"I can drop you home if you want," Nakul offered, staring listlessly at the door labelled Delivery Room.

Obviously, he could not hear the screams echoing through the worn down and crowded hallway of the district government hospital they were in. It was the nearest one, about an hour-long drive away from Bhabra.

The stench of misery was overpowering. There were only three sets of benches in the corridor, all of which were occupied by old, sick people. Many were standing against the wall and some, tired of waiting for hours, had settled down on the floor. Harassed looking nurses were running around, snapping at everyone who asked questions and yelling that the doctors were busy. Madhu couldn't blame them for being rude, this place was severely understaffed.

When Madhu had encountered the couple at her doorstep, it had taken her a minute to snap into action. Rushing back inside the house, she had found Nakul on his hands and knees, fixing the plumbing. Somehow, he was able to read her frantic words and followed her outside. Madhu could only stand and watch as he calmed down the pregnant lady, and silently agreed when he asked if he could use her car to drive to the hospital.

The three hour long wait after arriving was excruciating. Madhulika was left to talk to Suman, trying to distract her from the contractions and the fact that there was dried blood on her sari, while Nakul and Raju—Suman's husband—sorted out the paperwork.

And now here they were, restlessly waiting, listening to Suman's screeches because she had refused to take any painkillers.

She touched Nakoo's wrist, willing him to look at her. "Where's Raju?"

"Gone for a smoke maybe." Sighing, Nakul pinched his forehead. "You don't need to be here though; this might take a while."

Madhu leaned against the wall, too tired to worry about how unhygienic it was. "You don't need to be here either."

"Suman is my Rakhi sister, that is why she came to me."

"Then I'm not leaving, any sister of yours is a friend of mine."

Her looked at her oddly, lips in a straight line and dark brows furrowed. Thinking that he hadn't caught what she said, Madhu opened her mouth to repeat her words.

Before she could do that though, a nurse came out of the Delivery Room, her beady eyes scanning the noisy hallway.

"Relatives of Suman?"

Seeing Madhu step forward, Nakul turned in the direction she was facing, and hurried there when he saw the nurse.

"How's she? And the baby?"

The nurse sized him up, taking in his towering frame and squaring her shoulders, as if preparing to physically restrain him. She reminded Madhu of her school nurse, a stout, four-eleven widow who never missed an opportunity to scold kids for getting hurt, but at the same time, was fiercely protective of all of them.

"Are you her husband?" Her nasal voice, like nails in a chalkboard, pricked on Madhu's ears.

"Brother."

Still looking at him suspiciously, she said, "I would rather speak with the husband first."

As if on cue, Raju came bounding down the corridor, weaving around the squatting people and stopping right next to Nakul. "Is it over? Is my boy okay?"

He smelled of smoke and chewing tobacco. His shabby kurta was more yellow than white, and a thin layer of dust had settled on his sweaty face.

The nurse scrunched her nose, disapproval evident on her face. "Your wife is stable but the baby..." She swallowed, clearing her throat. "Your baby was a stillborn, and we couldn't revive him."

A loud ringing filled Madhu's ears. Somewhere in the distance, Raju punched the wall, but her gaze was locked on Nakul.

"Wait, did you say stillborn?"

This was the first time Madhu had seen him asking for confirmation, the first time that he was doubting his lip-reading skills. It came as a surprise. Though she had only known him for a little more than a day, Madhu was under the impression he didn't do that often. 

The nurse nodded, giving him a sympathetic look.

His face drained of colour and his breathing quickened. Madhu wanted to reach out to comfort him but was pulled away by the nurse. She had gripped her arm and was walking away from the two men, willing Madhu to follow.

"I know you all are grieving," she said, sounding business-like. "But you need to move the patient. The discharge papers would be ready in an hour, Suman would be awake by then."

The ringing in her ears intensified. Madhu couldn't believe this. "What do you mean discharge? Surely Suman isn't strong enough, she needs rest. I'll pay for another room."

"This is a government hospital; nobody pays for anything. And don't even try bribing me." She started in the direction of the staircase leading to the reception. "Besides, we don't have enough beds to spare, she can very well rest in her house. Just fill out the birth and death certificate forms and you can collect the body today itself."

Birth. Death. Body. Stillborn.

It was too much for Madhu. Air had escaped from her lungs and she gasped, feeling the walls closing in on her. All around her, people were crying, moaning, clutching their bleeding legs or pregnant bellies or feverish heads; fighting to grab the attention of passing doctors, not wanting to wait for their turn.

Because waiting won't lessen the pain.

She snapped out of her thoughts. Now wasn't the time to panic, she had to stay afloat for the sake of Nakul and Suman and even Raju. She clamped down the urge of wanting to chase the nurse and yell at her, for Madhu knew that the poor woman was just doing her job, it wasn't fair to blame her.

Slowly, she approached the two men. While Raju had sunk on the ground, head in hands, Nakul was still standing motionless. His face empty of expression, almost impassive, but his eyes held a storm as they regarded her.

She decided Nakul and her should handle the paperwork, while the grieving parents were given some privacy.

"She has to be discharged in an hour, and everything needs to be taken care of by then."

Nodding, he whispered something to Raju before they left for the reception downstairs.

Even more queues waited for them there. Ironically, the birth and death certificates were being handled at the same counter.

"This is so stupid," Nakul grunted, annoyed at the slow-moving line. "What's the point of recording a life that barely lived? Just to mock the parents for the rest of their living days?"

Madhu didn't say anything.

When their turn came, they got their certificates in less than ten minutes. That was quicker than Madhu had anticipated.

