The Distance Between Us

Track Sixty Two - Main Yahaan Hoon

Track 62 - Main Yahaan Hoon, Udit Narayan

Rahul sighed as he bit into his toast. Things were not fine. It had been a couple of days since they'd arrived in Mumbai, and while Armaan had been extremely happy at first, something had changed. He hadn't come home last night, only arriving in the wee hours of morning and promptly shutting himself up in his bedroom, not talking to anyone. Nikki had been just as clueless as he was about why he was behaving the way he was.

Rahul's last interaction with Armaan had been at breakfast the previous day when he'd told his best friend that he'd been taking Muskaan out on a date. They hadn't spoken since. Nikki hadn't spoken to him since then either. She hadn't been able to go to work the day before, and neither had Abhi, because Abhi's parents and his aunt & uncle had unexpectedly shown up at his place. A quick call to Atul had confirmed that both him and Anjali had stayed home the day before too because Anjali wasn't feeling well, and that Riddhima had had plans to spend the day with Navneeta. So, none of them had spoken to Armaan for a few hours, and in those few hours, something had happened. And he hadn't the slightest clue as to what.

"Did Armaan open the door?" Nikki asked him, taking a seat beside Abhi.

"Not yet," Rahul murmured, defeated.

"But... Inn pichle kuch ghanton mein aisa kya hua?" Abhi wondered out loud.

"He lost a patient," Sid piped in quietly. He had been to the hospital the day before, and it had spread like wildfire... The news that both him and Dr. Sonawane combined hadn't been able to save a patient... A policewoman at that.

"What?" Rahul asked, shocked. "What did you just say?"

"He lost a patient yesterday," Sid repeated.

"What? How? When?" Rahul probed. "Tell me everything."

"He assisted Dr. Sonawane in an emergency yesterday. It was... It was a policewoman. I don't know the exact details but she was shot," Sid explained. "I think it was in the spine. But I'm not too sure. Dr. Sonawane asked him to scrub up, and he did... But apparently he froze when he saw the patient? It took him sometime to get his bearings... And in the end, they weren't able to save her."

"Why didn't you tell me??!" Nikki screeched. "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!! OH MY GOD!!!"

"Nikki... Relax! It's going to be okay!" Abhi tried to calm his wife down. Nikki had stood up from her chair and was pacing.

"How can I calm down? Oh my god. I can't... Oh my god!" Nikki exclaimed, her breathing getting heavy.

"Rahul! Are you okay?" Abhi asked him next when he saw Rahul sitting there unresponsive. "RAHUL!" Abhi shouted when Rahul didn't answer. That seemed to pull Rahul out of his stupor.

"Riddhima!" Rahul exclaimed. "Oh my god. Did anyone call Riddhima?"

The trio looked at each other and Rahul immediately reached into his pocket, fumbling to get his phone. With shaky hands, he dialled Riddhima's number. "You need to come to Nikki's house. Right now. It's Armaan," he told her in greeting. In the next breath, he hung up.

"What did she say?" Nikki asked.

"She's on her way," Rahul replied. "Don't worry. She'll handle it."

"I can't... When will that night leave us, Rahul?" She whispered, broken.

Rahul huffed a breath through his nose and pulled her out of Abhi's arms into his own. "Never, I suppose," he murmured. "But we have each other, right?"

Nikki nodded against his chest. Rahul smiled. "Don't stress. Tum dekhna... He'll see Riddhima and everything will be fine."

"Hopefully," Nikki mumbled. "Hopefully it will."