"Sometimes your ingenuity freaks me out. I am not sure whether I should appreciate you or be scared of you", David said and adjusted his clothes in the back seat.

"Well, it depends how you want to interpret it.", Raymond said and smiled.

"Switch off your phone in case people start calling you to know which hospital we went to", Raymond added and switched off his own phone as well. But before that he texted Katherine

"Started from office" - Raymond

Katherine saw the message and was elated from the bottom of her heart. Although the cake cutting was done and most of the kids were already done with food, she was still happy that at least he would be able to make it in the end. She had not told Akira a word about his arrival and the clueless girl was happily running here and there taking care of the kids. She was a joy to watch.

Seeing the way she was taking care of the kids and the way she helped her in arranging the party, Katherine was pretty sure that Akira was a perfect fit for her brother. She was smart, sensitive, caring and to top it off she had a very positive attitude towards everything. She was a self-made woman and Katherine loved this aspect of her.

Parents of all the kids came in gradually and started picking up their kids. Only one of Kate's friend Regina was left to be picked up. After playing together for quite some time both Kate and Regina got tired and slept off on the couch. Akira saw them and returned to Katherine who was cleaning stuff up in the kitchen and said,

"Hey, they both have dozed off. What to do?"

"Oh, Kate slept already?", Katherine asked in surprise and became worried that Kate slept off without even meeting Raymond who was supposed to reach any moment now.

Although it was Raymond's fault that he was reaching late, but Katherine was cursing herself for not being able to keep her daughter awake for a little while more.

"Umm.... ok then. Can you help to put her in her bedroom? I will try to contact Regina's mom", Katherine asked looking at Akira hopefully.

"Oh yeah. Sure thing", Akira said and marched towards Kate and picked her up carefully in her arms and started towards her bedroom.

Katherine looked at her walking away with Kate. She was happy to see them bonding so well together. It was very important because she didn't want Kate to be jealous of her. She knew how deeply attached Kate was with Raymond and the inclusion of a third person would have definitely flipped Kate out. But seeing that Kate was so fond of Akira, she sighed out in relief.

Then she took her phone and called up Regina's mom.

"Hi, Antares. It's me", said Katherine.

"Hey, I am still stuck at the hospital as there is an emergency bypass surgery case. I was just about to text you right now. I will be needing a huge favor from you. Can you please drop Regina at my place? My mom is there at home but she can't drive at night. I am really sorry for the trouble", Regina said all apologetically.

"Oh, c'mon. Can't I do this much for you? How many times have you helped to drop Kate back to my place when I had my toe fractured last summer. Not at all a problem dear. Consider it done", Katherine said and kept the call.

Then she walked up to Kate's room and saw Akira running her fingers through Kate's hair and was tapping rhythmically on her back. Her eyes almost welled up to see the way Akira was taking care of Kate and was helping her sleep peacefully. She cleared her throat lightly and waved at Akira. When Akira heard Katherine, she got up from the bed and came near her.

"I have to go to drop Regina at her place as her mom is busy with some emergency. So I need a favor from you. Can you please stay here with Kate till I drop Regina and come back? I don't want her to stay alone at home while I am away. Hope that's ok? Or is it too late for you?", Katherine asked Akira.

"Hey, it's totally fine. But the problem is Regina might get up when you take her back home. She is also sleeping fast on the couch", Akira said.

"That's totally fine, I will manage. Will see you in 20 minutes", said Katherine and went down.

After Katherine left Akira hovered around in the room to pass her time. On the study table, she found Kate's iPod and earphones. She plugged it in and started going through her playlist. She had quite a nice collection of songs and Akira immersed herself completely listening to Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez numbers.

Kate's bedroom was quite spacious and Akira started moving a bit here and there along with the beat of the songs. She was a trained classical dancer so she couldn't keep her toes tied up after switching to some dance numbers.

The beats of the song were pulsating into her and she started swaying as the tempo of the beats increased. She was moving swiftly with the rhythm, swaying her body from left to right. She was totally immersed in the song and danced her heart out like there was no tomorrow. She was dancing leaving all her inhibitions away, as after so many days she had a good normal day in her life.

With every bob of her head, every jiggle of her shoulders, with every gyration of her hips she was looking more and more attractive.

He watched her with rapt attention. His eyes didn't even blink once, like a black hole linearly approximating and capturing every shift in her co-ordinates as she swirled around. His lips parted with awe and desire to see her move like that. Every jerk of her waist, every wave of her body, every flip of her hair sucked the breath out of him. He wanted to make her his own right there at that moment like he was possessed by his own demons.

Then suddenly she stopped and took the earphones out and turned back.