SaiRat OS : I Love You Till Forever | Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin | GHKKPM | Neil Bhatt | Ayesha Singh
"Pardon me, madam, but visiting hours are over in 15 minutes. We ask that all visitors who are not immediate family leave promptly at 7:00 p.m."
Sai Joshi took a quick second to think about whether what she was about to say was wise, but realizing that there was nowhere else she would rather be at this moment, she smiled at the ward matron and said in a clear voice, "I am Inspector Chavan's wife, so I will be staying by his side through the night and until he regains consciousness. Would you be so kind as to get a blanket for me to use during the night? Thank you."
The ward matron was a bit baffled as she had been under the impression from the previous matron from whom she had received sign-out that Inspector Virat Sir Chavan of IPS officer did not have any immediate family in Pune, including a wife, and was not likely to have any visitors staying beyond 7:00 that evening. Even as she hesitated though, she noticed the Inspector's wife wore a gold wedding band on her left fourth finger and saw the woman turn to her husband, take his hand in her own and gaze at him lovingly and with great concern.
Well, she thought, perhaps I missed something during sign-out. Clearly this woman was his wife, and satisfied that this was indeed the case, she left Sai with Virat to go in search of a blanket for her and another dose of morphine for the patient.
Still holding his hand in hers and gently stroking the back of it with her other hand, Sai gave a deep sigh, a sigh filled with overwhelming concern for whether Virat Sir would recover from his gunshot wound but also tremendous guilt, since the only reason Virat Sir had been at the warehouse earlier that day was because of her.
She had not expected the informant she was meeting at the warehouse to pull a gun on her almost as soon as she had arrived, and she had no time to get her pocket knife out of her handbag, her bag falling to the ground with her failed attempt. She then had tried to reason with him, but that had done her little good. Instead, he had pointed the gun at her and was about to force her to leave with him, when Virat Sir had stormed into the warehouse with PC Shinde in tow.
"For God's sake, Sai, what the hell are you doing here?" He had quickly pulled his revolver from its holster and aimed it right at the gunman, all the while closing the distance between himself and Sai.
"Virat Sir , how did you find me?" Sai asked in an astonished voice.
"Really, Sai, this is not the time to be discussing how I was able to track you down. We can talk about those details later, but suffice it to say I have my sources who let me know you were in immediate need of my assistance and told me of your whereabouts."
To the gunman, he growled, "I'm a police detective at Nagpur City, and you will let her go - now." Virat Sir then cocked his revolver. He quickly looked over at Sai to see if she had been hurt, and satisfied that she had not in any obvious way been harmed, brought his eyes back to the gunman.
The gunman was seemingly unfazed by Virat Sir 's position. He had other plans for Sai. Grabbing her roughly and hauling her in front of him as a shield, he pointed the gun next to her head and cocked it, giving Virat Sir a malevolent look of triumph.
In a low, harsh voice she hardly recognized as his, Virat Sir commanded the gunman, "Let. Her. Go. Now! If you do not let her go, I am going to be very upset, and I can assure you that you do not want to see me upset. So...do we have an understanding?"
To Sai, Virat Sir said gently, "Sai, do not move. Please stand perfectly still. Do as I ask."
To his police constable, he instructed, "Shinde, go and get back up from the station. Do it now. Come back with reinforcements as quick as you can."
Clarence Shinde, who had been standing unarmed in the background, turned and ran out the door of the warehouse. They could hear his footsteps retreating, running through the gravel. Silence returned to the warehouse, the only sound the wind whistling through the doorway.
There was a standoff between Virat Sir and the gunman, broken finally by the man taunting Virat Sir , "You don't call the shots, here, Mr. Police Detective of Nagpur City. I do, and I think I will be taking this tart of yours with me as protection from the likes of you and your kind." He sneered at Virat Sir and started to push Sai forward, the gun still pointed at her temple.
