Recovery

Arjun saw the doctor walk out and stood up with a jerk, and covered the distance between them in just one step. Taking a large stride forward, he asked impatiently, "Doctor, how is she?" 

The doctor smiled, and gave Arjun a reassuring look, saying, "Congratulations, Mr.Chauhan. The tumor is finally removed, and the nerve which was getting suppressed by it is also fine, there is no need to worry. You can meet her later, once she has been shifted to the normal room. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

He proceeded to walk away from them towards the wards at the end of the corridor, after this. As soon as the doctor shifted his focus and moved away, Arjun's legs felt numb and he would have fallen on the ground if Shambhav hadn't supported him.

"Sir, are you okay?" He asked, making him sit on the ground in a comfortable position, so that he would not fall again.

Arjun didn't say anything, he just covered his face with his hands and started crying.

*Shambhav was taken aback after seeing him cry; he thought for a moment if there was something he had heard wrong? Why would he be crying at this piece of news?*

He said, "Sir! The doctor said she is alright, everything is fine. She will be able to recognise you, Sia, your parents, her parents, everyone. Sir, it's the time to celebrate, not cry-"

"I know, I know what he said... I have heard everything he just said, how could I not have heard it correctly? All of my focus was on the words which were supposed to come out from the lips of the doctor, as he was resembling God for me at that moment! Do you know, I have been to each and every place where I was told that one's prayers are heard, or wishes are granted- without thinking for a second if that place was affiliated with one religion or another, or how difficult it was to reach there. I have done everything which could give me the hope about her safety, I was so- I was so scared about her life. I have seen her getting more and more scared as her life hung on the balance daily- the life she was never fond of, but she wanted to live. She wanted to be alive just for me, just for our love. I have seen how the girl has faced her fears, just for the sake of our love. I always thought that love can change a person, that it has the potential to mould a person in the exact shape their lover wanted, but now I know that it can also change Destiny. I can't describe my feelings right now as I also don't know the exact level of my happiness, I am at the limit where my heart might stop due to it!

She is alright, Shambhav, she is alright. I have seen her struggle and sadness reflected in her eyes when she was not able to recognise us. But now, everything will be alright. I can't wait to meet her, I am going inside now!" 

He spoke, standing up, when Shambhav stopped him by stretching his arm out.

"Wait! You can't go right now, as she is still in the operation theatre. She will be shifted to the general ward soon, then you can go and meet her."

"But, I need to see her right away-"

He stopped when he saw her being wheeled out on a stretcher. She was still unconscious, but this was enough to remind that she was safe and out of danger now. He couldn't wait for her to open her eyes, he looked longingly in the direction where she was being wheeled to, when his eyes found everyone standing there.

He stepped towards their family members as if in a daze of euphoria. He had not  realised when they had arrived, but their arrival did fill him with a sense of giddiness at the prospect of sharing the happy news. Regardless of the fact that his mind was bounding forward excitedly in order to greet them, his legs were still not giving him the cooperation he needed and were messing with him. He tripped again, but his father held him before he could fall. He looked up, asking, "Papa, why are you here? Uh- I mean, when did you arrive here, and everyone else as well!?"

"We were here from the very beginning Juno, but Danny and Uncle had stopped me from going and comforting you-"

Sia stopped abruptly when Manav tugged at her elbow, without even bothering to think of an excuse or an alternative ending to the rest of her sentence.

Arjun looked at everybody present in front of him one-by-one, with an accumulating feeling of betrayal in his eyes. He finally spoke, "Why -" 

"Because we want you to be stronger and more independent. We already know that you both are capable enough of doing everything on your own, but we wanted to see how calm and composed you can remain in a time of crisis. We all know, Manya has been composed from childhood itself, but you were a very naughty kid. With time, however, the personalities you both carried seem to have gotten interchanged, or perhaps you two were just born to completely watch and test each other's patience!" Arnav explained.

"I am still unable to understand this concern of yours!" Arjun declared.

It was Sagrika who stepped forward this time. "Our concern was just simple: if any complications happened to arise, then we wanted to see whether you will be able to handle everything by yourself. Son, however much we want to, we are not always going to be there for you, and I think you are well-aware of the uncertainty of life. Now, don't waste your time and go meet her- it is almost time, she must be awake by now."

Arjun looked at his Meanu, and then his father, who was smiling warmly at him while nudging him on. He was unable to reply, it was more than enough for him to handle as he was facing too many emotions at the same point- so he just looked on with an expression that depicted just how overwhelmed he was by all this.

Noticing his hesitant expression, Manav patted his shoulder, saying, "I am really proud of you, kid, don't listen to them. You were indeed great at everything you did; trust me, even I was not able to see her in this state without crying. Now go, she must be waiting, and go before I change my decision of letting you meet her first!"

