Hi guys, Here's Part 7. Hope you like it :)
Seven the next morning found Sonakshi staring into the refrigerator, attempting to figure out what she could cook. After ten minutes of scratching her head for any ideas, she had just settled onto a stool at the breakfast bar when Dev entered the kitchen. He was wearing his gym tee, and as he opened the refrigerator to grab the carafe of orange juice out of the fridge, she was offered an unrestricted view of his biceps and she found herself momentarily distracted. She wrapped her lips around her fork, forgetting it had no food.
She made sure her eyes were on her plate when he turned with a glass and a smile for her.
"Morning," she murmured, as he walked up to the kitchen counter.
"Good Morning" he replied with a smile. "Maa has prepared breakfast before leaving" he said, glancing at her empty plate.
"Oh," was her brilliant reply.
Ishwari and Nikki had gone out for some work and Kicchu bhaiya was off buying groceries, leaving the two of them alone in the Dixit house.
She shifted in her stool, watching with a wary eye as he started the cappuccino maker, "So did Dr Sinha say anything about when I could start working again?"
The muscles in his back froze and she knew her attempt to make the question sound offhand had failed. He turned to face her slowly. "You were hit in the head with a bat" he said slowly, as if the accident had affected her hearing.
She sighed. "Yes, but it's been almost a week. And.. " She swivelled to look around the house. " I can't just spend my life here."
"So see a movie, read a book, take naps." With one hand flat against the counter while the other rode on his hip, he stared her down.
She glared back. "I have amnesia, I'm not stupid. I still have my skill memory. Just because I'm fuzzy with facts doesn't mean I'm incompetent - "
"Did I say you were?"
"You suggested it!"
"Damn it, Sonakshi! Just do me a favour and take it easy for a few days, will you?" He turned back to the machine, mug in hand. "I'm already half- " He cut himself off with a curse as he jerked away from the machine, sucking the skin below his thumb.
"Are you okay?" she asked, a twinge of guilt in her voice.
"Fine," he said, assessing the burn for a moment before returning it to his mouth.
"Cold water might help," she said, leaning over the bar to turn on the tap. She smiled widely when he gave her a quelling look. "Maybe some aloe vera"
"All right," he said wryly, running his hand under the stream. "I get it. You're a doctor."
She beamed, her brown eyes curving up with what Dev could only call satisfaction.
"I'll talk to Dr Sinha about it today."
She nodded. "When are you done for the day?"
"I'll be back around four."
She nodded and watched him leave for their bedroom. Less than half an hour later he was dressed in formals, his hair still wet from the shower.
"Four," he repeated when he bent to kiss her goodbye. She tilted her chin up automatically and his mouth landed square against hers. "Second kiss," he said, his words the texture of an unpaved road. If she closed her eyes, she could swear his voice fairly rumbled.
Then he kissed her again and this time his tongue swept inside of her mouth, the movement quick with practiced ease. "Third," he said over his shoulder, as he walked out the front door, leaving her with a wide smile on her face.
Dr Sinha agreed that Sonakshi could get back to work after a week. Dev was still skeptical about her joining work so soon, but he knew any attempt at suggesting some more days of rest was futile. Soon, the week passed and Sonakshi joined the hospital again. Dev dropped her at the hospital and drove off to his office. He tried to go about his work normally. Well, as normally as he could under the circumstances. Concentration didn't come easily, not when Sonakshi was at the hospital, left to her own devices. He'd managed to leave her to it throughout most of the morning, stemming the urge to check up on her every twenty minutes. At lunch time, he'd broken down and manufactured a casual errand to run by the hospital. He stood at the threshold for a minute to look at her, as he passed by her cabin. Safe and laughing, she was chatting with a patient.
Five hours, he counted. Five hours and they'd be home again. There'd be no hospital, no office, no employees, just him, Sonakshi and a huge bed. And maybe some icecream.
It was surprising how something that seemed mundane to most could be the highlight of his life. But when it was true, it was true, he thought.
Soon, they slipped into a pattern. Dev would drop Sonakshi off at work everyday, most of the days he would drop by the hospital during lunch time, eventually doing away with excuses after Sonakshi caught him red handed every single time. They would talk about everything under the sun. Dev never attempted to move further than kissing her, he was afraid she wasn't ready. Sonakshi was herself confused on how to make the first move, so she kept quiet. But the sexual tension between them was so palpable you could cut it with a knife.
Since Sonakshi came home before Dev, she would get some time with Ishwari. She would tell Auntyji about her day, and question her about hers.
Sonakshi figured out that all Ishwari needed were a few minutes with her son, to feel like she still mattered. Sonakshi came up with an ingenious idea to ensure that. One day, on the pretence of being bored, she suggested they should all play some board game. Monopoly' was the game of choice. She made Dev and Ishwari sit along with her as they enjoyed the simple pleasures of life. Dev's face lit up when he won, and Sonakshi's heart warmed at seeing him get excited about winning, like a little child. Soon this became a regular practice. Sonakshi was quite pleased with herself. This way, she could ensure the three of them spent time together, and she could also manage to give Dev a piece of his childhood back. Two birds with one stone. On the days when Nikki was home, she would join them. Ishwari was warming up to Sonakshi as well. She found she didn't have to force herself to include Sonakshi in the family any more, it came naturally. Slowly, but surely, her insecurities were reducing. Before they knew it, two months had passed.