Virat Sir knew that he could not get off a shot without possibly hitting Sai with his bullet or provoking the gunman to then fire his weapon on her. Those were not risks he was willing to take with her life. He uncocked his revolver and pointed it away from the gunman.
Virat Sir spoke in his low growl, made all the thicker by his sense of alarm at how quickly the situation had gotten out of hand with this lunatic. "No, you will not. You will let her go. If you're wanting to get out of here alive with a hostage, you will take me instead. Think of how much farther you could get with an inspector of Nagpur City as your hostage rather than this lady detective."
When the gunman did not respond, Virat Sir said, "Look, I am putting my gun down on the ground. I am stepping away from it with my hands up. Let her go, man. You will take me rather than her."
The gunman weighed his options. Was having a detective inspector of Nagpur City more valuable to his escape than some tart who had gotten herself into this mess? He started to think a trade would be beneficial.
"All right, Mr. Police Detective of Nagpur City, I will trade her for you, but you need to come over here and take her place. I am not sending her over to you, just for me to find out that you have duped me."
"Take the gun away from her head, and I will start walking toward you. You can keep the gun trained on me instead, " Virat Sir nearly hissed these words at the gunman.
He paused and then said, "Sai, when he takes the gun away from your head, I want you to move as far away from him as you can."
"But Virat Sir ..."
"Enough, Sai! I do know what I am doing. Please listen to me, and do as I have asked you."
Sai closed her mouth, and when the gunman turned his pistol on Virat Sir , she slowly moved away from him to the side. Virat Sir was drawing closer, approaching the gunman unarmed until he was almost within reach.
"Sai, get behind me and stay down."
Sai looked at Virat Sir and saw how dark and steely his eyes had become. He was holding his temper in, although she could see the struggle within him. She realized then that if she had not been the gunman's hostage, Virat Sir would already have apprehended and cuffed the gunman, or shot him if necessary, and the situation would have come to end. But he had put her safety before his own and now was trying to negotiate with this miscreant. She could tell that Virat Sir was weighing his options, as to whether to try to take the gunman down himself unarmed now that Sai was behind him or to just go with him as his hostage, as were the terms of the trade. He seemed to choose the latter option. The gunman reached out and pulled Virat Sir roughly toward him, putting the gun to Virat Sir 's temple.
In a strained voice, she heard Virat Sir tell her, "Sai, I want you to leave - now! Get out of this warehouse while you have the chance."
"Virat Sir , I am not leaving you", she replied, her voice rising.
"Sai, in case it may have escaped your notice, you are not in a position to argue with me right now. I am only here because of you, so you will do exactly what I ask of you." She started to protest again, making a whining sound that betrayed her frustration at being ordered to leave the warehouse.
"No...you will not say another word. Walk away - NOW!"
Sai saw the commanding look in Virat Sir 's deep brown eyes and knew he would brook no further argument from her. She began to back away slowly, keeping her eyes on the gunman and on Virat Sir . How could she help him? Was there a way to distract the gunman so Virat Sir might have a chance to get the upper hand and take him down?
As she backed away, she could hear running footsteps heading toward the door of the warehouse. The reinforcements were coming, but the gunman still had his pistol at Virat Sir 's temple.
When they burst through the door into the warehouse, Virat Sir instructed his men to get Sai out of the warehouse safely and to do it quickly. She had never seen him be so brave and in complete charge of his men despite being under duress. When this ordeal was through, she promised herself that she would tell Virat Sir he was the bravest man she knew - not 'one of' them.
She felt herself being pulled out of the warehouse by his officers, her eyes never leaving Virat Sir 's until she was outside of the building. She heard a scuffle ensue inside the warehouse, followed by 2 shots and then silence. After a beat, she heard someone yell, "He's been shot. Virat is down. Quickly, he's bleeding. Shinde, get over to him and put pressure on the wound. Kadam, get the ambulance carriage to come as soon as possible. Come on, come on, come on. We've no time to lose here."
