Numb; that was what Nadia felt, lying on the reclined hospital bed, she felt devoid of any emotion, the experience was too traumatic for her, her heart beat pace still hasn't calmed down even after taking medications

Everything felt like a dream, from watching people smiles turn to cries, happy live humans dropping dead with their eyes still open, their mouth stopping midway between their last word, to following a strange man who turned out to be her saviour, it was just too overwhelming.

The dim white light in the four walled hospital room added to her numbness, she stared blankly at the door that was facing her when it flung open, Abdallah held the door to balance his stamina, his hand laid pressed on his chest as his breath raged heavily like he just ran a marathon race.

He closed his eyes tightly when he first laid his eyes on her small figure which was swimming inside the oversized cotton hospital clothing,

"Nadia" he called out, that was when she jolted back to real life, even though her eyes captured his entrance, her mind was totally not there. She looked into his eyes, but it looked different, he wasn't giving the normal cold stares she was used to, his eyes were swirling with emotions, genuine emotions.

Abdallah fleeted towards her direction, his shoes making clicking sounds on the brown tiled floor, "Nadia" he called out again before enclosing her whole frame in his broad body, he hugged her tightly, but she wasn't responding, her cold body rested on him like some inanimate object.

He broke the hug to cup her face with his hands, he gazed deeply into her brown eyes, and it looked dead, they were no emotions in it, "Nadia are you okay?" he said while still staring deeply into her eyes.

Okay?, how could she be? When she can't get the images of the dead people out of her head, their eyes telling different types of stories, she wanted to say all that, but everything remained in her thoughts, it wasn't converted into spoken words.

"I'm fine" she said, using her hands to detach his hands from her face. She smiled at him, but that wasn't how his wife smiled, "don't worry about me, I'm very fine" she smiled again, confirming his speculations.

"Are you hurt anywhere" he used the back of his hand to feel her body temperature which was lesser than normal, he held her hand to get the view of the cut that was in her fore arm clearly "should I get the doctor?" he said,

"I said I'm fine!" she said raising her voice above normal, the room turned silent from her sudden outburst, only the ticking of the square clock hanging on the white oil painted wall could be heard, "I'm sorry" she apologized, "it's ju-" she wanted to explain more, but he cut her off,

"it's okay," he said folding his two hands behind his back, "I understand". Abdallah meant every single word he said, he knew a little part of him was angry or more appropriately 'sad' because she wasn't revealing her emotions to him despite how worried he was, but a bigger part of him understood her.

He wanted to bring her out of whatever is wrong with her little by little, even if he wasn't a patient person. Only one word can describe the feelings he had for Nadia right now, and that is 'compassion'. He felt pity for her, and he wanted to help her even if it is out of his principles.

"Thank you" she muttered sinking back into the bed and her thoughts,

"you're welcome" he muttered, not sure whether she heard or not.

****

Abdallah stayed with Nadia for that night, so the doctors could examine if she had any injury, when they were sure she was fully okay, they discharged her the next morning.

"salam alaykum" Nadia muttered when she stepped her foot into the house she has accepted to be her home, it was pretty much same as she left it yesterday, she remembered vividly how she placed the brown knitted throw pillow on the three seater sofa before she left happily yesterday not knowing she would return sad,

"walaykum salam" Abdallah muttered opening the curtains in the living room to increase the lightening.

****

Nadia went to her room to freshen up and say her zuhr sallah before she came back down to the living room, she met Abdallah scrolling through his phone that was when she remembered her phone,

"Aaima and her parents must be worried" she thought to herself, Even if she didn't feel like talking to Abdallah she just had to, "please," she said bringing his attention towards her, he looked at her with questioning eyes encouraging her to complete what she was trying to say "can I borrow your phone, I lost mine and I wan-" she stopped midway between her sentence when Abdallah quickly handed his phone over to her,

"use it anyhow you want" he said, surprise is an understatement of what Nadia felt, she couldn't believe it was the Abdallah she knew that was in front of her, but she felt sad, quickly enclosing her emotions because she knew he was only doing it out of pity and nothing else, not like she expected anything.

Luckily for Nadia, she knew Aaima's number by heart, she knows Aaima would be distressed, she just prayed Aaima hasn't asked basma about her whereabout because she didn't want any more persons to know about the incident. Aaima didn't pick up, but when she dialled her number again it went through,

"hello salam alaykum" Aaima said with a low tone that showed sadness, hearing Aaima's voice made Nadia feel like crying, she wanted to cry her heart out and get done with it, but she held it in,

"walaykum salam" Nadia voice broke as she spoke,

"Nadia, Nadia is that you" "hello, please talk" "hello" Aaima continued talking when the other side remained silent,

"yes it's Nadia" she said, few drops of tears fell down her cheek, but she quickly rubbed it off,

"subhanallah Nadia, are you fine, where are you?, hope you're not hurt, hope nothing happened to you" Aaima bombarded Nadia with numerous question in one breath, "mum, it's Nadia" she shouted away from the phone,

"I'm fine, Alhamdulillah, no need to worry" Nadia said even if she wasn't fine. The network glitched like someone disrupted it,

"hello, my daughter, hope you're safe, I was very worried" Aaima's mum spoke in the manner Aaima did also,

Nadia knew she had to say something to calm them down, if not, she won't be surprised finding them at her doorstep the next day,

"I'm fine really, luckily they didn't get to the coach I was, so I'm perfectly okay" she said, she mentally said 'astagfirllah' for having to lie to them,

"Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, I was so worried, I'm pleased to hear that" Aaima's mum said, "may Allah continue to save us all" she said before handing the phone over to Aaima,

"Ameen" Nadia muttered,

"are you sure you're fine?" Aaima asked noticing a hint of sadness in Nadia's tone,

"yes I'm, trust me" nadia said adding a small fake laughter,

"if you say so" Aaima said, "but remember I'm always here if you need someone to talk to" she added,

"yes I'll, thank you" Nadia said sincerely, they said their goodbyes before hanging the call up.

****

Nadia wanted to return Abdallah's phone to him, but he was no longer in the living room, she ambulated towards his room, but she stopped in her tracks when she heard a clinking sound coming from the kitchen.

She slowly walked to the kitchen door holding her shoe in her hand to defend herself in case it was a break in, she opened the door revealing Abdallah covered in stains, the kitchen was in total mess, his beard was now covered in a whitish substance, she would have laughed her heart out if she was in a good mood, but she stood there watching him,

"uhmm I wanted to prepare something" he said awkwardly cleaning his hands with towel, "uhmm," he scratched his head, "I wasn't able to do anything" he said with his face falling, Abdallah wanted to prepare something to at least make Nadia happy, but he was totally bad at it.

"Don't worry I'll take over" she said walking into the kitchen,

Abdallah didn't like how Nadia was, he knew he had to do something to bring her back to her normal self.

Abdallah!

Is it really only 'compassion' you're

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@zinat Abdulkadir ✍️