"I'll be back. Yes, I saw him." Sanjay looks at Rehan as he walks up to him.

"Dude, you were half an hour late. I thought you totally forgot I was coming." Rehan hugs Sanjay patting on his back.

"I had some things to do. Come on." Sanjay helps Rehan to keep his luggages inside the car.

Once they are done, they both get inside the car and Sanjay drives off.

"I heard that Shardul got in fight with some of those morons." Rehan asks inquiring about a fight his friends had with their juniors.

"Yeah. He was fine." Sanjay replies as he ruffles his hair. He looks straight down the road and doesn't spare Rehan a glance. He couldn't face Rehan.

"So how was the wedding? Was it—" Rehan stops  when he notices Sanjay take a different route. "Where are we going? Whatever you have to do, do it after dropping me. I want to go home, badly."

Sanjay looks at Rehan for a brief second and parks the car on the side of the road. He takes a deep breath and says. "I'm going to tell you something. It's bad. But we'll come through it."

Rehan frowns. "You're scaring me. Oh no, please don't plan a prank on me. I'm in no mood."

"There was an accident. At home." Sanjay begins. "Tara and Aadhya were alone. I was supposed to be there, I'm sorry I couldn't."

Rehan smiles. "That's..." He coughs. "That's okay. I'm glad they're fine."

"They're not fine." Sanjay's raucous voice fills the car. His eyes softens looking at Rehan. "Rehan, I know... I know this is terrifying but they're being under care and we're hoping for the best. You've to be there for everyone, for Aadhya."

Rehan nods. "The babies?"

"They'll be fine." Sanjay clears his throat restarting the car. Rehan looks out of the car during the ride to the hospital.

He wants to ask more but he didn't want to hear any bad news. He knows he isn't ready for anything.

He has been to his parents' hospital many times but as he walks inside with Sanjay, for the first time he feels lost. He follows Sanjay's footsteps and his eyes can see that Sanjay's talking but his brain didn't register anything.

"They're still in the surgery." Anvi stops when she notices Rehan. "Rehan." She acknowledges him with a nod.

Rehan looked at everyone sitting in the hall of hospital. There was Aadhya's parent's, her Daadi, brother and wife, Anvi, Ved and Rahul.

Aadhya's mother, Devki, was wiping every tear that's coming out of her eyes, but it was not stopping. Her father was pacing down the hall, not ready to believe everything that was happening around him.

His family had still the wedding dress on, they look all exhausted but he couldn't find his Chacha or Chachi or his sisters.

"Sit" Sanjay pushed Rehan to one of the seats. Away from the family.

"I want to see Aadhya. I want to make sure she's okay. She. Our babies. My life!" Rehan exclaimed trying to stand up.

"Yes, yes. You will. But you'll listen to m--"

Rehan shook his head. "I--- I can't breathe Sanjay."

"You can. Take a deep breath. Do it. And breath out. Do" Sanjay looked at Rehan, he didn't know where he's getting the courage to hold Rehan. He can't even possibly imagine what Rehan must be feeling, but he knew he can't let Rehan lose.

Closing his eyes and taking deep breaths Rehan looked at the O.R.. His vision was blurred with tears. He covered his face and looked down.

"I'd went back to take my phone. Aadhya and Tara was alone. I came back with Jiya and Rhea. We three were--" Sanjay leaned his head back. "She fell from the sky. Tara. That's what I thought. There was blood. All over. All over. We were frozen"

Rehan looked at Sanjay, who continued fighting his tears. "I carried her to the car, tying her head with her shawl. Then I remembered Aadhya. I called for her, I yelled but I never got a response. I felt like a tsunami was about to hit and I didn't know what to do. I rushed into the house." Sanjay's gaze fell upon Rehan, who wanted to hear nothing bad, nothing unfortunate.

"She was on the floor. By the stairs. Her head was bleeding. Her legs were bleeding. I called everyone on the way to hospital. They both were taken to surgery right awa--"

"Sanjay!" Anvi called. Sanjay and Rehan saw two doctors coming out if the O.R., one of them being his mother.

Sunitha's eyes fixated on Rehan as he came near her. He held her hand and she forgot what she had to tell. She couldn't bear to see her son, broken.

"Dr. Sunitha!" The second doctor called, making her to look everyone.

"Aadh--"She looked down at Rehan's hand and held him tight. "Aadhya has scratch on her right hand bone, because of the fall. She lost blood and she had to go undergo a premature delivery. The girl had the impact of the fall. Her neck was twisted, broken. There was no way we could've saved her."

Rehan took a step back, his hand slowly leaving his mother's. She held him tight. "The boy, we saved him. We can't say anything more as of now. He's only 6 months, he'll be in NICU for the rest of the months. We can't promise, anything. We can hope."

"Aa..Aadhya" Rehan whispered.

