"Tum.. Tum jhoot bol rahe ho!" Navya stammered on the newfound information.

"Why do you think that I would cook up a lie to someone middle-class like you, Navya! I have much better things to do in life!" Harshad croaked.

The whole canteen laughed at his comment and took no time to create NH4's team-spirit as the laughingstock. Navya funneled into her thoughts, the laughing people stared into her, the air grew tighter and her breaths grew heavier. She ran out of canteen. She couldn't take it anymore, she missed Nandini. Heck, she needed her today, to stand by her. She had realized long back that she fell for the wrong person, an evil in disguise but, with Harshad's words today wounded her again. Her hatred resurfaced, she was a crying mess. Her feet automatically took her to Fab 5's jam room and she stumbled herself in.

"Navya!" Cabir shrieked and went towards her falling figure. Fab 5 turned towards Cabir and were astonished to see Navya's condition.

"Navya, slow down! Breathe! Shant.." Cabir coaxed.

"Cabir, hum.. Nandini!" Navya blabbered semi-conscious. Upon Nandini's name, Manik panicked and came towards Navya who leaned on Cabir as he sat on the floor.

"Navya! Kya hua, Nandini ko? Kahan hi voh? I swear.."Manik started off.

"Shut-up, Manik! Uski halat dekhe, god-damit she is pregnant and semi-conscious aur tujhe Nandini ki pardi hi?" Cabir stressed and Manik hushed down. "Navya, calm down please! Breathe in, out... aram se.. " he continued to lull her.

"Cabir, hum.." Navya tried to utter when darkness enveloped her and her eyes flickered to shut. the last thing she heard was Cabir's panicked voice and then, she was lost in her own world.

"Shit Navya, stay with me, please! Call the ambulance, jaldi!" he shouted.

------

--Space College--

Navya had been in the hospital since the last two hours. The college authorities had been informed and the Mr. Malhotra had their back with the hospital formalities and payments. Meanwhile, Manik had stayed back at college and hunted each college building for Nandini trying to insure that she was not in danger. With no luck in finding her or any danger around her, Manik decided to check on the cameras.

On his way to the security room of Space, he heard a few students gossip.

"Kya dhagiyan urdai hi Harshad ne Navya ki. Damn, that was one scene to look at."

"Yeh, but I feel bad for her. She is such a nice girl. It's not her fault and what was Harshad even thinking when he said all that crap to her. Honestly, if Nandini would have been here, she would have taken care of that bastard so well."

"Hmm... It's very unfortunate that her and Navya's talent is being wasted on such a great platform just because of that Harshad."

Their talks had made a few things clear for Manik- a. Nandini wasn't in college, b. Harshad is the root cause, something which he should have put together, c. Navya was in whatever situation was because she was instigated by Harshad. Rather than getting lost in interpretation and other miscellaneousness that could sway the incident's narration, he made his way to the Security room and checked on the Canteen camera.

The camera revealed Navya's and Harshad's tiff but, unfortunately in their verbal fight, he couldn't decipher what they mentioned. Enraged that Harshad had still not backed-off after seeing Nyonika's end, Manik mentally noted to end his game soon. But, this time there was another change of plan. As Aliya mentioned, he would first go and look for Nandini. With determination in heart to rectify the blunders he had made during the past few days, he grabbed his car keys and made his way to for a quick visit to the hospital.

--City Hospital--

Manik parked his car in the hospital parking lot and made his way to find for the room number Mukti had messaged him.

"Where could I find Room 454" he questioned the receptionist.

"Fourth floor up this elevator and then a right, would take you there sir!" she answered and gave him a good look.

"Thank you," Manik answered and never returned her flirtatious smile. Cheapsters, he thought. If Nandini would have been here, he went into flashback among the hospital corridors.

"Hey handsome!" one of Nyonika's business partner's daughter, who was a model by profession, came up to Manik during a party at Malhotra Mansion.

Manik and Nandini had recently confessed love and since morning, Manik was a high on irritating Nandini and she being in a feisty mood was all the more fun. Well, it had all started from Manik forcing her to come to one of the business parties for his sake and from there, there was no end to the Nandini's leg pulling.

Manik eyed the model daughter up and down. Her finely carved body, a sleak dress hugging her toned waist with a deep neck that revealed more than necessary and slit in the dress that reached her thigh made her a good goof that he could use to get Nandini a bit on the edge. Though she stood far-off near the stairs, he knew her eyes roamed around him.

"Hey beauty!" he replied with a flirtatious smirk as he gazed over to Nandini to catch her watching. "What's your name?"

"Sanaya! And what pleasure do you have?" she asked. Double-meaning and quick, it was risky land, Manik thought but he took the chance as the closeness was irking Nandini and his little-Nandi bull looked adorable.

"Well, beauty, I'm the beast" he smirked and winked.

"Oh! I like the beast, would you like to share a dance with me and then maybe something else" she whispered as she leaned to his ear.

Manik looked over her shoulder to find Nandini raging and coming towards them. Escape, he thought. "Yeh sure, how about a shot before we make our way to steam the stage?"

They both ordered a shot and gulped it down. Sanaya shook her head and wiggled her hair to give herself the bounce and dragged Manik to the stage. The stage lights dimmed to a red sexy light and the music tuned into a salsa-beat. Sanaya moved closer to Manik and swayed her hips closely to Manik, now and then brushing him. She wrapped her hands around his neck and rested her head near his ear blowing air into his ear. Manik gazed on Nandini and found her open-jawed gwaning at the duo and burning with jealousy, he could see it in her eyes. He drew Sanaya closer and then made her spin around him multiple times. Though his hands were locked in Sanaya's, his eyes were locked with Nandini's. He continued dancing while Sanaya was enjoying her intimacy with Manik. Soon, he was satisfied that Nandini had reached her peak of jealousy and he stepped away from the dance and walked towards the bar counter, where they previously stood and well, now, the Nandi bull awaited them too. He didn't tear away the intense gaze they shared, but when they were very near to her, Nandini tore the eye-contact and asked the bar counter to give her a cold-drink. Sanaya heard the order and laughed herself off.

"Babes, how on earth are you ordering a cold-drink when the aura is just so... hot and hard.." she answered eyeing Manik up and down and winked at Nandini.

She had had enough of what she saw and bounced back on Sanaya. "I agree. But, since you think the aura is sooooo .. hot and hard", she stretched her sentence and rolled her eyes, "Let's cool you down a bit!" she said and threw the cold-drink that awaited her on Sanaya's face.

A drenched Sanaya stood bewildered at Nandini's come back, her mouth-hung open with no response. Her up-do was soaked and the dress that hugged her body previously now dripped in pepsi and revealed even more to the utter embarrassment of others.

"Ab kya hota na ki aag lag gati, I was toh bas saving you." Nandini answered back with puppy eyes, handed Sanaya her dupatta while uttering to her a "yaad-rakhna" and pulled Manik with her out of the party.

Manik chuckled at the memory and by the time he could reminisce more, he had reached Navya's room and found Cabir nervously walking up and down the hallway. Cabir looked up to find Manik standing in front and came to him.

"They said they were doing the caesarean!" he shrieked. 

---------

Hey, 

How's the concept of flashbacks? 

I know many of you have been asking about Nandini and her life in real-time but, since I want to not write about it for now (as I am still working on a defined plot for her), I decided to write flashbacks! 

Let me know if that's a fair compensation. If not, I would again change things around a bit  and try to get together a plot for Nandini soon! 

Love, 

HF