One day later Ms. Nalini was discharged from the hospital and as planned by Prabir, she was taken upstairs to Mr. Banerjee's room in a stretcher. She had to remain on bed for a couple of days. A caretaker had been appointed by Mr. Banerjee himself to look after her during the day when everyone would be busy with school, college or work. The caretaker would be joining from the next day.

Bhargavi quietly helped change her Maa's clothes, after giving her a moist sponge bath avoiding the areas of the surgery. She had been extremely delicate and gentle as if treating a new born child. Then holding a wooden comb, she slowly combed Ms. Nalini's hair, as she had done before in the hospital.

"Maa. I'll be back in a while. I'll see if Prabir made something for your breakfast," she said with a warm smile.

All this while Ms. Nalini seemed to be lost in thought and suddenly out of the blue questioned,"You and Prabir... did that. Didn't you?"

"Did what?" She was caught off guard.

"There's no reason to play dumb when you are all grown up now. I know that you were throwing up in the hospital day before yesterday," she said curtly. This question had been troubling her mind even before she went in for her surgery, but she couldn't figure out a way to ask.

"What the bloody hell?! You're assuming that I am....Uh! Only because I was throwing up? It is nothing like that Maa, that's all I can say," she said rolling her eyes and stormed out of the room. She bumped into Mr. Banerjee on the way, while coming down the stairs and apologized without even looking at him.

She ran straight to the kitchen and started to pour some tea in a cup, which kept overflowing and overflowing till half the table was filled with tea.

Swiftly Prabir clicked his fingers four to five times in order to distract her while serving the breakfast for everyone. "Oh! I...I am sorry. I'll clean it up," she said and quickly grabbed a dry cloth to start cleaning the table. Her arm was held firmly by Prabir, as he looked into her moist shiny jet black eyes as if trying to read them.

"Did something happen? Did Maa tell you something?" Prabir asked softly and waited for a reply. Do I need be told that? He questioned himself in his mind.

"No.Umm.No. It's nothing," she said trying to force back the water brimming in her eyes.

He embraced her gently, and whispered,"I know something is bothering you. Don't worry. You have done the most difficult part, bathing her and changing her clothes. Leave the rest to me and Baba. We have only ten days left for the exams Bhargu. Have your breakfast and focus on your studies.Okay!" His words made her smile instantly. He acknowledged her pain and empathized with her without pestering her with questions.

Clearing her throat, Parul entered the kitchen noticing them hug each other. Bhargavi stepped back from Prabir instantly, and started to wipe the table. "Paru. Call everyone for breakfast," Prabir instructed.

"Okay. Umm...Bhaiya. Will you please trim KitKat's claws. She scratched me," Parul said pointing at her elbow. Having only completed the sentence, she was dragged by Prabir. He washed her elbow gently, first with soap water and then applied an ointment on it.

When all were having breakfast, Prabir slowly took his father's and Ms. Nalini's breakfast upstairs. He couldn't knock upon the door but could hear his father say,"Nalini. Enough! For God's sake trust your child. You are her mother. Bhargavi will never let you down."

Prabir cleared his throat and swallowed hard, before asking for permission,"Baba. May I come in?"

Ms. Nalini wanted to ask Mr. Banerjee how he was so sure but she had to wait for answers till Prabir left.

"Oh! Yes. Yes. Prabir please come in," he replied back casually.

Placing the food beside the bed on a table for both of them, he said,"Baba please call me up if you need anything more, I'll be downstairs."

Before he left he finally asked with annoyance, glaring at Ms. Nalini."What exactly did you tell Bhargu? She almost was reduced to tears. I seldom see her teary eyed."

"Oh! She thinks that...that you have deflowered the innocent bride-to-be before the wedding and now she has been bearing the consequences of that...like throwing up and feeling all nauseated," Mr. Banerjee spoke with clear disgust ringing in his voice.

"Is that all you could imagine Maa? Really? I am disappointed," he couldn't help laughing. "Maa. Please relax! You are not having grandbabies."

"I'll be glad if that's not the case. You both are young and..." Ms. Nalini tried to provide an explanation.

"Well, Maa I am glad that she didn't sew up your lips and just walked away silently," Prabir remarked happily.

Mr. Banerjee was astonished with the extremely calm reaction given by his son. He had imagined him to be outraged and furious.

Prabir slowly walked downstairs closing the door behind him and found Bhargavi seated on the kitchen floor, with her knees drawn up to her chest and her head resting on her knees. Startled she stared at Prabir with wide eyes when he placed his hand on her shoulder before sitting beside her.

Looking away she murmured," I am okay!" before he even asked anything.

"Yes! I know," he said smiling back softly. The beautiful warm smile made her heart flutter and almost skip a beat. Leaning on his shoulder feeling warm, cozy and happy for a while, she forgot about everything else in the world, till her mind drifted back to the memories from the past and she was again reminded of Ziko.

Prabir was sure that the reason for Bhargavi's absent mindedness or sadness had nothing to do with Ms. Nalini's questioning but it had to be Ziko's death.

"So you ended someone's foolhardy venture of weaving weird and mysteriously outlandish tales out of nowhere and spoilt all the fun," he responded sadly.

"What? What are you talking about?" She asked perplexed.

"Someone was thinking that we are about to have babies and she had assumed that she was going to have  grandchildren pretty soon."

"What? Babies? Grandchildren? Why is it not a baby and babies? Is your brain lost somewhere in Andromeda?"

