••

Swallowing his deepest fears, Vikram entered the room with his eyes fixed on the petite human lying on the bed.

Closing the door behind him, he stood facing the room, with both his legs glued to the floor.

His hands were unintentionally shivering as his eyes landed on her. Scared to witness the state she was in.

Breathing out through his mouth, Vikram tried to compose himself, as he quickly scanned around the room.

There was only one chair for him to sit in the room, which was located at the right most corner, away from the patient's bed.

"Which idiot would sit a mile away from the patient?" Vikram mumbled to himself, vexed about the distance, as he swiftly lifted the chair and placed it right next to the bed.

He sat down as he gave a quick glance around the room, once more as he sighed to himself.

The hospital room wasn't satisfying for him, yet he was glad as this was the closest hospital from where they had stayed.

But right now, all he wanted was to shift Suhana to a better room, though she was in the bestest room in that small hospital.

Leaning forward, he picked up her hand carefully, as he placed his forehead against her palm.

"I'm sorry" He whispered as he pressed his lips against her palm gently.

Realizing that his phone had been vibrating, he placed her hand down, as he moved away from the bed.

"Vinay, any updates?"

"No sir, not yet. I'm still trying to trace that call"

"I want it at the earliest, Vinay. Vivaan isn't spitting any truth. As we guessed, that guy is of no use"

"Don't worry sir, I'll get the information and let you know soon"

"And Vinay--" Vikram paused contemplating how to put forth his confusion.

"6 years ago--that accident--- want you to find everything about what happened that day. If possible try to dig in more information which we might have possibly failed to find back then"

"You never wanted anyone to investigate that accident ever since that year. Is something wrong sir? "

"I am not sure Vinay, that incident feels like a puzzle and right now, it feels like we are missing the most important piece of the puzzle"

• • • •

••

"Hey listen buddy! Look at me, Come on don't lose your consciousness. See, you need to live! You have a reason, someone special out there is waiting for you. So--" I paused as Vikram grabbed my wrist.

"You are going to make out through this, don't worry!" I assured Vikram.

"Aisha go fast , he is injured very badly, and he has lost a lot of blood too!"

"Yeah, we are almost here Suha, make sure he doesn't lose his consciousness!" She said as we entered the hospital premises.

Doctors and nurses were rushing in and out.

"Doctor, his head was bleeding. Hope it's not serious."

"Nothing to worry, they were only External injuries, no internal injuries, Moreover we have done a CT scan. But-- "

"But what doctor?"

"His right shoulder is not in a good condition. The soft tissue---"

"Shoulder soft tissue injury? " I asked, confused.

"Medical student?" She asked, amazed as I slightly nodded.

"Yeah, the muscle has experienced a thickness tear, so a small surgical intervention is required to repair this tear!"

"Okay, please fill the forms, so that we can proceed with the surgery" The doctor informed me and left.

After some minutes a nurse proceeded towards me with a paper and pen and asked me to fill them.

Confused, I wrote it as Flynn in the Patient's name box.

"Ma'am, also fill that box on how you are related to him" The nurse pointed to the check box, which was at the end of the form.

I almost decided to tick the 'Not related' check box, when Aisha grabbed the form from my hand and ticked the Checkbox which meant "WIFE".

Flynn? Wife? Not related?

What is happening?

Where am I?

What am I seeing?

Why is Vikram there? Why am I there?

"Suhana...Suhana '' I could hear echoes in the atmost corner of my head as I could slowly feel light falling upon my eyes.

Vikram.

He was standing there, looking at me.

He is worried. He is panicking.

"Suhana! What's wrong" His voice was enough for me to jump back to my senses.

Nightmare.

It was just a nightmare, and Vikram made a cameo in it.

How funny.

'So?? I guess I am fine and I can....' I tried to get up as I failed to do so. '...cannot move'

"Don't try to get up" I could hear the panic in his voice, as reality hit me.

First I was shot, then I lost consciousness and then I realized that I barely had 15 minutes, I was about to die and now...

I am alive. I am alive?

"Bad dream?" He whispered as his voice was crisp and yet so smooth and gentle, and felt as if he never uttered a word.

I realized myself shaking my head saying yes.

