• Eternal Night •

6

"Uhm, Shivaay?" Annika turned and looked at him sceptically. "Why are we at a trampoline park? Was this your surprise?"

"Yeah. Why? Don't you think that it will be a fun date?" he asked.

"Shi..." Annika flared up but stopped herself midway. She didn't want to yell at him. He had picked her up from the office and said that he was taking her out somewhere. It was perhaps the wrong day to do all that because she was worried. She knew that he had undergone an MRI in the morning. He knew he was sick. Why and how did he think that a high activity place like that would be a good place was beyond her. 

All she wanted to do was to go home and know what was up with him. She definitely didn't want to hang out at a park. "Can we please go home?"

Shivaay looked away. Despite being dog tired, he was trying to mend his relationship with Annika. But she wasn't helping. "Well, I thought that you will like this place."

"There is a time for everything, Shivaay!" Annika finally screeched. "I might have not gathered the courage to come for the MRI but I am worried about it. Instead of telling me what happened there, you want to do this? This can be harmful to you."

"I was not going to exert myself. I wanted you to have fun. Nothing else. And courage? What?" Shivaay scrunched his nose. "It was just a test!"

Huffing, Annika crossed her arms. "Leave it. You won't get it."

"Why won't I?" Shivaay argued. "At least try speaking to me. You always end up everything with silence. How am I supposed to know what's on your mind?"

"Shivaay..." Annika pinched the bridge of her nose. "Can we go home? Let's not fight in a parking lot. Please."

Gulping the annoyance he felt, Shivaay quietly put the car in gear and they headed home.

*************************

"Papa?" Tej knocked on the door.

"Hey!" Prithvi looked up and invited them in. "Come in. Shakti, close the door behind you please."

A little confused, Shakti closed the door and walked into his father's bedroom. Eyeing the multiple files lying on the small coffee table, Kalyani's grim faces, Shakti gave a questioning look to Pinky, Tej and Jhanvi. They just shrugged in response.

"Is everything okay?" Tej asked Prithvi and Kalyani. "You two look a little tensed."

Prithvi didn't answer for the longest time. After long, silent contemplation, he asked them to sit down on the chairs and bed. They all compiled. Then he rose and walked a little towards the window. "I don't know how to tell all this to you guys..."

They all cluelessly looked at each other. Pinky probed. "What is it Papa jee?"

Hearing her, Prithvi squeezed his eyes shut. She was not going to take this news kindly. But he had to tell them. With a heavy heart, he turned around. "So. I am not going to beat around the bush. I am going to straight away tell you what exactly happened, as it happened."

The looks of confusion on everyone's faces intensified and Prithvi looked at Kalyani. She blinked her eyes in silent support and he nodded.

With a deep breath, he said, "Around a month back, when Shivaay was at the office and doing a night shift; he fainted."

Everyone gasped. Pinky screeched, "What?"

"Wait beta," Prithvi said. "Let me complete. He was taken to Shetty and he noticed some abnormalities. He had suggested a few tests that Shivaay kept delaying until now. Four days ago, he accidentally told me and I took him for the tests."