What could have been...

Chapter 6 - Welcome back

This chapter became more lengthy than I thought. So, I had to divide it into two. This is just a sort of filler chapter. The main action will happen in the next one.

10 days later

Finally, Manik was back home. As per the doctor's advice, he was on complete bed rest since the last few days. It wasn't like he had much choice. Nandini wouldn't allow him to move an inch from the bed. Coming back to Mumbai did seem to have helped. Everything seemed to be getting back to normal. Everybody was bonding like the old times. Manik even met Abeer. Navya brought him to the hospital one day.

Manik's condition was improving. But still there were certain things that could cause a problem if brought up. So, everyone was trying to avoid those things. As the doctor had said, mental stress was not good for Manik. One of these problems were Nyonika. Manik still didn't know that she was the one behind the blast and that she had left. Nandini wasn't sure how he would react when he comes to know about it. She was scared of his reaction. So, she was avoiding talking about her infront of him and she had also asked everyone else to do the same.

Even Manik seemed to be avoiding talking about Nyonika as he had not once mentioned her or asked about her. So, everything seemed to be going fine. They even talked to the manager of O2. After knowing about everything, he even agreed to give them some more time so that Manik gets completely fine and they get back to making music.

Now, Manik had just come back home from the hospital and the whole gang was present in his room. Everyone was spread out all over the room. Manik sitting on the bed with Nandini beside him, Dhruv sprawling on the bed opposite to them with his head on Alya's lap, Navya and Aryaman sitting on the single sofas busy on their phones. At that moment, Mukti entered the room and groaned looking at them, 'Oh God!! Come on guys! Spare me the cuteness.' She made a disgusted face and earned a pillow from Manik, a 'shut up' from Dhruv and chuckles from everyone else.

She threw Manik's pillow on Dhruv, making him sit up on the bed and herself sat down on the bed too. She looked at everyone and said, 'How can you guys be so boring? Manik is back after such a long time! This calls for a celebration! It's time to party!'

Before anyone of them could answer, they heard another voice, answering Mukti's question, from the door, 'Yes! It is time to party.' They looked towards the door and saw Mr. Srikant Malhotra standing and smiling at them. All this while, when Manik was in the hospital in Mumbai, Srikant had been going up and down Mumbai and Pune, handling his business in Pune and coming to meet his son in Mumbai. Nyonika had put enough differences between this father-son duo. Now was the time to make up for it.

Srikant tried to spend as much time with Manik as he could. Within a short period of time, he had developed a good bonding with all of them. Seeing him, all of them, except for Manik, rushed to him and took turns to greet him. Manik too wanted to go and hug his father, but one glare from Nandini and he decided that he better stay in his place if he wanted to stay alive.

After greeting everyone, Srikant came and sat on the bed beside Manik. Taking him in a side hug, he asked, 'How are you feeling now?' Manik smiled hugging him back and said, 'Fantastic.' They broke the hug and Srikant, turning towards Mukti, said, 'How about we organise a big party, like, a proper party. Call all the students of your college and I'll call my business associates. Manik Malhotra is back and we need to announce it in style. The Malhotra style.' He said with a smirk at the end. Manik had totally taken his attitude from his father.