 3

She was cradling his body in her arms, feeling the warmth leaving it as he slowly turned cold. Sitting there as still as a statue, she could only stroke his hair. Because this wasn't real, it couldn't be. She was going to wake up and find out all this was just a nightmare.

It wasn't supposed to end like this…

Asha woke up with a start, the scream dying on her lips. The dream faded before she could remember it properly, leaving her to rub her forehead and look guiltily in Amiya's direction, knowing that she had woken her friend.

"Bad dream again?" Amiya asked, rolling over to turn on the lamp.

Having been Asha's room mate at the academy, she had known about her nightmares. They hadn't happened very often, but when they did, Amiya had always sat up with her, rubbing her back in a calming way until she went back to sleep. Maybe it was because of this that they had become such strong friends, and had such unquestioning support between them. For her part, Asha had always been fiercely protective of her friends. She had once punched a senior in the nose when he got too fresh with Amiya and she was the type of girl that you could always rely on to be there for you, no matter what.

"Yes…" Asha told her.

"Do you remember what it was about?"

"No," Asha shook her head slowly, "Somebody was dead…. But I don't know who, or how."

"Go back to sleep." Amiya told her, "It's okay, it was just a dream. You need your rest for the morning, it will be our first day on duty."

"Of course, just a dream" Asha repeated, trying to convince herself that it was true, but the feeling of loss had been so incredibly real that… "I'm sorry I woke you up."

"It's no problem," Amiya replied, even as she yawned, "What are friends for? Now think of something nice and go to sleep."

But Asha lay there for at least an hour more, trying to remember what it was the nightmare had been about. Even now it scared her, the immense grief that she had felt before she woke.

After all of these years, why had she suddenly had two nightmares in two days?

**

Life in the barracks at Tawang was not so different to how life had been at Barrackpore Military Academy. There was the same rush in the morning for showers, the slightly tired soldiers turning up to breakfast to ravenously devour it while trying to finish it as quickly as possible. Asha and Amiya tried to meet as many of their new colleagues as possible while they were in the mess, discussing where everybody was from, what academy they had attended and whether this was their first posting or not.

Asha and Amiya were especially happy to discover that two more of their batchmates, Akash and Vijay had also been posted to Tawang.

"So what do you think we should expect for today?" Amiya asked Asha, "After all, it's our first day officially on duty, are they going to send us patrolling, get us to do some drills or let us take it easy?"

"Well I doubt that they'll be letting us take it easy." Asha told her, "But I did hear that we're scheduled to meet our superior officers at some point today. I think that after that there'll be a briefing on the surroundings areas and the current situation. I doubt they'll get us to start patrolling until we've all been properly orientated."

Amiya nodded, she agreed with what Asha was saying. It would be good to have a couple of days to settle in, she didn't want to rush into a situation that she didn't understand.

They didn't have to wait too long, within ten minutes of breakfast finishing, there was an announcement that the newest arrivals should assemble on the parade ground in fifteen minutes. Asha smiled at Amiya as if to say 'see, there you go', and they both headed towards the parade ground, figuring that it wouldn't hurt to be early.

As the girls lined up on the parade ground with the rest of the new arrivals, Asha felt a thrill of excitement go through her. She was finally exactly where she was meant to be, doing what she was meant to do. She had never felt this positive before about anything in her entire life.

It was when their superior officers arrived to introduce themselves, that all of the soldiers stood to attention. There were about five officers assembled, so Asha figured that the rest of them must currently be busy or else in the field.

Finally the most senior officer present spoke. "Welcome to Tawang base," he greeted them all, "I am Colonel Rao, one of the senior officers at this base. Unfortunately our commandant Brigadier Kumar is currently attending an important meeting in Delhi so he could not be here to greet you personally. However I would like to introduce you to some of the senior officers here under whose orders you will be operating. So I would like to introduce Major Rakesh Chandra, Major Surya Ramachandran," he indicated the two gentlemen standing to his left, who both nodded in response, then he turned to the two soldiers standing to his left. "Captain Sunita Shergill and Captain Samir Hassan." These two also nodded towards the cadets, Captain Hassan seemed to be the most friendly of the lot as he already had a broad smile on his face. Of course, this could have been because he had just spotted somebody hurrying to join them on the stage.

"I'm very sorry I'm late, Sir." The newcomer told Colonel Rao, "I only received my transfer orders yesterday."

"That's quite alright," Colonel Rao replied with a smile, "I wasn't actually expecting you until lunch time at least." Then he turned to address the assembled soldiers again. "By luck, I can introduce you to one more of the senior officers here, this is Captain Dhiraj Kapoor."

Dhiraj turned to the assembled soldiers and nodded in their direction without looking too closely. He then turned to face those already on the stage, and catching Samir's eye he grinned at him.

Colonel Rao soon dismissed the young soldiers when he was told he had received an important call, telling them that they would be given a thorough briefing on the situation in another half an hour. Everybody relaxed and went to leave, everybody except Asha that is.

Because from the moment that Captain Dhiraj Kapoor had appeared, she had stood as if stricken, staring in his direction.

She knew she had never seen him before in her life but somehow, there was something strangely familiar about him.

She just couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was.

Amiya turned to see Asha still staring at the low stage where Dhiraj and Samir were now deep in conversation. There was a look on her friend's face that she had never seen before, and she struggled to work out exactly what it was and failed.

"Come on Asha," she told her, "Let's go and relax for half an hour before the briefing." Asha broke out of her daze and followed Amiya away. She had no idea what had disturbed her so much on seeing the young officer, but as soon as she had seen his face, her heart had started beating faster, and her hands had begun to shake.

