Chapter 1 :
"So ? How is Froufrou, now ?", asked the Dr. Asad Ahmed Khan while caressing the back of a small dog in plush.
"Froufrou is good now, Beta ! Thankfully in this mental asylum there is one sensible darling like you here ! If you wouldn't have been there, then my Froufrou would have hurt himself...", Shireen, a middle-aged woman exclaimed while picking up her cuddly toy in her arms and caressing Asad's face from the other hand and he smiled.
Dr. Asad Ahmed Khan was a hardworking, loyal and honest doctor working in a psychiatric hospital. Along with being one of the best doctor of the hospital, he was a very well-built man with an utterly handsome face. Dr. Khan was also his patients' best friend, he was their confident, their partners in crime, what they think as a Messiah sent for them as their savior. From aunties to uncles, the ideal son and the best of supports.
"Dr. Khan demanded in Dr. Siddiqui's cabin !", reasonned through the speaker, all the patients let out a gasp from their mouths, making Asad smile.
"Asad ! Careful, or Siddiqui monster will eat you !" Asad laughed at Razia's remark, who was sitting on the bed accross from Shireen's.
"Aunty, don't worry i will come back to you safe and sound, don't worry about me, i'm a strong boy !" Asad said while giving her a banana to calm her down and smiling at her.
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Asad was making his way towards Dr. Siddiqui's cabin, when he turned around the corner, he bumped into a soft body, making the person stumble back. But before she could fall, Asad caught her around her waist preventing her fall, as a reflex she put her arms around his neck and shut her eyes tightly waiting for the cold floor but instead of that, she felt strong, muscular arms holding her.
Asad kept staring at her, she was angel-like, she was mesmerizing and a current ran through his body. The Beauty was wearing a white-coloured anarkali suit, just like an angel who came from above, she had her hair hanging loose around her shoulders, unevenly.
As the girl gradually opened her eyes, he saw big almond-shaped eyes, a cute button nose, perfect pink pouty lips and of course two beautiful dimples on both of her cheeks, even if the one on the left cheek was more apparent, though she wasn't even smiling, it made her even more beautiful.
All of a sudden, Asad realized that she seemed... scared, was she afraid of him ? That simple thought made him realize their positions. He straightened her, some of her tears escaped her eyes looking at him. She was scared of him, Asad took a step forward to ask if she was alright but as soon as he came forward, she took a step backwards, before turning away from him and running away, confusing him. Asad wondered who she was, why was she scared of him, questions kept popping up in his mind.
Asad shrugged and went towards Dr. Siddiqui's cabin, still thinking about this mysterious girl all the way there.
Asad stood in front of Dr. Ghaffur Siddiqui's cabin. Dr. Ghaffur Siddiqui was the head of this hospital, or mental asylum like others would call. He was the most feared doctor in the hospital, everybody tended to avoid hi spath, scared of his wrath, except Asad. Asad was least impressed by his so-called reputation, for him, Dr. Siddiqui was a doctor and his senior that's why Asad respected him, but he never feared him. In fact, in some cases, Asad had even come to cross him. He did not like his senior's mindset, a little too orthodox, according to Asad.
After getting the permission of coming in, Asad opened the door and stepped in. Dr. Siddiqui's looked at him with a stern face, with an emotionless face, just like he did every day. Asad smiled. Then, he saw a fat... No ! Fat would be an understatement ! She was huge ! Asad gulped down his saliva looking at her, trying not to stare. Trying not to make her feel like a truck, Asad averted his gaze.
When Asad turned his head to the left, he saw that beautiful girl he bumped into earlier, smiling. Asad couldn't take his eyes off that beautiful lady standing not too far away from him. However, that is when he noticed who she was smiling to... her teddy bear, she was talking and smiling at her teddy bear... She was another patient... Asad felt bad for the way he thought about her, she was a patient, he mustn't have such thoughts about her.
