A/N : Dear Readers, this is for your information - I feel it is important to put this up because I have received a couple of messages in my inbox regarding this.

So, to clarify your doubt (and I am glad you asked actually, although I'd prefer if you put in your questions on the comments section for all to read) I'd like to put forth the following pointers:

1. The multiple blackout episodes that Prerna has in the last couple of chapters, ISN'T aiming to portray her in WEAK LIGHT - so that should answer your question of how the portrayal of such a strong character in the beginning of the story end up so weak and 'attention seeking'

2. I would like you to know I have done my homework and research on mental health issues before penning down this story and what I write are actual symptoms in these cases - you can read up on them - each symptom, each behaviour!

3. See this is the MYTH on MENTAL HEALTH I'm trying to break - crying out loud, not being able to hold strong, blacking out - these are not signs f WEAKNESS - Prerna IS NOT WEAK - it is a disease - and these are symptoms - symptoms of a diseases doesn't vary between a STRONG OR WEAK person, right?

4. Well, had you actually waited for today's update, you'd know, all the answers to what is wrong with her is out here - please note all medical explanations provided here are correct and not imaginary :)

Hope this clarifies all the doubts of the readers !

Now, I think this chapter needs no more further INTRO ;)

Happy Reading!

Much love,

A.

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"Mr. Basu, please have these pills first...Mr Basu? Mr. Basu!" he jumped at the doctor's voice.

"Ye..yeah?"

"Please take this medicine first – you are in shock, this is for the nerves. I cannot discuss her diagnosis with you if you stay this way" he spoke clearly and indicated Anurag to trust him.

Anurag nodded. He slowly took the pills, and then the doctor asked him to visit him in thirty minutes, in his chamber. He nodded. He didn't know for how long he was waiting in the waiting area of the emergency ward. Was it an hour, or two or three – who knew? He couldn't remove the image of Prerna lying on her bed in a pool of blood; he had felt like time had stopped, he wasn't breathing, someone had sucked life out of him and he was floating in nothingness – his brains weren't working, neither were his muscles. It was adrenaline that had kicked in and that's how he had gotten her here – he had no idea how he managed it in this state of mind.

***

"Doctor, how is she?" he was in the doctor's cabin, it had been thirty minutes, he had reasonably calmed down, but his voice was still hoarse.

"Not good Mr. Basu – this is what I feared and that's why I didn't want to change her meds" he replied sounding worried. Anurag's head shot up at him.

"Changed meds? When?" he asked surprised; the doctor looked back surprised.

"When Mr. Bajaj asked of course, after the second blackout spell three days back" he replied frowning at him.

"Second blackout?" he asked completely clueless.

"Mr. Basu, I don't know how much you know, but let me fill you in. The last time you brought Ms. Sharma in, we had diagnosed angina pain, but we didn't know the cause; the next day after you had left, Mr. Bajaj – our trustee had visited us and wanted a private audience with the patient – we realised they were acquaintances and to be honest how could we deny him? While they were in conversation, she had blacked out again – thereon he had told us the real reason of her both blackouts, it wasn't her lifestyle as she wanted us to believe. There was an emotional trigger, which I now believe was induced by Mr. Bajaj himself.

We realised she had been suffering from depression and deep seated anxiety issues for a long time now, Mr. Bajaj's sudden appearance had overwhelmed her and her body reacted with an angina attack. At this point I had suggested therapy and light dosage of meds as a recovery plan – it was more holistic and absolutely risk free – she needed taking care of. But Mr. Bajaj wasn't happy with this method, he wanted to help Prerna quickly, make her recover immediately and hence we agreed to go by the alternate method of heavy dose antidepressants and anti-anxiety pills.

This was the tricky bit Mr. Basu, the only way we could go ahead with the alternate method of heavy medication was if there was absolute guarantee that under no circumstances would there be any stress or pressure on the patient – the problem is if under these meds the patient feels stress, anxiety, upset or anything strong – because of their high doses the patient wouldn't react, so no one would understand; and prolonged high level of stress under these meds could lead to a far severe consequence, which I am afraid Ms. Sharma has suffered Mr. Basu" the doctor finished talking and looked at Anurag.

Anurag was livid, flabbergasted, confused, scared all at the same time. Mr. Bajaj had literally risked her life to fix her fast? Why? He loved her right? Couldn't he give her the time she needed at least? And second blackout, how come Prerna never mentioned it? That's why she was so normal yesterday, on that he had added so much to her stress last night – he shut his eyes in guilt.

"What's wrong with her now doctor? Why was she bleeding so terribly?" he asked after finding his voice.

"That's the worst part Mr. Basu; from her reports, it looks like she has suffered from a uterus haemorrhage – the most common side effect of stressing after taking such heavy dose meds. That has caused the excessive blood loss and hence the third blackout – thankfully you brought her in on time, else if she lost more blood, we could have lost her tonight" he finished. Anurag was paper white in fear, he could barely find his voice, his eyes were filling up with tears, but he was trying his best to fight it.

"How do we take care of her now, doctor? He barely managed to mumble.

