SHANAYA'S POV :

The moment the doors to the operation theatre shut, I broke.

Not a silent, poetic collapse like the movies.

No.

This was shattering.

My knees hit the cold hospital floor before I could stop them. My hands trembled, blood-his blood-still dried along my wrists, my shirt, my neck.

"Shanaya..." Vansh bhai whispered, catching me as I folded in on myself.

I didn't care who was watching. I clutched his shirt, fists trembling against his chest, tears soaking the fabric.

"I can't-" My voice cracked like glass. "I can't do this again, bhai. I can't lose him."

His arms tightened around me, anchoring me while I crumbled like a dying star.

"Please," I begged. "Please save him. Please tell me he's going to be okay."

He didn't answer.

Because he couldn't promise me something he didn't know.

"I lost Rohan," I whispered, voice shaking. "He was ripped away from me and I- I didn't survive that, bhai. I just... existed. But Kabir-he made me feel alive again. He taught me how to breathe again. If he-if he leaves-" My throat closed. "I won't survive it this time."

Vansh's fingers brushed the back of my head gently. "He's strong, Shanu. You know that. He'll fight."

"But what if he doesn't?" My voice was barely a breath now. "What if he's tired? What if he thinks I'll be okay without him?"

"You won't," he said softly. "So make sure he knows that."

Something in me cracked open.

I rose.

On unsteady feet, still shaking, I turned away from the lights and the sterile walls and the doctors.

I walked through the corridors like a ghost, out into the night. My eyes found the little temple on the hospital grounds. Tucked between glass buildings. Silent. Waiting.

I ran.

My bare feet hit the marble, and I collapsed again-this time at the feet of the idol. My palms pressed together, body trembling.

"I never asked you for anything," I whispered. "Not when I lost Rohan. Not when I lost myself."

My voice broke as tears streamed down again.

"But I'm asking now. No-I'm begging you."

I placed my forehead on the cold stone floor, tears soaking the ground.

"Don't take him. Not him. Not Kabir. Anyone but him."

The wind whispered through the trees.

"He's not just a man to me. He's... he's home. He's war and peace and every breath I ever took after learning how to live again."

My fists clenched.

"I don't care what he's done, what his past holds, how dark his soul has become. He's mine. He's mine. And I won't let you take him."

I sobbed into the floor.

"If he goes, you take me with him.

Because I won't survive another goodbye."

---

I don't know how long I stayed at the temple.

Time felt like an illusion-like the clocks had stopped ticking the moment Kabir fell into my arms, blood blooming over his chest like a cruel rose.

My legs moved on their own, carrying me back through those bright, suffocating hospital corridors.

Everything was sterile.

Too clean.

Too white.

Too cold.

I sat on the bench outside the ICU, hands shaking, dried blood still under my nails. I couldn't bring myself to change, to breathe, to blink.

Rohit was the first to sit beside me.

He didn't speak.

He just placed a hand over mine. Steady. Warm.

"You know he's not going to leave you," he whispered after a long moment. "Kabir... he never does."

My throat burned. "But what if this time he doesn't get the choice?"

Rohit didn't answer. His silence said everything.

Yash came next, crouching before me. His eyes looked just as red as mine. "He took a bullet for you, Shanaya. He chose you. With his last conscious breath. That has to mean something."

"I don't want his love to cost him his life," I whispered.

Yash's jaw clenched, but he nodded softly. "Then don't let him think, even for a second, that he shouldn't have done it."

Ranveer walked in a few minutes later, quieter than usual. He sat on the floor near my feet, his head leaning back against the wall. "Do you remember what he said once?" he murmured. "He told me... 'If loving her becomes a battlefield, then let me burn for her victory.'

That's Kabir. He was always ready to bleed, as long as it meant you lived."

Tears blurred my vision again.

I couldn't take it.

I stood up, needing air, needing-

Vihaan was leaning against the opposite wall, arms crossed, a haunted look in his eyes.

Our eyes met.

And for the first time, I saw something in him break too.

"You're not alone in this, Shanaya," he said softly. "He's our brother too."

I stepped forward-slowly, like every breath I took was a betrayal to the one lying inside.

"I don't know what to do without him," I whispered. "He's the one who always fixed me. Who taught me how to be strong."

Vihaan walked closer, then gently placed a hand on my shoulder. "Then be that girl he believed in. The one who didn't need rescuing anymore."

I swallowed hard.

A part of me still wanted to scream. To punch walls. To collapse.

But something steadied inside me.

They were here.

All of them.

Not just for Kabir-but for me too.

And I wasn't the same girl from five years ago anymore.

I was his queen.

And I would hold the throne till he came back to me.

---------

AFTER A FEW HOURS :

The hum of machines.

The steady beep-beep-beep of the heart monitor.

His chest rose, ever so gently beneath the white hospital sheet. Slow. Measured. Like the universe itself was holding its breath with me.

I stepped inside the ICU, closing the door behind me like I was sealing away the chaos of the world.

Only us now.

Only him.

Only me.

I walked closer, one trembling step at a time. My knees threatened to give up, but I didn't stop-not until I was beside him. Not until I could see his face properly-pale, bruised, his lashes dark against his skin. A bandage on his chest, taped over the place where the bullet grazed far too close to his heart.

I sat down on the edge of the bed.

My fingers curled around his cold hand.

"Kabir..." my voice cracked, the whisper too thin to carry the weight in my heart.

"I'm here," I said. "I made it back. You got me out. Like you always do."

He didn't move.

Didn't flinch.

Didn't breathe faster or tighter at my voice.

And that silence-it killed me louder than the bullet ever could.

I pressed his hand to my forehead, lips trembling. "Why did you do it?" I whispered, hot tears falling freely now. "Why do you always run toward the bullet when it should be me standing in the way?"

He didn't answer.

Of course he didn't.

He never waited for permission to save me. Never asked if I could handle losing him again.

"You promised..." I breathed out, shoulders shaking. "You promised me this time would be different. That you wouldn't leave me like he did."

I kissed the back of his hand. "Do you know what it felt like... seeing you fall? Seeing your blood on my hands?"

Silence.

That goddamn monitor.

"You're not allowed to die, Kabir Singhania. You're not allowed to make me fall in love with you and then vanish. Not again. I won't survive it."

I leaned forward, laying my head carefully on his chest, right over his heartbeat. Slow. Faint. But there.

My tears soaked into his hospital gown.

"I'll wait for you," I whispered. "Even if you keep me waiting for eternity... I'll wait. But you have to come back to me. You have to... because I don't know how to love anyone else."

The silence wrapped around us like a prayer.

And in that stillness, I made a promise.

For him, for us-

I would never give up.

---

AUTHOR'S NOTE :

Shanaya has always been strong-but there's a different kind of strength in grief, in hope, in the terrifying vulnerability of watching the one you love lie still between life and death. This wasn't just about Kabir being shot. It was about every wound they never got to speak of, every unsaid word that hung in the air, and the desperation of someone who's already lost love once and can't bear to lose it again.

Her pain is raw. Unfiltered. But it's also powerful. Because even in her tears, there's fight. Even in her silence, there's love.

And maybe, just maybe, love is enough to bring someone back.

If you're still here, reading this with your heart in pieces-thank you. We're not done yet. Their story still has fire, and this-this was only the storm before the sunrise.

Stay with me.

- Vrinda

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