Arranged by the Stars

by Kamy Chetty

  Kieran watched the monitor and the oxygen sats machine. “He is all over the place. There is insulin in the cupboard. Use that syringe and draw up twenty units.”

  Ash looked through all the vials in the cupboard. Luckily the medication was labelled in alphabetical order. She found the insulin and took it to Kieran. He watched her draw up the twenty units.

  “Do you know how to administer that?” he asked.

  She’d see it done before. A slight nod. He was too busy to come over and teach her how to give an injection. She felt the needle go into his skin and then she pushed the plunger. “Is that okay?” She couldn’t remember if she had to swab after.

  He nodded and then pointed to the drawer next to her. “We need to put up an intravenous line so we can give him some fluids. He needs an insulin infusion and―”

  Ash opened the draw. “Potassium. I remember this from the test.”

  “The test?” Did he actually seem impressed that she remembered all the clinical stuff she had to learn?

  “I studied really hard for that test.” She lifted her chin.

  His gaze softened. “Ash, you wouldn’t have been tested on that in the first six months of your training.”

  She took out everything she needed for putting in an IV line. She’d seen it done so many times. She even wanted to practice it but no one would let her. She offered her arm to Karl once but he said something about fainting at the sight of blood. “I think we have everything we need.”

  The monitor started beeping again and the patient was looking an ugly pale colour. “Ash, he is about to lose consciousness. I will need to start chest compressions. We need that line in. Which do you want to do?”

  Both tasks were important but she wasn’t competent in either. How was she going to choose? “Tell me what to do.”

  Kieran was next to her in seconds. “I want you to place one hand over the other and commence compressions. Like they taught you when you were on the boat.”

  Something else he remembered. She wished he wouldn’t bring up these things. “I wasn’t very good at it. The instructor told me to stick to beauty school.”

  That breath he took was to compose himself. She waited for him to tell her to leave. She hoped he would ask for someone else. Instead he squeezed her hand and said. “You can do this. You can fix things too.”

  Ash did three rounds of counting to thirty and then took the large resus bag and breathed for the man, as Kieran tried for intravenous access. Before she started the fourth cycle of thirty compressions, Jessie was back with news that the ambulance was on its way and the crowd was safely outside.

  She took over compressions and Ash helped Kieran secure the line. What seemed like hours would have been minutes, but when Jessie turned to them, with a thumbs up, Ash knew that the surge of energy was more than an adrenaline rush.

  As they watched the ambulance leave with the crowd following close behind, Kieran took her into his arms and placed a kiss on top of her head. It felt nice to be safe, but she felt like she’d just run a marathon.

  “You were amazing today,” Kieran pulled her closer.

  “Does it always feel this way?” she asked.

  He bent down and gave her another kiss. “What way?”

  Her head tipped up and she smiled. “I feel absolutely wasted, like the time I had to enter the Miss Bollywood contest. Only that time, I didn’t feel this exhilarated at the same time.”

  “Saving a life will do that to you,” he took her hand in his and lifted it to his lips.

  “You get to feel this every day?” she asked.

  He stopped and faced her. “I do, but what’s better than that is being with you every day.”

  He was absolutely impossible to deal with. “Kieran, I’ve made a decision about what I want to do with my life.”

  His lips turned into a smile. “Finally you’ve made the decision to become a nurse. I could have saved you time, if you’d let me.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut. This was it. If he laughed then she knew it was an insane idea. “I want to be a doctor. A paediatrician.”

  She counted to three and opened her eyes. She expected shock. Disbelief. Maybe even him laughing his head off, what she wasn’t expecting was the amazement that she saw. “You haven’t said anything.”

  His gaze went to the sky and she felt the need to follow. He was quiet and it scared her. What if he didn’t think she could do it? What if he was amazed because she was dreaming too big?

  He pulled her closer and pointed to the brightest star. “You can’t tell me that the stars haven’t changed now.”

  The gurgle of laughter came from deep within and she didn’t know that happiness could feel like this. So absolutely complete. There wasn’t a thing more she wanted.

  *****

  When Kieran laid her on the bed that night, she knew this was the beginning of their lives together. His gaze found her and he swept her hair away from her face and bent down to kiss the corner of her lips. “Tell me again?”

  How was it possible not to have told him sooner? “I love you with everything that I am. I am yours to take and I will marry you.”

  His teeth scraped along her lips. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear that. I feel whole now.”

  Her hand went to the back of his head and she pulled him closer. How could he not know that it was always him and everything else was just words? “You know you have my heart.”

  He dipped his head down and placed a kiss on her breast. “I know, but even I can be old fashioned sometimes.”

  That she knew. He’d changed for her but he was still a typical Indian boy with his typical ways and she realised she didn’t mind. Her body shook with unspent desire as his hands roamed their length and she knew it would take a lifetime before she’d stop feeling the heat of his touch.

  She was too scared to ask him if it was like this with everyone. His lips closed around her nipple and she shuddered. “You don’t mind it’s going to be a while before we can marry?”

  His hand dipped down and caressed her thigh. Ash felt a new wave of desire and she lifted her hips in anticipation of his touch. “I can wait for you to marry me, Dr Kapoor.”

  She gasped as his hand found her opening. “That has a nice ring to it. You won’t mind me keeping my name?”

  His lips touched hers briefly. “I don’t as long as you wear my ring.” In the next breath he nipped at her lips and his fingers slipped inside her and this time she didn’t want to talk.