They spotted Suman and Raju sitting on the staircase. She was crying over a small bundle in her arms, her young face a crumpled mess, hiccupping and gasping while the tears continued to flow. Next to her, Raju was chewing on his tongue, giving his wife the side eye.

"Shut up you b!tch, you're responsible for this. You killed my boy."

The amount of venom in his voice shocked Madhu. Nakul hadn't heard him; his gaze was fixed on his sister.

She sobbed harder when Raju attempted to snatch the body, and coiled away from him, clutching her lifeless baby to her breast.

He slapped her.

This time, there was no stopping Nakul. Suman looked on in horror as, in one swift movement, he strode across the hall and grabbed Raju's collar, slamming him against the wall.

Raju tried to flap his hands, attempting to throw a punch at Nakul, but failed. Nakul backed a little and slammed him again.

"Don't. You. Ever. Even. DARE." The last word was a roar, cutting across the noise of the hospital. Suman was shaking at the spectacle and Madhu went to hold her, trying to comfort her.

"Tell him to stop, please," Suman cried. She looked ghostly, her skin was stretched over gaunt cheekbones, and now that she had delivered, not an ounce of fat was visible on her body. In fact, she looked too weak to have a baby in the first place.

A bunch of male nurses intervened before things escalated, and they were practically thrown out of the hospital. Nakul was still fuming as he marched ahead of the party, while the women were sombre. Raju followed at the rear, his face empty of all emotion.

"Bhai," Suman said, catching up to Nakul and stopping in front of him. "You and didi should go back. We need to visit the cremation ground and find a priest."

"No way!"

"Please bhai, don't argue with me on this. He won't touch me now. Today was just a difficult day for him, he is not like that."

Nakul looked torn. Madhu could see that he desperately wanted to fight her on this, but Suman was firm, not inviting further discussions.

"Then I'll come with you."

She shook her head. "No, if you do then Raju would be angrier."

"Do you think I care about that?"

"I do, please trust me, I'll be fine. Just go home."

He watched helplessly as they turned their backs on him, glaring as their figures became tiny specks in the distance and then vanished. The sun had set, and it was steadily growing darker. It was only when he was certain they won't come back anytime soon, that Nakul unlocked Madhu's car, ushering her before shutting the door and going around to the driver's side.

Heavy silence weighed down the ride back home. Madhu's head was still spinning from everything that had happened today. Suman said that it was a difficult day for Raju, but what about her? Wasn't she recovering too? Yet, she had held up her head while arguing with her brother, frail shoulders steady despite being under the weight of the entire world.

It was eight in the evening by the time Nakul hit the brakes in front of her house. Without a word, he got out, shutting his door with a bang that carried across the night air.

For the third night in a row, Madhu couldn't sleep.

She had been tossing for hours now. Even letting Chikki in her bed didn't help her, his cosy warmth doing nothing to lull her into unconsciousness.

Getting up, she carefully tip toed out of the room. Down the corridor, lights of the dining room were switched on.

It was Nakul, eating the leftover Maggi noodles she had made earlier.

"Hey," she greeted, coming into his view. "Don't you ever sleep?"

"I could say the same about you."

She poured herself a glass of water and sat down across him. "Are you okay?"

A short, breathy laugh escaped him. "I've always hated that question."

Yes, Madhu remembered, he had. Even as a child.

"I meant, after what happened today."

He sighed. "I am, more or less, but what about Suman? She didn't even want to have a baby."

"What?"

He leaned back, looking at her coolly. "This was her third pregnancy in three years. She wanted to stop, wanted to undergo sterilisation after her second daughter was born. But Raju won't agree, he insisted on having a boy first."

Madhu could see where this was going. "Did he...?"

"Rape her? I don't know, she won't be straight with me about that, but I suspect he did. Either way, the world wouldn't consider that rape anyway, not when they're married. He did end up getting his way though, she was pregnant five months after giving birth to Vinita."

Nakul paused, getting up to wash and dry his plate before leaning against the sink and continuing. "When I became deaf, I didn't just rely on sign language, didn't want to tell the whole world what my weakness was."

Madhu bit her tongue, wanting to ask more questions. How? When? Temporary or permanent? But she knew it wasn't her place.

"Instead I pored over the theories of pronunciation and phonetics, perfected my otherwise average lip-reading skills. The idea of strangers knowing about my disability was repulsive. I couldn't be seen as weak."

"Nakul that's not true, no one thinks that."

"Don't try to sugar coat it Madhulika, of course the world treats you differently. Bad people would make fun of you and good people? Well they would do something worse; they would pity you." He shook his head.

Madhu didn't make fun of him. And she definitely didn't pity him.

"Anyway, what I meant is that I wanted, needed control. Control is the only thing that can make your life good, or better at least. And Suman? The girl who was married off at the age of sixteen? Who became a mother at eighteen? She has never known what control is, and I don't know how to help her when she just shuts me out every time she needs me."

Silence stretched on, and Madhu pondered over his words, before saying, "I can try talking to her."

"How would that be any different?"

She shrugged, her lips curling in half a smile. "Sometimes, women simply need other women to listen to them."

So, was this too depressing?

Is the book boring? This is a complete 180° from CTIADTT so I'm kinda unsure about whether or not I'm doing an okay job. Do tell me.

Rakhi sister - unlike blood siblings, Rakhi siblings means that a person is your brother if you tie a Rakhi (let's just say that means a sacred thread symbolizing brotherhood) on his wrist. Sorta like a sworn  sister/brother.

Bhai -  brother/elder brother

Didi- elder sister