"Let me get you some water" He turned around as I held his hand, stopping him from doing so.

He slowly turned around, as he looked at me differently, as if...as if he was seeing me for the first time.

"Do you want something else?" Once again his voice sounded differently, filled with emotions.

Gentle, caring, guilty.

He is feeling guilty, I realized as I slowly moved to the left most corner of the bed allowing space on the right side.

"Can you lie down here?"

I must have lost my mind. I could feel the bullet reaching the insides of my heart right now.

And my poor heart was thumping a million times per second.

"Nevermind! Forget that I said tha--" I paused as he lifted my right hand, and slipped inside the bed with both his hands wrapped around my right palm.

I could no longer feel the pain on my left collarbone, as I tried to turn and lie on my right side, facing him.

Was I really shot on my collarbone or was it my heart. Cause right now, it was my heart that was causing chaos in me.

Vikram turned to his left, staring at me, still not removing his hold over my hand.

"67" I broke the silence between us, as he stared at me with confusion.

"The number of stripes on your shirt. It was 67" I replied to the question that was plastered on his face, with satisfaction.

"You really counted that?" I could hear the surprise in his voice, as I nodded.

"You asked me to count them, of course I did" I smiled trying to ease his pain.

"Vikram" It felt 100 times different when I called his name out.

Something was definitely wrong with me. And the medicines were making me 200 times drowsier than the usual insane self I am.

He just hmmed, as I continued, "I am fine"

He straight up looked into my eyes, as his lips parted momentarily to say something when he stopped midway.

"Spill it out"

"Why did you do that?" He asked gently, removing his eyes away from mine.

"Do what?"

"It was supposed to be me Suhana, not you" I heard his voice crack as I heard myself chuckle.

"You think I wanted to dodge that bullet for you?" I laughed through my nose," I had no idea what happened Vikram. It was my heart that took the decision, not my mind." I said calmly.

" And it has and will be the quickest decision I've ever made in my entire life" I removed my right hand from his grip, as I slowly moved towards his face and wiped out the lonely tear that was sliding down.

"I don't regret taking that decision Vikram, so you don't have to put all worries on your head. You're not responsible for what happened " I fixed his hair from the front, as I adjusted my left hand, which was connected to the IV.

"I may not be responsible for what happened, but I should have been responsible enough to stop that from happening to you. No matter what, at the end of the day you are my responsibility Suha" He remained still, allowing me to play with his hair.

And I am drugged right now, for I don't know what I am even doing with his hair, lying so close to him in one small single hospital bed, that our legs are brushing against each other, our eyes speaking unknown languages, heartbeats syncing together.

"Say something back" I jumped back from my wild imagination on hearing his deep voice.

"You called me as Suha...and not Suhana" I smiled as I realized what he just said to me.

It felt so wrong, yet so perfectly right to feel all the caterpillars in my stomach, transforming into butterflies.

"I wanted to call you that, from the very second time we met" I could finally see a smile on his face.

"But you asked me not to call you that, as only your closed circle calls you that" He replied coolly as I remembered the day when I asked him not to call me Suha.

The day when we were approaching to meet his parents for the first time.

"Well...You can call me Suha from now" I smiled, as he smiled in reflex.

Either I am drugged and seeing things or it was him, who is drugged and acting so weird, which...I don't mind in any way.

For everything that is happening between us right now. It feels so anew, refreshing, yet so unreal.

"I don't see you wearing that 67 striped shirt. How long have I been in the hospital?" I asked him, as I turned around and analyzed the hospital room.

"2 months...2 months passed away just like that"

"What? So I was in Coma?" I raised my eyebrows as he evilly nodded his head.

"So your hair hasn't grown even 1 centimeter ever since 2 months?" I brushed his hair through my fingers as a giggle passed through my teeth.

"Don't tell me you have a chart log with entries of my hair length? How do you even know that? Did you even measure that? " He asked, distressed as I realized that my fingers had been on his hair for a long time.

You better remove them, before he loses his patience and throws them away. My mind snapped at me as I withdrew my fingers from his hair.

"It felt good though" My eyes grew wide as my hand was halfway away from his hair.

"I washed my hair. It's clean, you can continue doing that"

You know what was on the floor?

My jaw.

