291
After a few moments of lying on Randhir's chest, Sanyukta got up and went to the crib to pick up Raghav. Raghav was flailing his arms up and down, looking happy. Sanyukta smiled as she held her son in her arms.
She kissed him all over his face, as the realization that this was the son that she had carried in her womb for nine whole months struck her. With Raghav there had been a less of a disconnect than there had been with Somya, because at least she had witnessed him from his very first day, whereas with Somya there was a long gap. Now, with the return of her memories, she didn't feel a disconnect with either of them.
In fact, she thought she could love them more. Randhir walked up to her and tears filled her eyes.
"My baby, my sweet Raghav," Sanyukta whispered, and turned to Randhir with a smile on her lips. "Our baby... our Raghav."
She rested her head on Randhir's shoulder, still holding Raghav to her chest.
"Yes, our sweet baby, but Sanyukta please put him to sleep, I'm getting restless," Randhir said and Sanyukta blushed.
"Randhir, you really are shameless," she scolded, and then giggled lightly.
He kissed the top of her head and went to sit down on the bed, before he yawned.
"You know, I've become so tired after planning that surprise for you," Randhir told her. "I deserve compensation... but you bond with your son and then you can wake me up."
Sanyukta just smiled as Randhir fell asleep immediately. She caressed Raghav's cheek lightly and kissed his forehead.
"I love you," Sanyukta whispered and Raghav grabbed for her chest, indicating he was hungry.
While Sanyukta breastfed Raghav, she couldn't control her tears. During Somya's time, she had never fed her, and although she remembered feeding Raghav, it never felt this remarkable... now it was nothing short of a miracle.
There had been a time when even seeing Randhir again had been something she hadn't expected, but now everything fell into place. She had her Somya, her Randhir, and now her Raghav all with her.
As soon as Raghav fell asleep, she placed him back in his crib and she got in bed next to Randhir, stroking his hair lightly. He was sleeping peacefully like a baby.
"Randhir," she whispered.
He stirred in his sleep and opened his eyes.
"Are you done?" he asked groggily.
She just pressed her lips on top of his in response, not giving him any time to talk.
"I missed you too," she whispered against his lips.
Randhir wrapped his arms around her waist and turned her over on the bed to make love to this version of his wife who he hadn't been expecting to see back so soon.
292
The next morning, Randhir woke up first. It was quite surprising actually, because he hadn't expected to wake up before Sanyukta. Sanyukta before she lost her memory would wake up so early everyday, that sometimes it would even drive him nuts, because her waking up would automatically wake him up, and he enjoyed sleeping in.
Randhir turned over to see Sanyukta sleeping peacefully. Pressing his lips on his wife's forehead, he caressed her jaw softly. She was still not wearing any clothes from last night's lovemaking session, and if she was awake right now, he wouldn't spare her for a single moment. However, he was glad that she was sleeping. She deserved to rest.
Randhir got up and went to the bathroom to shower and get ready. Once he came out, he noticed that Sanyukta was still fast asleep. He smiled with admiration at her and then turned to Raghav, who was also fast asleep.
"I know you're going to sleep like me when you get older," he told Raghav lightly. "You've become such a good boy... always sleeping and not disturbing your mom and dad."
"Randhir," he heard Sanyukta groan from the bed.
"You're awake?" he asked, sounding surprised, and went over to the bed, where her eyes were still closed.
"If you talk like that obviously you'll wake me up," she replied, and finally opened her eyes. "I'm so tired. What time is it?"
"It's six," he told her softly, sitting next to her and placing his hand on the top of her head, caressing it gently. "Go back to sleep."
"No... Somya," she whispered and was about to sit up, when Randhir grabbed her arms and pushed them back down on the bed.
"Sleep," he warned, "Or else..."
"Or else?" she asked, a small smile now playing on her lips.
"Or else things won't be good for you," he told her with a small smirk. "If you wake up, I'm not letting go of you, and you'll be spending time with me instead of waking Somya up."
Sanyukta tried to push his arms off, but his hold on her was too strong.
"You're crazy," she said with a loud sigh.
"I want you to sleep," he replied softly. "Even last night was a long night for you, and you hardly had any rest."
"How did you even wake up so early?" she then asked him.
