Prem leaned his forehead on the class door marked ICU and put his hand against it; as a single tear slid down his cheek. He watched the doctors in their blue scrubs and the activity in the room. He winced in pain, there were cuts and bruises on his back, but he didn't care, all he wanted was for her to be okay...and..their baby...a sob escaped him as he thought of how happy she had been when the doctor had told them that they were going to have a baby...and now she had put that baby's life;her own life in danger to save him..."its all my fault" , he whispered to no one in particular; "she put herself in danger for me." He stood staring through the glass doors at the activity in the room, and then staggering to a chair, sat down as the tears continued to stream down his face.
He knew he should have called his family, but he didn't want to worry them, he had tried as hard as he could to keep them away from all the troubles, to keep them safe; He didn't want his mother to know, she had enough to deal with considering bouji's illness, and bouji had sent him away from him, to Mumbai, to look after the business there he had said, he could call Preet but it would take him ages to get to Mumbai...with a sigh he resigned himself to waiting for the doctors to come out, and winced in pain again as he moved his arm. One of the nurses had noticed him and she came to him, "Sir, your wife has been wheeled to OR1, she is going to undergo surgery to remove the bullet; you need to let me help you, a doctor needs to look at your injuries" and as she said that Prem looked at her, "OR1...she is pregnant...I told them that..will they save her, and our baby? what about our baby?" He was blank, he couldn't think anymore as he let the nurse lead him to another room, and when the nurse looked at his back, and his arm, his cuts and bruises seemd to be bleeding profusely and the nurse noticed he had a gash on his arm...he would need stitches and it seeemed there was glass etched into the deep cut on his arm, "Sir, if you wait here; I'll get one of the resident surgeons to take a look..." and she left and a few seconds later came back with a pretty young female surgeon, who smiled when she saw Prem. Prem sighed with relief as he saw her, she was Nishi one of Preet's friends from Canada who was working in India as part of Doctors Without Borders.
"Nishi, you're Nishi, Preet's friend aren't you?" he asked; "Prem? Prem Juneja? Oh my God! Are you hurt? What happened?", she wondered...
"Nishi, my wife:Heer, she's here, she's beng operated upon; these people won't tell me how she is, they took her to intensive care, then they wheeled her to surgery; and that's all i know. She was shot, she took a bullet that was meant for me...you have to help me; get me information; I need to know this wait is killing me" and his tears flowed freely again as a horrified Dr. Nishi watched.
"Yes off course, I'll go check..but please the nurse is going to look at the cuts on your back, you are losing a lot of blood, let her take care of you, and I'll be right back"
As she walked off hurriedly back in the direction she had come, Prem let the nurse, tend to his cuts, and he winced again as she pulled the tiny piece of glass in his arm; luckily it wasn't lodged in deeply or else it would have bled profusely. After what seemed like ages to Prem, Dr. Nishi returned and looked at him with a somber expression, "Your wife, she's lost a lot of blood; and the bullet is lodged in her stomach, you are lucky it did not reach her spinal cord or else it could have done extensive damage beyond repair. They tell me, they couldn't save the baby; there had been too much bleeding... they are trying to get to the bullet...i am sorry" and Dr. Nishi quietly took over from the nurse as Prem sat there stunned, he needed to scream, to cry; but he was too shocked, and he didn't even wince when the doctor stitched up the deep cuts; and when the doctor left and nurse left, and as he waited for his Heer to come back to him, praying nothing would happen to her, he put his head in his hands and sobbed as his heart broke into a thousand pieces. They had lost their baby, their dream was over, and the nightmare would continue....
Indian Idol 15
