Ishq-e-Watan

Chapter 108- Difficult Pills to Swallow

CHAPTER 108

DIFFICULT PILLS TO SWALLOW

Sanju couldn't sleep. Faizi had called her really late into the night, and that was the first indication something was wrong. It was almost morning, really, when her phone rang, interrupting her peaceful sleep. The call had made dread pool in her stomach. And as he had explained the events of the night, the dread only grew deeper and deeper until it was a constant, deep ache. His constant reassurances that they were all safe didn't really help. He had skipped over the details, but he did mention Siddharth was completely fine. Repeatedly. That had eased it a little bit.

Faizi had even walked to the cadets' room, but both Bala and Sid were asleep, and she had refused to let Faizi wake them up. Now, she wished he had woken Sid up. Just a little talking. She rolled over, checking the time. Just a little past 6. Would either Karan or Faizi be awake? Would Sid be? The two men would have given them an off, and maybe Sid would be asleep. They had slept just a couple hours ago.

She let herself fall back to her back, staring at the ceiling. A sex trafficking racket. The cadets involved. A fight. They were fine. Fine, fine, fine! They were all right. She repeated it till the words were muddled in her brain. Sid was fine. All right. All good. Not a scratch.

The phone rang. She jumped, hastening to grab it. Karan? She accepted it, sitting up. "Sir ji", she said softly.

"Hi, Sanju", Karan said sleepily. "Sid ko tumse baat karni hai. Yeh lo." He didn't pause for her response- Sid must have woken him up- and she didn't really have much to say to him. She can talk to him later.

"Sanju?" His voice said softly.

Sanju relaxed almost immediately at his voice. "Chirkut", she greeted anxiously. "Tu theek hai? Kahin chot toh nahi lagi? Tu so kyun nahi raho? Aaram karna chahiyo tujhe. Tujhe-"

"Shh", he said gently. "I am fine. I promise. Main theek hoon. Just some bruises and a concussion. But fine."

"Kaa theek hogo? Faizi Sir ne bataaya hume!"

"Gun ke baare mein bhi?"

Her eyes widened, his eyebrows furrowing. "Gun?" She shrieked. "Kaunsi gun?" There was a pause. "Siddharth!?"

"Unhone nahi bataaya", he muttered, sighing. "Sanju... I am fine. Matlab, Karan Sir aa gaye the time se. He didn't pull the trigger or anything." Sanju needed a few seconds to process. There was a gun aimed at him. Someone was going to pull the trigger. Karan killed the person. Just. In. Time. Siddharth could have died! Faizi didn't tell her that! How could Faizi not tell her? What else has Faizi not told her?

"Tu... Tu mujhe sab kuchh bataa pehle. Ek bhi cheez chhodi toh dekh liyo."

Sid obliged, and so, for the next hour, he detailed over the night- how they came to stumble upon it, how they realized it, how they split up and how they got captured, even how they had touched Monami and talked to selling her and Koel and their subsequent scramble. Sanju listened quietly for the most part- only asking questions to clarify. When he was done, they were silent on the phone for a while, just listening to each other's breathing. Some time during the story, she had lied down on her back, staring at the ceiling, illuminated only by the light of the dawn that filtered through the curtains. "Tum theek ho?" He asked quietly.

"Hum par nahi chali goliyan, Siddharth", she muttered.

"Chinta toh ho rahi hai, na, par, tumhe?" He said softly. "I wish main tumhaare saath hota."

"Main bhi", she admitted. Perhaps, it was the late- or early- hour, perhaps it was the worry gnawing at her chest, perhaps she just wasn't as embarrassed at admitting how much she loved him. But it didn't embarrass her at all. The two talked quietly, of the night, of assurances and eventually, of nothing in particular.