"I don't know," he admitted. "You're really rubbing off on me."
"Ha ha," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Fine, I'll sleep, but don't forget to make Somya breakfast and her hair... oh who will do her hair?"
"Sanyukta," Randhir warned again, and she pressed her lips together to keep quiet. "Ever since your memory went, I don't know if you remember or not, but it was me who was helping her half the time. Plus it's Saturday, so please sleep my dear. She doesn't need to go to school."
"Of course I remember," she grumbled. "Okay fine, go and wake her up. I'm going to sleep."
"Good," he said and let go of her.
He was about to stand up and walk away when she grabbed his arm.
"Randhir," she called out.
"Hmm?" he asked, turning around to look at her.
"Don't I get a good morning kiss?" she asked with a pout.
Randhir just smiled and got back down on the bed. He brought his hand to cup her cheek, as he leaned over her and softly placed his lips on hers.
"You get many," he murmured against her lips, and deepened the kiss.
Her grip on his shirt tightened as she pulled him down on top of her naked body.
"I guess you don't want me to let you sleep," he whispered.
"I don't know why you're getting up so early if it's Saturday," she whispered in response. "Just stay with me for a while."
Just then, Raghav started to cry and both Randhir and Sanyukta groaned.
"I must have jinxed it," he said out loud as he got off Sanyukta and went to pick up Raghav.
"Does he need milk?" she asked him.
"I think it's time to change his diaper," Randhir answered.
"Then take care of him... I'm going back to sleep," she replied with a smile on her face, leaving Randhir alone to change Raghav's diaper and take care of him.
293
Randhir carried Raghav to Somya's room after he changed his diaper.
"Somya, wake up," Randhir said, holding Raghav against his chest as he sat next to Somya.
Raghav reached forward and grabbed Somya's hair as she stirred in her sleep.
"Stop," Somya groaned.
"It isn't me," Randhir said lightly.
Somya opened her eyes and saw her baby brother pulling at her hair. She looked at her brother with shock, as she realized that he was finally doing something other than sleeping, drinking milk, crying, or pooping.
"Wow, that's the first time he pulled my hair," Somya said, sounding surprised.
"He pulls your mommy's hair a lot," Randhir said, laughing. "That's why she started to tie it."
Randhir pulled Raghav's hands off Somya's hair and Somya sat up on the bed, rubbing her eyes.
"Gooo ka," Raghav said and Somya started to laugh at him.
"What's he saying?" she asked Randhir.
"I don't know," Randhir admitted. "I don't even know if he knows what he's saying."
Somya looked at her brother with admiration, and Randhir's heart warmed, glad to see that Somya was finally openly accepting him.
"Can I hold him?" she asked her father and Randhir gently passed Raghav to Somya.
Raghav reached up and grabbed Somya's nose causing her to wince in pain and a smile formed on the six month old's face.
"Ow what is he doing?" Somya asked, but then her expression softened again. "I guess he doesn't know what he's doing... maybe he's not so bad... he's innocent."
Randhir chuckled as he watched his two children bond with each other. Sanyukta would be so proud.
He took out his phone and snapped a picture of this moment where Somya was holding Raghav, and Raghav was holding her nose with a huge smile on his face, because this was one he didn't want Sanyukta to miss out on.
294
Six months later, Sanyukta was getting ready to go to the mall with Vidhushi in their room and Randhir was sitting on the bed, navigating through his e-mails on his phone.
"You'll take care of Raghav and Somya right?" she asked him. "Vidhushi and I will only take a few hours."
"Yes don't worry," Randhir replied, scrolling through his messages.
"Are you even listening to me?" Sanyukta asked, sounding irritated.
Randhir knew it was time to put his phone away and give his wife attention, so he turned off his phone and placed it on the bed before standing up and walking over to her.
"I will take care of them. You enjoy yourself," Randhir told her, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind.
Sanyukta leaned back against him and smiled as they both looked into the mirror together.
"Raghav's first birthday is next week Randhir," Sanyukta said to him with a smile. "Somya wants to throw a party."
Randhir dipped his face into her neck and planted a soft kiss there.
"Whatever you want," he whispered to her.
"Randhir," she said, in a stern tone, turning around and hitting his arm. "I'm asking you. Don't irritate me!"
