Chapter Two - Aftermath

Victor was the one who turned off the water.

For the last 5 moments they were just standing there, clung together holding each other tightly together.
Nikki’s head was leaning against Victor's chest, their arms warped around each other.

Victor turned the tap and the water stopped running, they were standing in the shower for a good 25 minutes, and the water were getting cold.

But it seemed like hours.

Nikki was the first one to break the contact between them..

She pulled back a little bit and trembled as cold air touched her skin, she opened her eyes and looked at him, not without an inner struggle, she felt vulnerable, exposed and sort of ...Ashamed.

Victor opened his eyes slowly and looked into hers, and said quietly “We should...”

Nikki nodded and stepped out of the shower, getting into her bathroom robe, she didn’t look back at Victor and stood there, drenching her hair.

She finally found the strength to look back, Victor pulled the robe she got for him earlier over himself and was looking straight at her, she felt like her heart skipped a beat, or two.
She felt like his long, direct look was reading her heart and she couldn’t handle it, not before she was sure what was happening.

They stepped out of the shower together into the main bedroom, it was freezing inside the room, the window was half open, the drapes blowing in the cold wind.

Nikki tightened the rob  to protect herself from the cold air, She set on the bed and pulled her hair out of her robe, it was tingling her, while Victor went to close the window.

He was the one who uttered the first few words... “Where is the heater remote control?”

Nikki looked at him for the first time in the last few minutes and managed to say quietly “In the first drawer” and pointed to her night stand.

Victor opened the drawer and took the remote control out, he turned the heater on and let out a deep sigh.
As he reached out to put it back in, he noticed a small picture of Nikki and Nicholas, from 5 years before in the drawer, he took it out and looked at it, and sat on the bed, his face showing the pain he was feeling.

Nikki looked at him walked around to the other side of the bed and looked over his shoulder, and her face wrenched in pain as she saw what he was holding.

She was about to lean her head against  his back shoulder but stopped herself at the very last second, she didn't want to fall apart on him.

She went to the window and looked outside at the falling snow and whispered in a small voice “It’s so cold tonight, I don’t remember a cold night quite like that one, so stormy..”

Victor turned to look at her and said “I know”.

She continued “I can’t help but thinking about Nicholas, all alone there, he must be freezing to death in that prison, they probably won't even give him a decent warm blanket” The sides of her mouth crumbled and there were tears in her voice “I can’t bear to think of him lying there, in his bed, so cold and alone for day, after day, after day for 15 years, I can’t!”
Her voice choked on the last two words as tears were forming in her eyes.

Victor looked so totally grief stricken, he approached her and wrapped his arms around her from behind, she buried her face in her hands and started to cry, and turned around face him and they hugged each other.

Victor said quietly, tears falling for his eyes, caressing her hair “I have searched after every existing evidence to help our son, to prove that Matt Clark is lying and I hope to god Amy will be able to give us what we are looking for Nikki, I don’t know where to turn if she won’t be able to tell us, and soon.  She is our only hope to free our son”

Nikki, her muffled cries calming down said “I pray for that every night, we just can’t lose him like that Victor, we can’t” and hugged him tighter...

They stood that way for a few moments, and then broke apart.
Nikki was wiping her tears away, the room was warm and cozy, she looked at Victor, he looked at her back, both suddenly very aware of what happened between them tonight.

She waited for him to say something, Victor couldn't, not just yet, not right now.
He looked away, toward the clothes on the chair and then back at Nikki.

She noticed the glance and pulled further aback, not looking at him, she wrapped her arms around herself protectively, his heart melted and he asked her "Do you want me to stay the night?"

She looked at him "Do you want to stay?"

He didn't answer to that and said "If you need me to stay here tonight, I will"

Nikki replied "If *you* need to stay here, stay"

He looked at her, looking so beautiful in her bathrobe, her hair still dripping water on the spanish carpets, and realized how much he didn't want to go home alone tonight, how much he wanted to be with her that night, to wrap his arms around her and to fall asleep with her.

He had a lot of emotions running in him, but frankly, the last thing he wanted to do at that hour,  4 AM in the morning was to talk about it, he approached her and said quietly "I don't want to be alone tonight"

She hung her blue eyes at his  and said in a shaky voice "Neither do I?"

He said "Then I won't go"

She said "We need to talk"

He answered "I know we do" She bit her upper lip and looked at him, she couldn't handle that talk now either and said  "Tomorrow"

Victor smiled "It's already tomorrow"

Nikki cracked a smile "Then later tomorrow"

He looked at her tenderly and said "Come here..." and hugged her tightly, she melted into his arms, and didn't want to let go.

They sat down on the bed, both suddenly realizing how exhausted, physically and emotionally they were, he looked at her said tenderly "Lets try to get some sleep, okay?"

Their robes were already dry, so they went inside the covers that were fuzzy and welcoming. Victor pulled her closer to him, and nestled her in his arms.
She slide her hand inside his as both of the closed their eyes, they were warm and comfortable and fell into a dreamless sleep after less than 5 minutes.