"Hello Dr. Khan ! Please meet Mrs. Haseena Qureshi, Mrs. Qureshi, please meet Dr. Asad Ahmed Khan, he'll be the one handling Ms. Zoya Farooqui's case." Dr. Siddiqui broke Asad's train of thoughts, and the young doctor smiled politely.
So, her name was Zoya...
"Doctors please ! From now onwards, i have nothing to do with this girl, she's nothing but a - " Haseena started angrily and was about to slap Zoya, but Asad grabbed her hand stopping her, and Zoya backed off with tears rolling down her cheeks and looking down, her breathing getting erratic.
Asad did not know why and how but an instinct of protectiveness had come over him when he had seen her talking to her teddy bear. Perhaps it was the doctor side of him or maybe just a human being who could see another being wronged and not tolerating it, he did not know.
"Mrs. Qureshi ! Language, please ! And yes, this is a hospital, here, nobody raises his voice on a patient so forget about raising this hand of yours on her ! On top of that, since you said that you have nothing to do with Ms. Zoya Farooqui, i dare you to raise your voice at her ! From now, she's my patient, that means my responsability and nobody will raise a hand on my patients ! Understood ?!" Asad spit out with gritted teeth while throwing her hand back from his strong grip.
"Whatever... Anyways, i only brought her here to get rid of her !" Haseena glared at a heavy breathing Zoya and Asad stepped aside to block her view of Zoya.
"You may leave now !" Asad replied with gritted teeth, and she left, almost getting stuck in the doorway because of her body size.
When she left, Asad noticed that Zoya had turned red and was breathing heavily, Dr. Siddiqui reached first at her, but as soon as he touched Zoya's arm, Zoya slapped his hand away and backed away further in the corner of the cabin. She was having trouble in breathing,
Asad saw the inhaler on the coffee table, he took it and rushed towards her, she tried to back away further, but she was already against the wall. Asad tried to calm her down first by showing how cute her teddy bear was, he distracted her her long enough, then cupped her chin in his hand and made her open her mouth and inhale.
Her breathing got better and as soon as she had enough power, she tried to push him away by hitting on his chest. Asad managed to calm her down, and let out a relieved sigh that she was okay. He made her sit back against the couch she was previously sitting on.
"Prasad, stretcher please !" Asad called out, as soon as he called, Prasad came in with a stretcher.
Asad tried to help her to the stretcher, but she slapped his hands away abd started screaming.
"No !! No... No... No... I won't... No ! I don't want to lie on this !! No ! No ! No...", Zoya kept on ranting while tears rolled down her eyes and trying to get up but failing because of being weak.
Asad kept a hand on her shoulder to calm her and to push her down but she slapped his hands away and put her hands on her face, stiffening, as if waiting to be struck, Asad's heart went out to her.
"Wait, wait, wait... Why dont you want to lie on this ?" Asad asked calmly with a small smile, a low tone and his hands joined at his back, as if reassuring her that he would not touch her.
Zoya gradually removed her hands from her face, after parting her fingers to see him through them, hesitantly, she removed her hands from her face when she saw him smiling at her.
"It's not good ! It's really bad ! They took Ammi and Abbu away on this, with a sheet covering their faces ! And i never saw them again ! He's also taking me away ! He'll take me away and hit me !", Zoya sobbed.
Asad sent Prasad away with his stretcher.
"Shhh... Look Zoya, you are not on the stretcher anymore...", Asad whispered but she shook her head against her hands, "Open your eyes and look..."
Zoya opened one of her eyes, the other still shut tightly, Asad smiled gently.
"You are safe here, i won't let anyone hurt you. Just now, that woman tried to hit you but i stopped her. In the same way, i will stop any other person from hurting you.", he said sincerely, completely ignoring the fact that they were not alone in the room.
Zoya hesitated, looking down at her feet and holding the plush tighter to her, slowly, she nodded.
Asad smiled sweetly at her, he knew that before starting any kind of treatment, he needed to get his patient's trust, first. And if that helped her feel safe, then why not.
