Crushed and Created- Tangled series (Overprotective famous brothers)

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ALISHA

Two days. For two days I was struggling with my deathly disease. Injections, checks, tests were killing me. I couldn’t inject myself, so either a nurse or a family member did that for me.

I had built a shell around me. I didn’t bother to talk to anyone, I didn’t care to. I was thinking for two days.

My life would never be the same. Even if I didn’t have PF, it never would have. But maybe, just maybe I could manage to make something of it. Dr. Murray promised me to help me to my goal to get back to gym. He said nothing could stop me if I didn’t stop myself. And I was willing to give it a try. I didn’t know how, but I needed to give it just one another try.

I had no idea how, but the physiotherapy was working better on me than expected. Though with great pain, effort and support, I had just begun walking. As in taking the baby steps and stuff. It killed me knowing that I was once someone who never sat still, always running around…

It was still scary, everything about it. The nightmares about the attack woke me up every night ever since they took me off sleeping pills. Someone had to check my oxygen levels at night, too. And everyone said it was easier because I was in a controlled environment. When I’d go out, it’d get more complicated, more dangerous. I didn’t know if I could handle it all.

But I did know one thing. I needed to apologize. I had been incredibly grave and hostile towards everyone in my family, including Arhaan. I had tried to be nice to him, but the testing thing was getting to me and I just snapped.

“Can you get everyone inside, please?” I asked the nurse and she nodded slightly.

Moments later, everyone gathered around, except Arbaaz. They all looked better now, clean shaven, clothes ironed, hair combed.

“I’m not good at this, but I wanted to say sorry. A big sorry for me being a brat for days. I didn’t know what to do, I still don’t. But one thing I realized was it wasn’t right to be rude towards you. I was wrong. Sorry again.”

I completed my extempore and everyone had a sad smile on their face. I was raised this way- I didn’t believe in being unfair. Sooner or later, if I realized my mistake I’d apologize. Salman always told me that there was no shame in saying sorry, in fact it showed you had the courage to be honest and admit your mistakes. And that took a lot of courage in itself.

“Forgiven, my princess.” Sohail smirked and I scowled at him.

“Do not call me a princess or anything remotely close to that.”

“Uh-huh. What is the name ‘Pixie’?” Salman asked and I frowned. That was a trap. When I was little, he called me Pixie randomly. When I asked what they meant, he said they were helpers to the good people, tiny like me. Mischievous, little, but good at heart, and that seemed cute then. And I never thought they were fairy helpers, but thought they were just good people, just small in height. So he did con me.

“That wasn’t even fair.”

“It was.”

“Wasn’t.”

“Was.”

“Zip it guys!” Malaika looked at us and I shut up immediately. In hospital or not, she wouldn’t hesitate to slap us all if we didn’t stop bickering.

“Uh, just wondering…how many days have I spent here?” I asked out of the blue.

“Almost three weeks.” Sohail replied, settling on a chair and reading something on his ipad.

“Holy crap. I need to go online!” I begged for him to hand me my laptop, since my phone was lost in the debris.

“What? No!” Malaika got up and snatched the laptop away from me.