You're My Everything....

Chapter 4

EIGHT MONTHS LATER......

Still on deployment (in a fictional country named urk), Kartik takes a break while his men sweep a hillside for explosives, and everyone goes on alert when a live one is located. One of the bomb experts asks what they should do — if they report it they’ll be told to leave it alone until the U.S. troops arrive

Noting the small crowd of children that are gathering, Kartik has the man repeat his personal motto: “Go easy and all will be well. Avoid hard work.” Hard work is defined as sending memos, which, ha. Basically, he’s prepared to handle this situation right now, on their own.

Author P.O.V

Cut to: Kartik and Veer pulled up in front of their commander, in big trouble for not reporting a live bomb. I just love Kartik’s dry sense of humor, as he says, “My second in command didn’t stop me.” And then he whines at Veer for not stopping him… doesn’t he know how much he loves sending memos? I feel bad for Veer, having to put up with Kartik all the time.

P.O.V OVER.....

Kartik and Veer are punished to run in full gear, and aww, their entire platoon joins them in solidarity… for about three seconds, and then they run back to their barracks, giggling like fools. Boys.

As it turns out, Naira made such a good impression on her first live broadcast that she’s now a regular on the show, where she gives medical advice to viewers. It’s made her a bit of a celebrity, and she’s now in charge of some pretty high-profile VIP patients. Their complaints seem trivial to Naira — stress, DNA testing to determine paternity on illegitimate children, and even one businessman who can’t keep up sexually with his young girlfriend.

Her friend teases her for being too important to mingle with the lowly surgeon peons lately, though Naira is aware that things could change on a dime again. It doesn’t stop her from clocking Dr. Kapoor’s snort of jealousy, though.

Dr. Kapoor snarks that if she’s not careful, people will start to think Naira is an actual doctor, and Naira shoots back that she’s hardly a doctor either — she’s just her father’s daughter. Oh burn. It’s obvious that Dr. Kapoor is jealous of Naira’s celebrity, and Naira isn’t above reminding her that she only got on the show because Dr. Kapoor thought she was too important to do it herself.

Naira goes to the roof that night, remembering how Kartik had asked her out here, then flown off in a helicopter. We see that when they’d eaten at her place that one time, she’d lit a candle and insisted he not move it, because she’d carefully calculated the best place for it to light her face perfectly. How much do I love that she just admits it?

He’d asked about her work, and she’d told him that she looks pretty sexy when suited up for surgery. She held her hands up to show how her mask accentuates her eyes, and Kartik joked that he wants to date that girl.

Still on deployment, Kartik finds a soldier digging a hole and awww, it’s Shivam, the thief that Veer took special interest in. Kartik starts to show him how to dig more efficiently when the shovel handle breaks, and Shivam laughs that that’s why he was digging carefully

Kartik smiles just a bit when he sees that he’s cut his hand — it reminds him how Naira never believed him that he was injured “doing labor,” and now he actually has been. He realizes that Shivam is writing on his arm the same way he did to the Shubham when he was injured (“injured shoveling,” heh), and orders him to attention.

When Veer finds them, Kartik asks why he brought this kid anyway, and Veer simply says, “I like him.” As it turns out, Shivam is a great cook, and he’s in charge of making dinner for their sergeant’s birthday today. With his trademark mischievous grin, Kartik offers to be in charge of procuring the wine.

They head to a bar, where they argue over who the pretty waitress was aiming her come-hither eyes at. A girl comes in to buy a gun from that same waitress, and for some reason she levels it at the guys. Kartik quickly takes it and points it back at her, then disassembles it, asking why she’s buying a gun if she doesn’t even know how to use it.

She retorts that she’s buying it not to kill, but for protection, taking her gun and leaving. Kartik asks the waitress who the girl was, but she lets him know firmly that she doesn’t sell information.

Coincidentally, Naira’s hospital has interests in Uruk as well, and is planning on building an eco-friendly power plant there. They’ve put a call out for volunteers, and is the first to sign up. The hospital’s director asks Naira to have dinner with him that night, and with no other information, the doctors all assume it’s a date.

But Naira is taken aback when Director Harsh makes it clear that they’re spending the evening at his place, and not just for dinner. He even offers to let her shower first, the slimeball. That handbag to the face was well-deserved

Naira wails to Dr. Priya— what will she do now that she’s assaulted the hospital director? She has to sit through a meeting he’s running about the power plant, and finds herself voluntold for duty in retaliation. At least he made her team leader?

Kartik’s team is notified of which doctors will be coming over, so he knows that she’s arriving soon. Veer wonders if it’s fate, but Kartik just says that it’s a passing coincidence

Slimeball Director Harsh calls Naira one last time as the team is waiting on the tarmac in Uruk for their UN escort, and offers her one last chance to come back — on his terms, of course. She basically calls him a lowlife right in front of everyone, reminding him that she has connections and has even been on television, so she’ll be tendering her resignation the moment she arrives back in India.

The team is relieved to see their escort arrive by helicopter, and who else could it be but Kartik and his platoon. Naira recognizes Kartik immediately and freezes, memories of their short time together rushing through her mind…

… and Kartik walks right past her