Discordance

Chapter Seventy-Nine

"I promise I will be safe....and you make me happy"

Ever since his head nurse had rushed into his office, her face pale, as she mumbled Akshara's name, Abhimanyu had felt like he was living in an alternate universe and like life was whizzing past him while he was standing still despite his body moving.

"Offo Abhimanyu, I would do anything for you"

Watching the bleeding gash on her forehead as it dripped blood onto her face and beyond on the floor felt like someone was taking a club to his heart. Seeing her clothes soaked in her blood, blood that gave his Akshara life, made his heart hammer into his chest because he almost wanted to gather it into his palms and force it back into her body. It belonged to her, just like he belonged to her.

"Happy Birthday, Sona. I love you"

Watching her try to tell him that she loved him even while she had to be in insurmountable pain almost brought him to his knees but when her grip slackened into his hold, he felt lost. Like the blood was roaring in his veins but there was no outlet. What should he do? It almost felt like he had forgotten everything he had learned about medicine because he simply could not wrap his head around the fact that this was Akshara, his Akshara, who was in the gurney in front of him, Akshara who was covered in blood and was currently breathing extremely shallowly. Akshara who was being wheeled to the ER. He had to be in a terrible nightmare and his Akshara was probably at home chilling on their bed, drinking from her silly juicebox and grinning sneakily knowing how much Abhimanyu hated eating/drinking in the bed.

"You are the best husband in the world Abhimanyu"

On autopilot he had begged her to stay with him because his subconscious kept telling him that this was in fact real and that she was hurt and in pain but it still felt like an out of body experience. "Sir, we can take it from here" one of the emergency residents said and Abhimanyu blinked up at him slowly, tearing his eyes away from the blood dripping down Akshara's face and onto the white sheets. He didn't want to let her go, couldn't bear the thought of her being taken away from him and the slow rise and fall of her chest was his only solace that she was in fact with him and he would fight heaven and hell before he let anyone take his wife away from him.

"I never want to stop being your wife"

He watched from the sidelines as they hooked her up to the machines and he didn't realize he was holding his breath until the machine beeped, spitting out her lowered pulse rate which didn't look as bad as he thought it would. "NOOO" Abhimanyu roared, despite the stone lodged into his throat as he saw one of the nurses starting to cut Akshara's clothes off. He knew it was necessary but like hell would he let anyone see his wife like that, not if he could help it. The staff refused to meet his eyes but he didn't care, he forced everyone to turn around and with the gentlest of touches, he slowly cut the blood soaked clothes off her and put the regular gown on for her. He would not let his wife be embarrassed and it didn't matter that these were working professionals who did hundreds of this a week, he knew his Akshara, and he knew what she wanted like the back of his hand.

He did his own surveillance and something weird happened inside his chest as he saw her small form lying almost lifeless on the bed. Her body had deep bruises where blood had gathered under her skin and the right side of the body where she had probably fallen on the gravel was a shredded mess. Fuck.

"Sir please.." the ER doctor rushed over and Abhimanyu nodded in a trance "bruised ribs...head laceration...neck laceration...possible concussion...neck laceration...swollen ankle" he mumbled to himself as he took each step back to lean against the wall, pushing his hands deep inside his pockets before he threw everyone out like a madman and took over himself.