The sounds of sirens surrounded him, even as his senses started to become dull. Bright lights and strange blurry faces greeted him when he next opened his eyes, before darkness engulfed him again.

When he finally woke up, he found himself in a hospital room again with Swara resting with her head next to him. He looked at her for while. As if sensing it, Swara rose from her position to see that he was awake. She silently went and brightened the lights a bit and got him some water to drink. She helped him in drinking the water and in resting back down in his bed, but she didn't meet his eyes all through it. He knew why.

"Swara, I am sorry" he told her once she settled down into the chair next to him.

"For what?" she asked

"For making you cry again and putting you through this"

"If you knew what you were putting me through, why did you do it Sanskar?" She was angry at him

"Because I couldn't see you in risk"

"And what about me? I have to see you put yourself through risk? Do you not realize what I go through?" she asked angrily wiping her tears

"I do. I did, when I saw him fire those shots at you. At that moment, I knew that my life would mean nothing if you weren't there in it. I would be dead anyway, if you were fatally hurt." His eyes were moist as he said it, remembering the fear he went through. "You know you would have done the same thing if our places were reversed" he added quietly

She broke down and hugged him gently, taking care not to touch his injured regions. He wound his uninjured arm around her, gently rubbing her back. "I am okay. I promise you nothing like this will happen again"

"Don't. Don't promise anything Sanskar. I am worried that if you promise it, the reverse might happen"

"So much confidence in me?" he asked with a chuckle

"Sanskar. Please don't. Don't even joke about this" she said looking at him, as she caressed his cheek

"Is everyone okay? No one else was hurt, right?" he asked, concern showing through his face now

She shook her head "No. Everyone else was unharmed, though you did knock Ragini out of your way to get to me. But she was fine too"

"It is finally over, Swara" he said quietly, a gentle smile gracing his lips "I am finally free of my past."

Swara rested her forehead against his "No more games now"

"No. No more games now." He confirmed "Just us and the rest of our life together"

It had been a month since the shooting. His wounds had finally healed, though he could feel some tenderness once in a while. Doctors had said it was nothing out of the ordinary and that it too would go away in next few days.

He was standing outside Laksh's room. He knocked on the door. Laksh came over and opened the door, surprised to see him there. Sanskar handed him some papers, which Laksh accepted, still confused about what was going in.

"I have already lost one brother. I don't want to lose another one" Sanskar said, explaining the papers.

Laksh's eyes widened looking at the papers "These are...." He trailed off, still surprised

Sanskar nodded "I am transferring my holdings in Maheshwari Industries to you"

Laksh looked up from the papers at him "If you don't want to lose a brother, why are you leaving the family and the house again?" he asked

"Just because I am staying away from the rest of the family, doesn't mean we stop being family. Swara and I will come over here often. And you can come over to visit us as well" Sanskar explained. "We will just be a phone call away"

Just then Swara and Ragini came over there, smiling and giggling. Sanskar looked at them confused. Ragini was blushing and Swara seemed to be teasing her. He looked over at Laksh for explanation, because he didn't think things between Swara and Ragini were back to normal yet.

Laksh ran a hand through his hair, before smiling and explaining "Yeah! So you are going to be an uncle soon"

Sanskar smiled at him and was about to pat his shoulder when Laksh hugged him. Sanskar returned the hug, smiling, happy for his brother.

Laksh pulled back from the hug "You really don't want to lose a brother, right?" he asked, and then without waiting for Sanskar to respond, pulled his hand and dragged Sanskar with him "Then come with me"

Laksh dragged Sanskar over to Bade Papa's room, barging in without knocking, to find Babe Papa sitting on one end of a sofa. "The two of you have fought enough and the rest of the family was caught in between. We have already had one tragedy in the family, we don't need any more" he said referring to Adarsh's arrest "The two of you have started this, now you need to end it. Talk!" he ordered them before walking towards the door "And until you do, you are going to be locked inside" he added quickly locking the door from outside.

Sanskar strode to the door banging on it "Laksh this is ridiculous. Open the door now!"

