Right

Summary: Agar iss ladki ko kuch ho gaya toh hum - hum barbaad ho jaayenge.

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His lifeline is a faint pulse in her veins.
Amrit doesn't stir.
Veer holds her knuckles to his forehead and wonders where he has brought both of them.

It is an odd sort of prayer, a prayer of a godless man. There is a needle pressed into her other hand, feeding her veins drop by poisonous drop blood of that same godless man. It had a twisted irony to it, that the blood he caused to be spilled would be replenished by his own.

"Amrit," he sighs, barely registering that her name spills from his mouth.

In no uncertain terms Veer knows that he is holding into the edge of his sanity by the skin of his teeth.

Let Amrit go, a casualty in this misplaced war - he feared, no, he knew, that he would end up setting his world on fire. And to think she looked so peaceful while he burned.

Amrit was still wearing those anklets. Even the hospital staff couldn't take them off. Those golden chains he had once bound her in, now mocked him with their futility. What bound could keep her, if death comes calling - if fate comes collecting all that he was mistakenly granted?

Veer hasn't yet forgotten that, with her last strings of conscious she had taken another's name. It would forever torment him, if she was to go now, that her soul - her heart yearned for another to the end of everything.

It is there, in the brink of a break down that Vijendra finds his step son. Veer takes a moment to register that grip on his shoulder as well.

Veer had been so young when his father passed away, but looking at his bloodshot eyes now, looking at the absolute devastation Vijendra wonders if the boy had ever grown since then? Or did all of them forget Veer somewhere in that long gone past, forgot to hold his hand and bring him out of his dead father's chambers. Was that kid still weeping in there?

The thought haunts him. Vijendra shudders.

"Papa Sahab," Veer says. Vijendra tries to conjure a reassuring smile.

"How is she now?" He asks, all the while his eyes try to assess the damage. There's a thick bandage around Amrit's head, a plaster on her throat.

"Beyhosh hai," Veer says roughly, as if he has forgotten to use his voice in a matter of hours. "Papa sahab agar iss ladki ko kuch hogaya toh hum -" he bites that back, then thinks better. "Hum barbaad ho jaayenge."

Vijendra brushes a hand over his head.

"Itna chahathe ho aap Amrit ko?"
Veer slowly shakes his head, barely gathering his thoughts.

"Yeh chahat nahi hai, papa sahab. Yeh aadat hai. Zaroorat hai. I have never learned to let go. I've never had anything to let go of." 

He shrugs off the comfort Vijendra offers and stands up to move away. Vijendra follows him, intrigued to know more.

"How did this happen Veer? Who were those people? Who would dare touch you - the heir to Daulatabadh riyaasat..."

The look Veer gives him, makes him pause. Vijendra knows very well what that look means or rather who that look means. But he prays to God, he is wrong. Veer looks away.

"I don't know," he says in an all too convincing indifference. "Must have been robbers."

"Veer -"

"Yeh humari kismat hi toh hai, jo bhi qareeb aaye unhe cheena jaata hai. Itna tadpaaya jaata hai ke woh humse toh kya humari saaye se bhi darr jaaye."

"Veer aap yeh -"

Veer holds the hand Vijendra reaches out with, grips it with such force that the older man winces.

"Ab aur nahi. Hum Amrit ko kabhi jaane nahi denge. Ussne humein chuna hai, kudh humari paas aayi hai. Humari apni hai - humari patni hai. Koi usse nahi le jaa saktha, mauth bhi nahi."

*

Randheer gets slapped but he is unaware for what reason. Rani sahiba returns after a phone call with her husband and is seething with such a tormented look in her eyes.

"You changed the envelop I gave you? How could you? Aap ko itni Ehesaan ki aur yeh Silla diya?" She draws in a breath. "Aap ne humare hi bete ka naam un logo ko de diya? You wanted to kill Veer? Uss ladki ke liye? I knew it. I knew that one day that bloody scarred misfortune would end up running my family. Kha jaayengi Veer ko!"
She grips Randheer from his collar and shakes.

"Arre shaadi bhi nahi hui hai uss ki Veer ke saath. Le kar Chale kyun nahi jaate tumhari aafat ko?"

Slowly, things start to get clearer.

"Kya?" Randheer asks slowly. "Kya Hua hai Amrit ko?"

And slowly he learns what he had ignored to learn before. The envelop he took to men of questionable nature carried instructions ordering a hit on some journalist and instead somehow it was the Kuwar and Amrit who got ambushed. And his Amrit, his Amrit was fighting for her life.

Randheer's fury is rekindled. This was what Veer took her away for. To take a hit that was supposed fall on him - to act as his human shield. How could he? Veer would pay for this.

*

Veer touches her with the tips of his fingers, a brush along her hairline - nothing more. There was such a deceptive peace upon her face. As if all that pain, all that fear - it had all gone away.

His fingers stop when they come to the edge of the bandage. He draws away his hand, still tormented by the memory of all that blood - the sound of her tortured breathing.

"Aap ke galathi nahi hai," she had said. Even with failing breath, even if they were her last words - she had insisted on saying them. On releasing him from responsibility. "Haatsa tha. Aapke galathi nahi hai."

And she thought she was dying.

