As Long As I Live

To Remember The Rules

To all the amazing people whose wonderful comments for my last chapter helped me get out of my writer's block.

This chapter for you guys!!

Happy Reading!

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"Are you feeling all right Mayra?"

The doctor asked gently pulling Mayra out of her dizzying thoughts and confusion. It felt like pushing away a very heavy curtain that was blocking her consciousness to be able to open her eyes.

She opened her eyes slightly and then promptly shut them. The bright sunlight flooding the room from the huge glass window was making her head ache worse. It was a violent pounding. She raised both her hands and pressed them to her temples.

"Is your head hurting, Mayra?" The Doctor asked gently.

She realized two things at once when she tried to answer in the affirmative. One, her throat was too dry for her to speak, and two, the young Doctor was being very nice. Why was he being nice to her? Surely Aamir and her parents and all of her family would have told him she wasn't important enough to be treated kindly.

"Would you like some painkillers?"

Numbly, she nodded her head and the action caused the pounding to worsen making her whimper. Tears ran down her face even as the doctor injected something into the IV line in her hand. Within moments, the pain receded considerably, and she was able to open her eyes fully.

The doctor asked her, "Better Mayra?"

"Yes," she replied, her voice excessively hoarse. "W..water."

A nurse standing by her bed moved quickly. Gently raising her head, she pressed the glass to her lips. Mayra finished the whole glass as quickly as she could, having been deprived of water for weeks her throat was parched. The nurse put her head back on the bed as the doctor stepped forward.

"Ok Mayra, I need to talk to you about your current condition, but you need to keep calm. I can't have you breaking down emotionally again. Or else, I'll come back later. Do you want to do this now?"

She nodded. Her heart was beating faster as she started to fear the words that the doctor was going to utter. What was wrong with her? Already everybody hated her, now with health issues how much more humiliation would she have to suffer?

What would Aamir say if he got to know?

Did he know?

The doctor watched the monitor as it beeped repeatedly signaling the spike in her heart rate. "Mayra, calm down. Nothing is wrong. Your fine."

"What?" She asked, confused and scared.

"Okay, here is the whole list of what happened. When you had the accident, you suffered a terrible head injury, sprained your right hand, fractured your left ankle, had bruises and minor internal bleeding in your abdomen. There was serious blood loss.

We infused enough blood to stabilize your vitals, but the head injury had kept you unconscious. So we operated on your head, and removed a pretty big blood clot. Now, since your memory, vision, hearing and intelligence are all working fine, I need you to move your hands and legs, just a little, one at a time. Then, I'll be completely sure that your accident has had no lasting effects on your body. Can you do that?"

For the next half an hour Mayra tested her limbs. Her hands were working fine, she already knew that, but she had no idea that her legs could be affected. She tried doing what the doctor asked her to do, but the fracture made it very difficult for her to move her leg. It hurt her really bad, but despite the pain, she did as the doctor asked. She had to know if everything was alright with her, and when the doctor smiled and said that she was completely ok, she slumped back into the pillows, limp with overwhelming relief.