Cherished Wounds#2 NOTE Pg 66 - Page 26

Khushi scrunched up her eyes, slowly opening them, as the soft sunlight dazzled its way into them. As soon as she took in the beautiful surroundings of the shikara, the events of the night before flooded her mind, she turned around to find the other side of the bed empty. Her fingers moved from under the shawl she was draped in and over the white bed sheet. It was still warm, but there was not a single crease on the other side. Almost as is if...last night hadn't happened, Khushi thought. She heard voices outside the boat, not Arnav's gruff but Aakash's mild tones. Almost on a cue, he entered the boat, his face impassive.

"Hi," Aakash mumbled, the tight smile on his lips giving away the tension lurking in his eyes. "What's wrong?" Khushi let slip the question whose answer she already dreaded to hear. So when moments later Aakash's words rattled out into the air, a dull pain settled, slowly but permanently in her heart. "He left. Arnav, his father...Azaan, he had a cardiac arrest, earlier this morning." Aakash wanted to say much more, but he couldn't form one complete sentence, as the sudden turn of events weighed down upon him. So he walked towards her form that was leaning against the bedpost drawing in much needed support and enveloped her in his own trembling arms. Khushi didn't cry, she could just hear her own shallow breaths and feel Aakash's hands caressing her hair. The tears would come eventually, she knew. She could already sense them aggregating somewhere behind the throbbing pain in her head. But as Aakash spoke again, she decided she would acknowledge that pain later. Later, when she would be alone.

"Khushi your train will leave in a few hours. We should be heading to the Station." Khushi nodded, telling him that she would be out in a few minutes. Half a second later when she heard the door being closed softly behind her, she moved from over the bed towards the tinted glass window of the boat. She saw her blurry reflection on the glass and couldn't stop herself from thinking that before he had left he had taken care to dress her properly, not leave a hair was out of place. Combed, they were loosely tie into a messy, but otherwise beautiful braid.

But yes, I do love you.

My father is the most important part of my life.

Mechanically, she walked towards the door, and exited the place that would bear in its drapings and immaculate furnishings, the bittersweet memories of two people, for a long time.

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The cold wind bellowed through the valley, weaving through Khushi's hair, washing over her face, and unintentionally bringing back memories of days that seemed to her, occurred years ago. The air, biting cold chaffed at her lips, making her shiver, partly in apprehension, partly due to an unacknowledged reason of distress.

"You should leave now, Khushi. It's a long journey ahead." Aakash said for the umpteenth time that morning, trying to ignore the pleading, tormented look of Khushi's face. They had been waiting, sipping coffee, in silent hope that Arnav might come. Hoping that he would once show his face, or even call. Somehow, Khushi couldn't make herself leave before seeing him for one last time. An hour went by, bringing forth the wake of another. He didn't come.

"Can't I go and meet him once?" Khushi let out a barely audible whisper. "The Base is too far from the Station Khushi, it will take a lot of time." Aakash said, resignedly.

When an hour later, Aakash asked her to leave, she blinked away the fresh batch of stinging tears, and asked the driver to start the jeep.

The engine came to life, and with the faint blaring of the radio, Khushi left the place that had changed her in unexplainable ways for a lifetime.

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Aakash scuttled through the hospital corridors and entered the room, apprehending the sight that might greet him once he came to face the occupants of that room.

What greeted him was a disheveled Arnav, his face buried in his hands, as his bloodshot eyes shot up to meet Aakash's face. "He'll be fine in no time, Arnav. Try not to worry." Aakash held Arnav's shoulders, trying to reassure him with his words. "Anjali, have you seen her?" Arnav asked, his face mirroring shades of anger and those of grief. "She was here for hours before you reached. I told her to leave for some time and get some rest." Arnav nodded, walking towards the curtained windows of the hospital room, his eyes contemplating of both the past and the future. His eyes misted up, before his words came out in raspy stammers.

"Maybe if I'd been here, none of this would have happened." Aakash swallowed a nonexistent lump down his throat, his mind registering what Arnav meant. He spoke, although knowing, that none of what he would say, had the chance of changing the way he was thinking. "Arnav, you being here or not wouldn't have stooped the attack. Don't blame yourself unnecessarily." Aakash watched as the man across him sighed heavily, his hands harshly brushing away the dampness under his eyes. They both stood immobile in the gloomy room, not knowing what to say, what to feel, not acknowledging for the moment the question, the answer that needed to be asked and heard, eventually. When about an twenty minutes later Aakash offered to get him some coffee, sauntering out of the door, Arnav's hoarse, choked voice halted him abruptly.

"Aakash..?"

The words were not needed to be spelled out properly. That dull, pained look in his eyes that gave way to a few more tears, made Aakash answer almost immediately.

"Khushi left a while ago. She waited for you. For almost three hours."

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A/N- I know this is short, but it was necessary. That last chapter and moreover the first phase of CW needed closure, this is it. Thank you!:)