TO THE STARS THAT LISTEN

CHAPTER 65: Healing Whispers and Pretty Boy Magic

Ira

You know, how sometimes when you get up from your sleep with cramps and it hurts like a bitch. 

Yeah. This one's a hundred times worse.

Every atom of every cell, of every tissue, of every organ, of my entire body hurts. And mind you I am a woman who gets bad period cramps but doesn't take any meds, so I have a high pain tolerance. Well, atleast I'm alive. The pain is so bad that I can't feel one of my arms, the other one feels warm though. 

Shit! Is one of my arms dead? Did they cut it off? 

I try to open my eyes that feel so heavy like someone's put weights on them. When I finally open them and clear my blurry vision and hazed out mind to find myself in the ICU of the VIP wing I look down, over the non-rebreather mask they put on me, to see my left hand in a cast. Oh! Thank God. It's just a cast. I move my eyes from my casted hand to the one where someone's head rests. I blink my eyes again and lift my head a little to see the dark curls I've come to love so much. I put my head back on the pillow and try to carefully recall what happened and why the hell was I in my hospital's VIP wing's ICU section. I was with Vaani. We were in her car while she drove me back home. The main road was blocked so we took a shortcut. Bad idea. We were almost out of the woods in the ghat area when there was a big impact from the driver's side and our car flipped and went down the ghat and I think it got stuck between the trees. I faintly remember hearing Vaani talk to someone on the phone about us. But everything after that went blank. How did I reach the hospital, and how long is just blank.

My thoughts are broken by the sound of the glass door sliding as Ansh enters with a tab in hand. Feeling my gaze on him, his eyes lifts to me and a small smile creeps up his face. "You're up", the excitement visible in his voice.

"Yupp," I whisper back. My voice groggy.

"How are-" I shush him mid-sentence.

"Stay low, he's asleep." I motion to where Ahaan's head resting on my hand. I don't know for how long I was out but I'm damn sure he didn't rest for a bit and if he is getting rest now, he has most definitely earned it. "Is Vaan okay?" I ask in a concerned whisper. She was with me in the car when this wreck happened and she was talking to someone, calling them for help when I was somewhat conscious. 

"She's alright. She had a fracture, a few broken ribs and some bruises. You suffered the most of the wreck. We had her shifted to a private room this morning." I take a deep breath at his revelation and my chest hurt.

"How long have I been out?" I force a breath out of me.

"Thirty-nine hours after surgery. Forty-seven hours in total." He whispers, checking my vitals on the monitors behind me before looking back at me. "You had us all worried. Had you not woken up by morning, we'd have taken you in for surgery again." He takes out a torch pen from his apron's pocket and gives me a neural exam. "On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does your head hurt?" 

"26, But the rest of my body hurts more"  My head feels heavy, but that is normal after being knocked out for forty-seven hours and obviously, the accident took a toll on me.

"That's okay, I'll up your morphine dose." He extends his arms and I hear a few clicks from behind as he adjusts my dose. "I'll go and update Dr Ahuja about you." He turns to move but halts in his tracks, "And by the way, I missed you. Also, wake him up. He's been worried about you senseless. He deserves to know that you are okay." I smile at my friend as he walks out. 

I lift my free hand from where it rests on the bed and carefully touch Ahaan's hair, softly tousling the curly browns I love. They feel a bit more greasy than usual and a little longer too. My action stir him from sleep and he lifts his head to look at me, screwing his eyes to look at me.