SantaClaus &Tooth Fairy-FF,Chapt 16 updated,(23/7) PG 70 - Page 21

Originally posted by: aarzoo50

yayy yiippee... waiting then... luv u

Sorry Dear.. i really tried to update yesterday but had too many things to do.. but i will update at least a part in a while...this time its a promise.😊

Originally posted by: jas91

Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃Update plz😃

So sorry for the delay.😭.. will update tonight... promise.😊

ok kaussar... take it easy sweetheart... waiting

Finally here is a Chapter. this chapter is for Arzoo50, Jas91, Preeti,pwenCezz_symrun and sasir who spam the thread ,comment and prompt me to update... love you all especially for your patience... and its just because of you all i am updating tonight... the chapter didn't turn out as well as i planned but still hope you all will like it.😊

CHAPTER 12 A :

Zoya sat in her cubicle at her office, staring at her computer trying to finish some work but her concentration kept on wavering. Sara who just entered the cubicle saw her weary and gloomy looking profile and wondered for the hundredth time what must have happened to her best friend.

Since two days, Zoya's mood had been very pensive and she hardly smiled or talked and Sara had gotten really worried today wondering what had suddenly become wrong in Zoya's life that made Zoya so mood off. And at lunch time she managed to drag Zoya out to a nearby caf and tried to talk to her but Zoya evaded her questions saying that it was nothing and that she would be alright.

The reality was Zoya had become very disturbed and sad after coming to know about the past of her Phuppi and her son. Zoya understood that it was bound to happen as she had become very attached to Phuppi and her family. They were much more to her now than just friends and neighbors and she loved them dearly and even though she hardly knew Asad and he had not been nice to her, still, because he was Phuppi's son, she felt bad for him as well. And now she was feeling their pain as her own and she had become very disturbed by the way the family was suffering.

And although she shared everything with Sara, she somehow did not feel it right to tell Sara about her Phuppi's family and its secrets so she avoided telling Sara about it, but at the same time she felt bad knowing that Sara was genuinely concerned about her and was trying to help her but she herself was not able to confide in her best friend regarding what was bothering her.

"Zoe..." Sara came from behind and touched Zoya's shoulder and Zoya almost jumped up and Sara knew that Zoya was again lost in where ever she was getting lost in the past two days and did not even realize that Sara had been in the cubicle for a while observing her.

"You do remember that I told you I have to go home early today right?... I'm thinking of leaving now."

"Yea I remember... your niece's birthday right?" Zoya looked at Sara and smiled for the first time that day.

"Why don't you come as well Zoe... you will feel good." Sara said softly.

"I would have loved Sara... you know how much I love children's parties... but not today."

"Alright, I won't force you... I will make a move then." Sara sighed sadly and then smiled a little at Zoya.

Zoya held Sara's hand and pulled her close just when Sara started moving away.

"Sara I'm really sorry... I know you are worried about me and here I am trying to avoid all your attempts to help me... and... and I just want to tell you not to worry about me... nothing has actually happened to me... I am just feeling sad because of something I learnt regarding some people I care about... and I will get a grip on myself very soon... so don't worry Ok." Zoya smiled at Sara and this time Sara sighed with relief.

"OK Zoe... I'm happy to hear that... tomorrow morning I want to see the face of my jovial friend Zoe." Sara quipped and hugged Zoya and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.

"Zoe I just checked outside, and it looks like it's going to rain today... May be you should also go home early today... I mean sharp at 5 without waiting to finish whatever you are doing... you know how this "bin mausam barsaat" is... It might stop soon or it might rain for hours and some roads might become real bad." On her way out, Sara advised Zoya.

"Thanks Darling... I will keep that in mind... have a good time." Zoya smiled and replied and hearing Zoya's cheerful voice for the first time in two days, Sara turned around, smiled broadly and waved at her from the doorway.

But despite telling Sara that she would keep track of the time and leave at sharp 5, once her concentration returned, Zoya got too involved in her work and by the time she noticed the time it was already 5.20. She quickly saved her work, logged off her computer and walked out of her cubicle wondering if it has really rained or not. Inside the office, it was almost soundproof and impossible to hear it even if it rained heavily.

