PART 1
Hospital scene.
" Sir, how is Aastha ma'am? Is she alright?" Anokhi asked Shaan as she spotted him in the hospital corridors.
Shaan had called her a while ago and told her what had happened and she rushed to the hospital immediately.
" The doctors said that she is stable for now and the bullet is out. She is in this ward, resting." Shaan said, pointing to the room right in front of them.
This is when Anokhi took a sigh of relief.
Before she could ask Shaan who did this, a nurse walked to the two of them and asked Shaan to get some medicines.
" Beta, you wait here. This may take a while." He instructed Anokhi. She nodded as he walked away.
Wiping her tears away, she decided to fetch water for herself.
As she was coming to sit on one of the benches in front of her Aastha mam’s room, she saw her parents walk inside Aastha’s room.
" What are Maa and papa ji doing here?" She muttered to herself and slightly opened the door ajar to hear and what she ended up hearing, also left her completely guilty.
Her brother, her own elder brother Raja was the one who shot her a bullet. It was because of her that Aastha was in the hospital.
Before she knew it, a sob left her, grabbing three people's attention to her, four actually.
Shaurya had gone through an entire turmoil back home after he had a talk with his badi maa about his mother. Despite her telling him not to see the woman, he couldn't stop himself and just had to see her once. He had to and so he drove off to the hospital and informed everyone at home that he was going to meet a friend who was in town and might get late.
What he didn't expect was to find Ms. Bhalla, eavesdropping on his mother and her favorite teacher and he definitely didn't expect her to sob so bad, loose control and about to fall on the floor but before she could, he gathered her in his arms, preventing her to hit her head on the door.
" Ms. Bhalla, what is wrong?" He asked, looking something in between of concerned and shocked.
She just looked at him, not uttering a word. She just couldn't. At that moment, she had lost the ability to speak.
The woman, because of whom she was here in Chandigarh, studying in a premiere college of India, the very same woman she owned all of this too what shot because her brother was angry and her parents, instead of knocking sense into him had decided to come here and plead to her ma'am about not selling him out to the police and her ma'am had somehow agreed to it. But not her, she would definitely not agree to whatever that was happening because it was outrageously wrong.
" Ms. Bhalla, can you here me? What is wrong?" She heard someone call of her again and this is when it registered to her that it was her professor, Shaurya Sabarwal calling for her.
But what was he doing here?
He helped her stand on her feet and that is when her parents walked out of the ward too.
" Shaurya? You couldn't stop yourself from seeing your mother, could you?" Shaan's voice rang in everyone's ears.
Shaurya didn't say anything but looked a little uncomfortable.
Anokhi didn't take much time putting one and one together.
Aastha ma'am is Shaurya sir's mother. That is how Shaan sir know her. He is her husband or ex-husband.
She stumbled a little, trying to process all the information thrown at her within a span of some twenty minutes.
Most of the times, Anokhi was a headstrong girl who didn't really need anyone to be with her. She was capable of taking care of herself but right now, she was feeling a thousand of emotions.
This is when her eyes fell on her parents. Not uttering a word, she collected her bag from the bench and stormed out of the hospital, hearing multiple voices trying to stop her but she just couldn't.
" I have to call the police to report Raja bhaiya. He will not get away from attempt to murder." She muttered to herself and called the police, telling them each and everything.
" How dare you Anokhi!?" She heard her father's voice as he swinged her by her arm, making her face towards him and before she could even register it, a tight slap landed on her cheek. Her father had slapped her but nothing was new for her.
" Do you even know what you did to your brother? I'm ashamed of you Nikki." Her mother said, looking disgusted.
" Maa, I feel just as disgusted as you look right now. Have you both gone so blind in Raja bhaiya's love that you're ready to accept him even when you know what he did? He almost took Aastha mam's life and instead of coming here to see if she is alright, you came here to make sure that your son doesn't land up in jail? Well too late because police will arrest him for what he did and he will be punished. I do not regret and will never regret what I just did." She completed what she wanted to say and this time, it was her mother that slapped her.
" Till now, it was your father who disowned you but now you are no daughter of mine too. You are dead to us Anokhi. Dead to us." Her mother broke down as the two of them walked away from her and she broke down too, crying as if everything inside of her was breaking. Five minutes, then ten, twenty minutes just passed by before she could recollect herself. Whatever tie she had with her family is going to break tonight because her sister will gladly accept her with open arms but after what she did, her sister's in laws will never. And she would not put her Babli di in a position to choose.
Wiping her tears away, she walked back inside the hospital to tell Shaan and Shaurya the truth.
" Anokhi, beta what happened? Aastha won't tell me anything." Shaan asked her the moment he saw her walk to them. Shaurya was standing a step back.
" Sir, it was my brother. He shot Aastha mam and they were my parents. I have reported Rajvir bhaiya to the police. I am so sorry for what happened to her because of my family and I take complete responsibility. I'm sure you wouldn't want me near her anymore but please sir, can I just see her once before leaving?" She almost begged to Shaan.
Shaan didn't know what to say but on this he was sure that none of it was Anokhi's fault but before he could tell her that, they saw Aastha walking out of the ward.
" Ma'am! Why are you walking?" Anokhi rushed to her to support her and so did Shaan.
" I am okay now. But Anokhi, why would you think that anyone will blame you for what happened? No one does beta." Aastha pacified her favorite student as they walked in her ward, so did Shaurya.
