Broken Trust : an AsYa FF - Page 3

This was really nice. It's sad to see Zoe has suffered so much in her past. lets see how it goes when AsYa meet. Continue soon.

"I fell in love with her when we were together, then fell deeper in love with her in the years we were apart."
Nicholas Sparks, Dear John

Zoya picked up her bag and walked out of the restroom. She had stopped to wash her face and tidy her hair, minimal make up was her style, mainly kohl and lipstick. She nervously walked through the gate and everything moved in slow motion.

Aditi was bouncing with excitement and Preeti was waving her hand crazily, while Kabir made wolf whistles so loud, her co-passengers thought she was some kind of celebrity. Zoya laughed helplessly and just rushed into Aditi's arms. As her friend squeezed her tight, she felt tears in her eyes as she realized how much she missed them. Preeti dissolved into tears after seeing Zoya cry and Kabir just chuckled and engulfed her in a bear hug. Then she turned to Dhiren, Dhai...'as he ruffled her hair and hugged her. There was so much hugging and crying that no one was actually talking. As she returned Dhiren's hug, Zoya looked over his shoulder and saw him.

Asad stood there watching the tableau of reunion, and wistfully smiled. He felt elated to see Zoya after so long, like a cold drink of water after a hot and dry day of fasting. She was beautiful, too thin maybe, but lovely. Her long shiny hair pulled into a sensible ponytail, she looked like a young girl, with her trademark jeans and top. But there was a new poise about her, a restraint in her movements, a new gracefulness in her gestures and a lower tone in her voice. He was looking his fill when she suddenly looked straight at him.

Suddenly they were back there, 2 years ago. His eyes pleading, hers glazed, hurt. His heart skipped a beat as she looked him now in the eye unflinchingly, as recognition sank in, she started to blink and looked away.

Zoya was sure she saw Asad, only he would stare at her that way and cause her heart's rhythm to change. Yet when she looked back, he was gone. Had she imagined him? Before she could ask, her friends bundled her and her luggage out of the airport and into Kabir's car, as Aditi excitedly talked about their wedding arrangements. Zoya just sat back,watched and listened to them, exclaiming and laughing alternatingly. It was, for a moment, like she had never left.

Aditi had shushed her intention to stay at a hotel and plonked her bags in the guest room of her apartment. It was the same apartment they had shared in residency, and Zoya had given up her share of it while she was away. It had a nice familiar smell about it, and the same sounds out the window. Honking sounds from the traffic down below, sounds of wives gossiping through their windows, children playing about noisily. Even the smell was nostalgic, the smoke, dust, hints of cooking curry, laundry, the smell of home.

Hey, soaking yourself in the pollution already?' Dhiren walked in, interrupting her reverie. He came up to her and put a brotherly arm around her and squeezed her tight. Ow!! That's painful!' Zoya yelped playfully. You're way too skinny! Why? You've not eaten properly on 2 years or what?!' Dhiren lectured. Nahi Dhai, you know what surgical training is like? There's hardly any time for a life. Once you're out of the hospital, you just crawl into bed and sleep.' Zoya explained.

'Boy, do I know that. Acha sunno, Aditi is planning all kinds of things for tonight, you'd better come and tell her what you wanna do,' he said as he led Zoya out to the living room. There everyone sat lounging and chatting. Zoya!! Come, tell us! What shall we do first?' Kabir asked, as everyone looked expectantly at her.

She knew they were starving, so when she suggested dinner, there was loud cheering as everyone scrambled out the door and into the car. They drove down to their favourite idli dosa place, where noise and merriment is welcome and enjoyed.

Halfway through dinner, all of a sudden, many beepers sounded at once! One by one Preeti, Aditi, Kabir and Dhiren were puzzled to see all of their beepers buzzing at once : CODE RED. This meant there was an big emergency and all doctors of the hospital were summoned to the hospital to help. Everyone stopped eating at once and quickly made for the hospital. Zoya went along, as a former resident with the proper qualifications now, she could offer her help as well.

Entering the staff entrance, there was no time for nostalgia as like a remembered routine everything was exactly as Zoya left 2 years ago. As her friends quickly made for the emergency room, Zoya made for the hospital director's office, to get clearance to help. Pleasantly surprised to see Dr. Kumar was still the head, she knocked at his door and let herself in.

Dr. Zoya Farooqui! What a pleasant surprise! I never thought I'd see you in these parts again. How've you been?', smiled Dr. Kumar. He was one of the most inspiring of teachers for Zoya as a junior surgical resident. And the teacher's pet too! They quickly caught up with their current situations with each other and Zoya was given permission to join the team handling the mass casualties arriving at the hospital after a horrific accident involving a bus and a lorry. Many of the bus passengers were hurt and almost half mortally wounded.

Our paediatric surgeon is out of town Zoya, that is where your skill set would be of great use right now. We have a general surgeon working on a child with intraabdominal injury in Operation Theatre 2. I think he could use your help,' Dr. Kumar briefed.