"I suggest we reduce the dosage of the medicines, and let her heal naturally – be there with her, don't let her stress – talk to her, more importantly let her talk – if she can talk about her issues, and they are out, we have won half the battle Mr. Basu. This will be slow, but she will find her way back to good health – as for the haemorrhage, we have injected her with meds, we have transfused around two litres of blood too; she is stable now and also awake – I suggest you take her home. Too many frequent visits here won't do her any psychological good – I suggest you don't make this trip sound too serious to her either" he patted Anurag on the shoulder and left.

Anurag kept sitting there for a few minutes more, to digest it all; he had no idea how damaged she was, and all the time they spent together, she was healing him; she was dead inside, but she was giving him life – and him? He behaved so irresponsibly with her a few hours back that it almost gave her the death blow. He shuddered to think what if he hadn't come back to see her again? What if he hadn't noticed the meds and left her assuming she was sleeping? What if she had locked her door after him? He was so damn close to losing her permanently – what would he do if he did? Would he have lived? As he sat thinking of all things that could have gone wrong that night, he finally let his tears out; he was alone and he was sobbing in panic, in fear of losing her and in guilt of hurting her. He didn't know for how long he sat in the doctor's chamber and sobbed; he only stopped when there were no more tears left in him – now he was ready to face her, to take care of her and to restore her – he was Anurag Basu, he didn't love easily, but if he did, he wasn't going to let any harm come in the way of his lady love.

***

Prerna was lying on the bed, she was restless, where was Anurag – she had to talk to him, remove his confusions; he thought Mr. Bajaj and she were getting together – that was not true – she had to tell him. Where was this man when she most needed him she wondered impatiently, when she heard him enter her room. He looked drained, his face sallow, eyes red, hair messy. But when he entered her room, he wore a bright smile.

"So Ms. Sharma, how goes Grey's Anatomy Episode 3?" he asked her brightly.

"I hate it" she replied laughing a little.

"Chalo then, let's end it. Get up, I have got you discharged – we are going home!" he responded with a smirk. Prerna could see it that he was trying hard to be positive around her, but it was costing him his everything.

"Anurag, I am sorry you had to see all this" she tried talking to him.

"Hain nah? It reminded me of that scene from 'Godfather' where they remove the blanket and there lay the severed head of the horse on a pool of blood on the bed!" he replied making a jest out of it.

"Anurag, you don't have to be all chirpy, I know you are exhausted"

"Okay fine, chalo now. We need to get you home, enough chilling in the hospital – let some real patients come in now" he replied as if he didn't hear her. Prerna kept quiet, he wasn't going to drop this charade now.

***

Once back in the apartment, Prerna insisted that he waited in the hall as she cleaned up the mess in her bedroom; but Anurag wouldn't let her be alone for a moment more. No matter what she said, no matter how awkward she felt, he tagged along with her into the room – the sight of blood stain on the bed and the duvet still remained; Prerna turned to look at him in embarrassment, but he smiled at her reassuringly and helped her remove the beddings, turn the mattress and put on fresh clean linen. Prerna removed all the dirty beddings and put it aside for laundry – then they both washed themselves clean – it was around 4AM in the morning by the time they were done – Anurag then gently held her hand and took her to the bed, he lay her down and tucked her into bed and sat beside her – he was no more his chirpy self, he was sitting there quietly beside her, holding her hand and calmly looking at her face. The storm had passed he thought with relief, and he couldn't thank his stars enough to still be sitting here and holding the hand of the one woman he loved the most in the world. Prerna looked back at him and smiled at him reassuringly, she knew he was scared; two fat drops of tears gently rolled down his eyes as he kept looking at her silently – Prerna understood he had no idea he was crying, it teared her up too; but after some insanely crazy days. She had finally found her peace now.

"Anurag, trust me, I am fine. I won't go anywhere" she said gently holding his hands.

"Promise me?" he whispered like a child.

"I promise"

Anurag looked at her eyes, it calmed him down, the worst was over he kept telling himself. After a while he got up to go sleep on the couch, but Prerna held his hand and indicated him to take the other side of the bed.

"Are you sure?" he asked quietly, she nodded. He didn't need telling twice, he didn't want to keep her out of sight even for a moment now. He got onto the other side of the bed and turned towards her – she was turning towards him. She smiled at him one more time, and closed her eyes to sleep. He kept looking at her, the fear that had gripped his heart today, it didn't let him shut his eyes for a second around her yet – as she slept, he kept looking at her and reassuring himself that this was real, he kept looking until the wee hours of the morning when sleep finally took over him.

***

It had been a few days since the episode now, Anurag had literally moved in with her; though she wasn't sure of where they stood in terms of their 'thing' after her revelation, but he was there always – to take care of her as a friend. There was much to discuss, she wanted to clear his confusion regarding Mr. Bajaj but she wasn't broaching the topic yet – she found peace and cadence in their simple life together now – all these complications could wait.

"Why do you even drink camomile before bed? How old are you anyway?" Anurag was teasing her one night, before they went to bed. Prerna laughed.