When she came out of her office building, Zoya saw that it was indeed raining, but the rain was coming as a light drizzle. However, even on the road in front of Zoya's office which was quite well made, there were puddles of rain water indicating that it had rained quite heavily earlier. Praying that the rain would not come as a down pour again at least till she reached home; Zoya took out her umbrella and ventured out. She wondered if she should go to the bus stand and try to catch a bus or try to find an auto or a taxi, but she knew that getting any form of transportation on a rainy day would be a huge task.

**************************

The day had not been good for Asad. Even though two days had almost passed since the night he lost control of his anger and said some unpleasant things to his Ammi and her guest, he was not able to forget about that incident. From the next morning onwards, his Ammi had been talking to him normally as if nothing had happened and he had not said anything that would hurt her, but he himself remembered very well what he told her in anger and he felt even guiltier when she started to behave so normally with him.

And revisiting his past and remembering Tanveer had left another kind of bitter taste in his mouth. He wanted to forget the past once again and leave it somewhere locked as he had done all these days and years, but he knew that somehow that was no longer possible. Somehow the time had come for him to deal with his past and at least accept that even though life had been unfair to him, he still had a life ahead of him and had to live that life properly, if not for him at least for his Ammi, his Tamatar and for Naina.

These thoughts had been disturbing Asad since morning and on top of that a client with whom he had arranged an important meeting for the day, cancelled the meeting at the last moment ,leaving him with nothing to distract his thoughts and deviate his mind from his personal problems.

After lunch Asad then tried to arrange a meeting with his Finance Head, because he had to finalize an important deal within the next three days; but when he called the guy he learnt that his wife was not well and he had taken a half day leave. Asad was so frustrated he felt like throwing everything on his table and walk out of his office, but he controlled himself and then finally thought of going through the finance details himself.

He opened his laptop and started reading the document prepared by the head of Finance, but some things were not clear to him and there was no way he can clear his doubts unless the guy returned back. And at around 4 pm Asad closed his laptop as there was nothing more he could do. He got up from his chair, stretched himself and walked up to the large windows on the back of his room.

The windows were usually covered with blinds to block the sunlight from entering, but today Asad felt like seeing the sunlight. He pulled the string on the edge of the blinds and drew it up to see that it was raining heavily outside, and instead of the sunshine he expected, what he saw was a gloomy day with a dark cloudy sky above and it worsened his mood.

Finally at 5 he decided to go home even though it wasn't yet the time when he normally went home.

When Asad drove out his car from the underground Parking, he saw that it was still raining. He took his usual route towards home through one of the new highways but when he reached the junction from where he had to take a turn towards the inner city, to his dismay he saw that the road he had to take was blocked due to a large tree which had fallen in the heavy winds that came before the rain. Asad banged his fist on the wheel in frustration and then winced in pain. It looked like nothing good was going to happen to him that day.

There was nothing Asad could do except turn back and go through another route. He turned the car and drove for another ten kilometers to reach another junction from where he took a left turn to another road, which was actually a main road, quite well made and distance wise it was much closer to Asad's home but he usually avoided that road, because along the road there were many offices and on working days it would be usually full of traffic and impossible to drive for more than 40KMH and he hated the slow movement of traffic and the time it took to reach home.

But today since there was no other option; he turned to that road and drove through the slow traffic to see that the red light of the first traffic signal had just turned on when he reached it. Asad stopped the car at the traffic light and waited impatiently for it to turn green. The rain was still coming in a continuous thin drizzle and Asad lowered the glass of his door and stared outside at the rain, wondering if it would stop anytime soon.

It was then that he saw a girl holding an umbrella, trying to cross the road, on the opposite lane. He could not clearly see the girl's face, half of which was hidden by the umbrella but she looked familiar and he briefly wondered who it could be. At that moment the girl saw an Auto coming her way and she lifted her hands and waved asking the driver to stop but the Auto zoomed past her without even reducing its speed. And it looked like in her haste to stop the Auto, the girl did not even realize that she was standing too close to its path on the road and before she could react and move away, her umbrella got hit by the rear corner of the Auto and the force of it made her loose her grip on the umbrella, and it flew away with the wind, hit a pole near the side pavement and landed on the pavement with a thud. The girl turned her head and stared forlornly at the broken umbrella which was obviously of no use to her now, and it was at this moment that Asad saw her face and realized that it was Zoya.

