(The show is such a downer these days! Hoping that you will enjoy the update though)

It had all transpired so quickly.

She had wrapped up her survey of the two prospective sites and had been enjoying her tea as the rain played its symphony and the breathtaking sight of valley pleased her eyes. She had been missing him in that moment, wondering if she should have allowed him to accompany her.

But before she could rebuke herself for entertaining such thoughts,she had heard a loud noise which was soon followed by a cacophony of shrieks. Body twisting instantly, Anupama watched in horror as a large chunk of mountain came down, few meters away from her. Even before the shock had sunk in, she witnessed a volley of weathered rocks rolling down the slope, and fall on.....people!

Gasping, she took off from her position, in the direction of mayhem. People were running in the opposite direction while Anupama found herself running towards the chaos, her heart hammering in her rib cage as the rain lashed heavily against her.

People rushed past her- slipping, falling, clawing and screaming. She continued forward nonetheless, she had seen people get trapped under the falling mass of land. She could help. She should help.

But the trance broke when she felt a pebble roll under her shoes and freezing mid step, she looked up to find the two storey building on her right, crumbling down.

Eyes widening, she turned on reflex and jumped, as the stone pillar of the building shattered right behind her.

She dared not to look over her shoulders, just picked herself quickly and started running away, for this close brush with death had reminded her of what she had. Of what she stood to lost. Her dreams. Her dream life, with him. Anuj.

Only when it looked like that catastrophe had let up, did the huddled people step out of their safe spots. Mr. Malik, the property agent who had rushed back home to check on his wife, had come back by then and offered to take her to his house while he helped around with the local relief group that had showed up by now.

She, however declined him and offered to help too. She had been scared then, she was scared still but how would she ever face herself if she ran away again? She prided herself on her humanity; she wasn't going to let it dissolve in the face of calamity,especially when there were others willing to help.

And so, accompanied by Mr. Malik she joined the volunteers and worked around the scene, helping people look for their kin or escorting them to the temporary shelter, where other locals were providing safe space against the weather and hysteria.

The NDRF, police force and media showed up soon after andthe relief efforts picked their pace as personnel took to speakers, trying to calm down people, tending to the wounded and such.

But life had been lost. She, who was escorting an old uncle to the relief camp, stopped as she saw police pull out a body from under the rubble while the MT on standby, checked his vitals and nodded in negative.There were more bodies, covered in white, being ferried on stretcher. It was a gruesome scene.

'Thank god, Anuj yahan nahi aaye'

It was despicable of her to think like that, but it was what it was. Nothing compared to his life. Love had made her selfish, and she accepted it wholeheartedly.

It was when the situation had been brought in control more or less, did she realize that she should inform him about her situation. The news would have reached him already and he would have been panicking.

Anupama instantly looked for her phone in the raincoat pocket, thankful that she didn't place it in the purse, which she had misplaced during the fiasco.

The signal bar dwindled between one and two lines, and she saw no missed calls.

'Signals nahi honge!He must've tried calling me!'

Worried about his state of mind, she tried to call him but the call dropped midway. She was about to try again, when her screen lit up with Mukku's name and she instantly picked up.

"Anu?! Are you Ok?! Tum theek ho na?"

"Main theek hu"

Sighing in relief at the other end, Malvika thanked god,"That's great. But Anu, bhai..b...i..wa.....

As Mukku's voice dissipated at the end, Anupama pressed her ears to the phone trying to make sense of her words. She had heard bhai, and was worried about Anuj now.

"M-Mukku jor se bolo..t-tumhari aawaz katt rahi hai!"Anupama shouted loudly over the phone.

"B..hai... bhi...w..ahaa....g..aye...ha...."

And the call dropped completely. Anupama cursed as the all the signal bars disappeared but she had heard enough.

Why was he coming here? Wait, when did he even start? Where was he now? How will she even find him? Was he okay? And how was he coming here? In such a tumultuous weather at that!

Quickly, she went looking for Mr. Malik and tried calling Anuj from his phone since his sim was showing signals still. The call went on and on, and on before it finally disconnected.

"Anuj! Where are you now?!" Anupama mumbled worried as she decided to search for him around the area and dashed off.

There were too many people to differentiate between, it was pouring yet again and she was yet to see him. The weather was freezing, but the thought of him being in trouble or worse, kept her going as she decided to search in the relief camps once again. If he had come looking for her, those places were the most probable one.

One.

Two.

Three.

But to no avail. She was about to turn around to look in another direction, when she felt something, a feeling and deciding to act on it,peeked into the small camp near the ambulance.