"Sort things first and then I will open the door"

"Don't be childish. You are going to be a father now! Behave like one!" Sanskar tried to reason

"I am not one yet!" Laksh screamed back "And the two of you deserve this!"

"He is right Sanskar, you need to talk" Swara said from outside

"Swara!" Sanskar said, surprised to find her outside "Why are you siding with him? This is silly"

"This is not silly! You need to open up. You cannot bottle up all your emotions!" Swara reasoned

"I don't bottle up my emotions! Don't I show enough of them to you in our bedroom!" Sanskar tried to reason

"Sanskar!" Swara squeaked, scandalized "Don't talk about our private moments in public!"

"That is not what I.." Sanskar tried to explain before letting it go. "You could have just talked to me, Swara" he added quietly before turning around to find Bade Papa sitting quietly on the sofa.

He sighed and went and sat on the other end of the sofa. Both men remained quiet for some time, before Sanskar said "I am sorry". Durga Prasad looked at him surprised

Sanskar explained "For playing all the games and attacking you and for thinking you had killed Kavita"

Durga Prasad nodded at him "You did exactly what I would have done, had I been in your place" he explained. Both went back to their silence for a few minutes before Durga Prasad spoke again "You are more like me, than you realize"

Sanskar looked at him surprised. He was about to object, but Durga Prasad continued "I taught you a lot of what you know. What I didn't teach, you learned on your own, and may be some more. But at your core, you still are what I trained you to be"

Sanskar wanted to counter him, explain that it wasn't so, but he realized that Durga Prasad wasn't done talking yet, he let him. He felt that was the least he could do after everything that had happened

"You spent the last five years planning, trying to make me lose everything. I spent the entire time since your arrival trying to destroy you" he gave a derisive laugh "It is so ironic, but in hindsight, I realized that I would have had better chance of countering you if I had thought not about how you would look at things, but rather how I would have looked at things if I were in your place"

Durga Prasad was lost in his thoughts for a few minutes before he continued "Strategizing is addictive, isn't it?" he asked, not expecting an answer "In tough times, it is the best source and best guide to victory. It involves no emotions, only clear objective thought. Then as situations change, so does the strategy, but as you start winning more and more battles using strategy, the lines start to blur. What is supposed to be used in business and work environment, starts tricking into personal life, into family and relationships. You start looking at each relationship in the context of game and strategy"

He paused for a minute, even as he sunk into his sofa. His stance reflected he had surrendered to the situation around him. Sanskar had never seen his Bade Papa like this even during the worst of the battles, not even when he had gone to him with the proof about Adarsh Bhaiyaa, the night before the big reveal.

Durga Prasad continued again, lost in his own thoughts, almost in his own world "Winning is as addictive as strategizing. Once you start winning, you start hating failure. You try to avoid it at all costs, by hook or crook. Even though strategy and games tell you that you cannot win all the time, yet you try to. You try to use more and more games and strategy to avoid failure, and in turn, throw yourself down a spiral that will lead to the one thing you are running away from. The worst failure of all, the one that will utterly and completely destroy everything that really matters to you" His eyes had gotten moist

"Bade Papa" Sanskar uttered, concerned

Durga Prasad returned back to the present and out of his thoughts, hearing Sanskar. He looked at Sanskar again "You are more like me, that you realize" he stated again

Sanskar shook his head sadly "I am not, Bade Papa. I do not bring strategy to relationships"

Durga Prasad looked at him with a small smile "No?" he asked, before adding "May be not all relationships." He paused for a minute before adding "Swara is a smart girl. She stopped you from going down that route, didn't she" he stated rather than ask "Or may be you were the smart one for heeding to her thoughts, while you still had time." He looked at Sanskar "Don't let her go". Sanskar nodded, he wasn't planning to.

They had been quiet for a while when the door gently opened and Laksh peeped in. "You have been awfully quiet" he said walking in "Have you sorted things?". Both men looked at him but didn't answer. He looked at them and asked "So you aren't going to leave the house now, right? Papa, both of you are fine now, right?"