He had seen it in her eyes. Veer swallows, thickly, finding it hard to breathe with the memory.

It was no pretence. There was no ulterior motive. She thought she was dying and had wanted to free him of the sin as she went - knowing, even before he could comprehend - how the guilt would ruin him, all over again.

Veer touched her cheek with the back of his palm.

"Why are you so good to me?" He mutters. "Itni achchi matt bano Amrit, hum bilkul bhi iss achchayi ke laayak nahi hai - tumhari laayak nahi hai. Itni bhi achchi matt bano ke tumhare bina jeena mushkhil ho jaaye."

Her lashes flutter but Veer never sees her opening her eyes despite waiting the night by her side.

Instead, he is grabbed and hurled towards a wall by an infuriated Randheer.

"How dare you!" He seethed. "Meri Amrit ke saath yeh sab karne ka tum ne socha bhi kaise? How dare you to use her so - hurt her so - you bloody -"

Veer straightens himself slowly, taking in the angry man before him. The fury that bubbles inside him, he keeps suppressed with effort.

"You came here?" He poises that as a question, but a condescending one. It seemed to question the very basis on which Randheer stood there questioning him.

"Yes!" Randheer told him. "Tum Jaha jaha Amrit ko lekar jaane ki koshish karonge waha par aaunga main. Tumhare aur Amrit ke beech hamesha rahunga  main. You will have to cross me to reach her with your dirty hands you devil !"

"Ma Sahab send you?" Veer asks him, his calmness annoys Randheer more than anything else. He pounces on Veer once more, bunching up his collar in his fist, faces close.

"Sharam nahi aai tuje ek ladki ki izzat ke saat khelthe hue? Sharam nahi aayi tuje bina shaadi ke uss ke saat..." he hisses.

"Isse aage ek shabdh nahi warna iss Kuwar Veer Pratap Singh ke Aise roop dekhonge - ke aur kuch dekhna mushkhil ho jayenga. "

Veer grips his hands, he could have pulled them away, twisted them or worse with very little effort- such maneuvere was taught as first thing in his martial arts classes but no, this was the man who Amrit thinks of with her last breath.

This one deserved a better ending.

He drops his voice, into a caress of poison.

"Beyizzati Humne nahi kiye - tum kar rahe ho, humari biwi sahab ki. Kuwar Rani hai humari - unki naam tameez se lijiye, Secretary Sahab."

With that he pulls Randheer away with him, out of that room into the passageway for he cannot bear the thought of Randheer in that room with Amrit, breathing the same air as her while he spawned nonsense. The ruckus they make brings Vijendra from wherever he was.

"What's going on boys?" He asks looking from one dishevelled man to the other.

"Papa sahab innse kahiye ke jo kaam se aaye hai woh karein aur nikal jaaye humare nazaron ke saamne se. Aise ghandi subaan wale logo ke hum mu nahi lagthe."

"Randheer - what brought you here - beta?" Vijendra is more polite than Veer who keeps glaring at him in that murderous manner.

Randheer fumes.

"Aapne bahu rani ke ghar pe khabar ki? If she needs blood you should call her brother I guess and -"

"If she needs blood - I can give her mine. I already have. I'm a universal donor. Secretary sahab. Thank you for your concern. Aur bahu Rani ki ghar ab humare saat hai, I am her guardian and I was here from the beginning."

"If Bahu Rani makes that decision herself that would be better," Randheer says staring into Veer's eyes. "Ke unko kaha, kisske saath rehena hai..."

"Veer?" They all fall silent at the sound of her voice and Veer barely has time to see the blur of Amrit approaching him, before one of her arms wound around his middle, the other in a sling presses against him.

"Aap teek ho?" She asks, urgent, insistent - worried.

Veer swallows thickly, his chest tightens with an overwhelming feeling. He raises his hand slowly and touches her hair, sliding down to touch her cheek.

"Humein kuch nahi Hua Biwi sahab."

She looks up at him, large eyes searching his face. Veer knows a trauma response when he sees one. He knows that Amrit is still haunted by memories of what had transpired and probably did not understand where or with whom they stood. Still he couldn't stop the warmth that threatens to burst his heart, she saw no one but him - she cared.

And of cause, his lips tug at the thought, Randheer saw enough to redden his face.

Veer wraps an arm around her and gently urges her back towards the room. Amrit is vulnerable. Amrit isn't ready for whatever argument festering in Randheer's head and he'd be damned before he allows her to be accused of heinous things by a random busybody.

"Chaliyen Biwi sahab, you need to rest. I promise you, hum kahi nahi jaayenge. Yahi rahenge aap ke pass. Chaliyen."

"Woh log," Amrit begins, her voice shaking, her hand - cold and clammy reaches out to touch the arm he had wrapped around her shoulders. She looks around frantically, with unseeing frightened eyes - half hoping to see more attackers springing from corners.

"Police will take care of them. Papa sahab hai na." Veer mutters in her ear. "Tum chalo, Amrit."

He holds her when she stumbles.

She is rather weak, he could still hear the effort she takes to draw in each breath. Unable to help himself Veer tucks her to his side, pressing his face against her temple.

"They will never get to you again, Biwi Sahab," he mutters a promise against her hair and looks at Randheer over her head. "Yeh tumhare pati ka vaada hai."

**