Since You've Been Gone

by poesiariptide

After being apart for five long years, Abhijeet and Tarika find that they have a lot to catch up on. Sequel to Small Mercy.

::/Since You've Been Gone/::

A/N: The credit for this idea goes entirely to Vampire Breath. The story is mine but the basic idea (Abhirika catching up on what they've missed in the past five years) is hers. So you can say it's kind of a combined thing. :D

This story takes place a few days after the end of Small Mercy, which means Abhirika have been married for almost two weeks. I got the title from a song.

Hope you like! :)

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"And when I'm big I'll catch bad people, too," Adi declared drowsily, and let out a huge yawn.

"I'm sure you will, darling." Tarika knelt down in front of him and pulled his pyjama top over his head. Climbing up beside him onto the bed, she smoothed his hair and hugged him close. "But you have to become a CID officer first, don't you?"

Adi snuggled against his mother, his eyelids drooping. "When I'm big."

She kissed him on the forehead and laid him down carefully, covering him up with the blankets. "Of course. Now go to sleep like a good boy, OK?"

"Mamma?"

"Hmm?"

The little boy's shiny dark eyes were fixed on her face. "Mamma, why does Papa keep staring at me all the time?"

It certainly wasn't a question Tarika had been expecting, and she found herself at a loss for words as Adi continued to gaze steadily up at her. For a second, she couldn't tell if it was Adi looking at her or his father.

"Mamma."

She let out a sigh, and reached over to ruffle Adi's hair. "Because he's trying to make up for the four years he didn't see you." She bit her lip, averting her eyes, and Adi looked thoughtfully at her for a minute before shrugging. "OK." He shut his eyes and rolled over onto his side, the blankets covering him almost completely so that only his head was visible. "Goodnight, Mamma," he mumbled sleepily.

"Goodnight, beta." Tarika patted his head, and sat there watching him for several minutes before getting up and leaving the room, making sure to put on the nightlight before she did so. Adi wasn't afraid of the dark any more, but it was better to be safe than sorry, especially now that he was sleeping alone.

As she went out into the hall, she sat down heavily in the nearest armchair and sighed. Adi was just too observant and inquisitive for his own good. Of course, she knew perfectly well where he got that from...

Speaking of which, where was he? She cast a quick glance around, but there was no sign of him, which meant he was probably in their room. Getting to her feet, she headed in that direction, the shuffling of her bare feet echoing around the empty hall.

He was there all right- sitting on the bed and looking at something that he was holding. She stood in the doorway, looking at him. All of a sudden, he spoke. "Come here." He didn't look at her as he said it.

Wondering what the matter was, she went over tentatively and stood near him. He reached up, caught her hand and pulled her down beside him. It was then that she saw what he was holding, and her breath caught as she looked down at it. It was something she hadn't seen in quite some time.

It was a photo, quite old, taken when she had been pregnant with Adi. She was standing in the beach, her hair tied in a ponytail hanging over her left shoulder with a few loose curls blowing in the wind. She wore a checked shirt in shades of blue and purple, and one hand was curved over her swollen belly. There was a pensive, slightly worried expression on her face as she looked down at it.

Now, as she looked down at the photo, the same expression was mirrored on her face.

When Abhijeet spoke, his voice echoed around the room even though it was merely a whisper. "Who took it?"

"Muskaan. When I wasn't looking."

His voice dropped even lower, so low that she almost didn't hear. "How... how far along were you?"

Her eyes went downcast, her voice quietening to match his. "Six months." She smiled, a faint, rueful smile. "That was when I really started showing." She pointed to her six-month-old belly in the photo. "Little kids used to come up to me all the time asking if they could feel it. Muskaan used to tease me mercilessly whenever that happened." She smiled again, a slightly happier smile this time, at the memory. Abhijeet, however, looked away, his face unreadable all of a sudden.

"Hey." Tarika tugged on his hand. "Don't." If there was one thing that upset her beyond anything else, it was Abhijeet shutting her out. She'd dealt with it enough in the past to last her a lifetime.

He took a deep breath, apparently trying to compose himself, and held her hand lightly. "Do you... you know... have any others?"

For the second time that night, Tarika faced a question she hadn't been expecting. "I should..." She cast a cursory glance around the room. "Where did you find this one?"

"In one of your files. The one you left on the table." He gestured to the nearby shelf, where the file in question was currently placed, and she rose and crossed the room to get it. She rummaged through the file for a few seconds before pulling something out and returning to the bed. "Here."

Abhijeet took the photo she was holding out. It showed her sitting on a sofa with her legs curled under her. She was wearing a dark pink T-shirt and light, slightly frayed jeans, with her hair gathered up messily. Adi, who looked only a few months old, was in her arms, sitting on her lap. He was in a blue and grey sweatshirt, and his small face was glowing with an adorable toothless grin as one tiny hand reached up to touch his mother's face.

"He was five months and three weeks old," Tarika said quietly. There was something in her voice that made Abhijeet raise his head to look at her. Her head was bowed, her hair falling forward over one shoulder.

He knew she was upset, but all he felt at that moment was a mixture of hurt and indignant. "You could have just come home, you know," he told her in a low, toneless voice. "Or better still, you could have just stayed. And told me you were- we were- going to have a baby."