Dev found himself in an unusual situation. The resurrection of his relationship with Sonakshi was a dawning light, and the presence of light created shadows. Every morning that Sonakshi smiled and looked up at him all trust and warm guile, he was given a reprieve from the shadows. He waited with baited breath, so desensitized to the fist of apprehension around his chest, he'd forgotten what it felt like to live without it.
The day she'd remembered their fight; when she'd inhaled in that way she did when she was about to unload something big off her chest, the fist had squeezed a bit tighter. When she'd revealed that she remembered them having a fight, he was sure it was a test and that she'd remembered. But as it turned out, the fight she'd remembered was a small one, not like the ones they used to engage in frequently in the couple of months before her accident.
Had it been months? He thought, as he walked around his office, his mouth tightening in a grim line. Felt like years. But that was the funny thing about altering events; they made everything in the before seem like it happened to a different person.
He knew more than just a fleeting gnaw of guilt at the lie he'd told. But if she could forget, he should be afforded the same indulgence. Indulgence and the delusion that if they both didn't address the past, it would lose relevance.
Sonakshi was rummaging in her closet trying to decide what to wear for her date that night. Dev had arranged a special dinner for her and she had to look her best. She was trying to get to the top shelf to remove a dupatta when her memory box fell out, its contents spilling on the floor. Letting out a sigh, she bent down to pick it up. As she placed the small knick knacks back in the box, her hands came across a post-it note' which had something scribbled on it. Now, she knew the stories behind most of the stuff in her memory box; over time, Dev had shared with her almost every story behind every piece. But somehow, they had missed the post-it. As if on instinct, she turned it around and had an image of Dev smiling at her. She blinked, unwilling to lose the memory. The picture provoked a feeling low in her stomach that was nothing like the nausea the previous memory had induced.
*Flashback*
They were sitting on the porch outside Sonakshi's hospital, overlooking a garden. Sonakshi was having a bad day, and Dev was trying to cheer her up. Sonakshi was dealing with an Alzheimer's patient who always kept forgetting to eat her food. Her husband was very patient with her, but she kept forgetting him too. They were an elderly couple and Sonakshi's heart broke for them. She shared their story with Dev, who also felt bad for them. He knew there was nothing anyone could do to help them. But what he could do was help Sonakshi feel better. So he brought her out for a walk, after which they sat on the porch, Sonakshi still a bit upset.
"Sona, please cheer up now. Our wedding's in a few days. Shouldn't you be planning? Isn't Elena driving you nuts with all the shopping?" he asked, in an attempt to change the topic.
"Dev, can I ask you for something?" she asked, her brown eyes staring deep into his honey ones.
He gave her a loving smile, and answered, "Anything"
"I want us to write our wedding vows"
Dev furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, momentarily surprised by her suggestion. "But doesn't Panditji recite the vows during the pheras? And in case you forgot, Ms Khargosh, we already made our vows to each other at Neha's wedding"
"No, not the traditional vows Dev. Our own. Something tailored for us."
"Okay," he said, looking around and on digging into his coat pockets, he took out a post-it and a pen.
"What do we want to promise each other?" he asked.
"That you'll love me. Even when you hate me"
"To love each other, even when we hate each other," he repeated, smiling as he jotted it down on the small paper. "No running. Ever. Nobody walks out, no matter what happens," he added.
"No running" she repeated.
"What else?" he asked.
"That we'll take care of each other, even when we're old and smelly and senile. And if I get Alzheimer's and forget you.."
"I will remind you who I am every day," he finished and wrote that as well.
"This is forever" he said, signing it.
"This is it. These are our vows. This is our wedding?" asked Sonakshi.
"Mmhmm. If you sign it." he said, with a wink. "We'll give society the big fat wedding, but for me, this is our marriage" said Dev.
Sonakshi's eyes filled with unshed tears as she signed the post it. Quickly swallowing them, she asked, "Now what?"
"Now I kiss the bride" he said, as he enveloped her lips with his to seal the deal.
"Married"
"Married"
*End flashback*
She smiled as her eyes filled with tears of happiness. She was still reeling from the aftermath of her latest memory when she saw Dev walk in their room.
The recent memory still fresh in her mind, she had a picture of him on the porch, smiling and trading jokes with her in an expression of affection and familiarity. And it was the same man in front of her, she realized, her spine tingling with the thought.
As he took long strides, walking towards her, a single thought crossed her mind, "It must have been so easy to fall in love with you."
-
Author's note: That's all for Part 7. Hope you liked it. The post-it scene is inspired by one of my favourite scene's of this show called Grey's Anatomy. I thought it suited Devakshi perfectly and couldn't resist incorporating it in my fic
Likes and comments make my day :)
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