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Manik drove rash and reached the hospital with Nandini.

"Nandini, come on. We have reached."

"Manik, I can't. It's unbearable" Manik took off her seat belt and picked her up. He immediately took her inside for the doctors to examine her.

He was waiting outside impatiently when the doctor was attending Nandini while FAB5 and Navya joined him worried.

After 10 minutes, the doctor came out and asked Manik to follow him to his cabin.

"Mr Malhotra, did Nandini recently abstain from taking alcohol?"

Manik thought for a second and joined the dots on where was the conversation leading." Yeah, why? " He asked anyways.

"So when we drink excessively and regularly, our body gets used to it, and when we stop abruptly, we see such symptoms like nausea, insomnia and vomiting."

Manik looked down, nodding, his eyes turning slightly red.

"We have given her sedatives and drip for now, but she will need a lot of care. Her diet and health will have to be monitored, but the good thing is that she is not craving alcohol," the doctor explained.

Manik exited the cabin frustrated and heartbroken. He should have warned Nandini. He knew the consequences. He was angry at both of them. He shouldn't have left Nandini alone in the first place, but this was no way to react, life is so unpredictable, and Nandini shouldn't have been so weak. He met his friends outside Nandini's room. Cabir hugged him and patted him to calm him down.

"What did the doctor say?" Mukti asked

Manik shook his head "she is suffering from Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome" he kicked the bench, frustrated. Dhruv held his shoulder and made him sit. None of them had anything to say. 

"It's my fault. I have been seeing her having headaches for the past two days. I should have been careful. Damn it! "Manik held his head, not knowing what he should do.

"When can we see her?" Navya asked

Manik took a deep breath and stretched. "She is under sedatives right now, but we can take her back after she wakes up, but we will have to take care of her food and everything. It will be hard for her."

"How will we do that, and what will we tell her, Chacha Chachi?" Alya raised a doubt.

"We will also need them to get Nandini out of here. They are her legal guardians." Mukti added

"I will handle that", Manik announced and got up to get the discharge papers. Cabir joined him.

Manik made some calls and had the papers ready. He asked Navya to call Chachi and ask her for permission to let Nandini stay with her for the night, saying it is very late to let her travel and she had already slept anyways.

Nandini woke up 2 hours later. She was still sleepy but conscious enough. Manik took her to his place, and everybody departed on his insistence except Navya, who was not ready to leave her alone, but due to Abeer, she too had to go.

Manik could not sleep the entire night; the thought of Nandini suffering did not allow him to sleep. After every two-three minutes, he checked on her and made sure that she was comfortable. Also, Mr Malhotra did not probe him as he promised to explain everything later, and he trusted his son enough.

The following day Nandini was astonished to find herself in Manik's bedroom. She got out of the comforter and sat on the bedpost, trying to locate the memories of the previous night.  She got up and found her sandals to leave when she bumped into Manik, who was entering the room with a tray in his hand.

"Where are you going?" Manik asked, tilting his head sideward.

"I was leaving," She said, avoiding eye contact. 

"Breakfast?" He raised his brows questioningly.

"I will take it at home", the tension between the two tightening.

"But I won't let you leave in this condition."

"I am fine."

"Yeah, I can see that", he commented sarcastically.

Nandini looked up at his face and tried to escape. "I am leaving" Manik held her elbow and swiftly brought her back.

"Nandini, I am already infuriated. Please do not push me," he said in a dangerously low voice.

"I am not pushing you. All I am saying is that I need to leave."

"Nandini" Manik dragged Nandini inside, getting irritated with her.

"I don't need you to babysit me" She released her hand from his grip and walked away. She did not want to face Manik, she was already embarrassed, and she did not want to extend it further.

"Oh right, and I thought that is all you need."

"What do you mean?" she turned.

"What I mean is evidently clear. If I let you be alone again, I don't know what will you do to yourself this time, and I can't take a chance" the angry Manik whom he had kept hidden for all these days was surfacing. Nandini stared at him bewildered.

"I trust you with myself, but I don't trust you with yourself anymore", he added. This really hurt her. She did not know that Manik had such a thought in his head.

"I was not the one who, despite being alive, decided to remain hidden. I was not the one who lied. You went away; you lied. You left me alone. If you would have returned or at least informed us, then nothing of this sort would have happened in the first place," she accused him. He could not believe what he was hearing. He could not control his anger any longer.

"So what huh so what?" his pitch got higher. He was shouting at her for her. He wanted to explain to her things that she refused to understand.

"What if what you assumed would have really happened? What if I would have never survived the crash? You would have been the death of you. Wouldn't you? What if it happens again in the future? What then?"

"Why are you saying such things? You are alive and with me. I love you. I cannot live without you. How hard is that to understand?"

Manik held his head. He was unable to make Nandini understand. He took a deep breath and approached her.

"Love is meant to be our strength, not our weakness Nandini and you proved it that I am your biggest weakness because if I would have been your strength, then you would have never chosen the path that you chose for yourself. You were stronger than this. Does that mean that my love made you weak?"

She shook her head. Manik held her face between his hands.

"So what if I was not there. I want to be important in your life but not essential. We have not even started our life yet, and you already feel weak. We have a long way to go, and life is very unpredictable. We don't know what the future holds for us but what we can do is live each moment so that it lasts a lifetime." Nandini looked into his eyes with guilt. She understood what he meant for her to understand. However harsh it was, it was the truth of life, and she had to accept it.

"I am sorry. "

"You don't have to be" Manik kissed her forehead, assuring her that he will always be by her side.

"You know what the irony is, in all of this "

"What"

"Once upon a time, you taught me all this "he smiled and kissed her.

It took several days for Nandini to recover. It was a slow and gradual process. Navya and Manik never left her side. They made sure to check on her every second. They took Rishabh's help for the times when Nandini was at home. Nandini learnt from her mistakes and tried to see above them. She considered this a new change in her life. She decided that she will become the strong and bold girl that she was, the one who was fierce and audacious.