After a lot of talking and explaining, it was decided that Anokhi will go home and take it easy. So she left.
But the truth was there was nowhere she could really go but she really had to get her stuff from her jiju's place so she took at auto.
There, Shaurya was a little restless. He could feel that something terribly wrong was going to happen and hence, decided to follow Anokhi just after she left the hospital ward.
As he followed the auto, his brain started to question his heart.
" Why are you doing this? Why do you even care about her?" His mind was flooded with questions of such sorts.
" She is my student and it is my responsibility to make sure that she is alright. That's it." He muttered to himself as he stopped the car a little distant from her house.
He saw her ringing the doorbell and that obnoxious man who is her brother in law opened the door. He couldn't hear what was happening there but clearly it wasn't pleasant. He saw him push Miss Bhalla a little and that was the last straw for him. He immediately got out of the car and walked to the house.
" Jiju please, just let me take my bags." Anokhi asked her brother in law but he had pushed her.
" Please jiju. I really do need my stuff." She said again, walking to him.
" Don't you understand mad girl, you are not getting anything from here. Just get lost." He pushed her once again, a lot harder and she was about to hit the grond with a pair of arms were wrapped securely around her waist, stabilizing her. A shiver ran down her spine with the contact and she saw Shaurya in whose arms she was.
" Sir?" She asked, distancing herself from him.
He broke the eye contact and looked at her jiju, the softness in his eyes changing to anger.
" How dare you push her?" He shouted, taking a plunge towards him and held him by his collar. The rest of his family was out too.
The verbal spats continued for a while till Babli's mother in law threw Anokhi's stuff out, everything in her suitcase scattered here and there.
Anokhi gave one last look to her Babli di who was crying as jiju pulled her inside and shut the door on her face.
" I will kill jiju if he lays as much as just a finger on di." Anokhi muttered to herself as she bent down to gather her stuff. Shaurya started helping her too.
" Thank you sir for what you did for me today." She said, as he handed over the books to her which had fallen off from her suitcase.
Without saying anything, he just gave her a nod as she zipped the bags and started walking away.
" Miss Bhalla, where do you think you're going?" Shaurya asked, swinging her by her arm towards him very gently but she gasped because that was the exact same spot her father had injured. She had no idea it was so bad till now.
" I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?" His eyes softened as he looked at her.
" No sir, not you." Was her reply as she tried to cover the nasty bruise with her stole but it didn't escape Shaurya's notice and he stopped her from covering it.
" How did this happen?" He asked, his voice turning angry but for what reason, Anokhi couldn't decipher. Not that he really cared according to her.
" I hit my hand on a tree." She lied, looking away.
" Sure Miss Bhalla, and that tree had hands and fingers, didn't it?" He asked sarcastically as he saw the bruise as fingermarks, blue.
" No...no sir, it's just that....." Anokhi stammered, trying to come up with an instant lie but was cut off by Shaurya.
" Don't. You're a terrible liar." He muttered and then she started to pick her bags again to go.
" Anokhi, where exactly are you planning to go, may I know?" Shaurya asked, stopping her once again.
" I'll have to see sir. I'm sure there would be some motels nearby." She replied.
" No. That's not happening." He said, more to himself than to her.
" I'm sorry?" She asked, scrunching her eyebrows.
" I said that you're not going to any third grade motel and getting yourself in any trouble." He told her what he had said and meant.
" I'll manage sir." Came her reply and Shaurya scoffed at her.
" Yeah, you will manage. Now Miss Bhalla, come with me." He said, a little sternly.
" But where sir?" She asked, looking curiously.
" Somewhere safe tonight. I'll get a room in the hostel arranged for you first thing tomorrow." He told her.
" No sir. I will manage on my own. You don't have to help me out everytime that I land up in trouble." She was firm at her stand causing Shaurya to almost roll her eyes.
" Miss Bhalla, my patience is wearing thin right now so let's not test it. You are going to do exactly as I say." He warned her.
" Sir, you are my professor in college and I am supposed to do whatever you expect me to in college but right now, we are not there. This is not college and I'm free to disobey you here and besides, I am not a kid that I need constant supervision. I perfectly am capable of looking after myself." She was now getting frustrated too.
Without giving Anokhi a headsup or warning of some sort, he picked her up in his arms as she gasped once again and struggled to keep her arms off him. This was totally inappropriate!
" Sir this is not fair! Keep me down." Anokhi demanded as he was walking towards the car and then made her sit in the passenger's seat.
" Sorry Miss Bhalla, but if you are stubborn, I am your professor. Now you will sit here without moving." He said, pointing a finger at her and then shut the door as he then grabbed her bags and started driving towards the hospital because he knew she wouldn't go anywhere else without a fight. Tomorrow, he'd make sure that a hostel room gets alloted to her. For now, what mattered was that she was safe and she was with him.
Unknowingly, Shaurya Sabarwal had started feeling both at peace and challenged by mere presence of Anokhi near him and even if he would not confess, he liked it.
Hey guys....so I was just randomly scrolling through channels when I landed on star plus and saw this show on and it intrigued me so much that I ended up binge watching all of it in two days and here I am, with a two shot. The next part will be either updated tomorrow or on Monday. Do let me know what you all think about it. Thank youu!!
Oh, by the way, my name is Mahi! Looking forward to knowing all of you❤
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