Sai heard these words being barked by Virat Sir's DIG, . Virat?...wasn't that...Virat Sir ? Sai was horrified.
She ran back into the warehouse, nudging her way past the police officers to see what had happened. On the floor of the warehouse, the gunman lay dead and a few feet away, lay Virat Sir , unconscious and still, blood oozing from the right side of his chest, making an ever-expanding burgundy rosette on his overcoat and suit. PC Shinde was just kneeling beside him to begin first aid measures as instructed. She pushed one of the other police constables out of the way and kneeling down at Virat Sir 's side, she took over from Shinde, applying pressure to the wound in his chest.
"Why is he unconscious?" she demanded, to which PC Shinde replied that after he had been shot in the chest, Virat Sir had fallen backward, struck his head on the warehouse floor and lost consciousness.
She continued to apply pressure to his wound, her hands getting bloodier by the minute. Sai was becoming increasingly alarmed that Virat Sir 's injuries were becoming more and more critical as they waited for the ambulance to come, and she began speaking to him in a quiet, steady voice.
"You will not die on me. I forbid it, Virat Sir . I cannot lose you. You mean too much to me for this to be the end for you. You will not leave me. You and I have so much more to do together. Just hold on. Help is on the way." As she kept repeating these words to Virat Sir 's still form, almost like a mantra that she needed to chant, she realized that she was crying, her tears silently rolling down her cheeks and dropping like tiny shards of glass onto his waistcoat. She tried not to let go of hope but found herself struggling to hold on to it. She felt a firm pair of hands pull her up from where she knelt next to Virat Sir and move her aside so that he could be lifted onto the stretcher.
As they moved him quickly out of the warehouse, Sai stayed at Virat Sir 's side. They reached the ambulance carriage, and the driver initially insisted that Sai could not accompany Virat Sir to the hospital, but she refused to take no for an answer. She would not leave him, she argued with the driver and soon found herself squeezed into the back of the carriage with Virat Sir and the medic who was tending to his chest and head wounds. She held Virat Sir 's hand tightly, bringing it up to her lips and kissing it gently. She then rubbed her cheek against the back of his hand, all the while murmuring her mantra of "Virat Sir , you will not die on me. I forbid it. I cannot lose you" again and again. At one point, she leaned close to his ear and whispered softly, " You will not leave me again, Virat Sir . It broke my heart when we were teenagers, and you will not do it again. I care too much for you to lose you now. Just hold on - for me, for us. Please." She kissed the side of his face gently near his ear.
She straightened herself then, but continued to hold his hand in hers until they reached the hospital. The hospital staff unloaded Virat Sir 's inert form from the ambulance and carried him on the stretcher through the hospital doors. Sai, still at Virat Sir 's side, leaned down and kissed him gently on the lips. "Come back to me, Virat Sir ," she whispered, uncertain as to whether she would ever see him alive again.
They took him almost immediately into surgery, leaving Sai to pace the hallway and waiting area in anguish, as she waited to hear what Virat Sir 's condition was. While she waited, she looked down at her hands that were still covered in his blood from when she had been applying pressure to his chest wound. She sought out a wash basin where she could clean her hands, and while rinsing the blood from her fingers, she removed her mother's wedding ring from her right fourth finger. She held it up in the light and remembering when she had pretended to be Mrs. Alice Morgan of Richmond, whose husband was a solicitor from Edinburgh, she placed it on her left fourth finger. She might need to be Mrs. Sai Chavan of London, whose husband was a policeman originally from Glasgow, in order to remain close to Virat Sir . The ring felt odd being on her left hand, like it now had more meaning than when she had tried to infiltrate the women's suffrage society. She finished cleaning her hands, dried them and then returned to the waiting area to await the outcome of Virat Sir 's surgery.
