|: Through Thick and Thin :|
A/N: Hello folks! Hope everyone is doing fine out there.
This is something I've been wanting to do since a long long time, and it feels great to get it off my chest.
Ohh and yes, forgive me for borrowing some ideas from a couple of films, one of them being the awesomest everest 'Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani'. Special thanks to foreverknights28 for the inspiration.
Here we go…
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She was tired. Decidedly, terribly. Not of waiting for her husband to return home every single night. Not of worrying about whether she will see him safe and sound. Not of being brave enough to see him off every single morning, or whenever he vanished away for days- sometimes months- on a highly secretive mission.
She was tired, particularly, of the judgements, of those various statements everyone around her tried inculcating in her about how she should worry about all these 'concerns'. About apparently how marrying a cop was in itself a mistake.
Thinking about it couldn't stop her from letting out a snort.
Little did the world know that the promise she and her husband had made nearly two decades ago was enough to prove all these stereotypical worries wrong. The promise of staying together through times smooth and rough, the promise of being each other's strength no matter what life throws at them.
She was jaded by the agitation expressed by her husband's colleagues, when time was particularly hard. "Bhabhi, we're really worried for you!," Vivek had once said, his big hazel eyes showing evident traces of fear and concern. Although it was her husband having gotten shot in the stomach, lying unconscious for almost six hours, hers was calmest face visible amongst a team of seven officers outside the ICU that day.
"Don't be!" She had smiled at Vivek ever so calmly, assuring him she was fine. Vivek and Tasha had exchanged looks of astonishment, later grinning proudly at her courage.
There were those silent conversations she could share only with Vivek and Tasha, her husband's best friends, and she was utterly thankful about it.
All in all, to each of the comments and the judgments, she had only one answer which she gave very happily- marrying inspector Fredericks was the best decision of her life.
Ever since she knew him, she had seen and experienced and cherished every single ounce of time spent with Freddy, the moments resulting in the best of memories and the incidents giving the worst of nightmares.
For her, every second was precious when Freddy was with her.
The countless times when Freddy had bawled his eyes out confessing his deepest fears to her were as special as those little instances when he had laughed with her during nights whilst narrating how his colleagues pulled his leg in office.
Those fights where Freddy had been upset with her for not letting him work in her illness were equally treasured as those times when he had frowned the entire night for being told to do the dishes.
What mattered was the oath, the commitment both served. A commitment for life and much beyond that.
There were occasions where they had to go through the most dreaded moments. Being married to a cop carried its own pros and cons, and she was prepared for them since she loved Freddy. Suspicion, threats, extreme dangers and extensively fatal missions were routine in any police officer's life. And Freddy's was no exception.
However, over the course of seventeen years she had become immune to the perks of being married to a cop. Not because time had made her strong enough to stand by her husband. But because life had given her Freddy as a husband, a soulmate who made everything else futile.
Not because it was her duty to play a supportive wife. But because she was Freddy's wife.
In this unpredictable life of a cop, Freddy had never forgotten his duties as a husband. He had made sure she smiles remembering that every small memory they had shared.
Like the moment when Freddy had tried several failed attempts of proposing her, finally succeeding one day- night to be precise- at half past midnight, emerging out of nowhere from the window of her bedroom, nearly giving her a heart attack.
"What the hell, Freddy?" She was flabbergasted, almost getting paranoid once she had realised the scene in front of her was not a dream and she was wide awake.
"I… I couldn't sleep…," was all the poor guy could blabber, still coming to terms with the fact that he had actually summoned the courage to climb all the way to her window and to be standing in front of her to confess his love.
Manisha rolled her eyes in exasperation and slumped on the bed. "Come," she gestured him to sit beside her to which he obliged albeit warily.
There was one particular habit about him which fascinated her. The way his face reflected pure innocence when he was confident enough to handle the most difficult task ever, and when he shivered in nervousness at times which looked unclear to him.
That moment, she knew, was a combination of both and she thoroughly enjoyed watching him as his eyes were glued to the floor for complete ten minutes.
She fought down valiant fits of laughter, resting her chin on her palm as she waited for him to speak.
When he finally broke the silence, she was ready. "I.. umm.. I w-was thinking…," he started, his voice shaking as he spoke. "…thinking how to tell me that you're finally ready to get married." She completed the sentence for him, and burst out laughing once she saw the flummoxed look on his face. His eyes, it looked, would pop out any minute.
"Manisha! How-" Freddy was utterly confused, his eyebrows twitching uncomfortably, before she took a deep breath. "Freddy, you're asking me how do I know you're about to propose me? To that one person who has been waiting for this moment since forever and who knows exactly how do you react at which situation and who has been staying with you and has been studying every single of your behavioural traits, expecting and knowing just when you'll be proposing?! Really Freddy, you're an idiot!" She finished, shaking her head while his eyes went downcast.
