I was cleaning up my laptop and discovered I'd started a couple of stories and forgotten about them so I decided to rectify the situation immediately! Comments and reviews appreciated as always.

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Wheeler looked up, a gentle knock on his cabin door interrupting his idle flicking through a magazine.

"Can I come in?"

"You know you're always welcome in my bedroom, babe," he called out. Entering the room, Linka shot him a trademark look of mild irritation.

"Wheeler-"

"Yeah, I know, I know…sorry." He grinned behind the magazine.

"I need to ask you a favour," she said, shutting the door behind her. Wheeler noticed the smattering of colour across her cheeks.

"Anything, babe," he replied, brushing clothes off his bed to make room. She sat down and picked at a loose thread on his blanket for several moments. When she finally looked up at him, her eyes were sad.

"Are you okay?" Wheeler reached out and she flinched as static sparked briefly when his fingers brushed against her arm. "Woah! If you wanted me to back off, all you had to do was say; no need to try and electrocute me!"

Linka smiled slightly but it did not quite reach her eyes.

"I was speaking to Mishka…," she began.

"Is he ok?" Wheeler frowned. Linka had almost fallen apart when her grandmother had died. If anything were to happen to her brother…He forced the thought out of his mind.

"Yes, yes, he is fine," Linka reassured him quickly.

"What is it, then?" She didn't reply and he wondered what request she had that was making her so tentative. Surely she knew by now that whatever it was he couldn't say no to her.

"Well, this is a really difficult time back home. Work is very hard to get. But, Mishka has finally found something. But it is in Siberia; he will be working there all summer…"

"And you can't stay with him?"

Linka shook her head. Wheeler felt bad for her but another part of him was suddenly excited. He knew what she wanted.

"That kinda sucks. The one time we're given any time off and you can't even go home?" He was trying hard to force back a grin.

"Well, Gi has said I can stay with her. But she hasn't seen her family in a long time either so I can't impose on her for a whole month. And Kwame, his father is not too well so I did not want to ask…and Ma-Ti's sister has just had the baby…" Linka's voice was hesitant, and she would not meet Wheeler's eyes.

The joy drained from Wheeler as suddenly as it had come, quickly replaced by frustration.

"So, basically, I'm your last choice?" he snapped, unable to hide the anger in his tone. They spent more time together than any of the other Planeteers and yet he was her last resort. She must have some idea how much the thought hurt him. "I guess I should be grateful that staying with me is better than being here on your own, huh? Or did Gaia tell you no, too?"

"No, Wheeler, please do not think like that. I wanted to come to you first, but I just thought it would be…" She looked up at him, eyes begging him to understand what she did not want to say.

"It would be what?" The pleading expression on her face had softened his mood.

"I thought it might be… strange…" she said quietly.

"Why?"

"Because…well…" Her voice was almost a whisper.

"You didn't think it would be strange staying at anyone else's…" He was pushing her, probing to see if she would finally open.

"I know. But with you…it's…different…" Linka's cheeks were burning a bright pink now.

Wheeler looked at her intently for a few seconds and then sighed. He had to drop the subject because he knew that they could sit there for a million years and she would not acknowledge anything more than friendship between them. It didn't matter that she always took the seat on the Geocruiser closest to him, that she always reached for his hand and no one else's when she was afraid, that she sometimes let her hand linger in his after the danger had passed…All the signs were there, but she stubbornly ignored them. Up till now Wheeler's patience had held, but it was getting harder and harder to keep giving her so much while getting so little in return.

"Linka, if you want to come to Brooklyn, you're more than welcome. But, I'm warning you, it's no Hope Island. My place is actually a bit of a dump!" He said it light-heartedly but his insides tightened when he imagined her arriving in front of the dank alleyway his parents' apartment overlooked.

"Wheeler, I come from a coalmining village," Linka smiled, gratitude etched over her face. "I am sure I will manage. In fact, I am sure I will love it. I have always wanted to see where you came from."

He said nothing and she smiled at him for a few seconds then, impulsively, leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. It was brief but her touch lingered on his skin.

"Thank you Wheeler."

She stood up and walked to the door, then turned, her hand on the knob.

"Please don't go to any trouble planning anything for me," she said, with a firm tone in her voice that he recognised all too well.

Wheeler read between the lines. No funny business. His heart sank slightly. Then she smiled at him again.

"I know whatever we do we will have a good time," she said and…was that a wink as she sailed through the doorway? Wheeler could not be sure but his spirits rose as he watched her cross the yard to her own cabin through his window.

In any case, he rationalised, there was no point hoping, agonising, planning or even thinking about what would happen in New York. With Linka, things never went according to plan. Whatever was meant to happen would happen.