Whoa! Holy crap guys! I've never in my life gotten so many threatening PMs than the ones I did after the last chapter.
It was really hard to write this chapter but thanks to Harveen for helping me figure some stuff out after reading it.
Thank you for the PMs and the comments, I do appreciate them. Hope you all enjoy this chapter!
Happy Reading!
Anam
----------------
Chapter 14
"He looks so lost," Jigayasa whispered, shaking her head as she held onto Aditya. Her eyes watched Jai sympathetically, tears occasionally rolling down her cheeks. She might not have been closer to her sister in law before, but she had hopes of finally bonding with her now that their lives had settled down. "Oh Aditya, isn't there anything to be done?"
"It happened too fast," he whispered, removing a handkerchief from his pocket and giving it to his wife. "If we had known sooner we could have had the finest physicians here. No one knew," he hugged Jigayasa close. "I'm sure Bani will be fine. She's a strong woman," he swallowed hard, thinking of his Bani who had once been strong as well.
"Bani babhi is a fighter," Nachiket looked out the window at the rain, remembering times Bani had said the rain felt like a blessing to the earth. "And I'm sure the girls are too," he looked at Raashi and smiled, offering comfort. "Has anyone called Roshni to tell her? Pia? They have a right to know
"I've called Roshni, and there is no reason to call Pia" Rano replied harshly, looking again at Jai to be sure he wasn't listening. "Roshni said she would come as soon as she could."
Jai stood up, shooting the group of them a look before walking into the hallway and starting to pace. Their voices were starting to eat at him and he couldn't bear to listen to the panicked, hushed voices that filled the room. This wasn't how this day was supposed to go! Bani was supposed to go into labor and throw things at him and swear he would never touch her again! She was supposed to scream and curse and make him laugh at all her antics and then they would be holding the two most beautiful babies on the face of the planet, their two daughters that looked just like Bani. Now he could lose all three, both his beautiful little girls so tiny and fragile and his wife, the woman that held his heart in her hands. How would he go on without them?
Thinking of the times Bani had miscarriages before, he couldn't help and think of the worst. He shook his head; now was not the time to think so negatively about his wife. She would survive…she had to.
Jai heard the soft squeaks of sneakers before he could smell the sweet floral perfume and lifted his sad brown eyes from the ground upward. Roshni arrived, the most beautiful bouquet of roses in her hand for Bani and a sympathetic smile on her face.
"How is she?" Roshni asked, concerned about the woman she still saw as a best friend. It didn't matter if Bani was angry with her for some reason; Roshni Chopra knew that deep down inside they would still be friends again. "I heard about the c-section but Rano never called with more news. I was getting worried and came as soon as I could."
Jai closed his eyes, a tear rolling down his rough cheek. Sighing, he opened his eyes and looked at the woman that had been his love at one time and best friend for so long. "She started hemorrhaging awhile ago; the doctor hasn't come out of the room yet. I've been waiting to hear about the girls…"
"Girls? Did you know they would be girls?" Roshni asked, thinking about the two darlings that must be in NICU.
He nodded. "I want to see them! I want to see her! Roshni, I don't know what I'll do if they…"
"Bani's survived so much worse, Jai. She's an amazing woman and I think we both know that she will pull through," she smiled, chuckling slightly. "She's a cat with more than nine lives; I'm sure she'll outlive us all."
Jai smirked. "She does have an amazing way of coming back when you least expect it. She's so strong…so in control. Seeing her today frightened me; it made me realize she's not superhuman."
Roshni was about to agree when a nurse came over to them, her cheerful smile and bright colored clothing making it obvious that she was from the pediatrics wing. Pushing some flaming pink hair back behind her ears, she stopped in front of Jai. "Mr. Walia?"
"Yes?" Jai asked, trying to see her real eye color beneath the Indian flag contacts. Did all the freaks relocate to Mumbai recently or was this a fad he hadn't heard about?
"Nurse Mitali!" she shook his hand. "I've been sent to tell you that Dr. Khan has administered the lung development drug, which will help the girls breath on their own and that they are finally ready to see their Daddy. If you'd like to come with me, I can take you to them."
"Please!" Jai nodded, hugging Roshni for a second. "Thank you for being here. I appreciate it, really. I couldn't possibly tell you how much."
"That's what friends are for, Jai. Now go, I'll tell everyone where you went."
"Thank you," he replied, jogging after Nurse Mitali.
