Saritaji's house

"Prachi! What happened? What's wrong?" Pragya got to her feet and looked at her daughter worriedly.

Tears cascaded down Prachi's cheeks. She opened her mouth but nothing came out. Lifelessly, she dropped down on the chair behind her.

Pragya hurried over to Prachi, followed by Saritaji and Sahana.

"Prachi? Why are you crying? You are scaring me now. Tell me what happened." Pragya began caressing Prachi's head to sooth her agitated state of mind.

A mother's touch worked its magic and soon Prachi turned to Pragya with bewildered eyes.

"Ma, Aryan said....Ranbir... had an accident....they...have taken...him...to City Hospital." Prachi managed to finish the sentence with great difficulty amidst hiccups.

Shocked, Pragya turned to look at Saritaji and Sahana. Both of them were as shocked as she was.

"Prachi, don't worry. Nothing will happen to Ranbir. He will be alright. Now, go and get ready. We are going to the hospital." Pragya urged Prachi to get a move on.

Sahana walked over to Prachi and took Prachi away with her. Sighing, Pragya and Saritaji too left to get ready to leave for the hospital.

As Prachi and Sahana entered their room, Sahana turned to Prachi who was still shedding tears silently.

"Prachi, don't worry. Nothing will happen to Ranbir. God won't let anything happen to him. Do you know why?" Sahana tried to cheer Prachi up a bit.

"Why?" Prachi stared at her with bemused eyes brimming with tears.

"Because even God knows that someone needs to be there to tolerate your endless lectures and save poor people like us from having to tolerate it. So, you see, Ranbir is doing that great job all by himself. So, even God needs to keep him around you to save his creations from dying of irritation. My God! You can make our ears bleed effortlessly with your endless lecture." Sahana nodded.

"Sahana!" Prachi swatted Sahana's arm with the flat of her palm.

However, Sahana's plan worked and Prachi smiled amidst tears.

"Now that's like my sister. Let's go and get ready. In fact you go, I will book a cab to take us to the City Hospital." Sahana pushed Prachi towards the washroom.

As Prachi closed the door of the washroom behind her, Sahana busied herself in booking a cab over the phone.

Little did they know that their conversation had been overheard by someone who had been congratulating his good fortune.

"Thank you God. Whoever said it, is absolutely right that whenever you give, you go on giving. Without asking you eliminated my biggest hurdle in the way of getting my love, my Prachi. That is called heart to heart connection. Now it's time to deal with that cunning pair of aunt and niece. But before that let me see with my own eyes the fall of my arch rival." Sanju chuckled.

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Mehra mansion

"Buji, what happened?" Rhea was confused at Aliya's reaction.

"Rhea, bad news, sweetheart. Ranbir had an accident." Aliya broke the news to Rhea.

"Oh my God! How is he?" Rhea stared at Aliya in shock

"I don't know. Bhai called me. He only said that they are taking him to the City Hospital." Aliya sighed.

"Prachi is responsible for this. All these things are happening only due to her. When is that unlucky charm going to go away from our lives, Buji?" Rhea stomped hard on the floor to vent out her anger.

"She will have to go away from our lives, sweetheart. But right now I need to get to the hospital. You take care and...." Aliya began.

"I am coming with you, Buji." Rhea interrupted her.

"Okay. Then go and freshen up soon." Aliya glanced at her watch.

Rhea nodded and left for the washroom.

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After about 15 minutes, a cab drew up in front of their house and Pragya, Prachi, Sahana and Saritaji hurried out of the house and after locking the door, they got inside the cab. Within minutes, the cab was pulling away.

However, none of them noticed that another cab was following their vehicle closely.

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Sanju leaned back on the backseat of the cab with a stupid grin.

"Tch tch tch, poor Ranbir, due to him I landed in jail and now he, himself, landed in the hospital. Most unfortunate. But what to do? If you dig a hole for someone, you will be the one to fall in it. Today my presence of mind saved me from the police. Otherwise..." Sanju trailed away as his mind travelled back to the recent past.

An hour back

Sanju was sitting huddled in a corner while the police officer was dealing with the formalities. He was looking around morosely when an idea struck his mind to get out of the police station.

He instantly fell on the ground and began groaning loudly.

A constable rushed up to him.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you shouting like that?" The constable looked down at him irritatedly.

"Ahhhh! My stomach...I am dying...hurting...too much... someone save me... please." Sanju was rolling on the floor with his eyes shut.

His antics made the constable nervous and he hurried to the officer in charge.

"Sir, seems like he is seriously ill." The constable concluded after informing the officer about the incident.

"Oh God! One problem after the other just keeps falling over my head. Call an ambulance. Fast. If he dies, we will have to suffer the consequences." The officer huffed angrily.

"Yes, Sir." The constable instantly made a call asked for an ambulance to be sent.

Soon, the ambulance drew up in front of the police station. Two constables lifted up Sanju who was writhing in pain and put each of his arms around the shoulders of each of them. They carried him to the ambulance led by the officer and laid him on the bed inside. They settled down on the seat in front of him while the officer occupied the passenger seat beside the driver.

After about ten minutes, the ambulance slowed down due to heavy traffic. Sanju opened his eyes just a crack, and peered at his surroundings as he felt the speed of the vehicle slowing down.

He knew that the moment he had been waiting for had reached and he had to act quickly. It was now or never.

Without warning, his eyes shot open and he jumped to his feet. Before the constables could do more than gape in mounting astonishment and panic, he pressed his palm over their mouths and banged their heads on the metal body behind them.

Smirking, he tiptoed to the back door and after checking there was no vehicle behind the ambulance, opened the door and jumped out.

After rolling away a few feets, he jumped up and keeping an eye out for the vehicle which was gradually drawing farther, darted towards the pavements and soon disappeared among the throng of people.

As the cab came across a speed breaker, it jolted Sanju out of his thoughts. He straightened up on his seat and focussed on the vehicle in the front.

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Prachi had dozed off, resting her head on the head rest of the seat. The tiredness of the day had finally caught up with her. Something made her wake up abruptly. As she turned her head, she was astonished to see no one in the cab. 

Prachi straightened up on her seat and looked around. They had reached the hospital but there was no sign of her mother, Sarita ji or Sahana. 

"Where has everyone gone?" Prachi disembarked from the vehicle.

Bemused, she began to walk towards the hospital when someone placed a hand on her shoulder.

Startled, Prachi whirled around only to find Ranbir in front of her. Fresh tears cascaded down her cheeks. This time they were tears of sheer relief that coursed through her body seeing her love alive and well in front of her. She just couldn't refrain from throwing herself in his arms.

"Hey! Chikchiki! What happened?" Ranbir's voice dripped with concern.

"What happened? You are asking me what happened? You know how scared I was when Aryan informed me about your accident? You idiot! Baklu! I asked you not to drive so fast so many times. But do you ever listen to me? No. Never. What if something had happened to you?" Prachi raged and ranted against his shirt.

"You were scared for me? Why Prachi? Why does even the thought of something happening to me scared you so much? Why the thought of me going away from you bother you so much?" Ranbir placed his head over her head and rubbed his cheek over the sleek mass of hair.

"I was scared because..." Prachi lifted her head to look into his eyes but trailed away as he gently wiped off her tears, caressing her cheek in the process.

"Because..." Ranbir prompted, still holding her close and looking into her eyes.

"Because I..." Prachi began but stopped as she heard her mother's voice calling out to her.

Let's leave it here for today. LOL 

I love tormenting you guys. :D

Hope you all like this part. :) Please vote and comment to encourage me to keep writing. Now I am going to sleep. :)