She loves him
More than he'll
Ever know!

He loves her
More than he'll
Ever show!

The hallways were eerie silent with the swishky sound of the rubber rolling against the white polished floors, indicating that somewhere was life going on as trolleys rolled in and out. The bright lights from the white crispy false ceilings looked too bright at this hour. And the blasting air conditioner could be heard breathing in the silent waiting area. The waiting area where hell had broken loose.

The stagnant smell of chloroform and carbolic acid was all that could be felt. And the flowers decorating the small gift shop were only limited to distraction. The waiting area was fonted into bold letter on the ceiling as the digital lights in it blinked.

Serina was sitting on one of the many plastic chairs that dotted around the large room. Her shoulders dropped and her expressions thin. And how could they not be? Her only child was in the operation theatre. And she was going through all sorts of emotions a mother could stake at such a situation. She wasn't the strong wife of a general anymore. She was only a mold of how people recognized her, while internally she was devastated and broken.

She was wondering how many times she would have to beg to the Lord for her son's life. She couldn't think of anything else. She had no energy to go and even listen to the nurse who rushed out every ten minutes later to fill in up about the medication. She had no energy to look up to her husband with her thick lashes which were wet from the continuous tears that rolled down. And she had no hopes of stopping them.

The praying beads in her hands made the softest of sound when she'd read past a dua over them. Her lips moving in a soundless contact, desperately wanting to see her son before her teary eyes.

Ali Alam Khan, the king, the lion, the man holding is family and nation together sat like never before. He couldn't decipher what had occured hours before. He couldn't decipher being in the hospital right now. He couldn't understand what was happening around him. He seemed to have suddenly aged a lot more. With shoulders curled and hands slammed together, he sat a few seats ahead of his wife.

Jahan, the proud shine of his eyes was supposed to be with him. His son was supposed to hold him but instead he had become the reason of his downfall. Jahan had called him hours ago. They had talked as he drove to Saboohi's house. And the father couldn't help but remember how happy his son seemed. After ages Jahan was willing to live again. He was telling his father how much he loved the woman they chose for her. And how grateful he was for letting him have a chance at life.

The room was spinning for them. Although another couple sat huddled together on the opposite end, it seemed as if with each agonizing second passing by, the room constricted more. And so did their hearts.

Zaryaab was outside in the hallways, smelling the aseptic smell that clogged everywhere. His sleeves were folded upto his elbows and his arms entangled together, crisscrossing over one another. Deep lines decorated his forehead, his lips pursued tightly. His once sparkling forest green eyes were devoid of light and deep with ashen.

It was like deja vù for him. He reminisced the time when Jahan was injured badly by Murat, the culprit of his sister, the monster who produced all the vital problems and destruction in their lives. Zaryaab felt being thrown back into time when he had woken up way before his cousin. The time when the doctors would look with pale expressions and say that the man lying on the bed didn't want to return back to life.

But gone were those days for him. Gone were those days for Jahan. That man was meant to live. He was meant to strive. He was meant to fall in love again. And he did but why wasn't fate on his side.

Weren't Saboohi and Jahan made for each other. They were meant to see the world now and world was meant to see them together. How much had everyone waited for Jahan to live again. How much had Jahan waited for Saboohi to live again.

Their days were coming, the days that would bring them more closer to each other but what was happening. They were tearing apart. Zaryaab didn't know what to do, console his uncle aunty? But most importantly what would he say to Afaaf. What would be say to the mother of his child, who was heavily pregnant with another who was due in a few weeks.

What would he answer her, when she'd asked why he suddenly left at ten in the evening. What answer would he give to her?

' Afaaf, the trust and prayers you put on them, on Saboohi and Jahan, the two are battling for their lives right now.' He'd need strength to tell her this. And he wasn't very strong right now.

He was only waiting for a miracle like all the others.

Sukhaina was on the floor where Saboohi was hidden behind metal huge doors. Where the environment was more thicker than the military academy. The mother was frightened, terrified to hear any news that would come from behind the doors. She had seen her daughter, she had seen Saboohi. She had helped Saboohi up from the road, she had seen her dizzy self wobbling on legs that were week from the effect of the vehicle hitting them. Her face was battered. She wasn't even opening her eyes properly yet her mouth called out to only one name; Jahan.

