A/N: Krittika, I think I won't be available at your birthday, and I desperately want to write this story for your birthday, I don't know whether I will be able to complete the whole story before that special day or not - but i will surely try. Consider this story as your birthday gift dear from me. And others, please read this story, this one is my favourite one, so please have mercy while reviewing :)

The morning sun touched his face, he flinched, his lips curled a bit. He opened his eyes with great effort. He found a slender figure moving the curtains aside. He tried to make himself sit, she came and held him. She made him sit properly.

"kaise ho tum aaj?" She asked softly, as usual.

He avoided the question. He averted his gaze from hers. "Aaj date kya hai sister?" He asked rather casually looking outside the only window present at the room - or better to sat at the cell.

The sister looked at him with amusement. He never asked any question like this in such a long period.

"9th October my Son", she replied without shifting her gaze from his face. He closed his eyes And bit his lips.

yes, he was a fighter, a warrior, but it is much harder than fight in the battlefield, GOD only knows how much it is difficult for him to bear each day, to drag a whole day being alive! Alive! He sighed. He looked at his crippled legs on the bed...

that pair of legs which ran after so many of criminals without being tired a bit are now lying like some rotten sticks on the bed. He could not sense those ... He looked around. His cell is much neater than others, there were no equipments attached with his body, there was no monitor beeping beside him. No saline, no injection - he is all good!

yes he is. But is this crippled person really himself? Is this man actually bearing any resemblance with that so called daring and dashing senior inspector!

no, he could not do this to himself! He could not allow him to remember those days - those beautiful days of his life - so much alive - so much fuller.

he did not have any complaint against GOD. WHY should he? He had lived his life at his best, he got all of them - his family his friends... And he lost so less in comparison to his gain, isn't it?

He closed his eyes. There are faces came to his mind. Faces that he could never forget - or rather he could never want to forget.

many voices echoed into his ears, but it seemed to him coming from another life! Isn't it really another life altogether?

he opened his eyes with a jerk as soon as his mind pictured the bright smile he wanted to avoid. That million dollar smile he could die for once! Those beautiful curls, her soft touch... God he could even feel her touch now... He actually could not understand what he actually want - to forget or to hold the memory? The sense of her presence - so prominent yet so far away...

it has been months here in this home for physically challenged people. He did not even the least idea about what they thought about him! Is he dead to them? How are they? HOW IS SHE?

when the bullet touched his body he lost his hope of life, he was falling on the ground at that very moment he could only remember the last night that they spent together... He never wanted to spend the most important night of 'their' life in such manner - heaven knows he really did not! But love is intoxicating, isn't it? Passion overruled his logic that night. Each and every moment of that unearthly night is imprinted on his mind...

almost an year passed... Sometimes he questioned his mind - is he doing right? There are times of weakness too. But he knew he could not go back - he could not go back to them, they would accept him in spite of all his in capabilities, but in return what could he give to them, other than his crippled curse! Time is the best healer - people say so... In course of time they will learn to live their life without the name called ABHIJEET, surely they will. He could only hope. He turned his face a little bit to look at the bed side table - there was a locket kept there - he took that and hesitated - he thought for a while then opened it with trembling fingers with so much care - the locket opened - the both side contains two little photos - of two of his dearest persons - his brother and his Love - he touched the faces on the picture, and closed his eyes...