Eventually, she was given news from the surgeon, who had assumed Sai was Virat Sir 's wife, that his surgery had been successful. The bullet had been removed, and no major arteries had been hit by it. The surgeon was optimistic that Virat Sir would likely make a full recovery, although he had also sustained a concussion from his fall that would add time to his recovery. Virat Sir remained unconscious. The surgeon finished by telling Sai that Virat Sir was now being brought to the ward, and she could join him there shortly.
She felt tremendous relief that Virat Sir had survived surgery and had what seemed like a good prognosis for recovery, but she also was angry with herself for putting Virat Sir in that position in the first place, since she had gone to the warehouse without a gun for protection or Moses as her backup. She would never again be so careless, she silently promised Virat Sir and herself.
When she arrived at Virat Sir 's bedside, Sai noticed how pale and still he was, his eyes closed. It was as if his life force had been suspended from his body with the closure of those brown eyes that she loved, even if she had been unwilling to admit to Virat Sir how much he meant to her prior to that day. His head was bandaged, but she could not see any blood seeping through the dressing. He was bare-chested, with a large bandage covering his right upper chest wall near his collarbone.
The ward matron had made small talk with Sai, while she fixed Virat Sir 's covers and checked his vital signs. She seemed satisfied that Virat Sir was stable after his surgery and proceeded to give him a dose of morphine to cover his post-operative pain. After completing her assessment and nursing tasks, she had left Sai alone with Virat .
As Virat lay still in his hospital bed, with Sai at his side, holding his hand, hours had passed until the time had come for visitors to leave. Sai knew that she could not leave Virat Sir , even if it meant telling the hospital staff on the ward that they were married - which she had just done.
"Virat Sir , you do realize that I needed to tell the matron something in order to be able to stay with you. I am not leaving you until I know that you are conscious and safely on your way to recovery. I will not budge on this."
She half-expected him to answer her in his irritated rasp, "For God's sake, Sai, you are not my bloody wife, and you cannot keep trotting out that little lie every time it suits you and your purposes." In fact, she would have welcomed his arguing with her for then she would know that he was coming back to himself. But Virat Sir did not answer her.
She sat down in the chair beside his bed, never taking her hand away from his. With her other hand, she gently swept the dark curls from his bandaged forehead and then tenderly stroked his cheek, running her fingers through his stubble. She had never before touched his stubble other than the kiss she had given his cheek in the ambulance, and it surprised her to find that it was both softer and rougher than she had imagined, making her fingers tingle as she moved them slowly along his jawline. She put her head down on the bed, next to his body, feeling its warmth and holding his hand against her cheek.
The matron returned with Virat 's next morphine dose and the blanket for Sai. She then set up the partition at the end of Virat's bed to afford them some privacy. Sai thanked her, removed her jacket and then curled up in the chair beside his bed, pulling the blanket over her. As exhausted as she was by the day's events, however, she could not sleep, her thoughts fixed firmly on Virat Sir .
Later, when the ward was quiet, Sai felt herself slowly drifting off. She was still curled up in the chair, holding Virat's hand tightly in her own, when she heard mumbling coming from his bed. His voice was so quiet and weak that it made her heart ache. He was not fully conscious, but he seemed to be trying to wake.
"Sai... Sai?...Mo chridhe?" He started to move his head from side to side against the pillow, and he seemed agitated.
Pushing back the blanket and momentarily letting go of his hand, Sai climbed out of the chair and stood at his bedside, taking his hand in hers again. She tried to quiet him, gently stroking his cheek.
"I am right here, Virat Sir , and I am not going anywhere. I will not leave your side." Her words seemed to calm him for a moment, but then his head began moving again on the pillow, his agitation returning.
She spoke softly to him again, "Virat Sir , you've had a concussion. Please try to keep your head still."