Quickly Zoya made her way to the theatre. Most qualified general surgeons are pretty good at any emergency that presented to them , but operating on a child is very stressful if it isn't your area. In a child, the area to operate is smaller, less space to manoeuvre and structures more fragile. She could imagine the surgeon sweating buckets now with the stress.

*In the theatre*

Nurse Rajni hung up the phone and rushed to the surgeon working on his patient on his table. "Dr. Khan, Boss just called and said he's sending a paeds surgeon to help you, a Dr. Farouk.' Asad slowly breathed relief, this child's intestines were ruptured, with so much bleeding and hardly any space to manoeuvre, he was starting to worry if he had enough time to handle all of the problems. An extra pair of expert hands would be very helpful. "Who's Dr. Farouk? Never heard of him...' he said as his nurse shrugged as well.

Like a dream, suddenly a crisp beautiful female voice broke the tense environment, as Asad felt the hair at the back of his neck stand.

Good evening everyone, My name is Dr. Farooqui, I'm here to help assist. I understand you have a paediatric case on table? Dr. Kumar sent me...'

As Zoya stepped up in her surgical scrubs and sterile gloves near the patient, Asad lifted his shocked gaze up from the patient to the calm and coolly professional ones of Zoya.

Their eyes lock.

Suddenly time stood still. Silence. Except for their heartbeats everything else was blurred. Asad's expressive eyes went from shock to recognition to a smile, as Zoya stood there staring into his eyes unblinkingly.

Hum tere bin ab reh nahi sakte
Tere bina kya wajood mera

Tujhse juda gar ho jaayenge
Toh khud se hi ho jaayenge judaa

Kyunki tum hi ho
Ab tum hi ho
Zindagi ab tum hi ho
Chain bhi, mera dard bhi
Meri aashiqui ab tum hi ho

He watched as Zoya gathered her wits, her eyes showing stark shock, panic then slowly she took a deep breath, blinked and it was gone. In its place was the no-nonsense and in control Zoya, the surgeon. Hello Asad.', she said cordially, as everyone else in the OT raised their eyebrows in curiosity and horror. Who dares call Dr Akdu Ahmed Khan by his first name here? Who is this lady surgeon? everyone thought.

Dismissing his intense gaze, she turned to the anaesthetist to get information on the child's vital status, to gauge the time she has to work with. Satisfied, she assessed the patient's abdominal injuries. It appears as though this boy's intestines have ruptured in several places so we're going to have to do extensive exploration, and he needs a splenectomy as it's ruptured and that's where all this blood is coming from,' she said assessingly, looking up at Asad, unnerved to find him staring at her unflinchingly.

Umm, can you take the splenectomy? I'll do the exploration and debridement,' Zoya offered as Asad nodded and proceeded to begin on his part. Of all the meetings had imagined in his head, and prepared, this has completely thrown him off orbit.

Concentrating on the serious matter at hand, both surgeons spent the next 4 hours focussed on saving the child's life. Zoya's portion of the surgery took longer than expected as the trauma had really damaged the intestines, and it was tricky to think on her feet as she needed to make sure the child will have almost near normal bowel function post recovery.

As Asad finished his part earlier, he continued to stay and keep her company, gazing at her, impressed with her skills, enjoying her occasional curses as the surgery progressed. It was a cease-fire of sorts, a truce to get through the job at hand. Asad smiled behind his surgical mask and longed to tease her about the tinge of a British accent on her Hindi now but held his tongue. He looked skyward and thanked Allah for this opportunity to be with her sans drama and their shared past, just for a while.

Nearby, Nurse Rajni watched Asad. This truly has been an intriguing evening. There might as well be pigs flying outside, as no one has ever seen Dr. Khan look at anyone like he gazed at the mysterious Dr. Farooqui all evening. Mesmerized and loving was the look he had on his face. Interesting indeed, she thought, as she shared a gossipy look with the scrub nurse.

Finally Zoya had finished her task and was closing up, when another junior doctor came in and led Asad away for something or other. She took a deep breath and exhaled, as though she had held her breath the entire time. Disaster averted, she told herself, as she loosened her neck muscles and bandaged her patient. The boy will be in the ICU for quite some time, but he'll make it.

Zoya came through the swinging doors of the OT and stretched her arms out, running her hands through her glossy hair, flattened by the surgical cap. She ruffled some volume into her hair and gathered it to one side. Asad thought that was the sexiest thing he'd ever seen a girl do, as he watched her walk over to the intern who was writing the surgical notes. She dictated her findings to the intern and made for the exit.

Asad lurched to follow her, but was stopped by the sight of Dhiren standing by the exit. Dhiren put his arm around Zoya and gave Asad a warning look. Not now it said.

It was awesome. Finally they meet & what a meeting it was. Seriously I never thought they'll get to meet like this, in hospital during a surgery. But it was perfect. So intrigued to know what happened with AsYa in the past. Plz do post an update soon.

Love..

Thank you for the kind words ! Haha big build up huh? Soon-ish!😉

sageflower7

Beautiful story! 👏

Looking forward to the next chapter! 😳