Bonded by Fate *Completed*

36. Khamoshiyan

Akshat continued to stare at once lively Guddan, lying absolutely still on the bed. One month has passed since the day she went into a state of stasis.

That moment when he had realized that she had went into coma, he had lost all senses and reason. Such a shock the realization was that his blood pressure had dropped abnormally and for two days straight, he was out cold. And the third day when he had woken up, he refused to believe the truth. It was out and out denial on his part. Like a madman, he had shaken her, tried to rile her up but she remained as stoic as a statue. It was at the dawn when dadi's slap force pulled him out of his denial, into the unfortunate present. He had realized that Guddan was indeed in coma.

It had been hellish, the first few days of coming home to an empty room with no one to tease and no one to fight with. He felt like he will go insane with the very silence that he was once habitual to and thus Guddan was shifted back home and their bedroom had been transformed into a makeshift hospital room to ensure that every equipment required to keep her body working, was there.

Nonetheless, seeing her like that was worse than any pain he had ever gone through. He felt absolutely helpless because he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Their was hope that a day will come when she will snap out of her coma afterall her heart was still beating but then how far that day was?! He had no clue. Or if that day was ever going to come on his watch...

He wanted to be with her every second of the watch yet he couldn't bear to be near her. Seeing her like that bought him pain. And when he would be in restaurant, all he'd do is watch her through CCTV.

Lakshmi accompanied Guddan till the time he would be back home. And the instant he was home, he'd take his seat by her side and continue to watch her, in the hope that she will wake up.

"Lalla?"

Akshat turned his head slightly on feeling an affectionate pat on his head. His mother stood with a plate of food in her hands.

"You haven't eaten since morning! You should eat", she chided him trying a force feed a morsel to him.

Akshat raised his palm upfront and nodded his head in negative, "Nhi maa, I don't have an appetite..."

"Tu roz yah..."

"Aren't you slacking too much now?"

Dadi stopped as she saw her son passing a look of disbelief to her bahu, as if she was listening.

"You should be doing all these things that maa is doing. Grow up and take your responsibilities!", Akshat chided Guddan.

Dadi had raised her hand to stop him but as she saw his shoulders shivering, she knew that she should leave otherwise her son won't be able to shed his share of tears. Pretending to be strong had always been his favourite after all.

Over the past one month, she had seen her son crumble apart like a house of cards. Not only had he lost hope, he was also loosing his will to live. Day by day his appetite had reduced to nothing but a few morsels here and there that she would force feed him. He wasn't sleeping properly at all, there were big eyebags under his once charismatic eyes. He had lost weight too; she could easily make out his once perfectly fitted clothes now hanging loose on his frame.

Dadi turned around to sneak a glance at her son who had hid his face in his palms.  She looked at his slumped shoulders and a tear escaped her eyes at his predicament. His slumped shoulders were a sign of defeat that he had started to accept over the past few days. Twice this week, he had fainted from hypoglycaemia.
If Guddan didn't wake up, she was not only going to loose her daughter, but her son too.