The Best of Things
(Ragya, Swasan) Fan Fiction Series +16
By Bubble
Chapter 51
Still shaking, Ragini went to her room and sat on her bed, trying to compose herself. Her hands reached for the phone. She never bothered Lakshya at work but today...
He picked up on the third ring.
"Haan, Ragini?"
"Lakshya..." she couldn't manage a word more.
"Ragini?" His tone became sharper, "Kya hua?"
She tried to speak but the words wouldn't come.
Finally she managed to say, "Kuch nahin... bas aise hi... I just wanted to hear your voice. Hum... hum phone rakhte hain, Laksh!"
Lakshya called back on the landline, and Choti Maa told him that Swara had taken a turn for the worse. Lakshya hung up and frowned at the instrument. Was Ragini upset that Swara's fever had shot up?
The doctor came and gave Swara an injection to bring down the fever at once. It seemed to work and she became much calmer for it.
At about four in the afternoon, Lakshya, having delegated his work, came home himself, perturbed about how strange Ragini had sounded in the morning. Perhaps looking after one sick person after the other had taken its toll on her as well!
When consulted, the elder ladies agreed this could well be true. "Take her out, Lakshya!" his mother said, "Zara khuli hawa mein sair karao... usey achcha lagega. Swara ke saath hum hain!"
So Lakshya took a silent Ragini out for a drive a little out of the city. She was still looking pale but uncommunicative, ignoring his enquiring looks. Anyway, a stroll by the riverside would do her good, he thought.
Soon Ragini was standing on a bridge over the river, looking down on the gushing waters while Lakshya walked away a little distance to buy them some ice cream. She had remembered all morning... how Swara had looked that day... what they had said... how she had repeatedly asked her forgiveness in advance for what she had been about to do... the look on Swara's face as she realised what was about to happen... the feel of Swara's shoulders under her palms as she thrust her off the ledge... the emptiness beneath her hands as Swara fell away...
And now... here were the swirling waters!
In her mind's eye, she could see Swara floundering in the water, gasping for breath as she went under again and again. Then, the image dissolved into another one. Now she saw Swara under a sheet of clear water... lying on a riverbed of pebbles, her temple red and wounded raw where it had hit against a rock... Swara under the water, staring at her... accusing her. The very forehead that she had been caressing this morning with such tenderness... that forehead was lying there deeply wounded, hair floating in the waves...
Lakshya came back with two ice cream cones to find Ragini heaving and throwing up into the grass on the banks. "Oh God!" he muttered. He flung the ice cream away and came to Ragini in a spike of concern, rubbing down her back in a futile effort to subdue her nausea. When she was done, he led her to a rock to sit on, and ran back to the car for a bottle of water. Still pallid, Ragini drank some water and washed her face.
"Feeling better?" he asked her.
She raised her head to meet his eyes for the first time since he came home in the afternoon.
"Yeh humne kya kiya, Lakshya? Kya kar diya humne?! Kaise kar paaye hum yeh sab? Aur ek baat ko chupane ke liye ek aur... aur phir ek aur..." she broke down sobbing.
Crouching before her, he questioned her gently, and she told him then all that had happened in the morning. He looked serious as he heard her out, pity and concern flitting across his face.
"This morning, she wanted me around... but then we were alone, and she was so ill! Maybe she felt vulnerable... that's why the memories surfaced in her mind. Isn't it terrible if your sister is afraid of you?" She stared out into the horizon, with stricken eyes.
They sat for a little while saying nothing. He held her hands in his.
Then she said, "Pata hai aapko... although I asked her to forgive me before I did it, I have never apologised to Swara for trying to kill her after she came back." She shook her head with a twisted smile at her own nature.
"So, ask her forgiveness now, Ragini..." he suggested quietly, "ab maafi maang lo."
Edited by soapbubble - 8 years ago
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