My Journey - A Left Right Left Story

XXXV

26th December, 2006:

The past few days were spent in a turmoil for everyone. Abhimanyu had finally confessed to the others about his parents divorce and the following estrangement with his brother. His regret, and the stupid decisions he took because of it. Such as trying to bribe Naina into giving him updates of his brother, and repeated failed attempts to reach out and reconcile with Aaryan, almost forcefully at times. He felt lighter after confessing his burden to his friends which have became his family, even sharing some funny incidents that led to Naina and, Aaryan's nicknames. But, his feeling of guilt still hasn't gone away, especially knowing that his lapse in research may have just caused friction between Aaryan and the people who stuck with him through thick and thin. Yet, with every day, hour, minute, and second that went without any communication from Akriti his heart sank a little bit more. And today, today they had to go to the Suryavanshi's party. He hoped, wished, and prayed that these differences will finally be set aside.

Gunny, too had his own past and demons to face. After, so many years he finally saw his younger brother's face. He couldn't reconcile this grown-up Rummy with his baby brother. He wanted to laugh at the irony of life. Both his and Abhi's estranged brother's were connected to Naina, considered her their sister, were raised with her or by her. He had observed Rummy during the dinner. Had heard loud and clear when Akriti said that it was not just her father but their and Naina's father as well who needed to approve of their relationship. He knew, he knew that the Rummy he encountered was raised by those three. Considering that their father told Rummy that both him and their mother were dead. He's glad that he had at least one person in his life who had some form of well-adjusted childhood and upbringing. But it still didn't lessen the sting he felt seeing his younger brother clearly looking up to others and calling them Bhai and Didu, he even had started addressing Aalekh as such. He had almost confessed this to the others but had decided not to. Not until he knows if Naina knew of the lies or not, after all he doesn't know the depth of their bond. But, instead he decided to reign in his irrational jealousy, especially if he wanted to help his friends to get through today's party smoothly. 

Naveen was in his own dilemma to face. Compared to others, it was him who had worked with Naina the most. Haan, usse yeh nahi samajh mai nahi aaya tha, aur ab tak nahi aaya hai, ki ek Cadet, who is quite personally involved, ko iss mission mai kyun involve kiya gaya. Par, he also can't deny the fact that she's damn good at what she does, whether it was mission work or training. She performed and balanced everything well, with professionalism. Yet, the cagey and angry Naina that he saw at dinner had gave him a nasty whiplash. Lekin, Abhi ki harkaton ko sunn ke baad, he can't really blame her. He had always wanted a younger sibling, a younger sister in fact, someone to grow up with. Being the only son, his decision to join the army and subsequent fake death had been devastating for his parents. Maybe a younger sibling, would have been able to distract them or keep them from leaving the country altogether. Especially, if they had been anything like Naina. But, what was done was done, now all he can do is help his two idiotic best friends in winning over their family and lady love.

Shalini, on the other hand was trying very hard to push down the urge of slamming Abhi's head into the nearest wall and screaming at the rest for thinking about moving forward, instead of seeing the gravity of the situation. She just couldn't believe that Abhi had done that, sure he had no control over his parents divorce, but the way he handled things with Naina, seriously made her mad enough to want to throw the nearest object at him. Especially considering the level of maturity and professionalism Naina had shown since his joining to the academy. On top of that the things with Akriti, he knew her name and still hadn't connected the dots? In the two years of their courtship, did they not once talk about their families, friends, seen pictures of them or just anything? How could either of them be so clueless? Still, she doesn't want their relationship to break because of it. It was so easy to see the amount of love the two shared, Shalini was sure Abhimanyu wouldn't cope with loosing Akriti too. She didn't want her friend to go through the pain of a broken relationship.

Rajveer was shaken, he hadn't seen Naina so angry since Mishra's narco test. But this rage was different from that one. That day Naina's anger was driven by grief, looking at the verge of splintering into million's of pieces, yet at the dinner her anger was driven by protectiveness and resentment. Feelings he could understand, Naina had grown up with Abhi, maybe even played a part in her upbringing. Yet, his blindness when it concerns Aaryan had led him to make that disastrous offer. Still, still she kept her feelings to herself and not let it affect her training or their mission. Something he wasn't sure how many would have been able to do in her place. As her teacher, he was proud of her, as her admirer, he just wanted to gather her in his arms and hide away till her problems, hurt, and everything else just went away. Yet, yet, as her team member he was apprehensive of keeping either her or Abhi on the team. If she was able to conceal her resentment towards Abhi, did that mean she was concealing the depth of which she was emotionally involved with their mission? Would she able to be keep her head and sight clear as they got closer to Eagle? What did Col. Chandra meant when he said that she 'owe us this'? Why did....What did Naina owe Col. Chandra and any of the higher ups involved with this mission that she was included, despite being untrained? 

Naina was without a doubt a good fit for their team, but as a soldier he had to keep his personal feelings aside and look over this analytically. Naina was a good fit and a good fighter, she took a bullet for their efforts and still didn't backed away. Yet, as a cadet they couldn't provide her with arms like the rest of them, and if the mission was completed before her graduation, then they wouldn't be able to give her credit for her contributions. After all, what explanation would they give for involving a Cadet in training in such a high-risk mission? They, had to have their meetings at odd times to throw off suspicion, but were still caught mainly by faculty, how long before someone else catches on and starts nasty rumours? And Naina was right, their team had no other female members, at least not that they were aware of, how would they justify this if the truth does come out? No, matter how much she hid it, Rajveer knew that Naina was stretched thin between maintaining her high marks in her training, making reports for Col. Shakti, Major Nair's trial, and her own CEO duties. How long before the burn out sets in and ruptures the delicate balance that she had created. He can't even imagine the fallout that Naina had to face, along with the party tonight. On top of that Naina hasn't reached out once to him yet, nor replied to the few messages that he had sent to her. He couldn't wait to see her tonight, and confirm that she really is perfectly fine.

Naina on the other hand had majorly dealt with her set of problems. Or more like Aalekh forced them to deal with it. After having to witness the depressive mood the whole day, Aalekh had enlisted Rummy and Ananya for locking Aaryan, Akriti, and herself in a room till they talked it out. He also convinced Parth and Ananya to start training the latter as Naina's successor. Apparently he was done seeing his buddy juggling so much, and didn't want this to affect their final year of training, as his performance was tied to hers. Parth though had later scolded both Ananya and her for not telling him how much work she had been doing alongside her training, he also let her know that he was happy that she found another good friend. Ananya did have an interesting reaction to the 'good friend' part though. 

Meanwhile, Rajkumari and Akru had worked everything out, and he grudgingly gave his blessings to them. Yet, Akru herself was still unsure how to proceed from this. So, they had planned on facing this when the KMA group would stay with them. While this was dealt with Naina had another set of problems to fix, in which first was Rummy's behaviour. Ever since the dinner, Rummy was in a right foul mood when alone. He hadn't been sleeping well and was becoming increasingly rude to Bade Papa every time they were left alone. The amount of arguments, that she alone had walked into was honestly ridiculous. But none of their arguments made any sense, even Bade Papa didn't know how each conversation turned into an argument, absolutely ridiculous arguments at that. So, finally she was able to track Rummy down to have a confrontation, before something erupts at the party.