Back In Time

~nineteen~

Early the next morning, Kanan rubbed at his sleep deprived eyes and sighed in relief realizing it was finally time for him to rush home and catch up on some sleep he was in desperate need of. Ignoring the half open case files he'd tried to read through, he walked out of his cabin in quick strides and was halfway through pulling out his white coat when Meera's Dadi's thought crossed his mind.

Dr. Kothari hadn't shared details with him due to obvious doctor-patient confidentiality reasons, but a part of him that truly cared for the Modi family made him want to have a quick, unofficial look at her condition before making a move for home.

To avoid the usual bout of questions, he pulled the coat back up and headed towards the patient's rooms and gently walked in.

Years of training kicked in, and without notice of anything else in the room, he began a quick scan of the nurse's reports and the intravenous dosage. Dadi was okay; for now. She was as fine as she could be, but Kanan knew all too well why Dr. Kothari was probably not even considering her discharge from the hospital. He too was expecting a second, major heart attack, which would need immediate medical attention.

Old age sucks!

Scratching his head, he turned towards the standard couch along the wall of the room expecting Mr. Modi. Instead, there lay Meera. Her body pulled into a foetal pose, she practically curled herself into a ball and let out light snores that sounded ridiculously adorable to his ears.

He knew what her foetal pose meant, the AC was freezing her, but madam was too deep into her slumber to even realize the same.

Grinning at her old, childish habit, he increased the temperature on the air conditioner and stopped.

So what if she was dating Vedant? He could just stand there and watch her sleep right? That wasn't wrong. Or was it?

Stop acting like a creep Kanan.

Meera stirred and pulled out of the ball she'd rolled into and spread her legs out on the couch before settling her palms under her head as a cushion. Clearly the temperature was more comfortable for her now.

Kanan sighed.

How much he craved to hold her in his arms that instant. Right then, he was ready to give anything to have the right to just touch her peacefully sleeping figure once.

She is taken. This is wrong.

Taking slow steps towards the couch, he found himself get down on his knees to have his head at level with her hers. He dug his palms into the pockets of his coat to keep his urges to himself and for more than just a few seconds, studied every curve of her face. He had each one of those features engraved in his mind. How long had it been since he'd last seen her this up close?

She was mine once.

Was this humanly possible? To love someone so much that your heart aches at the intensity of it all?

Why wasn't he able to let go? Why wasn't he able to accept that she had moved on?

She's with Vedant. BACK OFF KANAN.

A light melody of birds chirping snapped him from his trail of thoughts and he turned towards the side table where Meera's phone buzzed to life. Even the awkward pose of sitting on his knees on the floor gave him enough access to her phone screen to see who was calling.

Vedant

He gazed at his watch. Sharp 4 AM. Why was he calling her at this time of the night?

Deep in thought, he barely registered Meera stirring from her sleep and her eyes fluttering open.

"Uh..."