"Laksh, we are fine" Sanskar answered for both of them. He didn't think Bade Papa was in a state to comment more "But that doesn't change my decision to leave. Laksh, this wont change anything in terms of our relationship. I am just leaving the house, not the family" he explained.

Swara walked into the room along with the rest of the family. She looked upset, her eyes were moist. Sanskar saw her and walked towards her "What is wrong, Swara?"

"I want us to stay with the family" she said quietly

He lifted her face, with a finger under her chin, so that she was looking into his eyes "Is that what you really want?" he asked, getting her nod in response. He sighed "Fine. We will stay" he said, leading to happy shouts from Laksh and Uttara and a teary but bright smile from Swara.

Sanskar was feeling the breeze against his face as he stood by the window when Swara came from behind and hugged him. "Thanks" she said quietly

He turned around, resting against the window for support, pulling her into his embrace "For what?"

"For agreeing to stay"

"You know there isn't anything in this world, I wouldn't do for you. All you needed to do was ask" he told her, kissing her forehead as she rested her cheek against his chest.

"You don't want to know why I did it?" she asked tilting her head a bit to ask him

"Because you wanted me to stay close to the family" he answered for her

She nodded "I wanted you and Bade Papa to have a chance to resolve your relationship"

He sighed "Swara, with time, things between us might improve, but it cannot be what it was" he gently explained "We may understand why the other person did what they did, we may accept that we would have done something similar had we been in their shoes, we might even fill guilty about what we did, but even if we work hard at mending the broken bridges, not all gaps can be closed. Not all cracks can be filled to the extent that you forget that they exist." Seeing her concerned look he explained "I am not saying things wont improve. I am sure they will. I am sure much of the warmth will also return back slowly, but I don't want you to build expectations and then get hurt, because it cannot be what it was before. Too much has happened. We have both changed from what we were as people. And I for one am very happy with the way I am today"

Swara nodded, understanding what he was trying to say and why "Sanskar" she said softly "You aren't like Bade Papa" seeing him raise his eyebrow in question, she explained "I heard what he said to you"

Sanskar gently moved her hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. "There is a lot in me that is like him. He taught me how to think and plan, after all. But I do know I am not all that like him either. I would give up reputation, status and power for the sake of those I love" seeing her nod, he added "But there is one thing he was right about, I am lucky to have you in my life and I am not planning on letting you go, ever" he said drawing her into a tight hug.

After letting herself be drawn in his warm embrace for a while, Swara spoke again "Sanskar, Dad needs you too" seeing his questioning expression, she explained "Mom thinks he feels he wasn't a good father to you"

"Mom told you this? You seem to have gotten a lot closer." He commented

Swara nodded "After your second hospital stint" she looked at him annoyed "she came to talk to me. She said that she couldn't have asked for a better wife for her son. Things are good between us now"

"She was right" Sanskar admitted "I couldn't have asked for a better wife. But she is wrong about Dad. And if Dad thinks it, then he is wrong too" seeing Swara's questioning look he clarified "Dad was there for me always. He was there in my toughest moments. A month into leaving the house, I started getting a lot of blank calls. At first I was annoyed, then I found out Mom had asked for my number. These calls would come on specific days and at specific times. It didn't take long to realize they were both calling me, individually, probably without letting the other one know. I guess it was easier to deny it when no one else knows about it – for Dad to deny it to his brother, and Mom to her husband."

"How did you know it was them? They never spoke to you?" she asked, she had never known this

"They never spoke, but I knew it was them based on the days and the times and their usual routines. They just wanted to listen to my voice, wanted to know I was okay and I let them know that" he caressed her cheek seeing her being concerned and sad about what he went through "It is all in the past now. I have you now, all of you" he assured her "And I will talk to Dad if that is what he thinks"

Swara nodded before trying to change the topic and his mood. She went into all the new things that Uttara had been telling her about everyone's childhood. Sanskar let her chatter for a few minutes, smile playing on his lips looking at his wife's antics "You know there is something that you still need to learn. Something that I will need to teach you' he said catching her off guard

"What?" she asked surprised

"How to stop talking" he said as he leaned closer, capturing her lips in a deep kiss, effectively silencing her.

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