"You know why I did that." Her voice was cracking now. "And it wasn't because I wanted to."

This was the first time they were actually discussing this topic, ever since Tarika had given her explanation on the night Abhijeet finally met Adi. Somehow, though, it seemed much worse now. She felt tears pricking at her eyes, and blinked them away at once.

It didn't escape Abhijeet's notice, and he couldn't help feeling guilty all of a sudden. Reaching up, he touched her face, turning it towards him. "Hey. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

She shook her head slightly, still refusing to look at him. He sighed, moving closer to her so that their noses were almost touching. "Baby, look at me, please?"

"I'm hardly a baby," she mumbled. "I'm the mother of a four-year-old."

Abhijeet grinned in spite of himself. "Well, let me make myself clear, then. Adi's our baby, but you're my baby."

"Fair enough," she admitted. He leaned in towards her, but she turned her face away before his mouth could reach hers. "What's wrong?" he asked in surprise. She hadn't done that since the early days of their relationship- and even then, it was only because she had been exceptionally shy.

There was no reply from her except a shake of the head, and she bit her lip. "It doesn't... feel right. Adi-"

"-is asleep," Abhijeet finished. "And we aren't high-school kids, you know. Like you so correctly pointed out earlier, we're the parents of a four-year-old." His voice lowered as he took her hands in his. "And not to mention... I've spent the last five years without you."

That did it. Tarika's eyes filled with tears once again, and Abhijeet reached up and wiped them away as they slid down her cheeks. "So did I," she whispered. "Only I spent those five years taking care of our child. And trying, every single day, to not get depressed over you, because Adi needed me and I had to be strong for him."

"I need you, too," Abhijeet whispered, pulling her into his arms and holding her tightly to him. "The whole time you were gone, there wasn't a single day I didn't miss you. And going to the lab was just torture."

She hugged him, burying her face in his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"It's OK." He gave her a kiss on the forehead. "I just wish I'd been with you through it all. I wish I'd been there when Adi was born, when he said his first word, when he first learned to walk..." He shook his head helplessly. "I've missed so much of his life."

"But now you don't have to." Tarika sat up and looked earnestly into his face. "We're here now. Adi's here. I'm here. So what if you missed out on his first word and his first walk? You'll see him ride his first cycle, you'll teach him how to throw a punch after the first fight he gets into- not that any son of mine will go around getting into fights unless it's for an completely valid reason-"

"OK, OK, I get the picture," Abhijeet laughed. "And when he gets older I'll help him get his first girlfriend-"

"-not that any son of mine is going to go around dating randomly just for fun-"

"-and I'll train him to shoot like a pro-"

"In other words, like you," Tarika said, smirking. "But can we please get back to the present before we start planning our four-year-old son's wedding?"

"Right," Abhijeet conceded with a wry smile. "And at present..." He slipped his arms around her, his nose tickling her neck. "The son in question is sound asleep in his room, and you and I are all alone in this room."

She smiled as she leaned back against him. "We have a lot of catching up to do, don't we?"

"A lot," he emphasised. "How about we start with you telling me where you got his name from?"

(A/N: Well, we all know where I got his name from, but she can hardly have the same reason, now, can she? ;) xD)

Tarika shrugged. "Well, in the first place, I wanted a name that started with A. I chose Aditya because it means sun, and that's what he is. My sunshine." She beamed at the photo of herself with baby Adi, which lay on the bed near her. Abhijeet, however, held her tighter, his face tense all of a sudden. "What's the matter?" she questioned, looking curiously at him.

He shook his head. "It's just..." The thought of Tarika- his Tarika- scared and pregnant and completely alone in a different city, was just too terrible for him to even imagine. "What if Muskaan hadn't been there? Anything could have happened to you. And Adi..." His hand moved unconsciously to her stomach, where Adi had once resided all those years ago. "I don't even want to think about it."

"Then don't." She put her hand over his. "Just don't think about it at all. We're home, and we have our family. All of us, from ACP sir to Adi." She twisted around to face him. "The past five years... that's what they are. The past. This is the present, this is where our life starts." She cast a despairing look into his face. "You get what I'm saying?"

Abhijeet nodded slowly, and hugged her. "Remind me again what I'd do without you?" he murmured in her ear, and she smiled faintly. "You'd be the same old grouchy, severe, eternally angry senior inspector we all know and love."

"Why thank you, I'm immensely flattered," he said drily, and she giggled. "But thankfully, you're not," she added, and he rolled his eyes, though he couldn't help grinning. Leaning back against the pillows, he slowly pulled his wife down beside him. "Now that we've got that cleared up... how about picking up where we left off?"

Tarika's smile seemed to fill the whole room. "That's the best idea you've had all day."

~THE END~

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A/N: Phew! Finally! I have to admit, this was one difficult story to write. Mainly because the idea wasn't mine in the first place, but hey, what's life without a few challenges, right? :D Sorry I didn't include much detail, but I was under quite a bit of stress to finish this (because after this, I won't be posting any stories until September... my exams are coming and before that I'm going out of town for a week too, so you know how it is.)

As I said in the beginning, hope you liked! Please review and let me know. :)