Happy 20th chapter

Meme dose above.

And this is Nisha for y'all ...

Young doctors are advised not to flaunt their stethoscopes in public, Nisha Kaduskar never followed that. You are advised to walk left, right, left ; Nisha Kaduskar sprinted in public and danced when alone. Normal human walking? Nah! That was never a cup of her tea.

An alumni of Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Shimla, Nisha Kaduskar was something between a martian and your peppy, girl next door.

On the night of 26th July 2018 when Nisha got down from her cab, paid the driver and entered her one storey house's apartment, she got into her regular zone. As she crossed the garden her self love overwhelmed and the girl began dancing and singing -

Jaane  jaa
O mere jaane jaa
Milenge do deewane
Banenge fir afsana
Karega apna charcha
Ye jahaaaaa
Dhin tinak dhin
Tinak dhin
Dhin tinak dhin
Nishaa aha ha a a
Nishaa aha ha a a

She was still thumping her feet, swaying her waist and moving her head whilst doing the petty job of unlocking her house when she heard a voice behind.

"Nisha." The voice called her.

Nisha turned around, in the moonlight she saw a woman's figure. The faint trace of moonlight lining the figure revealed dishevelled hair and unkempt clothes.

The figure moved ahead two steps and Nisha moved two steps backwards. The figure in the dark opened it's mouth to speak and in an attempt to retreat Nisha's back hit the house's front door and it opened, followed by Nisha's dramatic fall on the floor.

"Are you okay?" The figure entered the house and switched all the switches on till there was enough light in the room.

Nisha opened her eyes and after batting them for a while she recognized the face in front of her.

"Sonakshi?" She said.

"Hey Nisha." Sonakshi picked Nisha up from the floor and helped her sit on a chair near by.

"Man!! Sona what did you do to yourself? I could have sworn that you looked like a zombie outside!" Nisha remarked.

Sonakshi was exhausted after the bus journey. She had to change two buses before reaching Shimla because she didn't wanted her family (if they were tracing her) to get a clue of where she was.

She let states, cities, roads slip behind her without even registering their presence. She  couldn't tell the exact hours before she last ate something. Her hair were all over the place, her lips were chapped, eyes still sore from the crying and clothes looked over slept in.

"How much do you earn?"

"50,000 a month."

"Cool. I'm in."

Sonakshi left Nisha on the chair and dived on the longer sofa. She switched on the TV, played old bollywood music and went to sleep.

Nisha looked outside the house for some luggage but there was none. She closed the door behind her.

"Sonakshi? I ... You?" Nisha went closer to Sona, rubbing her bruised back but the damsel in distress soon morphed into a sleeping beauty.

Nisha ran to her room, brought a comforter and threw it over Sona. Threw it? 'Cause she had no clue how to properly cover anyone. For herself, she used to just kick her legs inside the blanket and ta da she was covered!

MUMBAI

The whole fiasco of Sonakshi turning into a quitter had spread like wild fire on the sets. The general situation with such happenings and mishappenings is that mouth by mouth the story tends to take another shape and form.

By the time Shefali got the news it was more of something like Sonakshi had a fight with Jyotsna and she threw the money on her face and left for Andaman and Nicobar Islands!

"Jatin" Shefali knocked on Jatin's make up room.

"Shef, I'm rehearsing my lines. Can you come back later?" Jatin rolled his eyes. He wasn't very happy with Sonakshi's departure either.

"It's rather important." Shefali said in a low voice.

"Kya chal raha hai?" Sameer bombarded in the conversation. Shefali rolled her eyes, pulled him inside the room and locked the door behind her.

"I guess I know why Sonakshi left!" Shefali sat on the couch with her head in her hands.

"Because Jyotsna and Sonakshi had a fight?" Jatin asked her.

"Nah! I don't think that's the reason." Sameer had seen Sonakshi with the girls and had known her enough to say that she won't leave to Andaman because of a petty fight.

Shefali raised her head and then looked from Sameer to Jatin.

"The other day..." She had great difficulty in spitting her words. "...When you and Dev were having a convo about Sona di."

"Yes?"

"I happened to eavesdrop. I heard what Dev had to say and since Sona di liked him I thought of recording the entire conversation and sending it to her."

"You did what?" Jatin screamed

"I'm ... I'm sorry. I didn't see that rejection coming."

"You didn't send it? Did you?"

"I did."

Shefali's head was in her palms and Jatin too sat back on his chair with a hand on his head.

"I'm going to tell Dev about this. He should apologize to Sonakshi." Jatin began leaving the room when Sameer stopped him.

"I guess we should respect Sonakshi's decision here. Turns out Dev did say something very demeaning and Shefali, please stop poking your noses in other's affairs will you?"