"Let's throw one then," Randhir said, picking up Sanyukta's hand and bringing her knuckles to his lips.
Sanyukta pulled her hand away, grabbed his shoulders, kissed his cheek quickly and grabbed her purse.
"I'm getting late," she told him with a smile.
"But Sanyuktaaa," Randhir said with a pout.
"Yes Randhirrr," Sanyukta replied, dragging his name just like he dragged hers.
"Come soon," he said to her, and she nodded.
"I'll be back very soon," she told him softly.
Then she rushed out of the room to go outside where Vidhushi was already waiting for her.
Little did they know that there would be a twist in the tale today, and her promise to return to him soon was going to be broken.
295
Sanyukta was in the shopping mall with Vidhushi, who was sporting a nine month belly bump.
"He's going to pop any moment now," Vidhushi gushed. "I'm so excited. Let's go to all of the baby stores!"
Sanyukta nodded and followed Vidhushi into the first store. She wanted to buy stuff for Raghav too... it was getting close to his first birthday and although he had lots of clothes that many people had gifted for him, she loved buying him more stuff.
"It's so much fun to shop for babies," Sanyukta admitted. "Raghav has so much yet I can't stop buying him more. There's so much cute stuff!"
"Yeah!" Vidhushi said, sounding excited. "Parth is going to meet us later."
Vidhushi had made the difficult decision of leaving Ankit to go to Parth. She didn't want to dump her responsibility on Ankit, nor did she want to waste his time anymore... she had already wasted years of his life, and he didn't deserve any more unhappiness.
"When are you two getting married?" Sanyukta asked her.
"Sometime after the baby comes out," Vidhushi said. "Hey, this would be so cute for Raghav!"
She was pointing to a small onesie with Mickey Mouse on the front. It was really cute.
"I'm happy for you and Parth," she said, picking up the onesie. "I know how difficult the decision must have been for you, and sometimes we fall weak to our emotions, and circumstances are thrown at us by destiny -"
As soon as she said that, the whole room went dark.
"What the -" Vidhushi gasped, holding her belly protectively.
Sanyukta looked around. Maybe there was a power outage.
"Everyone, hands up, or you're going to die," a dark voice said.
The room broke out into screams and she felt Vidhushi tremble beside her. Sanyukta held on to her shoulder reassuringly. She glanced up and saw the silhouette of two tall men holding guns.296
Randhir was at home with Somya and Raghav when his phone rang.
"Randhir, did you check the news?" Ishika's frantic voice said.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Sanyukta invited me to the mall with her and Vidhushi today, but I didn't go... the mall that she invited me to has a terrorist attack going on inside it right now," Ishika told him.
"What?" Randhir asked, shocked. "Can you come over right now and take care of the kids? I have to go there."
"Yeah I'll be right there," Ishika said and Randhir hung up.
"What happened daddy?" Somya asked him innocently.
"Daddy just has to go out for some important work. Ishika mommy is coming. Take care of Raghav okay?" Randhir asked Somya and his daughter nodded.
"Mommmyyy," Raghav said and Randhir picked his son up, kissing his cheek softly.
"She will be back soon," he whispered to his son.
Raghav pulled at Randhir's ear and Somya grinned.
"Daddy he's so funny!" she said happily.
"Yes he is," Randhir said with a smile and passed Raghav to Somya.
As soon as Ishika got there, Randhir got into his car and drove to the mall. There were police cars everywhere, surrounding the building.
"What's happening inside?" Randhir asked one of the cops.
"There are two bombs hidden inside the mall that could go off at any time. The terrorists aren't scared of death," the cop said. "They won't let anyone leave. It seems to be a faith attack."
Randhir took a step back and looked at the mall. He was not concerned. He was so connected to Sanyukta that he knew that she was okay. He could feel her heart through his... and her heartbeats were just as normal as his were.
It was like his heart had been a mirror of hers, and he knew that the moment her heart would stop beating, then his would as well.
For the first time in his life, he wasn't worried about Sanyukta leaving him. For the first time in his life, he had complete faith. For the first time in his life, Randhir Singh Shekhawat would not utter the words, "Please don't leave me"... because he knew that the universe made better plans than he did.
Pati Patni Aur Panga
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