Did he really say...that?

"You haven't answered me yet" I replied so casually trying to mask my nervousness as I started playing with his hair, again.

"It has been 4 days. But you didn't even bother to wake up early and say that you were fine" He sounded like a kid, yet filled with the unspoken emotions of an adult.

"Oh then I guess I have a lot of catching up to do" I giggled as I started my mini questionnaire session.

•••

The nurse gave a shy smile at us and didn't utter a word until she injected the medicine in the IV that was attached to my left hand.

"It's a strong medicine so try to get some sleep" She gave another shy smile at us, as she left the room.

She must have misunderstood the situation. It was not like we were lovers or something.

We are just FRIENDS.

"So Harshad saved me?" I was astonished as Vikram narrated everything that had happened.

And I don't even remember meeting Harshad, though I was in full consciousness, counting the number of stripes in Vikram's shirt.

And I already had asked him a million questions on everything that had happened in the past 4 days, as he answered each one of them patiently.

Yeah, patiently.

"No, it was my striped shirt that saved you. Harshad didn't do much" He sulked as it felt so new to me.

It felt like I had never known this side of him. This new version of him was confusing me, yet I could figure out that this is his real version. Real Vikram.

And all these days, he had been wearing a mask, sealing all his emotions in an airtight container. But right now it is no longer airtight, for there are some holes in the container for his emotions to free themselves.

"You still have some more questions?" He asked gently while moving a small strand hair away from my face.

I realized that he did the same thing the other day as well. When I was moved back to the tent after being shot.

So practically we both like playing with each other's hair?

And what does that make us? A good hairstylist?

Or is it just me being too high on medicines?

"Yeah"

"What question?"

"Who was that man? The one who called you...when Vivaan was pointing a gun at us" I noticed his whole body stiffen, when I realized that maybe I shouldn't have asked him that.

"He...is actually..." He stumbled upon his own words, as the air between us turned cold.

And I immediately regretted asking him that. I didn't want anything standing between us. Definitely not awkwardness.

My hand traced from his hair and moved down, as it reached his face. And before I realized, I was cupping his cheek.

"Vikram, you don't have to tell me anything. You aren't obliged to..." I could feel the warmth from his cheek, transferring to my hand.

"...But one day when you wish to share whatever you're going through with someone....I want it to be ME." He replied to my intoxicated, unintentional confession with his tears as I wiped them away.

The medicine was slowly crawling into my body, as I started feeling sleepy and drowsier.

"You should sleep'' He uttered slowly, as I tried to keep my eyes open, not wanting to sleep. Not wanting this moment to end.

"How can I sleep...when you're looking at me like this?" I uttered drowsily, as his chuckles reached my ears immediately.

"Fine, I'll close my eyes. Now go to sleep" I looked at him, while battling with my eyes to keep them open.

My hand cupping his cheek felt warmer as he closed his eyes for me to sleep and not get distracted.

But yet he distracted me.

And this time it was not his eyes.

I traced my fingers from his cheek, as they reached his lips. My eyes were no longer fixed on his eyes, for they were already distracted.

His face was deadly pale, but his lips were pink. And it felt like an invitation for me.

And for a dead second, I wasn't me. I wasn't Suhana.

And once again, my heart took yet another decision without consulting my brain, as I leaned forward and placed my lips on his.

Maybe dodging the bullet for him wasn't just the only fastest decision I have ever made.

This one probably broke the record.

A small peck, lingering and leaving sensations all over my body which I probably have never felt before.

Not wanting to withdraw, I removed my lips from his with hesitation and leaned back as my eyes slowly trailed from his lips to his eyes.

Vikram was staring at me with his eyes wide, his face paler than before, his lips parted, and his mind probably wondering what kind of a species I am.

What did I even do?

I shouldn't have done that.

But still I did.

He removed my hand from his cheek as he leaned forward.

I could feel his hot breath fanning on my face, making it harder for me to breathe, as the door suddenly opened and then closed immediately with a thud.

God knows which idiot it was, for I wasn't able to grab a glance.

I wanted to turn back and have a look, but my eyes could no longer fight the medicines as they gave up.

I must be insane to fall asleep at a moment when I really shouldn't have.

•••

Suhana did