When her words had no effect, she did the only thing she could think of to soothe Virat Sir . She slid onto his bed beside him, placing her head next to his on the pillow and her hand on his chest, over his heart. Almost as soon as her hand touched his chest, his agitation settled, his head no longer tossing side to side. She tucked her face into the side of his neck, and she could smell the faintest hint of the scent of his shaving soap. It was the same scent she had smelled when he had kissed her all those years ago, when he had held her in his arms and comforted her after Skip, her Jack Russell terrier had been killed in the street by a passing carriage. Sai felt she was having a deja vu moment, except, if she was being honest, she had enjoyed that moment with him 10 years ago when they had kissed in the back garden of her home.
She was now able to admit to herself that she had wanted Virat Sir to kiss her when they were teenagers and didn't want him to stop. She had felt safe and loved in his arms until he had broken their kiss. As he stepped back from her, she had felt rejected by him, Sai becoming indignant and slapping his face, as she told him that he had taken advantage of her grief. She had tried to make it seem to Virat Sir that she was offended by his kissing her, but really what she had felt, when he pulled away from her, telling her that he couldn't go on because of the trust her father had placed in him, was humiliation and hurt. That kiss and what happened afterward had forever changed her relationship with Virat Sir . He no longer came to the Joshi house routinely to see her father for his preparation and training to join the police force, although Kamal had remained his mentor. Virat Sir no longer came to see her, which had devastated her.
She missed their closeness and the ease of their friendship. They had been bonded together by both being motherless and by the knowledge that they were outsiders in their own lives. The understanding that each had of the other's struggles to be accepted for who they were on their own merit, rather than on what society's rules dictated, had made them fast friends. In fact, Virat Sir had been her closest friend when they were teenagers. Undoubtedly, there were days when they were exasperated with each other, both being stubborn and headstrong, but they had always been able to work through their differences, and all was well again between them with an apology and a smile. The fallout from their kiss had abruptly changed how they interacted with one another, and Sai felt a crushing emptiness in her heart, in the space where Virat Sir had always been.
Over the next 5 years, Virat and Sai had very little contact and of course, were civil when they did see each other, for Kamal Joshi's sake, but gone was their friendship that had been so important to both of them. Although she missed him terribly, they were not able to make amends with each other. Then she began to hear about his "conquests", Virat Sir establishing a reputation for himself as quite the ladies' man. These rumors had made her heart twist in her chest, and in her mind, Virat Sir had already moved on from their relationship. He had not really cared for her then, Sai told herself, as she had hoped when he kissed her.
As she lay next to Virat now, her hand on his chest, her fingertips sensing the steady beating of his heart, she knew that she had always been in love with Virat Sir , even when they were apart. Just because she had thrown her feelings for him down the well and pulled the bucket up did not mean that those feelings no longer existed. They remained at the bottom of the well, alive and swirling, hoping and patiently waiting to be pulled back up one day.
Virat had tried to protect her from the gunman and been shot in the melee that ensued, and Sai knew that she owed Virat Sir the truth about her feelings for him, which she had kept safely guarded in her heart for over 6 years. Sai thought about her father and how she had never had the opportunity to tell him how important he was to her and how much she loved him prior to his sudden death. She resolved that she would not make the same mistake with Virat Sir . She would be honest with him about her love for him.
Her voice was quiet and tremulous, as she spoke into the darkness, "Virat Sir , I am not sure whether you can hear me, but there are things that I need to say to you. Thank you for saving my life today. You are the bravest man I know. I apologize for putting you in danger at the warehouse. If it had not been for me, you never would have been there and would not have been shot. I cannot tell you how sorry I am for what's happened to you because of me. Please forgive me."
She paused, not certain she could go on further, as if telling him things that she had held in her heart for such a long time would reopen that deep wound. But as she listened to his quiet, steady breathing and felt his stubble next to her face, his heart beating beneath her fingers, she knew she must not lose her resolve.
