FF: Temporary Insanity Part 17

Read all previous parts of this series over here.

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Part 17

'Where is she? Where's my wife?!' Arnav stopped at the desk for the briefest fraction of a second before dashing through the doors towards the wards. He opened doors at random until finally he saw Khushi lying on a hospital bed, her face all flushed, shouting something at Dhruv and the nurse beside her.

'Khushi! Khushi!' He rushed forward, shoving aside Dhruv and engulfing Khushi in a hug.

'Arnav! Where have you been? Did you hear? Dr Sharma's not here! I'm not having the baby without her! Please take me home! We'll come back next week! Please!' She began to get up off the bed but Arnav and Dhruv both held her arms to hold her down.

'Khushi! Calm down! Breathe! What happened? Why didn't you call me? How did you get here?'


Khushi held both Arnav and Dhruv's hands and squeezed them painfully while Arnav wiped her brow of sweat and listened to Dhruv.

'An AUTO?! You bought my wife in an Auto!'

'It was almost a bicycle,' Khushi interjected.

'WHAT?!'

'It wasn't my idea! It was OP's!'

'Tell him he's fired! Without pay! And this time I mean it!'

Dhruv nodded along knowing full well that Arnav would never fire any of the Prakashs; they were practically family and just as excited about the baby as everybody else.

'Arnav you can tell him yourself! Take me home!'

'Khushi, shhh. Why can't Dr Sharma be here?'

'Oh she's on holiday for a week bro,' Dhruv was feeling much more relaxed now that Arnav was here. He wriggled his hand free from Khushi's hold and winced as he saw the marks her fingers had left on his pale skin.

'Okay, that's fine Khushi. I'm sure the Doctor that's here today will be just as good!'

---

'No, no way. I want another Doctor.' Arnav stood firm and crossed his arms, glaring at the young, good-looking and very much male Doctor standing in front of him.

Instead of being intimidated however Dr Verma only smiled genially. 'Mr Raizada, I am perfectly qualified to deliver your babies and I assure you that I have absolutely no designs on your wife, beautiful though she is.'

Khushi blushed, Dhruv sniggered and Arnav fumed.

---

The rest of the Raizadas, Guptas and Sehgals had all congregated outside the hospital room and Dhruv bolted outside himself, glad to be able to escape talk of dilation, placenta and after-birth. The words 'bloody show' had also been bandied around and knowing his tendency to faint when presented with blood he could only be grateful that Arnav had reached the hospital in time.

His eyes fell on Suhana standing next to Payal looking stunning in her mehndi outfit and his nausea disappeared completely. 'Somebody looks good,' he drawled coming to stand beside her.

'It's obviously not you,' Suhana replied as she lifted a hand to move away the damp sweaty locks of hair that were plastered to his forehead.

'Hey, where's my name?'

Suhana quickly snatched back her hand and shook her head, 'nu unh. You'll have to wait until tomorrow night to see that!'

Dhruv gasped suddenly as he recalled what the Doctor had said about labour times varying from a few hours to days. 'Suhana! What if Bro cancels our wedding?'

'What? Why would he do... oh no! Khushi won't be able to come tomorrow will she? Oh we'll have to postpone it now!'

'What? No, no, no! I have to go in there and tell Khushi to hurry up!'

'Dhruv! She can't hurry up! These things take time! And what's the problem if we postpone for a few weeks?'

'Suhana!' Dhruv whined as he thought about having to wait even longer for his wedding night. Suhana had put a ban on any activities beyond kissing since their engagement last month and he was ready to explode.

----

Arnav had read over 20 baby books in preparation for this baby and so he had expected that the baby would arrive covered in mucus and look generally unpleasant at first. Instead he fell in love even before he saw her. As soon as the Doctor had said 'it's a girl' he left Khushi's side to meet his daughter knowing he'd never be the same again.

He didn't take his eyes off her once as he helped cut the cord or as the nurse cleaned her afraid that he'd blink and she'd disappear somehow.

'ARNAV! Ow, ow, argh, Arnaav!'

'Khushi? Khushi?' Arnav handed the baby back to the nurse and ran to Khushi's side again. 'Khushi, what's wrong? Doctor what is it? Is she okay?!'

'Nothing to worry about it, just the other baby in a hurry to join us as well,' Dr Verma smiled and put on a fresh pair of gloves.

'OTHER BABY?!'

'WHAT?!'

The Doctor looked from Arnav to Khushi and their matching appalled expressions. 'Twins. You're having twins. Didn't you know? It's not in the file, but it's pretty obvious. Did Dr Sharma not tell you?'

Arnav shook his head, his mouth still open in shock. 'She said the baby looked a bit big but we thought that was just because of how much Khushi eats.'

'Arna... Argh!' Khushi grasped Arnav's hand again tightly while he stood unmoving next to her.

'Now aren't you glad I'm here to fill in for Dr Sharma? She was probably planning to escape with one twin like in Seeta aur Geeta.'


Arnav glared at the Doctor and snarled as Khushi looked at him shocked and worried.

'I'm kidding of course! One baby can sometimes hide behind the other so maybe that's what happened. Anyway, there's no need to worry. This baby's coming head down too so hopefully we won't need to operate.'

'OPERATE?!' Arnav began to panic again and held Khushi's hand tighter.

'I said we probably won't have to. You really need to calm down Mr Raizada. You've already done this once now, you should be an expert!' He grinned remembering how hyper Mr Raizada had been just a few minutes previously. He'd been slightly worried that he'd have two patients to deal with since Mr Raizada has looked on the verge of collapse from worry at least twice during the birth.

----

They held a baby each, Arnav sitting next to Khushi on the bed, almost as exhausted as she was as all their family members trooped into the hospital room. One by one the two girls were passed around the room although Arnav hovered over everyone like a hawk lest they drop them accidentally.

'Since Khushi's fine and the babies are fine does this mean we can still get married tomorrow?'

'Dhruv!' Suhana elbowed Dhruv who bent forward slightly from the impact only to have the baby in his arms snatched away instantly by Arnav.

'Be careful, Dhruv!'Arnav cradled his daughter close towards him, kissing her head before passing her to Anjali. Anjali cried unrestrained as she held her eldest niece who looked almost exactly like Arnav did in all those baby photos of him that she remembered poring over with her mother. 'what are you going to call them?'

'We were going to name her Anushka but now that there are two of them...' Arnav looked at Khushi, still finding it hard to believe that they had two daughters. He sat down next to her again and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, 'how about we name one for my Mom and one for yours. What do you think?'

'Really? Aditi and Sharmila? Yes! That's perfect!' Khushi looked at him with a huge grin as Payal placed her younger daughter back in her arms. 'Hello! Is your name Sharmi? Huh? We'll call you Jalebi,' she then looked at Arnav who was now settling back down with Aditi in his arms. She reached her hand out to stroke her cheek with one finger, 'and her Poori. Get it Arnav? Adi - Poori?' She was giggling to herself at her own wittiness and almost missed Arnav's look of bewilderment.

'What?'

'Poori! Poori Kumari! We'll call them Poori and Jalebi at home and Aditi and Sharmi for school.'

'WHAT? No!  No way. Are you crazy?!'

'Arnav, they're not their real names, just for at home. Like Di calls you Chottey!'

'That's not the same thing! I am NOT calling my daughters Jalebi, Poori, Gol Gappe and whatever other ridiculous foods you like!'

'They're MY daughters too!'

As Aditi and then Sharmi joined their parents in exercising their vocal capacities the rest of the family slowly left the hospital room, leaving the small crazy family to themselves.