Zoya saw another Auto coming her way and once again she tried to stop that Auto to see that it was full of school children, and she sighed in frustration. She covered her head with her dupatta, even though she knew it was of no real use and the rain would soon soak it and drench her. At that moment she once again saw another Auto coming her way and lifted her hand, to see even that was full of people and she lowered her hand dejectedly and sighed. And then as if sensing someone's gaze on her, she looked up and her eyes shifted towards the opposite lane to see a familiar car and her gaze moved to its driver to see that it was Asad, and the moment their gaze met Asad suddenly turned away and stared straight ahead. But Zoya realized that he had been watching her and had seen her struggling to get an Auto and she wished he had not.

Asad on the other hand suddenly felt guilty that he had been just sitting there and watching her struggle and getting wet in the rain without doing anything and he wondered if he should call her and ask her to come and get in to his car as he knew that she would be going nowhere other than home at this time, especially when it was raining so much. She was his neigbhour, his Ammi loved her and treated her as a daughter, and it would be very ungracious of him if he did not offer her a lift home in a situation like this but remembering what happened that night, he felt uncomfortable at the prospect of asking her to come with him and he felt awkward even at the thought of facing her.

Finally while Asad was still pondering about what to do, the light turned green and the few vehicles ahead of him started moving, leaving him with no option other than to drive ahead. And just as he drove away, he looked to the other side of the road to see that Zoya had now moved on to the pavement but was still standing there, hugging herself with her arms and a pang of guilt hit him once again. Zoya wasn't even looking at his direction and he knew that she would not even expect him to offer her a lift, and he tried to justify himself thinking that the light changed before he could make up his mind and he had to drive away, nevertheless he felt guilty and ultimately he could not justify his thinking even to himself.

While all these thoughts were crossing his mind, Asad reached the next junction to see that the light was still green but traffic had stopped at the signal on the opposite lane and suddenly he gave signal and made a U turn to the opposite lane; it was as if his hands and feet did what his heart felt was right while his mind was still warring and not able to decide what was right.

He drove back as fast as he could towards the first traffic light area where Zoya was standing, to see that she was no longer there. He felt bad and disappointed but then thinking that maybe she finally got an Auto he felt satisfied. He drove ahead towards the beginning of the road as there was no other area through which he could now turn the car to the opposite lane and go back the way he came towards home.

And then, as Asad was driving he felt he saw Zoya again, standing at the bus stop on the opposite lane. He pressed the break and reduced the speed, turned his head and looked back at the bus stop. He had already passed the bus stop by two to three kilometers but he could make out that it was indeed Zoya standing there.

Unable to get an Auto from where she was standing, Zoya had finally crossed the road and gone to the opposite lane, with the hope that it would be more easy to catch an Auto from that lane from which Autos went towards the direction of home and then she had walked up to the bus stop hoping to at least catch a bus if she could not get an Auto.

Asad drove ahead swiftly up to the junction from where the road began and turned to the other lane and drove quickly towards the bus stop. As he approached, he saw that Zoya was standing staring down; lost in some thoughts and she did not see him approach and did not see him even when he stopped the car near the bus stand and Asad pressed the horn and at the same time lowered the glass of the passenger side window. Hearing the horn and finally seeing that a car had stopped near her, Zoya looked up towards it to see that it was Asad in his car; he gestured with his hand indicating to her to climb in, but Zoya just stood staring at him with shock, unable to believe that Asad was offering her a lift. In fact it looked like he had come back all the way after seeing her near the traffic light a while ago, and she could not believe that he did it for her. As Zoya was standing there still shocked, the bus for which she had been waiting finally arrived and seeing Asad's car parked at the place where the bus was supposed to stop, its driver started blaring its horn continuously.

