XXIX

 Sunita was traumatized. All those moments of her want and failure revolved in front of her eyes now. She felt as if she was the one on the ICU bed right now. She clutched the rim of the steel bench by both her palms tightly on which she was sitting and leaned forward with her head bent. Rakesh was running from pillar to post with his neighbor. 

Sunita looked up and saw herself begging the doctors to not take away her child. She crept on her knees and folded her hands. Suddenly Rakesh came and she almost shrieked with terror. Rakesh was taken aback, what happened to Sunita, he thought?! Sunita's eyes were all red and strained and she was continuously staring at Shiela and her monitor. Rakesh immediately realized she had got reminded of her past. Rakesh hugged her tightly and asked her to hold herself. He couldn't  sit beside her as his neighbor needed him at the moment. Tarun was all pale. 

They are stayed at the hospital that night. In the morning, the doctor called upon Tarun and took him into his cabin. Rakesh and Sunita sat on the bench. Sunita had fallen asleep on Rakesh's shoulder. Rakesh saw the doctor walking away from his cabin, but Tarun didn't come out. He nugged Sunita to wake up, and went to the doctor's cabin to check on Tarun. He was sitting with one hand kept on the other. He shook Tarun by his shoulder. He looked up towards Rakesh and hugged him by his waist and started crying. Sunita covered her face with her hands, she couldn't bear to look at Tarun.