Chaotic Tangles!

Chapter 4||Awkward

The heart has its reasons which reasons knows not.
-Blaise Pascal.

"Dr. Nandini?", Dr. Manik called her name again but she kept on staring at him, her eyes depicting her surprise. Her doe were eyes wide with the shock she could not hide. Manik noticed, and bit his lip at the slip of tongue but there was nothing he could do to undo that.

"Dr. Nandini?", Shweta who was sitting just beside Nandini nudged her, and she was jolted back into the reality. Averting her eyes from both of them, she passed the prescription pad to Manik. The fact the he didn't meet her eyes either, helped.

Shweta watched the duo with a frown settled on her face. Both were acting weird, but then she wasn't in a place to question her senior resident or an attending professer. All she could do was gossip about it to her fellow mates but then she respected Dr. Manik a bit too much to mock him.

The entire time Manik and Nandini didn't speak to each other again. Nandini did took a note of the new cases Manik saw, his way of dealing and any newer drugs he used, but she refrained herself from asking any questions she normally did. Manik didn't even turn his chair towards the ladies anymore, forget interacting, which was a surprise more to Shweta because usually Dr. Manik was a good teacher alongside a physician.

That was until a sixteen year old girl walked in with her mother who had a really worried expression. She walked first to Nandini's side since Manik was already busy with a patient.

Shweta took her slip and entered in the register before handing it over to Nandini. Nandini noticed the girl was not looking at them and was frowning to herself, while her mother looked almost in tears.

"Doctor my child has been having these weird moods all the time. She won't talk to me, or any of us at home, won't eat and would close herself in her room. One of my relatives who study psychology said these frequent mood changes are seen in Schizophrenia. My child isn't mad, is she? ", the mother broke down while both Shweta and Nandini were taken aback. Manik heard the history too, but he kept mum wanting to see how Nandini dealt with it.

Now Nandini clearly observed that it wasn't the mood of the child that was worrying her folks, but the affect. But to test her theory, she asked the girl her name and a few more questions while the girl sat playing with her mobile in her hand. Nandini noticed something and smiled to herself and the mischievous look on her face amused Manik.

" You know Shweta, when I was her age, I was a huge One direction fan. But these days I think kids like Shawn Mendes more, especially with that 'senorita' girl! What's her name again?", Nandini asked Shweta, her peripheral vision on the girl whose eyes she clearly saw lightning up on the reference.

"Camilla Cabello. Shawmila is the ship name", the girl answered excitedly and Nandini pretended to share her excitement as they both got indulged in a conversation about the same.

Shweta was confused as to what Nandini was doing but Manik had a face that said he was impressed. Once done, Nandini pacified the mother stating her child wasn't schizophrenic but was probably having a mood change that was common with adolescents. She advised her for a counselling session and before they could refuse, Manik took over, making the mother understand how Counselling was meant only to know what disturbed her daughter so much. He agreed to counsel her himself and asked Shweta to schedule it ASAP. Once they were gone, he turned to Nandini and nodded softly.

"Well done Dr. Murthy. You have your concepts clear", Nandini slightly blushed at the compliment but managed to smile a little, but Manik's chuckle diverted her attention to Shweta who clearly hadn't grasped what had happened.

"You didn't get what she did, did you?", Manik asked, and Shweta dutifully shook her head.

"Okay, tell me the difference between mood and Affect", Manik questioned and Shweta raised her eyebrows.