"Umm... because I love babies," he laughed. "I actually want to have triplets," he said seriously making Bhargavi sigh and smile at him.

"You already have an adopted son as big as you... who is certainly going to fail in exams and you need even more babies?" Bhargavi said laughing.

"Ah! Mayank? I am not particularly worried about him. I am concerned more about Bhawani," he sighed.

"Did she do something wrong again?" Bhargavi quizzed.

"I don't know Bhargu. She told that she loved Ishaan, now she says she likes Shekhar but I also notice that she has a fling for Mayank and they have been spending a lot of time together. They are depending on each other, gossiping and smoking together trying to move on...in their lives forgetting their past. All of her attention is diverted onto different issues...I mean other than studies."

"Bhawani still loves Ishaan Bagchi but won't admit it. She thinks that she's done with this fake love stuff but she isn't. Trust me she's using Shekhar to find out if Ishaan is jealous and Mayank well, he lets her do whatever the hell she wants to do ... smoke...drink thus, she likes, no rather enjoys his company."

"Perhaps, that might be the case but how do we make her concentrate on her studies and give up on smoking?" He asked worried.

"Try hard to make Mayank focus on his studies. When Bhawani will have her only company engaged, she'll have no alternative," she said smiling.

Later in the night Prabir was aghast at the sight of Bhargavi trying to tame her frizzy hair. He quickly pulled the hair brush from her hand and asked politely," May I?" The response was a wide grin and he slowly but gently started to run his fingers in her hair trying to untangle the knots and remove the frizz.

Ms. Nalini who had been observing this suddenly spoke as if in disgust," God knows why this girl could never learn to grow up being a patient and gentle woman."

Prabir paused listening to her intently, when she said no more he smiled and replied courteously," Maa. Then you might agree with me. I am nothing like...like what a man should be then?"

Bhargavi couldn't stop giggling at the reaction given by her mother on Prabir's remark. "No I don't think that...you are not..." Ms. Nalini fumbled unable to answer.

"Maa. Masculinity has nothing to do with being insensitive, aggressive, manipulative, dominative or abusive. I cook and clean, but that doesn't make me any less of a man.
Your daughter is wise, intelligent and the most resourceful person I have ever seen.

She is patient,gentle,kind and caring unfortunately not to herself and she certainly doesn't need to produce a course completion certificate on cooking and cleaning to prove that she is a woman," Prabir said brusquely.

"Me being patient, gentle, kind? So many lies Prabir?" Bhargavi quizzed once they walked out of the room as they headed downstairs for dinner.

"Every word I spoke about you is true. You have always been patient and kind with me. I knew very well that you don't believe in the existence of God...that you don't like places like temples yet I chose to propose you in a temple. You gave me the task to ensure if Ishaan is a person with a good heart, and again I messed it up. I never imagined him to be toying with Bhawani's feelings. You are always gentle with me Bhargu, all the time even if I make plenty of mistakes."

"What mistakes?"

"It was a mistake, a real big one when I decided to not tell you my plans regarding our marriage. Though things didn't work out that way. Marriage isn't something very trivial, it certainly matters. I was having fun when you were concerned Bhargu, when you were upset that your stay here was supposed to end in a short span of time. It was definitely wrong of me to...to expect that you wouldn't have some plans for your own wedding."

They could listen to Mr. Banerjee's loud voice that echoed up the stairs.
"How can you be so mean Bhawani?" He screamed at the top of his voice. Rushing downstairs, they saw him slap Bhawani right across her face.

"Please. Calm down Baba," Prabir insisted.

"I need to nip some of these bad behaviors in the bud while she's still young. She's used to acting surly, disrespectful and defiant," he retorted back. "She was smoking again, outside in the backyard in complete darkness and when questioned she talked right over me and told me that I am not her father and shouldn't try to act like ...her guardian." He added sadly and looked up at Bhargavi with moist eyes.

Walking straight up to Bhawani, Bhargavi yelled," What do you think you are doing?" She had her arms crossed across her chest in an attempt to control her rage and not hurt Bhawani.

"Why can't you people just leave me alone?" She snapped back and a glass of water was instantly thrown on her face by Bhargavi.

"Come back to your senses now will you?" Bhargavi asked disgusted. "Uncle spend a lot of money so that Maa could go through her surgery.
He has been providing for her medications as well, might I remind you. I won't tolerate this kind of an attitude towards him," she further added.

Engulfing Bhawani in his arms, Prabir softly spoke," Bhawu. Throwing temper tantrums, yelling at others is not acceptable. You understand baby. We are your allies not your enemies. I know it's hard but you have to slowly give up on smoking. Okay?
Baba might not be your father, however, he... is your guardian." He gently patted her head while she wept clinging to him uttering softly under her breath,"I am sorry! I am so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt him."

"Shhh! Don't cry baby. It's okay," he said dropping a kiss on her forehead.

"Won't you scold me like Uncle and Di?" She asked carefully remarking Prabir's face. Smiling at her, he mumbled,"No. You solved so many questions today and concentrated hard on your studies without a break for three long hours in the evening."

While all the others had their dinner in th kitchen, Prabir and Bhawani had their dinner in the drawing room. He fed her every morsel with a lot of love and affection, telling her some scary stories.

Extremely angry Mr. Banerjee kept marching in the kitchen after dinner demanding to know the reason why Prabir was being so lenient with Bhawani. He was certain that this will make it even more difficult for her to give up on the habit of smoking.

A/N: Hi everyone!
Hope you all are doing well.

Hope you enjoy this update.