Shefali nodded in affirmative. She had put the show's future on stake!

"Will Dev repent or will Jyotsna take Sonakshi back? What is the point in stretching this matter now? Let Sonakshi be in peace." Sameer advised them.

SHIMLA

It was two in the night. Sona opened her eyes. She noticed a change in the ceiling and then realised that she wasn't in her home, she was not even in her city. She removed the comforter and walked up to the window sill. Droplets of rain were sliding down it's glass.

Back in Mumbai, Dev couldn't sleep. Something wasn't letting him. What? He couldn't pin point but there was this weird ... He couldn't explain ... He just couldn't sleep. He looked up to the sky, it seemed like it would rain. He looked at the coffee mug kept at the kitchen station. He missed his coffee partner.

"I need to think of a new coffee partner." Dev said.

In Shimla, Sonakshi opened the door of Nisha's house and walked outside in the garden.

She looked up at the clouds with blank eyes. No thought crossed her mind. Absolute numbness fell over her. The clouds roared and sparked. Thunder and lightening happened but no movement from Sonakshi's side  happened. Like a statue she kept standing in the garden, looking at the sky.

A drop fell on her cheek and then on her forehead. Drops turned into a chain, one chain was followed by others and then all at once the sky shed it's burden. It was not untill the raindrops began to fall violently that Sonakshi, who was earlier lifeless and motionless, realized her surroundings.

"It's raining." Sonakshi said and sat down on the ground.

The ground was muddy and sticky. Her kurti was sticking to her petite frame. Her hair were dripping wet.

Thunder roared and Sonakshi held the grass beneath. She plucked a fistful of it and then another followed by another. Tears dripped down her cheeks and mixed with the rain droplets scattered on her face. She kept crying, her sobs were mixing with the wind and getting carried away. Her tears were forming a concoction with the rain and everything was getting washed away, probably for the world but for her every second was getting heavier.

Nisha woke up with the sound of the thunder and came down to the kitchen for mid night snacks.

"Where is Sonakshi?"

She found the sofa empty and the door of her house open. She ran outside and found a dripping wet Sonakshi bitterly crying her eyes out.

"Sona?"

Sonakshi looked at her blankly.

"Sona? tu? Yaha? ... Andar chal!" Nisha was having difficulty in forming proper sentences.

She and Sona were bus mates. Nisha was 3 years older than her and when her batch was passing out Sonakshi had joked that Nisha'll be a doctor and Sona will use her as her meal ticket. Nisha didn't think much when Sonakshi turned on her door that day but her plight made her wonder for the reasons behind her sudden arrival.

She made Sona sit on a chair and dashed inside to bring a towel. She wiped Sona's hair first.

"Tu koi luggage nahi laayi?" Nisha asked Sona but she kept staring into nothingness. "Say something Sonakshi!"

Nisha ran to her bedroom and got some clothes for Sona. She forced her to go change in the washroom. Nisha checked Sonakshi's forehead and it was burning hot!

"How long were you there outside?" Nisha asked Sonakshi but she didn't reply. She took out her medicine box and gave Sonakshi the first aid. She made her sleep on her bed and covered her in two blankets. She wiped her temple with a cloth soaked in cold water. It took half an hour for Sonakshi to sleep and her fever to get in control.

Once Nisha felt that Sonakshi's fever was under control, she ran back to the living room to look for Sonakshi's phone.

"10% hi battery hai!" She told herself and connected the phone to the charger. She searched her contact list for "Maa" and dialled the number from her own phone.

"Hello! Asha Aunty?"

"Haa"

"Aunty mai Nisha bol rahi hu!"

"Nisha?"

"Mai Sonakshi ki school bus me thi."

"Oh haaa Nisha!"

"Aunty, Sonakshi aayi hai... Sonakshi yaha mere paas Shimla aayi hai. Wo bahut ro... Mera matlab pareshan lag rahi thi. Koi baat hai kya? Saath me bas apna phone aur wallet layi hai. Koi luggage nahi hai."

"Tum bas ye batao wo thik hai na?"

Nisha thought of the sleeping Sonakshi in her room. The way she was crying. How should she answer this question?

"Fever hai aunty ... Thoda ... Long journey se ho jaata hai."

"Accha. Beta tum uska dhyan rakhna."

Nisha could swear she heard Asha's voice cracking before she just hung up after asking her to take care of Sona.

She could sense something fishy!

Precap - Sonakshi opens up to Nisha. Dev misses Sonakshi at the coffee counter and #PehlaPehlaPyar  gets bombarded with tweets!

Stay tuned!

Keep on voting and reviewing!

Just for (my) fun, how do you think Dev and Sonakshi will become DevAkshi?