They were all sitting outside in the hall with their lips desolately moving under their breaths pleading Allah to save her. Fawad had been glued to his seat as he fixedly stared at the ICU door as if begging with his eyes for it to open.

He couldn't eat, he couldn't sleep, heck he couldn't do anything but pray for her. He needed her to be okay along with their baby. His clothes were wrinkled but he couldn't care less. All he needed was her.

It was agony to wait for her to wake up. It felt like she had been in the surgery room since forever. Seconds were passing like minutes and minutes like hours.

His heart was drumming wildly in fear. Any minute he could lose her, forever. 

No. He must not let negative thoughts come in his brain.

He couldn't imagine a life without her. He tried to distract himself by her memories. Memories were all he had right now. And he was scared if he she left him forever with only her memories. He had never felt more scared in his life.

A tear escaped his eye and dribbled down his cheek, wetting his stubble. He shook his head at himself. He had to be positive. She would survive. She was strong.

A small smile adorned his lips as he remembered the first time he had seen her. She was that feisty girl who knew how to stand up for herself. He thought about the time when they had gotten married and when she moved into his house after her rukhsati. Ever single moment they had spent together flashed in front of him and his eyes blurred with tears.

He had never known that his wife would mean so much to him one day. He thought he had loved her before she had moved in with him but he was wrong. He had experienced true love after they had started living together. He had gotten to know her properly then. They had seen each other in their worst. That's when he gotten to know her properly. 

He remembered how she had cried when she had found out about the baby and then she told the entire family about the baby with so much happiness. He remembered the first time they had seen the baby in the tests and heard its heart beating and when they had found out it was a boy. 

As time had passed and the baby had grown in her her clothes didn't fit her an she had gotten worried that he wouldn't like her any more but how could he not like her. He had fallen in love with that woman who had the kindest heart he had ever seen. Her idea of comfortable was wearing his tee shirts during her pregnancy. She practically owned all of his tees and he had to get them from her wardrobe whenever he needed them.

He thought about how she would talk to the baby when she was having a hard time. He would lose that all now. The doctors had so little hope about the baby's survival and he knew that life would never be the same. He just wanted his Areesha to be okay and they would worry about the baby later.

He was shaken out of his deep thoughts when he saw someone placing a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see the doctor. His heart started drumming faster in his chest as he eyed the doctor's grim expression. 

What had happened?

"Mr. Fawad, your wife is not improving at all and we keep losing her, it would be best if you save your baby otherwise you will lose both of them." The doctor informed with a sad expression.

And with that his entire world crumpled down in front of him. He couldn't lose her. The doctor had to be lying. She was lying.

"And also sir if the baby is out of her body we might be able to do something. She is getting weak because of the baby. So if you please sign these forms." 

Fawad stood their frozen. He couldn't move. What was she saying?

"Fawad, beta p-please save my daughter's child. She won't be able to survive when she wakes up and finds out that her son l-left her." Areesha's mother said to him as her shoulders shook with supressed sobs. Her bloodshot eyes and wet cheeks spoke volumes of her agony.

Yes, Areesha would break if you found that out when she woke up. He wasn't going to loose hope. She wouldn't leave him, she had promised that. 

Without thinking anything else he went forward and took the paper in his hands to sign. With quivering fingers, he held the pen as a bead of tear dropped onto it and left a wet spot. He tried to hold the pen firmly in his shaking hands and sloppily signed it. The pen fell from his hands onto the floor with a clatter as he stepped back, hoping this would save her. His Areesha. His wife.

***

After a few hours that day his son was born.

The nurse handed him to his mother while his father recited the Azan in his ear and did the other rituals while Fawad stood their frozen staring at the room where his wife lay.

He blocked out all the voices. Everyone was holding him and showering their blessings on him but he only wanted Areesha. 

"Fawad look at him." His mother came to him after a while shaking him out of his thoughts.

Hesitantly he held his son in his arms and a tear escaped his eye. Areesha was not with him to look at their son. She was fighting between life and death. All because of him.

Their son needed her. He needed her.

He bent down and pressed a kiss on the baby's head. He couldn't describe the emotion that had engulfed him. His heart had expanded just to make space for the love for his son. He had never felt anything like that before. The baby hadn't even opened his eyes yet but Fawad already loved him. Tears pooled at the corner of his eyes but these were tears of happiness. 

It would have been so much different if Areesha had been beside him when they first looked at their child. The emotions he was feeling were indescribable. At one hand his heart was crying for his wife to be fine and on the other hand he hand his son for the first time in his arms with a strange contentment in him.

"He looks exactly like Maya when she was born." He said softly. The same nose, the same light complexion. He looked around and realized that Maya was still not here.

"Ma where is Maya?"

"She's still not here. She was fast asleep so I didn't wake her up."

Fawad nodded and stared at his son. His name would be Uzair, just like Areesha had wanted.

For the first time in hours, a slight smile graced his face when his son tightly wrapped his hand on his finger.

***

Fawad was sitting at the other end of the hall when someone came towards him and touched his arm. He looked up to see it was Maya.

"Bhai she is going to be fine." Maya said to him hesitantly. She didn't know if she was allowed to talk to him right now or not.

Fawad didn't say anything while she said other things but he couldn't process anything. All he knew was that she had to be fine.

"I-I am going to pray." He told her when she said that he had to make dua for her. The only thing that he could think of was her. What if anything happened to her? He was getting restless with every second that passed and he couldn't keep it inside anymore. He wanted to tear the hospital apart and demand that his wife should be okay but he knew that they were ding their best. 

Who would be there to share the happiness of his son with him? His child needed a mother just as he needed his other half with him.

He made his way to the hospitals mosque and after performing ablution he prayed two rakahs of Namaz and prayed with all his heart that Allah gave her a new life. 

He didn't remember a time when he had prayed to Allah with such an intensity. The duas were coming from the very depth of his heart. He had cried to His Lord to give him patience and bring Areesha back. Tears were swimming in his eyes blinding his vision but all he could think was that Allah would listen to his prayers.

Allah had given her Areesha and He was the one who would heal her and bring her back in his life.

With this positive thought in his mind, he made his way back to the main part of the hospital after some time. When he entered the waiting area they were in, he saw Maya and Zayan standing together. It didn't affect him. He was emotionless right now. 

All he could do was to cling onto the new hope his prayers had given him. That's all what he had. He couldn't register anything besides that.

It had been more than two days since she lay there on that bed unmoving. Two days since he had slept. Two days since he had eaten properly or showered. Two days since his life had become incomplete.

***

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