Chaotic Tangles!

11||As You Like It

A/N: Just to clarify, this isn't your usual boy meets a girl and boom, fall in love story. There are mentions of quotes, literature, plays along with some psychology and psychiatry. I try my best to clarify the context, but if you don't get anything, please inline comment and I will explain. Happy reading!

3k words! Woof!

"My love is a gift from afar,
And a suffering when held dear!

-@Oldschoolstories_"

It was a regular morning, a more regular OPD and the most regular patients that Dr. Nandini Murthy knew how to deal with like a pro, but in that moment she found herself more annoyed than she had ever been in her life. Nothing the patient said, seemed to move her, or no amount of praises by her follow up patients and their families ought to made her smile. Though she was trying her level best to concentrate, it was safe to say her mind, and her heart wasn't there with her, it wasn't probably anywhere in the campus only. And it didn't take rocket science to figure out that a certain someone's absence was bugging her more than she thought it would.

Forwarding the OPD slip to the intern to pen down the medicines, Nandini clicked the ball pen in her hand, over and over, playing with it, as she stared into the space, her mind fuzzy with so many thoughts that it was almost driving her crazy. She looked at her watch and cursed inwardly, one more hour before they could close the OPD. Nandini sighed and looked around, all she wanted was some peace and there wasn't any until she could meet him, or maybe at least check on him to see how he was recovering. It was the fourth day he was on a forced leave.

Excusing herself by feigning a headache, Nandini asked the residents to continue with the patients and ring her if needed, while she would like to go sit in the adjacent cabin, in some silence for a while. Even then, Nandini wasn't sure how much of silence her mind would offer her, despite her silent surroundings.
Keeping her bag on the table, Nandini leaned back on the leather chair, holding her head in her hands.

Only if this would have been one of Meera's cliche love stories, where the female lead gets to care for the male lead, change his shirt, feel the goosebumps of his bare skin, share eye locks while dressing and get closer to each other's soul! She would care for him, help him eat, pat him to sleep and kiss his forehead, wouldn't she?

Nandini's eyes snapped open at the thought and she stared wide eyed into the space. What the hell was she thinking? Male lead? Female lead? Bare skin? She shook her head to clear it of the images, fiction does severe damages to people's notion of reality sometimes.

Clicking her tongue, Nandini gulped down the glass of water kept on the table and tried to control her rapid breathing. What the heck was she thinking?

It had to be her guilt, her need to apologise to Manik for risking his life and also....judging him all this while. Yes, that was why she was thinking about him so much. That and probably the incident that had happened the next morning she had come to see him, hoping he would listen to her once.

Nandini impatiently waited for the elevator to ding so that she could go see Manik immediately. Last night he had fallen asleep real soon, but she hadn't left his bedside for a long time after that. She had continued to sit by him, taking in his features, the sharp jawline, the cut beneath his jaw, his broad shoulders - everything and anything she wasn't allowed to stare at during broad daylight, everything and anything that would help her understand the person Manik Malhotra was, beyond his professional glee and composed smile.

After a really restless night's sleep, Nandini had woken up disturbed, the need to apologise so unhinged that it had unnerved her. She had spent a good chunk of time making him soup, ignored all of Meera's questions and stares and then left for the hospital as soon as she could.