Arjun nodded quickly and rushed towards the room. He came to a stop at the door, as he needed to stabilize his breathing before entering the room, he didn't want her to see him in a tired state.

He entered slowly in the room, she was still under the influence of anesthetics and had not regained consciousness yet.

He walked over slowly, as if any hurried motion would disturb the quietness and dispel this mirage. He sat on the chair placed by her side, and took her hand in his to pacify his raging heartbeat that was echoing in his ears. All the calmness he was trying to build up was washed away with a single glance at her face, when he noticed the stark absence of her beautiful long hair; a long scar that would remain on the side of her head, serving as a lifelong reminder of this; and her skin had become deathly pale. But still, she was his Minnie- and by definition, the best girl for him, the most beautiful girl he could ever dream to meet! The perfect girl, whom he had fallen for, and now that she was cured, he needed to make sure that her recovery was swift and smooth- and for that, he would do everything that needed to be done and more.

He put his face against their intertwined hands as he closed his eyes, and stayed like this for a few moments. He quickly lifted his head up when he heard some faint murmurs amidst the rhythmic beeping of the medical equipment and realised that she had just whispered his name.

He exclaimed, "Minnie, you are awake! Do you feel uneasy anywhere, should I call the doctor?!"

A faint smile rushed to make its presence known on Manya's face, and she raised her free hand towards Arjun's face, and stopped at his cheek.

She spoke up in a voice so light that it felt like a soft feather brushing against his eardrums and soothing his soul. Just listening to her voice eased Arjun's troubled mind to some extent.

"Juno...it's you...I can finally recognise you by your face-" Saying this, she paused for a moment and screamed out the very next minute. "Juno! Everything is blurry, I can't see anything, Juno? Juno-"

"I am here, I am right here, Minnie. Don't panic, don't panic!" Arjun repeated while panicking by himself, shouting for the doctor.

The doctor and nurses rushed towards them along with their family members who were waiting outside the room for their turn to meet her. After taking a few minutes to check her vitals, the doctor turned to them. "You were understandably concerned, but there is nothing to fear."

With a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, he added, "It is just that there were tears in her eyes, which made her vision blurry and caused alarm!"

And everyone's concerned faces burst into laughter once he let them in on the real reason that had sent them in a tizzy.

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Time was passing at its own pace, but it was still giving Manya the feeling that everything was happening too soon.

Sia had gone abroad for her higher studies, Shambhav had completed his education and was currently working at ARMA's, and she had finally re-joined her office after almost one and a half years. It seemed to her that everything had changed on the surface, but if one looked at the finer details, nothing seemed to have changed at the same time! She didn't have her long hair like she used to, there was still a long list of things she was forbidden from doing-that Arjun maintained a tally of, and most importantly, there was a scar on the side of her head that was going to remain there permanently. She felt like the beautiful Manya she used to be was lost somewhere, and this Manya who was continuing her life on her behalf was an entirely different one. She felt like an imposter in her own life, because the old Manya had been replaced by one with too many insecurities living within her, that had changed the way she looked at a lot of things. But by now, she had acknowledged and accepted the fact that these versions of her, however different they may be, were a part of her own identity. She might feel uncomfortable in those roles at first, but they completed her and she was happy with all of them. This time, she was not trying to run away- because in some corner of her mind, there was a constant reminder that her life didn't belong to her alone, but it also belonged to people she was associated with, each and every person who loved her had a share of theirs in her, and she had the same authority on them.

The warm sunlight touched her face and made her feel alive again. She had started to appreciate life more, and the resting period due to her recovery had made her closer to everyone around her. She used to spend most of her time in the orphanage; and she was there that day as well, observing the kids playing in the ground, enjoying the evening sun. Although she had joined the office again, she was still not allowed to spend more than a few hours in the office and take on the major burden of the work, which had made Arjun, her mother and father share the burden in place of her. She was just hoping for Sia to return as soon as possible and take what belonged to her, as the business she was currently running was actually her Massi's dream; as a souvenir of hers, Sia deserved everything. Everything that she had, didn't really belong to her, but it was someone else's treasured belonging, which was being kept safe by her because she was in charge of guarding it.

A smile appeared on her face after the ball hit her leg, pulling her out of her thoughts. A toddler ran towards her, screaming her name and asking her to give him the ball back, without stopping his feet. She recalled fondly, how things had started to turn from the day she first visited here. Who could have said at that time, that her life was going to change by 180°, proving  that the life she had been living was an absolute lie. But she had been successful in making herself let go of and forget all the bitterness in her life, and had forgiven almost everyone- except for the person responsible for everything. She was about to dwell deeper into the characteristics of that person and its analysis, when the toddler fell in her lap, making her aware of the reality once again.

