TO THE STARS THAT LISTEN

CHAPTER 9: The Unexpected Second Meet

Ahaan

"Sir I'm not allow-" the nurse stops and looks behind me,"her doctor is here. You can talk to her." she points out to where she was seeing and the familiar figure  to meet my gaze.

Ira? She treated my sister-in-law?

"Ahaan?" , she says utterly shocked looking at me,"What are you doing here?" I move towards her while she takes a step in my direction.

"Ira?...I...I...um my family is here. My mom is in the next room and my sister-in-law is in this one and I just wanted to see her." her eyebrows shoot up.

OH. MY. GOD. Wait. She didn't know whom she was treating? 

Damn this patient privacy policy.

"Dr. Mehta, he was insisting to meet the patient but Dr. Ahuja strictly instructed to not allow anyone in her room other than the doctors. I am sorry I didn't know what to do." The nurse says from behind me.

"It's ok, Dr. Mehta will handle this situation you may get back to your place Somya." That was the nudger from the plane. "I will leave you two alone." and he leaves saying that.

As per what I know, the big hospitals have a floor for their VIP patients but The City Hospital was big enough to have an entire wing reserved for VIP patients. It consisted of three operating rooms on the  second floor along with a medical dispensary, five ICUs along with a heavily stocked medical dispensary on the third floor, one NICU,  X-ray and MRI machines on the fourth floor  and five suits along with a lounge and a small cafetaria for the patient's family on the first floor. This wing is also used when there is an overflow of patients or some emergency. All this was told to us by a nurse, while Dad was having his hand bandaged. Vihaan bhai and dad were sitting in the front seats that's why when their car skidded on the road due to heavy downpour, the airbags shot open. While mumma and bhabhi did have their seatbelts on, the impact of the crash was so high that mom had a displaced hip and bhabhi, due to her condition,  went into labor. I was in mid-air on my way to Surat when this hapened, so the airlines informed me about the accident and that the other car of Dad's chauffers which was following them, had taken them to city hospital immediately.

I wasn't told much except for the fact that mumma and bhabhi were admitted. The news itself was a bummer so I took the very next flight back to Mumbai which was not for the next four hours. In that time I contacted everyone I knew. Dad told that Mumma and Bhabhi were under surgery while both of them were all right. I know they weren't but I didn't really have much power. I also called chachu and asked him to reach there with chachi.Dad or bhai weren't really in the right head space to tell anyone. By the time I reached there Mumma's surgery was almost done, bhabhi had given birth to a beautiful boy while she was till being tended to. They didn't allow us all to see the baby so only bhai went and he deserved to see his child. No one imagined this beautiful baby to be born under these conditions. When bhabhi's surgery was done mom was already out of the OR and in the ICU. I had already asked chachu and chachi to leave with bhai and dad but bhai didn't listen to me. He wanted to be near bhabhi if not with her. So both of us sat with mumma holding each of her hands. Before dad left there was a nurse to infom us about some doctor waiting. One of the other doctors said something about her playing a major role in bhabhi's surgey but I was too disturbed to pay attention so just dad and bhai went out to thank her.

I had no idea she was THE doctor! Never in my entire life had I thought of  meeting my potential partner under such circumstances. First on the flight she sat with my cousin and now she was my siister-in-law's doctor? What was God doing? We stood there dumbounded staring into each other's eyes, both still registering all what was happening. I break the silence first "Dr.Ira?"

"Yeah...yeah. I'm sorry. This...I didn't know this was your family. We were not told their names due to patient confidentiality. I'm so sorry about what happened but your sister-in-law is doing all better now." she syas, still understanding the whole situation with us.

"Can I see her?" I don't need to mention bhabhi's name. She knows it. She could understand me. I can see it in her eyes, she does.

"I can't wake her up but I can let you inside. You just need to wear a mask and sanitise your hands. She had a sugery not even five hours back so there is a high risk of infection." I nodded and took the mask she had taken out from the shelf on nurse's station and sanitise my hands.

We move to her room and Ira slides opens the sliding glass door and get inside while she shuts it behind me.

"If you want I can go out."

I shake my head,"No... no, it's ok." I look at bhabhi who has like a dozen wires connected to her. Mumma too did have some wires attached but she looked better. Bhabhi looks fragile and weak and soo vulnerable. It was a good thing that they didn't let bhai see her like this. He would've been distraught by this view. 

"She is doing better." Ira keeps her hand on my right shoulder while I sit there on the chair kept beside the bed with both my hand folded and clasped together and my chin resting on my knuckles. "She really fought today you know. She was a warrior. There was is a very slim chance for patients to return back from where she did. She will be fine."

"I had a dream that I lost her. That's why I wanted to see her for the peace of my mind." I don't know why but I feel the need to tell her that.

"She's right here and she's doing better every minute." she says in a very sweet and convincing voice, now sitting on the seat beside me. I nod and we sit there in silence, her hand was still on my shoulder now drawing soothing patterns with her thumb. Almost 15 minutes pass and then she speaks up

"You wanna see your nephew?" 

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