"Okay then ! First of all, my name is Asad !" he held his hand out to her, testing her reaction. Not so surprisingly, she did not shake his hand, so he pulled it back, then asked again pointing at her plush, "Your name is Zoya, i got that, but what's his ?"
Zoya pulled her teddy bear even closer if possible and Asad got the message, he wasn't yet trustworthy for her to share, what he guessed to be, her most precious friend.
"It's okay, you can introduce him to me at any other time. But right now, we have to take you to your bed, do you prefer to go with me or the stretcher ?" Asad knew that this was cheating but well, at this point he did not have much choice.
As expected, Zoya chose him over the stretcher, he smiled and asked her to follow him, completely ignoring Dr. Siddiqui. When Asad got out of the cabin, Zoya looked over at Ghaffur suspisciously, but the head of the hospital stood expressionless.
In the corridors of the hospital, Asad led her to the women's ward, there was a foot distance between them, Zoya being cautious. However as they turned around the corner, a few nurses and ward boys were hurrying towards their station.
But to Zoya, she feared losing sight of Asad so she grabbed the back of his labcoat, surprising him. He didn't react, not wanting to make her feel like she couldn't touch him. He knew that she didn't like touching people, so the fact that she took the decisionof touching him on her own, made it feel like a victory.
Asad could feel all the eyes on him but he didn't care, when had he ever cared about what others thought about him ? And he wouldn't start caring nor today, neither tomorrow.
Asad made his way with her to the ladies' ward, a bed was already arranged for Zoya, she kept calm holding onto him. When he turned a little to look at her, he could see that she was scared, she was looking everywhere, as if somebody was going to come out of the walls. But he also saw the exhaustion in her eyes, the dark circles under her eyes made him think that she hadn't rested well since a while.
All the ladies in the ward watched the new girl coming with their Asad suspisciously. Tanveer, a nurse who had a huge crush on him looked at her as if she was dirt.
Asad stepped towards Zoya's bed.
"Sister Tanveer, please bring a hospital gown for her !" Asad ordered, somehow relieving Tanveer that this girl was another crazy one, hence no competition about Asad. But she still felt irritated as the way Asad called her 'Sister'.
Nevertherless, she went to bring a gown while Asad helped Zoya to the bed, he noticed that she was getting ready to doze off, hiding under the covers like a child, he smiled at the cuteness. Tanveer came back calling out for him in a loud voice and he scowled at her gesturing that she wasn't the only one in the room.
Asad didn't want to touch Zoya, knowing that there was the possibility of her getting agitated, so he tried calling her out, "Zoya, come on, here, you can change in more comfortable clothes... Zoya ?"
As Zoya looked at Asad wanting to know why he was disturbing her yet again, he saw another person next to him, a mean looking nurse.
Zoya looked at Asad worriedly, but he smiled and eased her fears, "It's okay, Zoya, she only brought you some other clothes you can change into...", he took the hospital clothes from Tanveer and handed them to Zoya. "You should change into them and then you can go to sleep."
Zoya thought about it, if this man had wanted to hurt her, he would have done so by now, and he had even protected her when Haseena was going to strike her, could she trust him ? She slowly went to the bathroom to changed.
While she was inside, Asad spoke sternly to Tanveer, "Sister, i don't want too much noise, this patient, Zoya Farooqui needs proper rest, so nor you, neither others will disturb her ! And in no way, you are allowed to touch her, if there is any problem, you page me, but do not touch her.", Asad gave strict orders to Tanveer, who was making faces at the way he was calling her.
"Page me, when she wakes up, i'll be in my cabin." Asad said when Zoya had gotten back from the bathroom and was getting into bed, and Tanveer could only nod at his orders.
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A/N : here u go guys, please do tell how u liked itš³
Edited by Miss-Appy - 8 years ago
Pati Patni Aur Panga
Jaane Anjaane Hum Mile
Tum Se Tum Tak
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
Vasudha
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