Roshni watched him go. "Please God; don't take Bani or the girls from him. I don't think Jai can make it through losing another person he loves, especially not Bani. He's had so much pain for far too long, just let him have one ray of sunshine, just once," she ducked inside the waiting room as Jai headed off to see his girls.
------------------
Nurse Mitali led Jai to the NICU wing of the nursery, which was two doors down from the regular nursery with a special double pane, darkly tinted window for family members that weren't allowed in. Between the nursery and the NICU, there was a pressurized, sterile changing room. Before entering the room, Nurse Mitali handed Jai a care package. Leading him inside, she showed him how to scrub down, using the foot press and the motion detector dryer to change without touching things; the process took five minutes to complete and anything less was considered unacceptable. A wave of her hand and a sliding glass door opened, allowing them to step into the neo-natal unit where only the Walia twins lay. In the first two Krishna and Karishma, his little angels. Tears sprang to his eyes to see how small they both were; his first instinct was to pull them both into his arms and protect them from anyone and anything that could possibly hurt them. Moving closer, he noticed that they were both dressed in pink with tubes running into their bodies. He wanted to scream, to yell, to cry…but all he could do was gently place his hand against the cool plastic of the layette. On either side were two holes that a hand could fit through and beside each bed a rocking chair.
"If you wish to put your hands through there you can touch them. NICU babies love to be touched," Mitali told him, looking over little Krishna and Karishma. "You can also hold them; don't be afraid if an alarm goes off, it just means that one of the monitors shook looks as you lifted them."
"You mean I can hold them right now?" he asked wide eyed, eyeing their tiny bodies. They seemed smaller than some of the rag dolls he'd seen Anu play with years ago. He wasn't so sure he could pick them up without breaking them. "Won't I hurt them?"
She shook her head. "You'll get used to it, Mr. Walia, trust me. The girls will know you're their Daddy almost immediately and you'll find it near impossible not to hold them in your arms every moment of every day. NICU babies are addictive. You want to love them more every minute so they can grow bigger quickly."
Jai didn't look so sure about holding them and instead changed the subject to their health. "Do you know what their weights are?" he asked. "Have they been given names?"
"I do have their weights," she pointed to the charts. "Baby A weighs three pounds, one ounce and Baby B weighs two pounds, ten ounces. Would you like to give them names or should we wait until your wife is out of surgery?"
Jai thought it over for a moment, deciding it would be best to name the children since they had decided on names previously. "Baby A is Krishna Jai Walia," he smiled at the tiny baby to his left. "And Baby B is Karishma Jai Walia. Would you like me to spell them for you?" Jai asked making sure the wacky nurse didn't spell his daughters' name wrong.
The nurse nodded and Jai quickly spelled the names for her so she could fill in the charts. He looked back at the clear plastic cases that protected his daughters and sighed. More than anything in the world he wanted to hold them, but he was so afraid of hurting them that he wasn't sure he could do it. Moving a seat closer to them, he reached one hand into Karishma's incubator and touched her back with his fingers. The nurse smiled slightly, understand his tension and reluctance.
"I'll give you some time alone. If you need anything, I'll be in the little office over there," she motioned to the doorway and to the left where the bathing and weighing room was located. "Mr. Walia, these girls are going to make it. I know Dr. Khan and she's an amazing doctor who has brought with her quiet a vast staff for the neo-natal unit. You couldn't have a finer specialist caring for your children."
"I believe you. Thank you," his eyes remained focused on his tiny daughter. He didn't hear the door close, but did hear a little radio come on overhead, the sweet slow strains of a song floating in the air. The soft lighting as well as the sweet music made it seem almost romantic and he knew right away that this would be the best atmosphere for his daughters. Realizing what the song was, Jai chuckled; Bani would have laughed that the pink haired, flag eyed nurse would be listening to this kind of music. "Hear that, Karishma?" Jai gently stroked her cheek. "That's one of Mommy's favorite songs starting."
There you are in the early light of day
There you are in the quiet words I pray
I've been blessed by the simple happiness
Of the perfect love we've made
Jai thought about Bani for a moment, they way she looked in the moonlight after they made love, her eyes twinkling merrily. He loved the way she looked pregnant, her hands always resting on her budding abdomen and a glow about her that was undeniable. Everywhere he was, everywhere he went, she was with him. On the long nights that he had spent away from her recently, he would close his eyes and still see her face. She was his angel. There was no escaping Bani and their love because everything everywhere, everything on earth, reminded him of her.
