49- Thank you, next.

Erik stroked Ivan's back up and down and sighed as if a weight had lifted off his shoulders.

-There is nothing to be grateful for, now it's your turn and I hope you take care of them, okay?

Ivan released the hug and smiled at Erik, since he hadn't curved his lips in a long time, he almost believed that he had forgotten how to smile.

"You don't have to tell me, my life is theirs..." he exclaimed walking towards where Helena was.

The young brunette was sitting on a cement bench that was surrounded by beautiful violet flowers that seemed to frame her like a celestial goddess.

The young woman heard timid and slow steps approaching her, she looked up and smiled broadly.

Ivan felt his heart beat hard as he saw how the afternoon sun reflected in the honey-colored eyes in which he had so often lost himself for hours. He was dying to hug her tightly, kiss her passionately, drink from her and tell her when he loved her.

He moved even closer as Helena released an almost inaudible “Hello.” He noticed that her lover was carrying a small bundle in her arms, surrounded by a large green blanket that covered it from the breeze. He almost gasped, behind those fabrics was his little one of hers. He was about to meet him.

He carefully sat on the bench next to Helena, rubbing his hands on her pants with her nervousness, without stopping looking at Helena and her bulge again and again, not knowing what to say.

The young woman seemed to understand the fear in the dark gaze of her lover and she smiled understandingly.

-Do you want to charge it?

-I…. "I'm afraid of hurting him," she said with a trembling voice.

Helena laughed amused and brought the bundle closer to Ivan's chest.

At first the young man trembled, with his hands extended to his sides without knowing what to do, but he breathed deeply, feeling the soft aroma of baby perfume that calmed him little by little. With fear he wrapped the bundle in his arms and finally Helena moved hers away.

Ivan held the little boy with his arm while with the other, he carefully removed the fabric, revealing the tiny sleeping face that made him explode with love. So this is love at first sight, he thought as he realized that the same feeling had nested in his heart the first time he had run into Helena in that dirty alley.

"It's... perfect," he said, still shocked, observing every detail. His button nose, his long, bushy black eyelashes that caressed his rounded pink cheeks, his tiny, pink mouth and his bush of dark hair just like hers.

"He's just like you," she exclaimed proudly.

Ivan nodded his head while he felt his eyes moisten, inwardly he prayed to all the heavens that she only looked like him on the outside but that on the inside she was like his mother, brave, crazy and above all passionate.

"W-what's his name?" She asked with a trembling voice, not being able to look up from that little being who had been wonderfully born as a product of his love.

-Nicholas-

Finally, Ivan's eyes rose in amazement to Helena who was smiling sadly as she watched her little one.

-It's the least I could do in honor of Nick... he was a great friend and she... -she sobbed hard- I am here today thanks to him.

Ivan didn't know when he had started to cry, he brought his trembling body closer to Helena's. They both cried long and hard while guarding their child's body.

"Helena..." he finally said with a congested voice. "I promise to take care of them, love them and be a good father and husband... If you let me," he said with insecurity.

Helena couldn't contain the smile that appeared on her face, now she was crying, but with happiness In that moment he just listened a song, playing so far away, like coing rom the window with the air, it was an Ariana Grande song "thank you, next".

"I would be angry if you didn't," she exclaimed, making Ivan laugh.

The young man kissed his son's forehead, sealing his promise, then raised his gaze to Helena's honey eyes. He didn't have to ask, he could see on her face the desire and also the love that had been dormant for a long time, but now burst out. for all its pores.

Without saying anything else, he slowly approached her face until his lips shyly touched and finally sealed her love forever.

They didn't know what the future held for them, whether it would be gray or the cloud would finally move away to make way for a brighter future, far from crime and injustice. A much better world that little Nick deserved to live in.




End.