She heard it then and relief coursed through her body as she spotted the man huddled in the far off corner, his head buried in his arms, and his figure curled into a ball.

His shoulders shook and he continued to call her name. With regret, pain and hopelessness.

"Anuj..." Breaking the silence, she crouched in front of him and watched as he looked up into her eyes, his eyes red and his face trailing with tears.

"Anuj aap...theek hain? Why are you crying? Are you hurt?!" Worried,she checked for any obvious signs of injury but finding none, breathed out in respite and forwarded her hand to wipe his tears while his brows furrowed in confusion and disbelief.

'Is it Anu? His Anu?Is she alive? Or has he died too?'

"Are you Anupama?" The same constable who had found the purse earlier, remarked from behind and Anupama straightened up to stand and nodded.

The officer nodded in response and took a look at the man who had fixed his shocked gaze on the back of the standing woman's form. "I think inhe, infact hum sabko galatfehmi hui thi. There was a woman buried under the rubble and we found your purse nearby with your identification. It was a cruel coincidence, but her clothes were similar to yours and her face was crushed so we could only take the ID as her face. This man here was absolutely devastated, and I had to drag him in here by force, because it seemed like he was trying to freeze to death in that whiplash of a rain".

Finishing with his account, as the police man walked away, Anupama turned to face Anuj who was standing now, his eyes flowing even more, as his lips scrunched into a crying face and a moment later, he threw his arms around her taking her into his embrace as he sobbed into her shoulder.

"Anu..tum...main...A-anu...", He hiccupped as he tightened his hold on her and she felt the wetness against her shoulders.

Her eyes watered too as she felt his desperation, his fear and tried to soothe him by rubbing her hand against his back.

"Main theek hu, Anuj. Dekhiye, ekdum theek hu aur aapke saath hu".

Despite her consolation however, Anuj refused to let go when she tried to pull away.

Her raincoat was soaked and by holding her like this, he was getting wet too. Worried that he will catch a cold, if he hadn't already, she struggled and pried away from him, cupping his face to ease the already appearing fear that her pushing him away had brought on.

"Aap beemar ho jaenge. Hum yahan se chalte hain".

As he nodded lightly, she took to withdrawing her hands from his face when he caught them and entangled them with his. She curled her fingers around his and walked out with him in tow, in search of a place to stay the night.

She was about to go looking for a hotel when Mr. Malik appeared, and offered to take the two to his house. She didn't refuse this time, for Anuj's situation wasn't that good and she didn't want to drag him around in this chaos.

********

Having managed to inform Mukku that both of them were safe, Anupama thanked Rizwana, Malik's wife as she lent her some clothes. The couple was under the misunderstanding that Anuj was her husband since he had refused to let go of her hand for even a second, and she couldn't be bothered about the details now.

Closing the door, she found him standing by her side like a statue and shaking her head, took him to the bed and forced him to sit down.She tried to pull her hand this time, and he looked aghast as he looked at her with eyes of hurt.

"A-anu..tum..mujhe chodkar..j-jaa rahi h-ho" He asked,horrified and she closed her eyes to keep her tears in check. He had been truly shaken by the incident.

Opening her eyes then, she managed a small smile and shook her head in negative, "Main kahin nahi jaa rahi. Dekhiye wo raha bathroom", she pointed to the attached bathroom and added, "main change karke aati hu, aap bhi kar lijiye warna beemar ho jaaenge hum dono".

Her words did the trick as Anuj let go of her hand and smiling she walked off towards the bathroom.

Wearing a simple red pathani kurta paired with white salwar,her hair left open, she stepped out, to find Anuj standing right in front of the bathroom, still not changed.

"Anuj aap!" She was about to scold him but the vulnerable look on his face didn't even allow her to get angry even if for his sake, as she clenched and unclenched her fingers before she led him near the bed and stepping into his space started unbuttoning his shirt, one by one.

His unwavering gaze made her heart hammer as she removed thewet garment and guided his arms into another white shirt. Once done buttoning him, she looked up into his face and the intensity of his gaze made her heart race and she steadily stepped away.

Picking up the lower, she outstretched it towards him and pleaded, "Anuj, please!"

As he took the lower from her hands, she stepped further away and turned around. It was like a silent agreement, as Anupama stood with her back to him, her stomach going topsy turvy as she heard him rustle out of the pants, suit followed the sound of belt hitting the floor, some more rustling and a brief spell of silence later which made her think that he was done changing, she was about to turn around when a squeal escaped her lips and she was started on finding her back pressed into a warm body, while strong arms enveloped over her shoulders and around her neck, as Anuj nestled his face against her neck.