"Virat Sir , there are things that I wish I would have told you a long time ago, but I did not because I was not sure they would matter to you and also because I was frightened. I still am frightened, but your bravery today made me see that I must be brave with you as well. So..." Sai took a deep breath in and held it briefly before slowly letting it back out. She could do this; she had to say these words to him. "Virat Sir , I have been in love with you since I was 18 years old, maybe even before then. I wanted you to hold and comfort me that day Skip was killed, and if I am honest with you and myself, I wanted to be kissed by you and to kiss you in return. I am sorry for slapping your face and for what I said to you after we kissed. I was wrong to hurt you in that way. When you pulled away from our kiss that day, I thought you did not love me as I loved you, that you were rejecting me, and my heart could not bear it. So I lashed out at you instead.
In the days that followed our falling out, I had hoped to see you again at the house to apologize for my rudeness to you. When you did not come, I wrote a letter to you, in which I told you how much I loved you and missed our friendship, but I did not have the courage to send it to you. I've kept that letter for over 10 years, folded between the pages of one of my notebooks..." her voice faltered, drifting off into silence. She felt tears prick her eyes, then slip slowly down her cheeks onto his shoulder.
After taking a moment to compose herself, she spoke again, "Virat Sir , I loved you then as a girl of 18, and I love you now as a woman. I think I always will love you. There has never been nor will there ever be another man for me. It has always been you, Virat Sir , in my heart. Your heart is the other half of mine. I cannot lose you. Please come back to me."
Her voice trailed off into the darkness. She had told him she loved him and wanted only him. She felt the weight of holding her love for Virat Sir deep in her heart for so many years finally lift. As she listened to his quiet breathing, her mind calmer with her admission, Sai felt the dark cloak of night enfold her. She drifted off to sleep, her hand still resting protectively over his heart, closer to Virat Sir than she had been in a very long time.
In his mind's eye, Virat was struggling with what was happening to him. He felt as if he was floating under the sea, suspended in the depths, waiting for a time when he could resurface. He didn't feel as if he was drowning, as there was no fight in him, and even though he wanted to move, he could not push his way back up to the surface. He thought he could see shafts of sunlight filtering through the waters above, but he could not see Sai. He could hear her voice and could feel her next to him, but he could not move.
He had begun feeling this weight of an overlying sea above him soon after he had been shot. He sensed Sai kneeling beside him on the warehouse floor and had felt her tears fall on him while she applied pressure to his chest wound. He had wanted to comfort her, but he could not get back to her. He heard her speak to him in the warehouse before the ambulance carriage had arrived and again on the way to the hospital, telling him repeatedly that she could not lose him and that what had happened between them when they were young and immature had broken her heart. He heard Sai tell him that she cared deeply for him and to hold on for her and for a future together. He felt her kiss his cheek in the ambulance. He heard her ask him to come back to her when she kissed his lips before heading into surgery. And she was here now, lying so very close to him, pretending to be Mrs. Virat Chavan, apologizing for what had happened between them when they had kissed as teenagers and finally admitting to him that she had been in love with him, just as he had been in love with her all those years ago.
How had they both gotten it so wrong with each other? It was the one time in all the days of their friendship, when the stakes had been so high for both of them, that they had not been able to come together to work through their misunderstanding and mend their rift, as they had always done before.
What he knew now though, after listening to Sai reveal what was in her heart, was that they had both felt rejected by the other all those years ago. They had assumed that the other did not love them in return and had been too wounded... or was it really that they had been too afraid of being hurt even more?...to come back together, although now he understood that they both had wanted that very same thing. How ironic that the two of them were so fearless when it came to all other aspects of their lives but were so vulnerable and unsure of themselves when it came to the other. He knew that they could not get back the time they had lost together, but he was alive, and Sai was beside him. She had not left him, and even more important, she loved him still.
He wanted to be able to hold her in his arms and assure her that everything would be all right, but he could not, not yet at least. But he could feel her fingers on his chest, just over his heart and her breath on his neck, her face close to his. He could hear her breathing fall quiet and steady and knew she had fallen asleep, curled up next to him.