Asad looked at the bus from the rear view mirror and knew that he had to move from there and he looked at Zoya wondering if she would come with him or not. Sensing that Asad was looking at her, Zoya finally came out of her shock; looked at Asad thoughtfully once and then at the bus, and just when Asad thought that she would be going to climb the bus, she walked towards his car and climbed in. Asad sighed in relief and restarted the car. Zoya put on her seat belt and looked at Asad from the corner of her eyes. She was still finding it difficult to believe that after seeing her struggling to catch an Auto, he had come back and offered to take her home with him.

"Asad is not a bad person Zoya... it's the circumstances of life that made him the way he is..." Zoya suddenly remembered her Phuppi's words and wondered whether this was that side of the real Asad, the side which he hardly showed to others except his Ammi and Najma, the side which he purposefully keeps hidden so that no body dared to come closer.

"Thanks..." Zoya whispered and looked at Asad. She did not know what else to say and Asad looked back at her briefly indicating that he acknowledged her thanks.

And then Zoya suddenly saw that both of his hands including the knuckles were covered with a bandage, leaving just the lower two thirds of the fingers free. He was managing to rotate the wheel and steer the car, but Zoya could see that it wasn't easy for him to do so. The incidents of that night and the image of him punching away at the bag flashed across Zoya's mind and Zoya wondered how much he had injured his hand. She wanted to ask him how his hand was but fearing he may not like her asking that and react in a bad way, Zoya thought it was best not say anything.

By then, Asad had once again started feeling very awkward and he did not have the courage to say anything to Zoya, despite wanting to say something and after a while he even started wondering what made him come back and pick her up. So they remained silent, each thinking of the other; but feeling too awkward and uncomfortable to say anything to the other and break that silence.

After picking up Zoya, Asad headed back the way he came, but after crossing the second traffic light from where he had turned back to pick up Zoya, he realized that the traffic had increased and the usually busy road had become even busier, and Asad felt as if he had to drive in snail's speed. While wondering what he should do, Asad saw that he was about to reach another road on the left side through which he could go and take a turn to reach home from the other side of the colony. This road was not well made and Asad knew that on a rainy day it may be really difficult to drive on that road but he also knew that the traffic would be less in that road, so finally he decided to take a chance and turned to that road.

It was still drizzling continuously and the sky gradually got covered with more clouds indicating that the rain was not going to stop so easily. Seeing that, Asad accelerated the car with the intention of reaching home as quickly as possible. Sensing the increase in the car's speed, Zoya who was staring outside, lost in her own thoughts turned around and looked at Asad. They had still not spoken anything and there was a palpable tension in the atmosphere which neither of them acknowledged but still felt very well.

Zoya wanted to break the ice and say something but even she did not know what to say and hence she remained silent. And although her initial shock had ebbed, she was still feeling surprised that Asad had come back and offered her a lift home. She knew that it was perhaps pointless in trying to decipher what he did; nevertheless she wanted to understand the meaning of his act. Did it by any chance mean that he was feeling bad about the things he said about her that night? Did it mean that he was ready to change his mind regarding her? Or is it just something he did out of pity towards her?

Zoya got jolted out of her thoughts by the sudden sharp turn of the car and stared fearfully ahead to see that Asad had just managed to avoid colliding with a large truck which suddenly came in front of him as if out of nowhere. Asad was shaken with fear but he gripped the steering wheel tightly and managed to turn the car even more towards the left side of the road before applying the break suddenly and bringing the car to halt. The jolt due to the sudden break, lifted Zoya up from her seat and she gripped the dash board in fear, but the seat belt prevented her from falling and in the next moment, the spring action of the belt pushed her to her seat once again.

After a minute or so, her heart was still racing away with fear but Zoya took few deep breaths to calm herself and looked at Asad who was staring straight ahead, his grip still tight on the wheel.

Sensing her stare Asad slowly turned towards Zoya. He realized that she must have got equally scared and shaken as he was because of the near death encounter they just had.

"I am sorry Ms Farouqui... I didn't see that truck in time... I... I should have been more careful."

"It's Ok Mr.Khan... nothing happened and you managed to steer the car away before it hit the truck."

At that moment, Zoya's gaze shifted from Asad's face to his hand on the wheel and her eyes widened seeing that the bandage on his left hand had gotten soaked with fresh blood. She knew that it must be due to the firm pressure he applied while trying to turn the car, but she feared that if it had started bleeding again after two days, the injury to his hand may not be just a mild abrasion or a bruise.