  Flipping him onto his back, she crawled on top of him and watched his eyes darken with desire. “I love you.”

  His hands went to her hips and he guided her forward until she was at his tip. “I must be the luckiest man in the world.”

  Slowly she lowered herself onto him and felt his full length inside her. It took her a few seconds to get used to being stretched so fully, but it wasn’t long before her body was burning up and she was forced to rock against him. “Tell me if I’m hurting you,” she said.

  He pulled her down for a kiss and she smothered his laugh. “Like I said, luckiest man.”

  She rocked against him and pressure built inside her, all this time she thought her instinct would be to slow down and enjoy the moment, but her body had a mind of its own. The faster she moved, the more pleasure built inside her and she was sure there was something, just beyond, she had to move faster to reach.

  When the millions of lights behind her eyes exploded and the multiple spasms ripped through her, Ash knew that this moment has to be perfection. To prove her wrong Kieran lifted her up and rocked her harder and Ash went a lot higher before falling onto the other side of the world.

  It was hours before she could move and when she did, she realised that the blue velvet box was on her pillow. “What’s this?”

  Kieran placed his head on his elbow and watched her. “That is the promise of the future. I do believe you said yes to my marriage proposal. You also said yes to wearing my ring.”

  She
sat up and opened the box. It had taken so long to get here.

  Kieran placed a hand on her thigh and smiled. “Remember when you were a waitress and you said, let me quote. ‘I will not marry you Dr Kanna.’”

  She nodded and wiped away a tear. “We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?”

  He sighed. “Your parents will be proud.” He took the ring from the box and placed it on her finger.

  Unable to take her eyes off the ring, she placed her head on his shoulder. “How do you know the exact thing to say to me?”

  He pulled her closer. “It’s written in the stars.”

  EPILOGUE

  “You’re going to be late.” Kieran watched Ash check her make-up in the mirror and then he tapped his watch.

  “You try doing this when you’re eight months pregnant and see how that goes?” she pulled a face at him.

  He gave her a wide berth and watched as she walked ahead of him.

  Julie met Ash at the foot of the steps and she helped straighten her sari. She still hadn’t mastered the technique of tying a sari.

  “You look beautiful. You are going to be the best looking graduate there.” Julie said.

  Ash turned to Kieran whom she was finding in the way, quite often recently. Even when he was breathing, it was too loud. “Well, what are you waiting for? I can’t be here standing all this time, where is the car?”

  Julie Kanna hid her smile and Ash made a note to ask her why later. Half an hour later she watched him help his parents to their seats before he came over to her.

  She was shifting uncomfortably in her chair.

  “Do you want me to get another chair for you?” he asked.

  “Kieran, I think I’m in labour,” Ash grabbed hold of his hand and then tried to breathe through pursed lips.

  The music started and the Dean of the university started with his speech. Ash looked at the rest of the crowd and realised that having a baby in front of all these people would not be the worse thing they went through.

  “Maybe we should go to the hospital. I know this means a lot to you, but if the baby is about to be born―” His gaze focused on hers. “You’re really in labour aren’t you?”

  The pain was nothing like she’d expected. No one warned you about labour. They said pain you forget as soon as the baby is born. They didn’t say agony or excruciating or any of the other words that described what she was going through.

  He called his mother over, although she was getting less frustrated with him, she wished he hadn’t. “Kieran, I don’t need your mother over here.”

  He bent down and placed a kiss on her lips. “You worked too hard for this. Wait here, I’ll be back.”

  She watched him walk over to the Dean and then whisper something to him. She waited for security to come and throw him out, even worse she waited for the ambulance to come in screeching and lift her off in a helicopter.

  Instead there was more whispering and more movement from up ahead. Julie was holding tightly onto her and she smiled. “What is he up to?”

  She shrugged and like her watched Kieran as he helped the people on the podium move things around. Then when she thought it was over and he was coming back to take her home, he lifted her into his arms and as they called her name as a graduate, and took her to get her certificate.

  She held on tighter to him as she awkwardly grabbed the certificate from the Dean’s hand. As they walked away, she couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down her cheeks. “How did I get so lucky to have you walk into my life?”

  He smiled and tightened his grip. “I was just looking for a good cup of coffee and the rest is history.”

  There were still moments in that delivery room that she’d look over and wonder if this was real or some dream, after all Kieran wasn’t the man in the stuffy suit she met all those years ago. As he fed her ice chips she remembered the man who sat next to her when she was recovering from the bullet wound, feeding her ice. As he clutched her hand, she remembered how he held her hand and helped her choose her own destiny in front of a crowd of people.

  Was it possible to have one man stand by her through all of time?

  This time when he squeezed her hand, he made her focus. “You need to push, as hard as you can.”

  The next moments went so fast that all she remembered was burning and pushing and screaming. Then crying, the crying wasn’t her that she knew.

  “It’s a girl,” the doctor said as he handed the scissors to Kieran.

  Ash sat up. “Be careful.”

  His gaze met hers. “I think she has your eyes.”

  After the cord was cut her baby was placed on her chest. “I was wrong.”

  Kieran covered their daughter with a blanket and he watched as she tried to nuzzle her way up to her breast. “Wrong about what?”

  Ash looked down at the fuzzy head that lay between them. “There was a time I thought I had perfection. I know there is no such thing as perfection, but this is what perfection should look like. This is what our perfection should look like.”

  Kieran placed a kiss on her cheek. “I like that. Our perfection.”

  THE END

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