Six months later…

Aleksander was an easy baby. He was already sleeping his whole nights since he was two weeks old and he was really quiet. Natalia was worried, she even checked a few times on him in the middle of the night to be sure he was still breathing. After six months, he barely cried or babbled. He was looking at his mother with shiny eyes every time she came close and he would patiently wait for her to pick him up in her arms. Each time Zachary was coming to spend an evening with her, she would let her feelings escape because she knew that Aleksander had a problem.

"Maybe you should see a doctor with him, he could tell you if there's something wrong" Zachary proposed, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "I can go with you if you want"

"You see, that's exactly the problem, Zachary. I don't want a doctor to tell me that my son has a problem, serious or not. He - "

"You have to know, Natalia, if we want to do something to help him. It's not normal for him to – "

"I know that! You think I don't know that?" she exclaimed, getting up from the couch.

Zachary kept quiet, knowing it wouldn't lead anywhere to fight with her. He knew it was hurting her when he talked about that. He looked at her, her back facing him. She bowed her head and started to cry softly. He got up and walked to her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her hair.

"I'm sorry, okay? I know it's hurting you when I talk about that, I shouldn't have brought the subject. I just want you to understand…"

"I don't have any money to bring him to the doctor, Zachary. That's why I'm not going and try to live like everything's fine"

"Well why didn't you say so?" he asked. "I'll go to the doctor with you, I'll take care of that"

"No! Stop it, Zachary!" she exclaimed, getting away from him.

"What?" he asked, confused. "What did I do?"

"You take out your wallet every time! Aleksander is my son, alright? MY son. You don't have to pay anything, you're not his father" she said coldly.

Zachary felt his heart drop.

"If you wait for his father to do something, you're gonna wait for a long time!" he shouted. "I just want to help you but you keep pushing me away. If you don't want me in your life, why don't you just say so?"

"That's not what I meant!" she cried. "You know I love you"

"You love me? Are you in love with me?"

She looked into his eyes and even though she saw the anger, she said nothing. Zachary shook his head slightly, sighing.

"Stop holding on to that thought, Natalia, he won't come back. He's dead!"

"I know he won't come back! No one will ever come back! Don't you get it? I have no one left!"

"Then stop using me like an emergency door or something! I'm not here to be some kind of crutches, alright? If you tell me that you're still in love with him, I won't marry you like a desperate idiot. I wanna get married to a woman with whom I'm gonna spend the rest of my life and that will love me as much as I love her"

"If you think you love me more than I do then kiss my ass!" she yelled back. "You think I broke your heart?"

"You did! You did break my heart!"

"I'm gonna tell you something, Private Stephens" she said with attitude. "You broke my heart way before I broke yours!"

"Listen, if you think I can't live without you, you – "

He interrupted himself and rushed to her. He kissed her fiercely and closed his eyes.

"You're perfectly right" he finished his sentence after their kiss. "I love you even if you're a pain in the ass sometimes. You can be an idiot or act like a baby but I don't care, I love you because of that. Don't you dare change!"

"I love you too, even if you think I'm an idiot. You're an idiot too by the way" she giggled.

"I know I'm not Aleksander's father and if you're going to tell him the truth, that's fine with me, but I'll be there for him even though he doesn't have any of my blood. He has yours and that's enough for me"

"I saved some money in a box, for the operation"

"You mean for his face?"

Natalia nodded.

"And that's why you don't bring him to the doctor for a check-up?"

"Kind of" she replied. "I only have 200$ for now and the operation is around 2,000$. I had to buy groceries with my last check so I couldn't save any money"

"How long have you been saving up?"

"Since Aleksander's birth" she muttered, looking down.

Zachary didn't know what to say to this heartbreaking confession. Seven months. 200$. He thought about the money he had and felt bad.

"But I've been able to buy enough food to hold on 'til next week. If I'm careful, I'm going to have some until Wednesday then there will only be two days before the next paycheck" Natalia explained, proud of how she sorted everything out.

"What about those two days? What are you going to do?"

"Well there's enough food for the baby, that's for sure. As for me, I don't eat" she admitted as if that was totally normal.

"You mean you don't eat for two days?"

"Mr Wilson let me eat an apple sometimes during my afternoon break. I knew starvation, Zachary, for three years, and believe me, I'm living in luxury here"

"Well come at my house when you have nothing to eat"

"I decided to live by myself and I'm going to keep it this way but thank you anyways"

"If you're hungry, I want you to come home, alright?"

She nodded and kissed him.

Two days later, to the doctor's office…

Natalia was in the waiting room, waiting for the doctor to call Aleksander's name. The little boy was sit on his mother's lap, looking at the other kids in the playing area.

"Do you want to go play with them, baby?" she asked him, bringing her face closer to his.

He looked at her with puppy-dog eyes as if he didn't quite understand what she was saying. She repeated slowly but he kept staring at her. She walked to the playing area with Aleksander in her arms. Everybody was looking at him. Natalia tried to ignore them and sat with the boy on the ground, bending down to be face to face with him.

"Wanna play with the others?"

He stayed there, looking at her. She looked at him, working hard not to cry. She took a ball that was next to them and gave it to her son, waiting for something. Aleksander looked at it and tossed it away. Natalia tried again and again but he kept tossing it away. Tearing up, she gave up as the other mothers looked at her. She picked up her son and walked back to her seat.

"I love you" she whispered to Aleksander, kissing his head.