Asad was about to start the car once again, when Zoya suddenly held his forearm and stopped him.

"Mr.Khan... please wait." Zoya looked at him with worry but when Asad looked back she consciously removed her hand from his forearm.

"Your hand... it's bleeding." Zoya pointed to his hand and Asad looked at his hand briefly and then shrugged nonchalantly. He once again reached out to restart the car.

"Mr Khan wait... Please come this side and let me drive the car." Zoya again tried to stop him.

"It's nothing Ms. Farouqui... and I can manage to drive."

"I know you can manage Mr.Khan and I know that you will somehow drive up to home even with that injury... but that's not the point. Your hand is bleeding... And if it's bleeding this way when...when..." Zoya was about to blurt out that if it's bleeding when it should have almost healed after two days it could be something dangerous, but then realized that if Asad came to know that she knew when he injured his hand and how he got the injury, he would not like it at all.

"When...I mean... what I mean is...I don't know what type of injury occurred to your hand. But when I first climbed in to this car I did notice that your hand was bandaged but there was no blood that time and now your bandage is soaked with blood and that means your hand is bleeding now and you should not put more pressure on that hand right now." Zoya concluded in one breath and looked at Asad who was staring at his hand broodingly.

"Please Mr.Khan... come to this side and let me drive... I admit that I am not a good driver as I never owned a car but I assure you that I can also manage to drive us up to our destination and I will drive carefully." Zoya said with a hint of a mischievous smile on her face and Asad could not argue with it as he himself had almost caused an accident few minutes back.

And without saying anything, Asad opened his door and climbed out of the car and Zoya sighed in relief and climbed out from her side.

Once Zoya was seated on the driver's seat and had secured the belt, she took out her mobile from her bag and searched for City Hospital in the Google map. She knew that the City hospital was somewhere nearby but she did not know the exact route to take. Once she got the route and direction Zoya put on her GPS and kept the mobile on her lap and started the car. Asad had looked at her wondering what she had searched on the phone as he could very well tell her the route to home but did not say anything till Zoya took a U turn to the opposite lane and started driving back the way they came.

"What are you doing Ms.Farouqui?... why are you going back the way we came?... that's not the way home." Asad muttered a bit irritated.

"I know it's not the way home... And we are not yet going home." Zoya answered pleasantly.

"What?.. where are you going then?" Asad's anger rose again and he closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath to calm himself.

"To hospital..." Ignoring his anger, Zoya purposefully kept her voice still pleasant. Asad could not understand why she wanted to go to a hospital and he looked perplexed and did not say anything for a while.

"Hospital?... why Ms.Farouqui." Asad finally asked in a surprised tone.

"Because, Mr.Khan your hand needs medical attention... I know very well that you don't like me and I also know that you don't like me meddling in your affairs but right now I am driving this car... And no matter what, I am driving it to a Hospital first so that a doctor can see your hand first... after that I will drive you home."

Asad felt that there was no point in arguing with Zoya on the matter as she appeared too determined in doing what she felt was right, so he did not say anything more and he let her drive to the hospital.

By following the directions her GPS gave, Zoya managed to drive to the hospital in about 20 minutes, but to her dismay the hospital parking area was quite full and as Zoya did not have much experience in driving, she found it difficult to maneuver the car through the small parking space available.

"Ms. Farouqui, why don't you climb down and let me park the car?" Asad finally asked her after watching her struggle for about five minutes.

Zoya smiled at him sheepishly, climbed out and waited till he parked the car, which he managed to do quite easily even with his injured hands.

After parking the car, they entered the hospital and went to the Emergency Department. Asad just followed Zoya as he was still not too bothered with his hand and not really interested in showing his hand. He was also feeling apprehensive thinking of what to answer if a Doctor or a Nurse asked him anything regarding what happened to his hand.

The hospital Emergency appeared to be quite busy, and Zoya could see that the two nurses and another girl in the reception area were also occupied with a small queue of people at the reception counter. But to Zoya's delight, just as Zoya approached the counter, another Nurse came from inside and stood on the right side of reception counter, and Zoya quickly walked up to her and started talking.

