Let's Go Home.

A few days of searching did not give any result. The blockage in the cave was so serious that further attempts to go down into the depths could be dangerous for the rescuers themselves. Although the body of Rick Stein was not found, the man was officially recognized dead during an accident in the mountains.

A week later, everyone decided to go home.

"Hey, and what does this mean? Why are you taking a different flight?" Daniel looked at his brother and Elena's tickets. Why was it necessary to take a transfer flight when a direct one was available?

"We need to drop by one place before returning," David explained, and dabbed with his finger at the transfer point.

Daniel looked at the ticket again and immediately realized what was being said, "Oooh, now it's clear. Okay, there are no more questions. Then we are boarding with Junie."

"Yeah, good luck. I'm counting on you," David smiled and patted his elder brother on the shoulder. This was not the first time that Daniel had received a bit of attention from him in the last week, and the elder Anderson shone like a small child who got another candy.

Elena and David waved goodbye to them and in an hour they got on their plane as well.

. . .

St. Petersburg.

The plane made a soft landing, and the passengers got off the board. Elena and David walked down the corridor, toward the exit.

The fact that she was now in this city caused a feeling of sadness and nostalgia in the girl. Although it was a long time ago, and that life for her already seemed to be some scenes from a movie, as if all this did not happen to her, once in this city was her home. Here lived her mother, sister and brother. And now, when she stepped off the plane onto the land which once used to be her motherland, her heart sank from conflicting feelings.

David smiled and squeezed her hand tightly, "I want to introduce you to one person. We have known each other for a long time. You will understand everything when you hear his name."

Elena looked at the man with surprise, but she was even more surprised when they turned off to the exit that she had never walked in her life. The girl clung to his hand and asked in a whisper, "Do you even know that we entered the diplomatic corridor? Who will let us to through here? We have the transfer and must remain in the transit zone. We don't even have visas!"

"Ahaha, don't worry. My friend is not an ordinary person, so there will be no problems," David reassured her.

Elena gave David a skeptical look. No, she, of course, did not doubt his wide connections, but what level should a person have that can let two foreigners without visas to through, and even along the diplomatic corridor?

They came to the customs officer. The man looked at the couple with a rating glance, "Your documents, please." David handed the officer his and Elena's passports. The eyebrows of the man sank, seeing two ordinary passports in front of him. These people do not understand the rules at all?

"Sorry, but you can't pass here. This is a corridor for diplomatic officers, Mr.-" the officer opened David's passport to find out the name of a foreigner who went the wrong way, "Mr. Anderson." Seeing the name of David his eyes got big, he has almost made a terrible mistake and could practically lose his well-paid job.

The customs officer quickly checked the passports of Elena and David, and making sure that they were the ones they were waiting for, he gave the order to the assistant standing nearby, "Vladimir, take these people to room 303."

Hearing the words of the chief, the guy immediately alarmed. "Oh yes, right now. Come with me, please." Elena was watching at the whole situation with great astonishment and was looking forward to finding out what kind of person it was, whose guests' arrival made these poor employees so worried.

When they were taken to room 303, Elena saw a tall man standing with his back to them. When he turned around, her heart skipped a beat. Blond hair, blue eyes, he looked about 35. He was smiling, as if they were long awaited guests, his smile was so warm and so familiar.

"David! Long time no see! What a blast from the past!" The stranger hugged David tightly and patted him on the back like an old friend.

"Indeed a long time! Thank you for agreeing to allow us to enter the city," David answered happily.

"Haha, common, nothing to thank me for! Grandpa was very happy when he learned that you would be passing by. He is very much looking forward to meeting you," the man turned his gaze to the slightly bewildered Elena, "Well, will you introduce your charming companion to me?"

"With great pleasure," David put his arm around Elena's waist and said, "This is Elena Lee, my fiancée. Elena, please meet Ivan Limov, he is the Presidential Adviser on International Affairs."

Ivan Limov?!

"Nice to meet you, Miss Lee," the man extended his hand and squeezed the girl's palm with care and tenderness.

"N-nice to meet you too, Mr. Limov." Elena studied his face with even more attentiveness, no doubt the resemblance was striking. "Excuse me, Mr. Limov, are there any other people in your family with the same name as yours?"

Ivan smiled and answered happily, "Yes. I was named after my grandfather. David knows him, and I will be very happy if you also agree to meet him. He is waiting for us."

Grandpa? Was he the... Elena looked at David, in her eyes was the obvious question 'Is this what I thought about?' David, realizing the direction of the girl's thoughts, nodded his head in the affirmative. Elena felt her heart filled with even more warmth, "I will meet your grandfather with great pleasure, Mr. Limov."

"You can just call me Ivan," the man said and led the couple to the exit from the airport, where the car was waiting for them.