As soon as he landed in her lap, the little guy became angry at himself for not being able to walk properly and probably hurting his Minnie. The kids from the orphanage used to call her Minnie, and this one used to cling to her most of the time. Everyone else had quickly caught on to the fact that it was extremely easy to tease him or make him jealous- all one had to do was to put Manya with someone else, right in front of him. Whenever anyone else came near her, he used to jump up from his place as if stricken by lightning, and rushed towards her with his shaky footsteps and tried to wrap her in his little arms.

Manya knew why the boy was so close to her, in his memories, she was someone near his mother's image. The poor fellow had lost his mother to cancer, and hadn't seen his father in his life. This had happened at the time when Manya didn't have any hair on her head either, and the innocent kid had simply replaced the image of his mother with her.

She looked at the grumpy kid, who was getting ready to hit his own legs with his own hands, asking her if she had gotten hurt due to him. She was awed by his cuteness and started tickling him, making him giggle. The very next moment, the boy had forgotten all about his anger and was laughing his lungs out. She stopped tickling the kid and wrapped his little hands around her neck; she knew that he was completely tired by now, and needed to sleep. She stood up slowly, to not disturb the sleepy haze that was enveloping him, careful to not make him excited again. She started rocking him to and fro in her arms slowly, and finally put his head on her shoulder after confirming that his drowsy eyes were about to shut.

She walked through the corridor and reached the room where the cradle for this little boy was placed, along with the other kids. She lowered him into the cradle and tucked him in carefully, and started checking on every kid, whose sleeping time was around the corner. But the ground slipped from underneath her feet when she noticed that two kids were not there, neither had she noticed them on her way back, or in the ground. All this time, she had been assuming that both of them must be sleeping peacefully in their bunk beds, as this was a day of leave for them, after a hectic week at school.

She rushed outside in search of them as well as the caretakers, but she was unable to find anyone in their destined places. Although she had gotten better, or rather, she had started to heal, she still got panic attacks triggered by the thought of going through something unusual and unpleasant. Her heart was beating like a drum, the blanket of fear was covering her like the fog capturing a pine forest in its arms- bit by bit, and then all at once. She didn't know what she could do at that particular moment, so she quickly pulled out her phone and dialed Arjun's number. But the call went unanswered, making her anxiety grow. She rushed into another direction, thinking that there probably was something that they might be busy with, or perhaps it was someone's birthday that had slipped her mind until the last moment.

The further she stepped in that direction, the more shocked she got by the sights she was encountering. The corridor beyond the central courtyard beckoned to her, immersed in a dim light. As she went closer, she realised that the entire passage had been decorated with fairy lights, flowers and balloons. The fairy lights lent an ethereal look to the hallway, and in the dim lighting, they seemed like distant stars beckoning for the passers-by to take a stroll and explore what lay beyond. The balloons called for a celebratory atmosphere, and the flowers greeted her in their full-bloomed beauty. There were bunches of roses- starting from white, and getting gradually darker in shade as they progressed. The bunches had been placed on glass figurines placed along the walls at regular intervals, bathing everything in their musky, refreshing scent.

The decoration had made her somewhat calm, but she was unable to dispel the unsettling sensation as she was still tensed about the kids. She hadn't gotten any clue about their whereabouts, and even if there had been an event she had forgotten about, why was there no sound of any celebration? The eerie calmness was quite unusual, and was enough to make her freak out on the inside.

She quickened her pace, but then suddenly two small figures came running towards her and wrapped their hands around her waist. She looked down in the glow of the fairy lights, to see that they were the very kids she was getting worried for. She quickly lowered herself to their level, kneeling down and asked them where they had been, and what this decoration was for. They didn't say anything to her, instead they both kissed each side of her cheek and handed her an envelope, gesturing for her to open it.

She opened it hastily, to find that there was a card inside. There were some directions written on it, but she was unable to identify the handwriting. Despite all the confusion, she decided to follow the directions and stood up, instructing the kids to stay close to her. She started moving down the hall, towards the direction mentioned as the children followed. 

As soon as she reached the place mentioned, she noticed that the stars were already out and the sun was off duty, causing everything to be covered in a layer of darkness. A smile appeared on her face when she noticed a person standing there, and skipped towards him. But she stopped mid-step and her smile disappeared just as quickly, when she realised that he did not resemble Arjun in any manner, making her heart palpitate with fear.

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A/N- Hello my lovelies! I hope you are all doing well! This is the third-last chapter in this story, as it draws near its end. But for now, what or who do you think awaits Manya at the end of this path? Today's bonus chapter will be up soon! And now I'll be off to work on that, I love you all! (✿ ♡‿♡)