Choti Si Duniya - ArShi FF

130. Two lines

This idea was planted in my head long ago by mishtiarshi who is MIA now. But still, here we go.

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Khushi stared at the 5 rectangular objects placed on the marble counter beside the sink. Her fate depended on those very objects. Well her, Arnav's and their little family's.

Because those objects were 5 different pregnancy kits! All available brands! Since you never know which one gave a false negative. Or perhaps a false positive.

She shuddered at that possibility and waited impatiently for the time to pass by for those lines to appear. Urgh. To NOT appear! Because two lines meant a positive which would mean she was pregnant. One line is what she desperately needed...

It was not that she would not love this possible new baby, and she knew eventually Arnavji too would love their bundle of joy as much as the previous 3. And why not, it would be another living, breathing reminder of their love for each other.

But right now, she herself felt a bit overwhelmed with this possibility. As her little ones were growing up, their requirements from her, their demands from her and their needs from her as a mother were changing, increasing. Chiku's schoolwork was getting more intense, Aru's unending energy needed Khushi to be on her toes and Pari, well, her being a differently abled child, her speech therapies, doctors' appointments, everything was another challenge altogether.

Amidst all this, having another baby in this mix wasn't really ideal.

She took a deep breath as she tried to calm herself down. Sab thik ho jayega (Everything will be ok), Khushi. She gave a pep talk to herself and smiled. Her mind going to past when she had waited for the results like this. On a couple occasions with Arnav beside her.

Flashback: October 2015:

The first time khushi looked at the two lines on her pregnancy kit was when she was expecting Chiku. Her previous pregnancy, which was a surprise occurred and gone awry, was detected by a blood test so she had no experience of waiting for a stick to show results whether she was pregnant or not. Until now, in all 3 years of her married life with arnav, they had always used precautions, she was on birth control, and she never missed periods so there was no instance when she had to look for a pregnancy kit.

Until today.

It was about a month ago when arnavji and she decided to consciously try to get pregnant. And as excited as arnav was for the whole "baby making process", it seemed they were going to see a positive result within a month itself rather than waiting for longer as their doctor had warned them about. It had been a crazy month of September that year, as Arnav shamelessly pursued her at any and every opportunity. Under the official excuse of 'we are trying to make a baby here, Khushi, let's not waste any day!' and she would first blush tomato-red followed by mock-anger and eventually melt in his arms...

And then, she didn't get period the usual time the following month, and about a week later, they decided to take the home pregnancy test! The first one for them!

She was a bundle of nerves that day. Biting her nails under her teeth even as Arnav had held in his arms, while both of them looked at the 3 pregnancy kits of PregaNews in anticipation. To Arnav, this was perhaps more anxiety-inducing than waiting for acceptance letter from Harvard or winning first project for AR or even hearing 'hum bhi aap se I love you dammit' from Khushi!

And then all she heard was his excited cheer 'YES! WE DID IT!' as if he won a trophy! And then she had hidden herself into his chest, basking in joy of impending motherhood.