Elena looked out of the car window with interest, she didn't expect to know so many familiar places. The Winter Palace, where the emperor once lived, drawbridges over the Neva River, canals and a wide avenue. This was her Leningrad, her Northern Venice, even if it now has a different name.

"Ivan, how did you meet David?" The girl asked, intruding into the conversation among the men, David never mentioned her that he studied her past. That past.

"Oh, it was such a lucky coincidence, Miss Lee! At the request of my grandfather, I searched the archives for information about his cousin sister, who went missing during the war. And David, on the contrary, was looking for relatives of people who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp. And so it happened, he was looking for relatives of our Lena, and we were looking for her. That's how we met. It was already ten years ago. I remember my grandfather was very surprised when he learned that some seventeen-year-old teenager from London is looking for him, hahaha," Ivan laughed.

The day David contacted them was one of the most important days in their family history. They were finally able to find out what happened to their loved one. During that Great War, many people went missing, and it was like a miracle to receive news of the fate of their relative after so many years.

God, ten years ago?! How much did David put in his efforts during all this time while searching for her? He even found her family to tell about her fate. To say that she was grateful to him for this is to say nothing. Elena tightly squeezed the palm of her soulmate. The best way she can thank David is to make him the happiest man on this planet.

Elena looked out the window and saw a familiar sign. No, it can't be! Is it still here?! "Excuse me, can we stop the car for a few minutes? I want to buy something."

The car stopped in front of a large store of musical instruments. Elena quickly ran through the goods until she found what she wanted in the far corner of the room. Who would have thought that after seventy-odd years, a thing would be sold here, exactly like the one she had a long, long time ago.

Elena wrapped the gift in a small box and returned to the car. The driver stopped in front of the entrance to a small family restaurant in a quiet part of the city where there were few tourists. Ivan escorted Elena and David inside, where members of his family were already waiting for them at the table.

An old man with the hair white as cotton and a kind, warming smile, an old woman with the same kind smile and a little curly girl, about eight years old.

"Grandpa, I brought David. And this is Elena, his fiancée."

The gray-haired man extended his hand to Elena," Welcome to our home, girl."

"Thank you, I am very pleased," Elena looked at the man, even despite his age, in his features she could see that boy, her beloved brother Vanya, whom she had once left wounded in the forest and could not come back for, even though she had promised.

So he survived. What a blessing!

The waiter brought the order and they had a nice family dinner. Elena learned that Vanya was found in the forest by people from a neighboring village, who managed to escape from the fascists who had attacked their village and took the boy with them, that her mother gave all the little crumbs of food they found to their children, and she died of starvation during the blockade of Leningrad. The old woman who was sitting with them at the table was her younger sister, and the little girl was her brother's granddaughter.

Elena's heart was filled with warmth, thank God that they survived and were able to create such a wonderful and friendly family. Even if she was no longer a part of them, the girl was glad. Her past "I" could now quietly melt into the memory of the past.

Before saying goodbye, Elena handed out to her brother, who was now an old man, a box with a gift. The man opened it and tears came out in his eyes, "Oh, thank you, dear," he pressed a little pipe to his chest, the pipe which was exactly like the one that his sister had given him when he was a child.

"Grandpa Vanya, and what is it?" the curly girl asked him.

"This is a pipe, Lena," the grandfather handed her a pipe and she began to look at the instrument with interest.

Elena smiled, if you imagine, this girl was her granddaughter and had her past name. She knelt next to the girl, took the pipe from her and played the melody that Vanya always played for her as a child.

The gray-haired man's eyes were moistened, how long had he not heard this melody. After the end of the war, he never played it. He looked at Elena and saw the image of his beloved sister in her. 'For some reason, it seems to me that her soul has found peace and happiness,' he thought to himself.

Elena handed the pipe back to the girl, "If you want to learn how to play the same way, ask your grandfather. He is the master of it," Elena winked at the old man. They understood each other without words.

. . .

Elena was standing on the shore of the bay and looking at the setting sun. David leaned her back against his chest and squeezed in a warm embrace.

"Thank you for that. Thank you very much, David."

"Mmm," he plunged his face into her hair, breathing in her scent, "Anything for you, my love."

"I want to go home. Let's go?"

"Of course, let's go home," he kissed her cheek fondly and took her hand.

Elena looked at the bay for the last time, the sun almost disappeared over the horizon. Along with the setting sun, her past was also leaving her, and she was parting with it here and now, in the city that was once her home.

She turned to David, his caring and loving gaze always, from the very beginning was directed only at her. And now, seeing her reflection in his eyes, she no longer thought about the past, being in the present was enough for her and she happily waited for a future that she would spend with him to make this man happy.