"This started on Rishabh's insistence and later became a habit" she replied; the moment this escaped her mouth she bit her lip – there she mentioned him, her palace of illusions would now crumple because now they would end up talking about all the complications that they dropped mid-way. Anurag stiffened for a moment, but he knew this topic was to come up sometime or the other, they couldn't forever neglect it.

"Suits him, him at his forty years sugar daddy image" he replied back with a laugh; to his surprise Prerna laughed back too. He was relieved; at least she could talk about him in ease.

"What did you find hot in that old man anyway?" he poked her further jokingly.

"He wasn't old when we met! I mean he was old, but hot kinda old" she replied smiling.

"Aah you had a kink for older men then?"  He replied with a smirk.

"Shut up Anurag!" she hit him on his shoulder and laughed. Prerna was surprised, never in her life had she imagined she'd be able to talk this casually about Mr. Bajaj. She smiled and continued.

"Actually you know Anurag, Rishabh came at a time in my life when I was really young, vulnerable and hopelessly optimistic about love and romance. He was the typical Mills and Boons hero – sexy, seductive, matured, and successful – I was attracted to this glamour. He liked me for my generosity and honesty – eventually we started spending time with each other and a strange bond developed. I needed him, all the time, every time, but he had his life compartmentalised; there was me, then there was his ex-wife and family related duties, his daughter, his career, his friends – looking back I know he was just a sorted man, but I was only 22/23 years then, what would I know about being sorted? I was a force that loved with all I had and if hurt, reacted with all I had. I was impulsive, naïve, and there has been times he suffered because of that – he loved me, I knew that, but he wasn't being able to accept my juvenileness – what could I do about it Anurag, I was young, how was I to bridge our age gap? He should have dumbed it down for me, held my hand there – but he didn't, he was busy judging me – he loved me so he didn't leave me and he couldn't trust me so he couldn't pull me close – our relationship was always a dilemma for him – and I, oblivious to this complication kept loving him hopelessly." she reminisced with a small smile paying her lip, as Anurag listened to her story quietly.

"What broke you both apart?" he asked gently

"Mistrust. After a year of their divorce when we were going out, Kshama ma'am came to know about us; she wasn't happy about it and she being so much older, could easily play with my mind. She closed on Rishabh especially in front of me, kept calling him home for their daughter's sake whenever we made plans – on hindsight I should have seen through her plan, but as I said – I was young, silly and gullible – I didn't. The more tricks she played on me, the more insecure I became of our relationship – by now you know Rishabh isn't the person who was about to help me understand the situation either – he started growing distant, I started acting defiant – sometimes I would do silly things like hang out late with my guy friends just to make him jealous, but it would impact him way deeper than I'd understand – it made him insecure, our age gap bothered him, I didn't know – and the last straw, Cookie his daughter somehow never liked me – she purposely caused trouble whenever he tried to get her to hang out with us – no matter how much I defended myself, he wouldn't believe it – he thought I was irresponsible around Cookie, couldn't be a good mom. Tell me Anurag, which twenty something year old can be a good mom? Are they matured enough? Finally one fine day, Kshama ma'am wanted to reconcile their marriage for Cookie's sake; and this time Rishabh agreed. Just like that he left me and went back to his family. Anurag, I was vain, I had no idea all this was going on in his mind for so long, I thought we were happy together – how was I to handle the break up? It was a very serious relationship for my age and I had given it my everything – I couldn't handle the loss; I couldn't talk about it because when I tried talking about it with my family, with my parents gone, my sister-in-law labelled me a home wrecker and my only family broke ties with me – it closed me for good. It scared me from talking about Rishabh and everything stayed inside me; it stayed inside me until today" she finished, she didn't realise she had tears in her eyes as she spoke. She quickly patted her cheeks dry and quickly looked at Anurag – he was looking at her gently – there was no judgement in his eyes – Prerna found peace in his stare, his eyes were her personal haven.

"Does it still hurt Prerna?" he asked lovingly.

"It's not hurting right now" she replied looking back – her own answer surprised her, was it possible? Yes, she spoke at length about their relationship, the start the rise the fall but her tears were of regret not hurt. How did she not hurt? Was she healing? Could Anurag really heal her?

After that evening, it was only getting easier for Prerna to open up about her life and past with Anurag, the more she talked, the lighter she felt, the better she felt. Anurag noticed she smiled brighter now, she laughed a little more – this Prerna was different from the one he had met at Nivi's party that first night. Anurag slowly realised, this Prerna had finally started to trust someone again in life – it was him. He promised himself, come what may, he wasn't going to break that trust.

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Word Count : 2977

Thats's it for today, do let me know how you feel about it?

Also silent readers, I need a little bit of your support, my rank in the MENTAL HEALTH space is falling, and I feel it has to do with a slightly dwindling readership - I just ask you to put faith in me as a writer - this story wont disappoint you, I promise - so please help spread the buzz!

Dear AnuPre fam, thank you for always being there, sharing the love, appreciating the work. I love you all :)

Until tomorrow :)