He would find his way back to her. When he was able, he would swim back to the surface, find Sai and never again let her go. Content with that thought, and knowing now that they loved each other, Virat Sir drifted into a dreamless sleep, with the woman he loved at his side.
Sunlight filtered in through the window adjacent to Virat Sir 's bed. Morning had come, and Virat Sir had started to feel as if he could rise to the surface of the sea in which he had been suspended, no longer weighted down under fathoms of darkness. Slowly, his eyes started to flutter open, the brightness of daylight a shock to him after being in the depths for what seemed an eternity. Gradually, his eyes acclimated to the light in the room, and slowly he took in his surroundings. Next to him in the bed, nestled close to him was the warm body of the woman he had loved ever since he knew love. Sai was still asleep, her hand still resting on his chest, and Virat noticed that her mother's wedding band had been moved to Sai's left ring finger, the gold glinting in the morning light. Her golden hair was slightly in disarray but appeared like newly spun gold, and her face was radiant in the sunlight. She had never been more beautiful to him.
He watched her sleeping while he felt sensation slowly return to his body. He began moving his fingers, although his arms still felt leaden, and the wound in his chest ached. The ward matron had come in to check his dressings, but he shook his head when she made to wake Sai. She had sighed and seemed slightly annoyed but only asked whether he needed additional pain medication, to which he again shook his head. Perhaps once Sai was awake, the matron could return, his eyes seemed to ask her. She nodded her head silently and told Virat Sir that she would return in 30 minutes. The pointed look she gave him seemed to warn him to behave and not to try to get up and out of bed. No worries there, he thought.
After she had left and pulled the privacy partition closed again around his bed, Virat Sir returned to gazing at Sai. He was able to turn his head and kiss her gently on her forehead.
With his kiss, Sai began to stir, her eyelashes flickering, then her eyes slowly opening, squinting in the bright morning light. She looked a bit disoriented as if wondering how it was that she was still lying next to him in his hospital bed.
His voice back, he teased her gently, "Good morning, Mrs. Chavan. How did you sleep?"
"Virat Sir , you're awake! How long have you been awake, and why did you not wake me?" She looked up at him, clearly elated to see his brown eyes open and gazing back at her. She reached up with her hand and touched his face gently, their eyes never leaving one another's. He smiled at her, and Sai had the distinct impression that Virat Sir was privy to some new information that he was savoring but keeping from her, at least for now. Had he been able to hear her words last night, and did he know what was in her heart?
She let these questions go unspoken and instead asked him, "How are you feeling this morning? How is your head? Does your chest hurt a great deal?"
"I still feel a bit weak, but every moment I am awake, things around me seem to be getting clearer, sharper. The back of my head hurts so bloody bad and my chest too, but I didn't want to wake you when the matron came by. She will return soon though. I can wait till then."
"Virat Sir ...?"
"Sai...?" They said each other's name simultaneously, then stopped and smiled at each other. Sai quietly laughed and said "snap!" to him, as they had done when they were teenagers, whenever they had started talking at the same exact moment.
"Sai, do not make me laugh. It hurts my chest too much. But please, go on. Ladies first," he cajoled.
Gathering herself, she said, "Virat Sir , I am very sorry for what happened to you yesterday and for placing you in harm's way. It was unwise of me not to be better prepared or have backup close at hand when I went to the warehouse. I hope you will forgive me."
"Thank you for your apology, Sai, and I do forgive you. But isn't there something else you would like to tell me, Mrs. Chavan?" he teased.
She followed his gaze down to her left hand still resting on his chest. She smiled shyly before answering him, "Oh...are you asking why I moved my mother's wedding ring to my left hand? It's because I needed to be convincing as your wife. Otherwise, they would have made me leave your bedside last evening when visiting hours were over. I was determined not to leave you, Virat Sir ."
