Together Forever

Apologies and secrets

Vasudha rushed to answer as the doorbell rang through the house.

"God, when will you send me a daughter-in-law to help with all this work?"

As she saw Saanvi and Sannidhi outside the door, she looked at the sky and thought "Thank you God. This is the fastest response I got from you."

Vasudha's happiness knew no bounds, as she let them in. Dhruv who came out hearing their voices, looked jubilant.

"Good that you messaged me, Sannidhi. Finding this house can be difficult, without the location."

Vasudha gave a mischievous smile "Oh, so you already exchanged phone numbers? That's very fast."

Dhruv led Saanvi to Vikram's room. "Sannidhi told me that you wanted to apologize to Vikram for that day. I will let you speak to him alone. I will show Sannidhi around the house meanwhile."

Standing outside Vikram's room, Saanvi took a long breath. It had haunted her that she had not only misjudged Vikram, but also been extremely rude to him. Now summoning all her courage, she knocked on the door to hear a familiar gruff voice say "Come in."

Saanvi walked in, to find him facing the window, with his back towards her. She began in an earnest voice "Hey Hi, it's me, Saanvi. We met in the café the other day. I just wanted to say that I am sorry. I didn't kn.."

He stopped her "You had no way of knowing. It's fine. I am sorry about your offer letter."

"That's okay. The company is sending me another offer letter. I was just too emotionally high strung, so overreacted over a small issue."

Vikram just nodded as he turned towards her. That was the first time she was seeing him without his dark glasses. His dark brown eyes looked beyond her. His sharp features and physique made it look as though he had just stepped out a magazine cover.

Even as Saanvi looked around his room, to find it filled with loads of books, posters of Subhash Chandra Bose and Abdul Kalam, Vikram broke the silence as he hesitantly asked "Listen, I am not sure if you are the right person, but we need someone with IT skills for an important mission. Secrecy is very important, as it is a matter of National Security."

"I am not one of those movie techs who can break into NSA, etc. But I can probably help in whatever little way I can."

Vikram seemed relieved as he explained to her of what was required.

"Saanvi, we need to hack into the network of the hospital where we first met."

"You mean Eastern Point Hospital? Why?"

"I can't explain the reason why. I need access to their patient files. If you don't trust my intentions, you can talk to my superior. We need that data for sake of the greater good."

"Vikram, it is not the matter of trust. I am just curious why you are not taking help of some experienced Technician in the army?"

"There is a huge conspiracy going on, and right now, apart from my boss and Dhruv, I can't afford to trust anyone else."

"How come you trust me then?"

"My instincts tells me that I can."

Saanvi reluctantly agreed, as Vikram handed her his laptop.

As Saanvi got busy working at his laptop, Vikram's long fingers drummed on the table, impatience beginning to show on his face.

"Is it possible or not?" he asked for nth time.

Saanvi answered without even looking at him, "Listen, this is my first time hacking into a secure network. It will take time."

Meanwhile Dhruv was busy in the garden, showing Sannidhi around. Even Vasudha came down with coffee for them, she was not surprised to see Dhruv, trying to explain the names of plants.

"This is called the camphor plant. Very good for health, actually." Dhruv was explaining with a lot of enthusiasm.

Vasudha interrupted "Hello! That's not the camphor plant." Handing the coffee to Sannidhi, she explained "It's called Indian Borage, good for relieving cold, etc."

She then whispered to Dhruv, "Just to impress a girl, you are spouting whatever nonsense you get in your head, is it?"

She turned to Sannidhi, "Sannidhi, can you do me a favour? Can you go with Dhruv to the market and get me some groceries? If I send this guy alone, he will get coriander seeds instead of coriander leaves. And then tell me grow those seeds till they sprout leaves. This entire house is filled with such duffers only. Can't do anything properly."

Sannidhi chuckled as Dhruv smiled sheepishly. As Dhruv and she got into the car, a voice rang out "Hey, wait for me." Virat jumped in front of the car, spreading his hands out, posing like a hero in a flower field. His eyes were fixated on Sannidhi. As Dhruv's eyes narrowed as he contemplated whether he should just run over him, Virat jumped into the back, gushing about how happy he was to see Sannidhi. Even though Sannidhi politely answered Virat's barrage of questions, her eyes kept moving back to Dhruv. Even in the supermarket, their eyes would meet over the stands, to set the hearts fluttering.

Back home, Vasudha put them to the task of chopping the vegetables. But not before she marched Virat off to his room, threatening him with dire consequences if he stepped out without completing his college assignments. The matchmaker in her had the first target set on Dhruv-Sannidhi.

"This is an easy task, getting the other two together is going to be the challenge of my life." She muttered to herself as she started cooking.

The challenge was not getting any easier with Vikram paced up and down the room. Engulfed in darkness, every second seemed like a missed opportunity for him. Sannidhi had worked relentlessly to conjure up a script to hack into the hospital network.

She explained as she finished "Okay, I have sent some phishing email to the hospital staff. If they click on that link, then it will execute my script, using which we can access their files. But we need to wait till one of them click on the link."

As she got up from the chair, Vikram who was pacing around, collided with her. She put out her hand to stop him from falling on her. As her hand rested on his chest, it felt like a wall was beneath her fingers. His body strong, and solid, while his heartbeat ticking perfectly like clockwork. She was so close that she could even see his stubble. She let out a deep breath as she stepped away from him.

Dhruv appeared in the doorway to save them from awkward silence.

"Hey, Lunch is ready."

Narayan joined them for lunch, happy to see his wife glowing like the moon. Looking at Saanvi and Sannidhi, he guessed the reason accurately.

He gently asked "So what do your parents do, Saanvi?"

"My Dad works in a bank, Uncle. My mom passed away when we were young."

"Oh gosh. Am sorry to hear that ma. It must be difficult for you."

Sannidhi answered "It was. But my elder sister took on the role of a mother for my sake. That's why I call her as Saanvima. She never let me miss my mom."

As Sannidhi showed their family picture with their dad and mom to Narayan and Vasudha, Narayan gasped. It brought back memories of his worst nightmare. The secret that he had hidden in the deepest recess of his heart, was staring at him right in the face.