"Manisha, you know.. my duty, your family, our-" he tried to speak, to which she snapped back. "Ohh hell, I am not interested in this stupid repeat telecast, Mr. Fredericks. Tell me where is the ring- or rose, or chocolate.. or whatever it is you've got for the proposal! There better be something, or be prepared to have a hard time, mind you!" She shot him a glare, to which he managed a nervous laugh.
After frantically searching his pocket for a while, he found something. It was a small white chocolate bar- one of her favourites- wrapped in a silver paper. "It was all I could find at this hour." Freddy said as he prepared to bend down. "Uh huh!" Her face produced a broad grin, her heartbeats racing in anticipation.
"So.. Miss Manisha," he cleared his throat as he continued, holding up the bar from one end. "Will you stay with me forever and continue studying and nagging at my behavioural traits? Like… for the rest of our lives, and even centuries after that?" His eyes twinkled in the moonlight as he spoke, and Manisha couldn't help but grin from ear to ear.
She lightly whacked him on his head before snatching the chocolate bar from his hands. "Yes, I will." She said. "On the condition that he gets me this same chocolate bar every year on this day!" She laughed.
The silence of that night was drowned in the triumph of their feelings and the words spoken through their hearts. They sat and talked and laughed till the sun rose.
Seventeen years- she smiled to herself. Not a single year had passed when Freddy had forgotten to bring her a bar of the same white chocolate on that very day.
A lone tear unknowingly slipped out of her eye making way down to her smiling lips as she recollected the moment.
Then there was the evening when Freddy had cooked the most tasteless food ever, making up for not being able to be with her for their anniversary the previous evening. She chuckled thinking how it had become one the best meals of her life, all of which were with Freddy- either made or helped by him.
The smiles and the laughs and talks she shared with him during all these meals gave way more flavour than the food.
The phone ring brought her back to reality as she recalled few such moments. She smiled seeing the number on screen. "Hi Bhabhi!" Tarika's voice came from the other end. "Lunch together?," the forensic expert asked. "There's no case reported today, and surprisingly my boss is in a good mood.," she giggled.
Taking a deep breathe, she replied. "Alright! What would you like to eat?," she asked, to which the forensic doctor's reply was instant. "Ohh don't bother! On the contrary, I'll get your favourite food from your favourite restaurant. How about that?" Tarika's voice seemed enthusiastic.
"Ok! I give in!" She laughed, ending the conversation and shook her head in amusement.
One more pleasure Freddy had given her was friends. Friends like Vivek and Tasha and Tarika who particularly cared for her. While others cared for them, these friends cared and laughed and cried with them. Friends who would die for them. Who they would die for.
She had always felt grateful to her husband for everything. For the laughs and the tears, the sunshines and the storms. For the happiness and the pain.
Because each moment brought her closer and closer to him. To the man, the husband and the eternally loving soul he was.
"Tired?" he used to ask her everyday as she welcomed him at the doorstep. "Not really!," she always used to lie, managing a smile after a long tedious day. And every night, once she lay on the bed, he gently massaged her back and neck, shaking his head at her.
She never needed to keep a secret from him, for he never failed to read her heart. Still, this continued every night.
She walked to their room where her husband was waiting for her. She stopped at the door, watching him as he lay on the bed, his eyes closed. She admired him, smiling as she proceeded.
"What an amazing lunch it was! Tarika just wouldn't stop talking. We had a great time, didn't we?," she laughed, and hurriedly added once she looked at him. "Yes, I know I have to keep a watch on my health. I'm doing it, Freddy! I'm working on it. Stop giving me those looks, will you?" She glared at her husband.
Though he didn't react, she smiled. Carefully, she straightened the blanket covering him. Like she had been doing every day since the past three months, ever since Freddy had been in a comatose state after getting shot in an encounter.
The tragedy, however, never changed her relationship with him. She talked to him, laughed with him and heard him. Every single moment. And she knew he could listen to her. And laugh with her.
"Everything is fine, Freddy. I am good. You are doing good. And one day, you will be absolutely fit and standing on your feet. And give me many more memories and laughs and smiles. I know you will, Freddy!" She smiled, gently moving a hand through his hair, as he lay motionless.
After all, it was a promise. To be with each other for eternity and anything after that. It was a pledge she had taken to be with him, to be his strength through thick and thin.
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~~ The End ~~
A/N: Phew! There I am! I know my writing style has been deteriorating given the loooong gap, but I am working on it.
Coming to the story, don't like; don't read. Any kind of (un)healthy criticism and comments shall be entertained. Not.
Danke!