|| ENDLESS LOVE || -- A MaNan FF

|| Chapter Twenty One ||

Manik's pov from the time he hangs up his call with Nandini and kids :

"I got to go baby. Will talk to you later." I hang up as a really tall young man was waiting to receive me.

"Mr. Malhotra?" He extends his hand.

"Hi! You are?" I shake his hand.

"Good morning. Thanks for coming down here. David was very insistent to meet with you as soon as he got back his consciousness. I am Mr. Burns son-in-law, Peter Cunns. Please call me Pete."

I smile. Nobody can be more insistent than David Burns. The man knows how to get things done. "Nice to meet you Pete. How is David now?"

"Better than most days. Please this way, he is waiting for you." He leads me through a long corridor, which has a pleasant sunny view of a beautiful garden.

"What exactly happened to him?"

"He slipped into a coma after a very nasty accident a few years ago. The doctors were finally able to revive him."

"Is he going to be ok?" I ask Pete as we were walking through a series of stairs.

"There is hope, but that's all we have at the moment." He says. Pete was calm and composed. He pointed me towards a door and said he would meet with me later.

I knocked the door and walked inside. Was it a study or a bedroom? I wasn't sure. But, Burns was on a wheel chair with an IV line running and a nurse behind him.

"Manik Malhotra!!!" he smiled widely, making his face split into hundred different wrinkles. He looked genuinely pleased to see me. He looked old, pale and thin. But his eyes had the same spark as always. Seeing him like this is hard. This guy was the reason I am so successful today. He had been a mentor, a guide and a teacher to me, when I needed the most. He stood by me like a rock and now, it is heart-breaking to see him this weak.

"Hello old man! Good to see you!" I greeted him equally pleased.

"What's up with all this heavy machinery?" I asked him playfully pointing out at the huge life support system by his bed, oxygen cylinders and what not.

"The going got tough..I wasn't tough enough to get going." he replied with a small smile. The man had a philosophical explanation for every damn thing. I wondered why I got a call from him all of a sudden. This does explain it - he doesn't have long.

"Please, make yourself comfortable." He says as he points the nurse to wheel his chair to his desk. She rolls him to the desk and disappears closing the door behind us.

I look around, it was a huge room with too many books and too little sunlight. Almost immediately a photograph catches my attention. I walked towards it and took it in my hands and looked at it curiously. I looked back at David with a puzzled face.

"Reminding you of someone?" he asks.

"Yes, who is this? She looks a little like Nandini - at least her smile."

"Umm..does she?" he looked at me speculatively. I gazed back at him with a curious face.

"Nothing mysterious about it. She is my daughter."

"Ohh? She looks Indian?"

"I and my wife, adopted her when we went to India, about two decades ago. Sara was five years old then."