The Departure

She kept sitting rooted against the bedpost looking at him packing his stuff as quickly as possible. He was running out of time yet it was hard to ignore the discreet composure with which he was managing those quick hand movements and paces back and forth across the room. 'Rags, come on wind up your stuff, quickly!'  he said while shoving the last set of clothes into his backpack and looking at the white wedding gown lying on the bed carelessly.

'Rags..?' He turned to look at her..tears started streaming down her eyes again..he let out an exasperated sigh and rushed to pile up her things in her travel bag. By now he had given up on making efforts to calm her down, she had been crying every now and then for past three days. No amount of words seemed to instill faith in her...she was being just as difficult as always.

He packed the wedding dress carefully along with the jewelry box that carried those beautiful platinum earrings that he had got her yesterday. Putting both of it inside her bag, he fished for other belongings of her that lay strewn all over his room. In next ten minutes he was done with packing both of theirs stuff and was all set to move.

She still sat entrenched in the corner with a blank expression. Nothing seemed to lay on her ear or mind to respond. All that she understood and did know was that he was going...going for an indefinite period.

He looked at her expectantly. 'Lets move?' he asked. Tears started rolling down her face again. The fear of losing him written all across her face. He knew it just too well what she was going through and it was difficult for him as well to see her in such despair but, he couldn't do anything; his duties towards his nation refrained him from staying back with his beloved fiancee.

Time was ticking away but then he was bound to make another, probably the last attempt to console her. He sat next to her, pulled her close to make her sit on his lap..she did and like always, her petite frame fitted in well against his staunch, stout body. One arm around her waist, the other wiping her tears and arranging her crazy wild curls behind her ear, he looked in her eyes that were swollen by now after bouts of crying, face red with the sudden rush of blood following his touch. She looked up at him and with a child like innocence asked what she had asked him a million times before in last three days - 'You'll come back, right?' 

He was at a loss of words for, he too was clueless about future but, there was faith and a passionate will to come back to her for lifelong togetherness; the sole reason to defy all odds with utmost ferocity. He pulled her closer and as if in an attempt to answer all her doubts, his lips found hers. A slow intense kiss that grew deeper with every passing second. He wanted to seep in deep in her and convey her his innermost belief that they will be toghether; he'll come back to stay with her forever. While for her, the time had freezed in the moments that she was savouring right then. His warmth, his presence, his love and the assurance that he was only with her and nobody else in the world at that point in time was beyond mere satisfaction.

It felt like eternity and then gently he held her hand and rolled the engagement band that he had slipped on her finger just 4 months back..'I'll come back'.. He held her finger up, still rolling the engagement band and showing it to her - 'This, will bring me back.' A smile at last crossed her face. She had no other option but to hold onto his faith and so she tried to.

Composing herself, she held him once again in one tight embrace and kissed him behind his ear before finally getting up to leave for the airport.