The mother was sure that although Jahan was a floor above, her daughter's heart was still yearning for him.

Saboohi's crimson blood still coated Sukhaina's long chaddar as she huddled herself more in the freezing waiting room.

She was just ignoring the voices of her brothers and sisters who were plagued upon discussing the recent events again and again. Not knowing what trauma it caused to the mother's heart.

Alamdar was erect on the waiting room door, his eyes not once wavering away from the operation theatre. His heart was breaking slowly. He wished to never witness anyone like that ever again. One second confessing, the next second bloodied and bruised.

His heart and hands trembling, fearing that maybe it was his venom that had poisened out on the beautiful couple. And he'd be doomed if it turned out this way. His memories and mind were running faster than anyone elses. His instincts were more higher than anyone elses.

The scenes were alike on the two floors. The midnight was once a cocoon to hold everyone's heart. Yet the story was more scary and dangerous that ran inside of the equipped theatres. Where the hands of experts were shaking and their breaths were turning up.

The phone buzzed in Zaryaab's pocket and he pulled it out to see the landline number bold against the screen. With shaky desperate breaths he slid onto the green line and placed the phone against his ear.

" Hello."

He spoke with a sand paper throat seeing the soft sniffles on the other end.

" Zaryaab, did the doctors say anything? Did Jahan come out yet?"

Dadi Gul Jan's voice spoke with utmost tender care and emotions. Zaryaab's forest green eyes brimmed with tears on the answers he had.

" No. He's still inside. And so is Saboohi."

" Zaryaab, I am praying for them. I don't know what happened to them, my children were finally having the time of their life."

The words caused more pain to Zaryaab and he unconsciously nodded.

" Dadi Gul Jan please don't say anything to Afaaf. She wouldn't be able to take it."

His voice was thick with desperation as he spoke.

" I won't-"

The doors opened on the floor and Zaryaab straightened up. His hand automatically moving to clutch the phone to his chest. A young doctor emerged out. Dressed in scrubs as she removed the mask from her white porcelain skin. She was short heightened, skinny and the way she walked was anything but confident.

By the time she made her way to the awaiting family, her own hands were trembling and soft tears were rolling down her bright big eyes. The way she twisted her fingers anxiously seemed as if the slender fingers would break any second. She ran her tongue over her lips quiet a few times to moisten the dry skin but she failed as she spoke in shaky small voice with tears streaming down.

" Please pray for Jahan. My professors and surgeons are doing their best but please pray. His lung compression is making very little oxygen for his heart and brain."

Serina gasped out as she chanted verses from the holy Quran. Zaryaab's eyes rounded as he held onto Khan Dada's staggering figure, who lunged forward to the little doctor. Scaring her with his thick voice and angered posture.

" Tell your team to do anything to bring my Jahan before my eyes otherwise I won't waste a second in banishing this hospital from this very land."

The voice boomed loudly till the very ends of the hallways and everyone's hearts skipped beats. Khan Dada coughed vigorously as Ali and Zaryaab pulled him to sit on the plastic chairs as a nurse rustled to fill a cup with water.

" Do anything you can."

Zaryaab said coming to stand before the doctor that sniffled. Her head nodding slowly.

" I am so sorry."

She spoke one last time before scurrying away towards the operation theatre. An intense silence surrounded everyone again in it's tight grip.

Saboohi and Jahan.

They had crossed volcanoes, forests, planets and oceans. It's very hard you finally meet someone on the other end who has waited for you. It's really hard someone gives up so much to love you. It's very hard that someone strives through insecurities to be next to you. And when finally they had crossed the most difficult of times together, the sun awaited them. The stars greeted them. And the moon sparkled it's thin magical light for them to dance on the icy glaciers they were yet to see.

If someone would forget Saboohi and Jahan, would they truly ever? No. Saboohi and Jahan would be remembered, generation after generations.