"Good evening Sister... we would like to consult a Doctor." Zoya addressed the nurse politely.

"Good Evening... can you tell me the reason why you want to consult a doctor?" the Nurse asked Zoya.

"Ummm... It's his hand... he... he has an injury..." Zoya pointed to Asad's hand. And the Nurse looked at his bandaged hand with the bandage soaked with blood.

"Please come with me." The Nurse told them and took them to a small cubicle on one side.

"I will have to see your hand and then depending on the injury decide if a Doctor needs to attend to it or not." The Nurse told them and made Asad sit on a chair. She then came with a scissor and cut the bandage and removed it, first from his left hand, and as soon as the bandage came out Zoya gasped seeing his hand. There was a shallow wound on the base of his middle finger, and in reality it was not a big wound and the bleeding had already stopped and it was covered with clotted blood. But to Zoya, it looked really bad and the bruised skin and the abrasions and two other smaller wounds on his swollen hand made it altogether appear really horrid to Zoya.

The nurse then removed the bandage on his other hand and to Zoya's relief it was not that bad looking. But even that hand was still slightly swollen and there were small bruises and skin abrasions, but it was already covered with scab and had started to heal.

"I will take you to the Dressing Room now... this wound definitely needs cleaning and dressing. But maybe it's best if a Doctor looks at it as well... come with me." They followed the nurse again and she took them to another bigger room and started talking to another Nurse sitting there. After a while she came back to them and made Asad sit there.

"That is Sister Mary there. She will see to your hand and a Doctor will also come to see it... but you may have to wait for a while as we are quite busy right now." The nurse told them and went out.

Asad started feeling awkward once again and he sat stiffly in his chair, looking down and staring at his feet and Zoya stood nearby leaning against a stretcher kept there. She looked at Asad from the corner of her eyes and understood that he was feeling uncomfortable.

Minutes started to pass and Zoya wished the Doctor would come soon. After about fifteen minutes, Zoya thought of going up to the Sister's desk and ask her, but she appeared to be busy writing some notes on a chart and Zoya did not want the Nurse to think that she was being impatient; so she thought of waiting for some more time.

Another ten minutes passed and then a young man in a Doctor's coat entered the room and walked up to the Sister's desk and asked her something. Then he looked at Asad and came back to him.

"Hi... may I see your hand?" the Doctor told Asad and he held out his hand reluctantly. He had once again started feeling apprehensive thinking what to say if the Doctor asked him how he got his hands injured so badly.

The Doctor wore gloves and examined Asad's hand carefully. He pressed the hand gently at places to see if there was any deep injury or a suspicious fracture, and it was painful to Asad but he remained calm and did not even wince.

"Well, it doesn't look too bad but this wound on your left hand needs cleaning and dressing at the hospital for a few days... and you need to take an antibiotic, otherwise it may get infected... and another thing is if you have not completed your Tetanus vaccination, you need to take a Tetanus injection as well... do you know if you had taken it or not?" the doctor looked at Asad and Asad looked confused.

"I.. I'm not sure Doctor." Asad told.

"Then it's best if you take it now.. I will write a prescription for you and Sister will do the dressing for you." The Doctor smiled a little at him. He was about to leave and then turned towards Asad once again.

"And you should be careful with your hand and avoid that type of injury to your hand... it's after all your hand and one's hand is very precious to one." The Doctor told him with a lopsided small grin. He was obviously a young playful person but quite good with his knowledge and after examining Asad's hands and seeing the type of injury to his hands, even without asking Asad, he had guessed what might have caused the injury. And from Asad's body language he had also guessed that it wasn't the injury itself but the thought of what caused the injury which was making Asad so obviously uncomfortable.

Asad understood the meaning of what the Doctor said and he looked at him gratefully and gave a small sheepish smile.

Zoya was standing a little behind the Doctor, but still heard clearly what the Doctor said and she also saw the exchange of smiles between Asad and the Doctor and understood what had happened and even Zoya felt like grinning, seeing how well the Doctor had handled Asad and made his apprehension go away. But knowing that Asad would not like it if he came to know that she also knew how he injured his hand, she held back from smiling.