"She is fine. She lost, a lot of blood. The surgery was hard, but successful. We have to wait for hours to see how Aadhya respond." Sunitha spoke.

"Can we see her? And the child?" Devki asked.

"You can see Aadhya today but not the baby. He's very early and need extreme care. After some days, you can but only the parents" The second doctor voiced.

Rehan moved backwards turning around he paced faster. He didn't know where to go. He didn't know what to do. Rubbing his face, ruffling his hands through his hair, he was going crazy.

He met Liya, on his way, who jumped to hug him, crying. "She left us." Liya's whispered words rang through Rehan's head. The hands that were wrapped around her, froze.

She looked at him unable to stop herself. "Tara Di. They said---" She sniffled. "They did everythin--"

She broke again falling onto her brother's arms.

He doesn't have not only his daughter's death to grieve, but also his sister's.

22 hours later

Rehan groaned when the sun hit him. "Shut it." He shouted to whoever opened the blinds. Grabbing a pillow he kept it over his head and tried to sleep.

The pillow was grabbed from him and before he could say sweet words, cold water was thrown into his face.

"WHAT THE HELL" Rehan's yell didn't bother Ved who took the second bucket and threw it on his face, again.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!!!" Rehan screamed.

Ved kept the bucket on the floor and taking the third bucket he threw the water on Rehan. Again.

Rehan pulled his hair back and glared his brother. "In god's name, which one of the word I said has not entered your idiotic brain." Although Rehan was angry, his voice was low, like the calm before the storm.

"Nothing. Okay. Nothing. 'Cause my brain has shut down after hearing so many bad news that, I'm afraid if someone opens their it is to deliver bad news." Ved looked at the windows and wiped his tears. He was not the weakest, he's the strongest.

He looked at Rehan. "I'm younger than you and I have always and always admired you. You're not someone who runs away from their problems, you're the one who face them. But I'm surely mistaken, now that you're laying on the bed after drinking for hours, straight. Do you even know a day has been passed. Yes a day. A day since Tara died, a day since your baby died, a day since your other baby is fighting for life. A freaking day since Bhabhi is wondering where is her babies. A freaking day! So yes nothing has been entering into my idiotic brain, 'cause I'm not a coward!" Ved yelled. His red yes followed straight into his brother's.

His eyes softens. "I know, you're not happy with the events going on. And neither are we. I can't even possibly imagine the pain you're having. But you need to be with Bhabhi and only you can comfort her. And only she can comfort you. Please go. Please. Act like you're okay. That's what everyone is doing here."

Ved walked out of the room while Rehan sit, unable to open his mouth, unable to make a sound, unable to move.

He looked to find himself in Sanjay's room with yesterday's clothes still on. He wanted to remember what happened in the past hours after he touched alcohol but the headache was giving him a hard time.

Walking through the hospital corridor Rehan kept rubbing his face. He knew he looked miserable, even two cold shower didn't do any magic.

Standing outside the room Rehan was hesitant to open the door. He longed for the past months to see his wife, he longed for the past months to see his wife's baby bump. He was afraid to open the door to see a lifeless Aadhya.

The door opened and Rehan took a step back. Arjun had a surprised look seeing Rehan, for all he knew was his brother-in-law disappeared.

"---Hi." Rehan whispered.

Arjun nodded and then looked behind signing his wife to follow him. They both left and Rehan closed the door to be with her.

He looked at her, she was not chubby. She had none of her pregnancy glow. Her lips were not her natural colour. She looked lost.

Rehan leaned in to kiss her forehead but the bandage wouldn't let him feel his wife's skin. But he wanted a contact to make sure she was real.

He kissed her cheek closer to her lips.

Tears covered his vision as he sat on the chair beside her. He held Aadhya's right hand in his.

She clutched his hand.

Rehan looked up, Aadhya opened her eyes and settled it on Rehan. She cried. She smiled. The tears ran out when she curved her lips up.

Rehan rubbed her hand and kissed on it again.

"I want to hug you"

The words came out as whisper but Rehan quickly picked it and hurried to make the bed in sitting position.

Aadhya threw her hand around Rehan, sobbing. She wanted to tell herself he was real. She doesn't wanted him to run away, like in her dreams he did.

She broke.

Rehan was surprised when he felt his eyes burning. He knew he was not an easy man to cry, but his emotions backfired as he cried, hugging his wife. He held her closer, he wanted her to stay with him. He was afraid if he let her go, she'll be with his baby and Tara. Dead.

"---They. They to--ld me my baby died, Rehan"

Rehan hid his face in her neck, running his fingers through her hair. Oh, how much he missed that.

"They told me my baby is----fighting." She paused clutching his shirt. "--For life."

thank you for reading. please vote, comment and support.

with love,
zoe♡

p.s. happy diwali❁