"Yes, I know, and I appreciate your staying with me through the night. I could feel you and hear you, even though I was unconscious and could not see you. I would be remiss in not telling you now that I like seeing a wedding band on your left ring finger, Mrs. Chavan, even if it is your mother's and you've just been pretending to be my wife. Perhaps I will have to remedy that?"
She eyed him somewhat suspiciously before replying,"Virat Sir, were you able to hear everything I said to you yesterday after you were shot?"
"Yes, Sai." He paused, looking into her upturned face, and smiled at her. "I heard what you were whispering to me in the warehouse, when I was lying on the floor, in the ambulance when you kissed my cheek, and last night, when you slipped into bed with me. I know that you love me.
He could see the panic appear in her eyes, could see her debating whether to slide her armor back into place to protect herself. He wrapped his left arm around her shoulder and hugged her to him. "Sai, you do not need to be frightened because I love you too. I have loved you ever since we were teenagers and always will love you. I don't want you to be a pretend Mrs. Chavan. I would like for you to be the real Mrs. Chavan and become my family. In my mind, we have been apart too long. I want to be with you, Sai, and spend the rest of my life with you. Please, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
Sai felt her panic gradually subside, soothed by being held so close to Virat Sir 's heart. She gazed into his clear brown eyes before replying, "I do love you, Virat Sir . I have always loved you, and even when we are an old married couple, I will still love you."
She paused, then spoke slowly, her face showing both deep concern and love for him. "When you were lying on the warehouse floor, unconscious and bleeding, the thought of losing you, of possibly never seeing you alive again was more than I could bear. All I wanted was for you to be alive and well, and close to me. I realized it was more important for me to be able to share my life with you, with some of the changes that might require, than for me to remain independent and completely alone, without you. Once I accepted how much I wanted to be by your side and never be apart from you again, I did not mind telling others that I was your wife because it bound me to you in a very deep way. We are better together than we are apart, I think, and whatever struggles we may have, I promise to face them together with you. When I am with you, Virat Sir , I feel as if I am complete. I imagine that is what my parents felt for one another while they were married. So, yes, Virat Sir , I will marry you."
Virat Sir gazed ardently into her lovely blue eyes; he was left without words for several moments after all she had shared with him. He could not believe his good fortune that Sai Joshi loved him and had agreed to marry him.
As she looked down at her mother's wedding band on her left hand, her face next to his, she said, "I do like the sound of Mrs. Sai Chavan. It has a nice ring to it. First though, we must get you better. I shall enjoy being your nursemaid during your recovery."
Virat Sir raised his eyebrows at her comment, with a look of surprise in his eyes."Can you handle that? It is a domestic task, which we know is not your forte."
"Virat Sir !" she cried with mock indignation, but she knew he was just teasing her. "There is something else. Last night, when you were restless, you uttered the words 'mo chridhe'. What does it mean?"
Virat Sir stroked her cheek gently with his thumb and replied, "It means 'my heart' in Gaelic. As in, you are my heart. As in, you have always had my heart, Sai, and you always will." He paused for a moment, letting his words sink in and take hold of her completely.
"Now, My heart," Virat Sir spoke to her tenderly, "would you please just kiss me? I have been waiting a very long time to feel your lips against mine again, and I would prefer not to wait even a full minute longer."
"Of course, Virat Sir , of course." She gave him a beaming smile, slowly stroked his stubble with her fingertips, then brought her lips up to his, kissing him at first gently and then with greater urgency,
as he returned her kiss. Kissing Virat Sir felt familiar, as if her lips instantly remembered what his lips felt like against her own, how they moved and tasted, but it was also different. Their kiss this time was deeper and more sensual, driven by 5 years of longing between them and the sure knowledge that they loved each other. She loved him now more than anyone else in this world, and he loved her completely in return. They would finally be together; they'd been given a second shot at love with each other, and their hearts were filled with utter joy.
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