The Doctor then went to the desk that the nurse was sitting earlier, wrote down the prescription and left. And while going, he glanced at Zoya once; she was after all a beautiful young woman and even with her clothes wet, her hair sticking to her head and her minimal make up almost washed off, he could not still fail to notice how pretty she was, and he wondered if she was the wife of the gentleman and whether they had a quarrel and that was the reason why he had hit his hands somewhere so badly. But he had also seen the concern on her face and the way she hovered around while he examined the man's hand and felt that she obviously cared for him, so he was certain that even if they had a quarrel it wasn't a major thing and they would solve it.

After the Doctor left, the Nurse came with a tray containing the things for dressing and started cleaning the wound. When Asad felt the sharp sting of the antiseptic, he winced a little but it was Zoya's audible gasp and wince which was heard by both Asad and the Sister and they both looked at Zoya.

Asad saw that Zoya had turned her face away as if it was too much for her to see Asad's wound been dressed, but she could not help herself from looking as well and she was squinting her eyes and still peeping through the corner of her half closed eyes. Zoya did not appear to be the kind of girl who would get scared by anything very easily, so for Asad it was quite a funny sight to see her squirming because of a pain that he himself was feeling. And despite himself Asad felt like laughing and a small smile appeared on his face but to hide it from Zoya, he lowered his head and controlled himself, but not before the sister witnessed the smile on his face. She understood why he had smiled and then became serious the next moment and a small smile appeared on her face as well.

After few minutes, Asad lifted his head and looked at Zoya once again. But he saw that this time she was not really looking at him and had even walked a little far away and Asad wondered if she had finally given up on seeing his dressing being done and had decided to stay away; but then he noticed something else. She was standing there hugging herself tightly with her arms and she was trembling. Asad looked at her carefully wondering what was happening to her and then he realized that she was actually shivering. Her clothes although it had dried to a considerable degree, was still wet and inside the hospital room it was quite cold, and it had lowered Zoya's body temperature and she had started feeling cold sometime back, but had been ignoring it all this time.

Asad knew that Zoya had been in her wet clothes for almost two hours now and he understood that she would be really feeling very cold. He wondered what he should do and whether he should ask the sister to help her and do something about it. The Sister had by then finished dressing his left hand and was about to start cleaning his less injured right hand.

"Ummm.. Sister.. can you please help her.." Asad nodded his head towards Zoya and the Sister turned her head and looked at Zoya.

"She is shivering from cold... She has been in her wet clothes for a longtime... I think that's the reason." Asad whispered softly but Zoya looked at them at that moment and saw Asad and Sister staring at her and Asad saying something to the Sister and the Sister walking away and she wondered what he must have said.

She saw the Sister walked up to a shelf on one side of the room, and she took out a large white towel from it and walked back to Zoya, and Zoya realized what Asad must have told her.

"Here take this and dry your hair and wrap it around you... and come and sit here." She gestured towards another chair not far from where Asad was sitting and Zoya came and sat on it, dried her hair and wrapped the towel around her as the Sister had instructed. But the towel was quite thin and it did not provide her with much warmth and after a while Asad saw that she was still shivering.

By then he had become quite worried about her shivering. Suddenly a though occurred to him and he started removing his coat. He had slight difficulty in doing it with his freshly bandaged hand and the Sister saw that and helped him remove the coat. She understood why he was removing it and she took it from him and walked up to Zoya and held it out to her. Zoya looked up at her surprised and then gazed at Asad and he nodded at her indicating he wanted her to take it.

Zoya slowly reached out her hand towards the Sister to take it, but then she felt hesitant in taking Asad's coat and wearing it and she gazed at him questioningly once again. Asad understood what she was feeling and why she was looking at him, but he could not bring himself to say anything to alleviate Zoya's apprehension. He could only stare back at her with concern and this time Zoya understood the look in his eyes and knew that he was really worried about her shivering and wanted her to wear his coat, and she finally took it from the Sister's hand and wore it. It was quite big for her and she was able to wrap herself nicely in it and she hugged her arms around the coat tightly.