Seeing her friend glance back over her shoulder towards the stage one more time, Amiya looked in the same direction to see what it was that Asha was staring at. All she could see was two of the young captains that they had just been introduced to, there was nothing else that Asha could possibly have been looking at.

"Do you know one of them?" she asked, trying to work out what it was Asha kept staring at.

"No, not at all." Asha replied, shaking her head as if to clear it of the strange cloud that seemed to have settled upon it. "It's just…" she struggled to explain what it was that she was feeling, "I don't know, the one on the left just seemed… familiar."

"Well maybe you've met him somewhere before, or seen him in one of those army magazines we used to read at the academy." Amiya said reassuringly. "Come on, let's go now."

Asha was happy to go with her, the sooner she got away from there the better, because she had never felt this unnerved before in her entire life.

**

As soon as Colonel Rao and the rest of the officers had left the stage, Samir greeted his friend enthusiastically.

"Dhiraj, it's great to see you again! I had no idea you were going to be posted here as well."

"Neither did I," Dhiraj replied, stepping forward to hug Samir warmly, "Until two days ago I was on a peacekeeping mission in Kazakhstan, the fact that they called me back so quickly shows that they expect the situation to become quite serious soon." Dhiraj ran a hand through hair that was growing far too fast, still quite tired from the long trip.

"Well at least I know I've got one friend here now," Samir told him, "It will be almost like old times, I hope they've assigned you as my room mate."

"Well I can confirm that right now," Dhiraj replied with a grin, "I definitely recognized your things when I was dropping off my bag to our room."

"Well let's go and get you settled properly now," Samir told him, "And then we'll attend the briefing. Since you've just arrived you'll need it just as badly as the junior officers will."

The two of them walked off chatting comfortably about what they'd each been doing for the last year while Dhiraj was posted in Kazakhstan. While Dhiraj and Samir had attended the same academy, Dhiraj had been in second year when Samir had arrived as a first year cadet. Despite this they had hit it off immediately and had become good friends which was only strengthened further when they had been posted together for two years.

After moving Dhiraj's few possessions into their cupboards, Samir led him to the briefing room where they sat waiting for Colonel Rao and the rest of the new officers. Samir was just telling Dhiraj a story about a mutual friend from their academy days when Dhiraj became distracted. Samir had had his full attention until the moment when she walked into the room.

Outwardly there was nothing particularly special about this girl, except for the fact that she was rather attractive. Dhiraj had no idea why she had caught his attention, or what there was about her that meant he couldn't stop looking at her, but he couldn't tear his gaze away from her face. The powerful sense of longing that shot through him shocked him to his core.

Dhiraj had never been the type to fall for girls at first sight, in fact he had never paid that much attention to them at all, thinking that it was a waste of time. So why now, on his first day of a new posting, had a complete stranger caught his attention?

Just then the girl looked up and their eyes met. She froze where she stood, staring back at Dhiraj.

It was her eyes, Dhiraj decided. There was something about her eyes, he just couldn't quite figure out what…

Samir finished his story expecting at least a laugh from Dhiraj, but his friend was silent. It was then that Samir noticed what had caught Dhiraj's attention, in front of them stood two young female officers, one of whom seemed to be frozen to the spot. Suddenly noticing that her friend was no longer moving, the other girl tugged on her arm, leading her to an empty seat a few rows from the front and whispering furiously to her.

"Ah, earth to Dhiraj." Samir said, "You really weren't listening, were you?"

"No, no, of course I was." Dhiraj reassured him, but he still hadn't taken his eyes off the girl even as she entered the row of seats and sat down. He now had a slight frown on his face as if he was trying to figure something out.

"No you weren't," Samir told him in a very no nonsense tone. "You were staring at that Lieutenant,"

"No I wasn't," Dhiraj replied indignantly, and then seeing the look on Samir's face which clearly said he wasn't buying it "Really I wasn't, it was just…"

"Look Dhiraj," Samir told him a little jokingly, "There's a lot of attractive girls joining the army these days, if you get distracted every time you see one, how are we ever going to win this war?"

Dhiraj laughed but it sounded a little hollow to his ears. Turning back to Samir he decided it would be best for him to avoid looking at her at least for the rest of the briefing. "Alright, tell me the story again and this time I promise I'm listening."

**

For the rest of the briefing, Asha determinedly avoided looking at Captain Kapoor again. Instead she focused all of her attention onto Colonel Rao and memorising the details of the briefing.

"As you know, Tawang is situated quite closely to the borders of Burma." Colonel Rao told them, "Previously Burma was considered a friendly neighbour of India's ever since it returned to democracy fifteen years ago. However now that China has invaded and is in control of the country, we must regard it as a hostile border. The Chinese government has been claiming that Tawang is their territory for some years now, so we expect that if they're going to strike anywhere it will be here. Since war has not yet been officially declared, we will only be patrolling for the time being. Every patrol will have one senior officer and three junior officers and the duration of each will be…"

All of the junior officers took down notes, knowing that they would need to be on the highest level of alert as soon as they stepped out into the field.

Knowing that Samir was watching him with a slight smirk on his face, Dhiraj concentrated on the rest of the briefing without becoming distracted. It was only when Colonel Rao had dismissed them, telling them to relax for the rest of the afternoon and that their duties would officially begin the next day, that he allowed his eyes to seek her out.

She left quickly with her friend, not glancing towards the front of the room even once.

Dhiraj decided that that was probably a good thing. If she had looked him in the eyes again then…

He was used to being completely in control of his feelings, Dhiraj was the perfect soldier he never allowed anything to distract him from his duty.

So what was it about this girl that disturbed him so much?

Very different and interesting storyline. Thanks Andrea!