A/N- 1 year after Shivaay-Anika divorce. everyone knows the truth about everything. Gauri is actually pregnant. She and Om fell are an established couple. Something that I wanted to write suddenly :)
NAAM , KHOON, KHANDAN?
Shivaay followed her tiny frame with its ludicrously huge belly make its way down the stairs, intently. Not for one second did his eyes leave the petite woman and for each step she took his heart beat went up by about ten beats.
A deep sigh of relief escaped him as she safely placed both her feet on good solid level ground and turned to look at him with a mischievous grin. "Shivaay bhaiyya, you must own now that it is perfectly safe for me to use my two feet since I have just come down a flight of stairs using them."
Shivaay looked up at the object that his little sister in law had called "stairs" and which he personally had designated as the Contraption from Hell and wrinkled his forehead. That had to go. He would have to put a lift in the house. Also sharp corners-Bad. Anything slippery like marble which meant he had to tear up the flooring of the entire house and replace it with wood or stone. Better yet he could just build an entirely new baby proof and pregnancy proof house...Yow!
He turned, rubbing his arm to face his attacker who was glaring at him. "Stop designing houses in your head!" she grumbled. "I'm five months pregnant not dying!" Shivaay opened his mouth to counter her clearly illogical argument and quickly shut it again as a dangerous glint appeared in her eyes. Gauri might be small and sweet to look at but woe betide the poor soul who thought of crossing her.
The sound of a car being drawn up rescued Shivaay from his predicament. He turned to face the new entry, his sister-in-law's glowing face already giving away his identity.
"Omkaraji!" Gauri cried happily before flying across the hall (Shivaay yelped) to fall into her long awaited husband's arms. Om laughed and gathered her into a tight hug before kissing the top of her head and chiding her gently. "Sweetheart, you mustn't run about like this in your condition. While the baby will survive it I'm not sure Shivaay will "he finished with a laugh as Shivaay groaned from the sofa where he had collapsed.
"Om, for the next four months I'm locking you inside this house and letting you out only when you and Gauri need to go see the doctor. You cannot...you positively cannot leave like that again for business and leave me to look after your wife. It's only been a week and I feel like I've just been trampled by a horde of elephants and tossed about in a hurricane before being thrown from the Qutab Minar. Multiple times."
Gauri who was safely nestled in Om's arms turned to face him and stuck her tongue out. A smothered chuckle escaped Om before he swung his wife up in his arms and said drily, "I warned you she was a handful Shivaay. Now excuse me while I take this impudent baggage upstairs and give her a proper scolding for nearly giving my favourite brother a heart attack." Shivaay snorted. Om scolding his wife was as alien a concept as the earth proving to be flat or ISIS donating to Amnesty International. It was never going to happen.
Shivaay lounged back in the couch and watched with a small smile as Om carried a chattering Gauri upstairs with a fondly exasperated look on his face. If anyone had told him a year ago that his silent, grave, philosophical brother would end up head over heels in love with an inquisitive, slightly unscrupulous little dynamo in human form he would have laughed his head off before offering them a hundred to one odds on the likelihood of that happening. And yet...here they were. His brother, for the first time in years, was truly happy-utterly and completely in love with his wife and eagerly awaiting the birth of his child.
It pained him to admit it but there were times when Shivaay found himself jealous of Om. Oh he was happy for him obviously, but there were times...like when Om's face would light up when Gauri entered the room, like when Gauri would spend hours waiting for Om to have dinner before force feeding it to him with her own hands and like when Om had spent the whole day going about the house in a happy daze after the doctor had whispered to them that it was going to be a girl before holing himself up in his workroom to create the "most beautiful doll in existence". Gauri had to threaten to go on a hunger strike before Om could be convinced to leave his room and join the land of the living. He was still working on it though. Apparently his daughter's first doll was going to be Om's Mona Lisa. During those moments Shivaay had found himself torn between being deliriously happy for his brother and aching for the same kind of happiness in his life or atleast someone to love like how Om loved Gauri.
He had had someone, he reminded himself bitterly. And through sheer stupidity he had driven her away.
It had been a year since his divorce and almost six months since he had learned about his mother's behaviour and what she had made Anika endure. The hundred and one secrets that had plagued the Oberoi family were all cleared up now and they had returned to a new normal except...except for his relationship with the one woman who had mattered, Anika. Too much had been said. Too much had passed between them. That she didn't trust him anymore was clearly written on her face for anyone to see. As for him, while he openly admitted to himself that he was still, quite desperately, in love with her, the three words he had lived his life by still held him back from making the first move. Naam. Khoon. Khandan.
"Omkarajiii" his sister in law's plaintive wail broke through his reverie. A broad smile appeared on his face as he heard her arguing volubly with his clearly exhausted brother on the propriety of going kite flying. Now there was someone who possessed none of the above. Apart from a tired old mother, Gauri Kumari Sharma (It's Sarma, thank you very much) had no family to speak of, was as poor as a churchmouse and didn't have a drop of blue blood in her. Worst of all she didn't seem to care at all.
"It's what I love about her", Om had confided in him with a smile one evening as the brothers had got together for some time alone, just the three of them. "She is so delightfully unconscious of all the ridiculous little rules people have created to divide themselves and lives her life according to her values and her values alone. It's humbling to be loved by someone like that". Rudy, who had clearly been drunk had wolf whistled and clapped appreciatively, but Shivaay who had a hard head had merely nursed his beer and frowned. It didn't make sense. Didn't your background influence your character?
But then he thought of his militant sister in law and paused. No one could ever love Om more deeply or more fiercely than Gauri. It was there in every word she said, every action she took- Gauri Kumari Sharma was devoted to Omkara Singh Oberoi heart, body and soul. Shivaay was quite sure that if an army of ninja warriors charged at Om, Gauri would throw herself in front of him and send them singlehandedly to outer space armed with nothing more than her shades.
She had no name. No family. No money. And yet every day she woke up and loved his brother and his family including himself with a steadfastness which made him adore her a little more every day.
Shivaay stood up with a determined look on his face. He needed to talk to Anika. And if the talking included grovelling, then so be it.
Arjun
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