After few minutes it started to provide her warmth and she felt a little better and then she started to notice something else as well. It smelt of Asad's cologne mixed with perhaps his body odour and it still had the warmth from his body heat and strangely Zoya felt comforted by it as if she was cocooned by Asad himself; but suddenly it also stirred some strange feeling in her, something alien to Zoya which she had never felt before and the feeling left her kind of unsettled. And unconsciously her gaze shifted to Asad and she looked at him weirdly and Asad looked back at her as if sensing her gaze on him; but the moment Asad looked, she abruptly turned her head away and looked to the other side and to her relief that strange feeling that engulfed her a while ago suddenly disappeared and she started to feel normal again. And she realized that her shivering also had subsided considerably, even though she was still feeling quite cold.

"That's it... your dressing is done." Sister Mary told Asad while securing the bandage on his right hand.

"But I still need to give you the injection... for that you have to go to the hospital Pharmacy and buy the injection and your medicine and pay for the dressing at the Billing Counter and come back here again." Sister explained to Asad and Zoya also heard what the Sister told him.

Asad took the prescription from the Sister and started to go out, but Zoya stopped him.

"Mr.Khan... why don't you wait here? I will go and get the medicines."

"No Ms.Farouqui... I will get it... Please sit here till I come back." Asad told Zoya.

"Please Mr.Khan... it's actually warm outside than inside this room and I want to go out... so please let me go." Zoya snatched the prescription from Asad's hand and started walking away before he could refuse again and an exasperated Asad could only stare at her back in wonder.

"Ms. Farouqui... at least take this and go.." Zoya heard Asad's voice and turned back to see that he was holding out his credit card to her. This time it was Zoya who sighed in exasperation and she stood looking at him for a while but she understood that he would not want to be indebted to her in anyway and would not feel comfortable if she bought his medicines with her own money, so she walked back to him and took the card from him.

Luckily there was not a big queue at the Pharmacy counter and Zoya bought the medicines and came back in about ten minutes time. She gave the medicines to the Sister, who loaded the injection to a syringe and came to give it to Asad.

"Sir you will have to remove your Shirt as I have to inject it to the muscle of your upper arm... Madam, please help him remove it." Sister Mary turned towards Zoya and Zoya looked at Asad with a horrified expression and Asad turned away in embarrassment.

"Umm Sister... it's alright... Ms. Farouqui need...need not help... I can manage myself." Asad told the Sister quickly.

"I... Mr.Khan... I .. i think I will wait outside.."Zoya stammered and told Asad and Asad realized that she was even more embarrassed than him.

After Zoya went out, Sister Mary closed the door. And even though it was a little difficult for Asad to do it, he managed to remove his shirt by himself and Sister gave the injection to him.

"I am sorry Sir... I thought she was your wife... that's the reason why I asked her to help in removing your shirt." dabbing the site of the injection with a spirit swab,Sister Mary apologized to Asad.

"It's Ok sister... it happens... she is actually my neighbor... and... and a friend." Asad did not know what else to tell the Sister as an explanation regarding his and Zoya's relationship.

"Oh! I see...any way, she looked so concerned and worried about you the whole time... she is a true friend then." Sister Mary smiled at Asad.

And once Asad came out and saw Zoya waiting for him, he could not help in thinking deeply about what Sister Mary told him last. The truth was Zoya was not even his friend but he could not help in wondering if she would prove to be a true friend, if he ever let her be a friend to him.

Hi everyone ( whose following the story),

Will send PMs tomorrow as its quite late in the night and i am very sleepy.

Sorry about that.

res
unres...
amazing update kaussar...
beautifully penned down...
i loved it to bits...
zoya is upset... for the people she cant see in pain...
i loved the whole travelling scenario... asad driving back to zoya to drop her home... her nt taking the bus bt joining him... thn driving herslf so he doesnt further injure himself and he accepting so... then she took him to hospital... zoya is so considerate... i luv her caring nature...
at hospital asad zoya sister n doc interaction was too good... asad too cares...
zoya - wifey... no friend... i hope the friendship starts ... asad is apprehensive bt then destiny n time always have their plans...
thanx for the dedication kaussar m very glad...
luv u for the epic update

res