Karishma moved her tiny fist slightly, her frail little body seeming to pale from just the effort of the movement. Slowly, he stood from the rocking chair and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Carefully and ever so gently, he lifted his tiny baby girl from the incubator and cradled her close, slowly sitting in the rocking chair and caressing her cheek with his index finger. "Aren't you beautiful?" he spoke softly, lifting her tiny fist with one hand. The baby seemed to snuggle closer in his arms and Jai found it comforting when none of the alarms went off.
Every time I turn around
When I'm lost and when I'm found
Like an angel standing guard
There you are
Every time I take a breath
And when I forget to breathe
You're watching over me
There you are
When I'm looking for the light
In the middle of the night
Searching for the brightest star
There you are
"You just rest, baby, Daddy is here to take care of you," he whispered. "I would sing, but even Mommy doesn't let me do that," he chuckled fighting tears. "Oh God, please don't take away my Bani," Jai cried, tears rolling down his cheeks. "Let her and our girls survive, please let them survive."
Jai focused on his daughter, placing a kiss to her tiny hand. She shifted again, her deep even breaths encouraging him beyond anything else. Karishma had stolen his heart the second he saw her, as had her twin, and nothing made his heart swell more than holding his very petite baby girl. She had most of Bani's features; except for the big brown eyes like his own. He just knew the girls would have big brown eyes and the sweetest faces on earth. After all, they were the angels God had lent him for the next seventy years.
There you are standing in a crowded room
There you are, the earth and I'm the moon
My desire is to stand by the fire
That burns inside of you
The sliding door opened and Jais' eyes left his daughter's face to see who was interrupting their time together. He was surprised to see Dr. Khan, freshly scrubbed and in clean clothing, standing at the door way with the smallest hint of a smile on her face. She walked past him for a moment, easily lifting Krishna from her crib and holding her in her arms. "You know, Mr. Walia," she whispered, trying not to frighten the twins, "I went into this work because I wanted to make sure mother's had the rest of their lives with their babies. The benefit was getting to give a mother the great news that she was having a child." She rocked Krishna. "Today, I've found another reason to stay in this line of work."
"What's that?" he asked, honestly intrigued by her monologue.
"Helping to save lives. Bani pulled through, Mr. Walia. She had an atonic uterus, which means it wasn't hardening after birth. Because she started to bleed out we normally would have performed a hysterectomy but we have an amazing doctor on staff and we were able to save her without doing so. In other words, Mr. Walia," she tickled Krishna's belly. "Not only did their Mommy pull through but she'll be able to give them tons of siblings."
"You…you mean…" he could hardly breathe.
She nodded. "Bani is fine and she's been brought back into her room. You can go see her if you like, though I'm not sure if she's awake right now. If she is, she might be groggy." Dr. Khan replied. "By the way, love your choice in names. Krishna happens to be a personal favorite," she giggled, tucking the baby back into her layette.
Every time I turn around
When I'm lost and when I'm found
Like an angel standing guard
There you are
Every time I take a breath
And when I forget to breathe
You're watching over me
There you are
When I'm looking for the light
In the middle of the night
Searching for the brightest star
There you are
Jai placed a kiss to Karishma's head and then cautiously returned her to the layette. With a smile, he hugged Dr. Khan and even laughed. "You have no idea how much I love you right now, Sabrina! You've saved my entire family and I can never thank you enough for everything you've done for us!"
"Mr. Walia, stop thanking me and go," she giggled. "Bani is going to need your support between just delivering her children and having to cope with the fact that they are in NICU. I'll come in and talk to you both as soon as I review their charts, but in the meantime go hold your wife and tell her how much you love her."
"With pleasure," he rushed out, not even stopping to change as he ran down the halls to Bani's room. His heart thudded in his chest, his breathing coming in gasps from running so quickly. When he stopped outside her room, Jai closed his eyes and whispered a prayer of thanks to God for saving his wife's life and sparing his children. Slowly pushing open the door, Jais' eyes immediate went to the bed where Bani lay with her eyes closed. Her hands still rested on her swollen stomach, tear tracks staining her cheeks. Quietly, he crept over, sitting in the chair beside her bed and lifting one hand from her stomach to hold it in his calloused palm. He lifted her hand to his lips for a kiss and then sighed.
To be continued…
Itti Si Khushi Sab TV
Cricket
Bigg Boss 19