They would be remembered, tangled in each other's loving arms. Smiling to everyone. Saboohi would have those sharp butterscotch eyes glazed over her Jahan. White would forever be sanctuary. And purity and smoothness would sing through and through. Jahan would be handsome as ever. Crisp shirts and styled thick hair. Amber hazel eyes who knew how to love truly and deeply.

And there would be no story like theirs, ever again.

Saboohi was ocean, yet she wanted river. And Jahan was moon yet he chased the stars. They were like molecule, small yet so immaculately big that loving each other would be the most exquisite thing entirely. Saboohi could be anything but she wanted to be his.

Saboohi and Jahan, the names would be engraved on every beating heart and every beating heart would see how graceful and delicate their love was. But every heart ached right now to see them.

The driver had tried his best, he had pushed onto the breaks yet he had failed to save the two lives. The jeep had screeched against the road, the driver had whiplashed badly in his seat behind the wheel. And while the car spun, the back doors and side hit the bodies with such an impact that the couple went flying down on the road. The uncontrollable vehicle had caused the driver to throw himself out with cuts and bruises on his body.

The doctors hovered over the patient, sweat trickled down their necks as they passed each other nervous and anxious looks. Being called on duty at eleven in the night after a day full of surgeries was something no one expected. The unplanned filling of the operation theatre from the emergency room had caused a new havoc on the hospital.

Jahan's chest was bared to the eyes of the doctors as they pumped, checked monitors, pumped, pulled on the oxygen. They repeated. Another doctor was with the nurse cleaning away the gash that had peeled the side of his forehead till his temple. His lungs had compressed against the broken ribs and his peritoneal pressure had rose.

Saboohi's condition was no less. The nurses had seen her being rolled in much livelier than her husband. She had even tilted her neck up once before going into unconsciousness again. Now she lay under general anesthesia. The operation lights like spot lights over her porcelain skin. The skin that had various lacerations. All kinds of CT scans and MRI were run and the reports were rolling in. Her shoulder had dislocated. Her knee into minor trauma.

A thin vessel was passing through her mouth as the nurses huddled over to clean the wounds. Her streaked hair wrapped into a hospital cap and the doctors were yet to see the spotting that showed on the CT scan indicating it somewhere between her cervical vertebras and brain fluid.

Suddenly, one patients heart rate rose and the other's lowered at the very same crucial time. The monitors beeped more louder than ever. The doctors shifted haphazardly. Their fingers now itching for the more advanced technologies.

" High intensity care unit. Now!"

The same words boomed in two different theatres, on two different floors, by two different doctors.

The patients were pulled out, their monitors rolling with them, the nurse took the back doors for the critical patients while the doctors breathed out from the main doors. The awaiting families stood up seeing the doctors and rushed behind them.

" How's Saboohi?"

" How's Jahan?"

The elevator was pushed on and filled. Soon everyone was pacing through the unfamiliar hallways of the HICU. Jahan's family collided with Saboohi's and before the two groups could reconcile. A nurse rushed towards the impatient doctors.

" There's only one bed, sir. We can only accompany one patient."

The new words caused a rustling sensation all over.

" What?"

The doctors confirmed.

" I don't think there's even time for us to take them to another hospital."

Ali Alam Khan sneered as he looked at the doctors.

" We have only one bed, and both the patients are very critical. You guys will have to decide who to give the bed to for further treatment."

" Please fast."

The doctors spoke mostly giving their attention to Zaryaab. And the man tensed.

" Saboohi would want Jahan to be treated first."

Sukhaina spoke after a few seconds. And everyone in the room couldn't agree more. Alamdar was the next who interjected.

" But would Jahan not do the same."

The two were dear for everyone how could they decide in such a difficult situation. Only they could think of a miracle. And miracle happened. Because the first time they met wasn't simply a coincidence. They met to meant.

" Sir, the patient on bed number two expired."

A new voice shouted in the hallway and everyone gasped out for breaths. The family of room number two shrank down on the floors to mourn in the waiting room behind them. But the ones standing before the doctors couldn't decide; be selfish or console.

The doctors rushed in. And now wait was all that remained. To see who'd open their eyes first.

Saboohi or Jahan.

•

Very difficult to write! 😣😭😭

Love,

Saboohi and Jahan