Summary: Now it's Wheeler's turn to fill in the missing pieces and explain himself for his unthinkable action in "Talkin' Trash." HOW COULD HE KISS HER?! SHE'S NOT LINKA!

A/N: I didn't plan on writing this one, but after I finished reading Missing Pieces again, I thought that the ending also left an opening to explain why Wheeler seemed to forget all about Linka and kiss that trashy Trish! And since I'm not a big fan of that episode (as I know alot of people aren't), I wanted to give a reason for his actions that would be a suitable explanation for Wheeler and Linka fans. Once again, I'm back to writing from Wheeler's point of view.

On again, or off again? I guess it's off. After thinking that Linka was leaving us and staying in Russia, I was ready to leave the Planeteers. She kept me going. I'd wake up in the morning…sometimes afternoon…and my day didn't start until I saw her. For some people, the smell of coffee wakes up their senses…for me…it was Linka. The sight of her, the smell of her shampoo or lotion, or whatever that wonderful subtle scent is…it got all my senses stimulated. How was I ever going to get through the day without her? Thankfully, now that she's solved the mystery of her grandmother's illness, she's come back to the Planeteers…to me. But not really. She didn't come back for me, as much as I'd like to think that. She kissed me goodbye, and even though she rejoined the Planeteers, that kiss still felt like it was goodbye.

We had a heart to heart on the plane ride back from Russia. I thought we were finally on the right track. I told her I know how she feels about me, even if she can't say it to me. I thought that was enough. If she can't say it now, we can still be together and eventually, she'll feel comfortable enough to say it out loud. But somehow, I went from feeling positive at the beginning of our conversation to completely dejected and negative. I didn't think it was possible, but we may be further apart now than we ever have been before. I try not to push her, but it's hard when I know how she feels, and all I wanna do is be with her. Why is she wasting so much time? It makes me question myself. Maybe I'm imagining things. No. I heard her. After I quietly confessed that I loved her after she'd turned her back and walked away. She didn't know I stayed behind, but when she thought I got back on the Geo Cruiser with Ma-Ti, she said "I love you too Wheeler." Why can't she say it to my face?

Maybe I misunderstood. Maybe it's more like "I love you like a brother." If she did feel the same way for me that I feel for her, she would have had more of a reaction to my…I guess you could call it an ultimatum. I told her I'd wait, but eventually, I had to move on. I even went as far as to suggest that maybe she's not "the one," maybe I'm meant to be with someone else. Did she put up a fight? Did she tell me I was wrong and that we WERE meant to be together? No. I spent the rest of the flight back to Hope Island pretending to be asleep…and trying to ignore the soft sobs and sniffles coming from across the aisle. It was hard because all I wanted to do was go to her, hold her in my arms and tell her I didn't mean it. Tell her that she was the only one I ever wanted to be with; that I KNEW she was the one I was meant to spend the rest of my life with, and that I'd wait for her, for however long it took.

Once we got back to the island, I was planning on asking her to go for a walk with me after dinner. But while Kwame was serving our meal, I asked him where Linka was and he told me that she said she was not hungry, tired, and just going straight to bed. I tried not to make it too obvious, but I wanted to talk to her as soon as I could. I didn't want her going to bed upset and crying. When I got to her room, I knocked softly on the door. When I got no answer, I slowly opened it thinking maybe she just didn't hear me because she was in the shower, or maybe she was ignoring the knock, hoping whoever it was would go away.

All the lights are out, but the moonlight streaming through her window illuminates her sleeping form in the bed. I walk up to the side of her bed and kneel down next to her. Her breathing is slow and shallow. She's definitely asleep. I can't say that I blame her, it's been a long day. I can see that she's been crying from the dried tear tracks on her cheeks. I want to wake her up so I can tell her the truth. I want her to have a peaceful nights sleep and not wake up in the morning feeling hurt. And I want to wake her up for my own selfish reasons. I know I won't be able to sleep knowing that I'm the reason for her tears. But at the same time, I don't want to disturb her or cause her anymore pain. I've done enough of that today.

"I'm sorry Babe," I whisper as I softly kiss her forehead. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm an idiot, but you already knew that. I just can't think straight when it comes to you and I say and do stupid stuff to try and make you jealous. I could never move on because there's no one else that can ever take your place. No one could ever come close. I'll fix this mess tomorrow. We'll talk then. Goodnight beautiful," I say as I pull the covers up over her shoulders and wipe away the remaining moisture on her cheek with my thumb.

This day has been super busy. I asked Linka if I could talk to her after lunch, and she said yes, but unfortunately, we got called off on a mission. Some bozos were testing nuclear weapons underground, it caused an earthquake, and we had to go help with the relief efforts. We no sooner got home and Gaia had us going out on another mission. Once again, at the end of that mission, we were sent on another. At this point things seemed pretty weird. It turned out that somehow, Dr. Blight had switched bodies with Gaia. Once we figured it out and got Gaia back into her usual self, we had been up for almost 24 hours straight. Linka seemed fine and no longer upset, and while I still wanted to talk to her, I never got the chance.

On our next mission, we ended up saving a wolf cub whose pack had been shot and killed by Blight and a group of hunters. We took him back to the island and Gaia wasn't very pleased. We had a tendency to bring home all the "strays." So she sent us back out to release the now healthy animals. This put a hold on any sort of private conversation between Linka and me. Things were ok between us…they were pretty good actually. We were joking with each other, she'd tease me, I'd say something suggestive to her, she'd shoot me down…or in this case, a wallaby slapped me across the face with his tail. We ended up bringing back all the animals that we were supposed to take to their homes AND picking up even more animals that were in need of rescue. I wasn't too happy about it at first because my shoes were getting chewed, I was stepping in…stuff, and I kept sneezing. Plus, I knew Gaia would be mad. Of course I ended up getting attached to the little wolf cub, especially after he saved our lives. Linka teased me about my 'animal magnetism.' HA! If only that were true. She didn't seem to have a hard time resisting me at times!

Gaia had given us some time off. Kwame and Ma-Ti had gone to India to plant trees. That left Linka and I alone with Gi…which means, I never got a chance to talk to Linka. She and Gi were constantly together; swimming, going on shopping sprees, and even when they were on vacation, they were working on researching information that would be helpful to us as Planeteers. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for being good at your job, but vacations are for relaxing. That's why I spent all my time catching up on some movies. Eventually, Gi left to go spend time at some dolphin research facility that her parents had helped to fund. FINALLY, I thought I'd have some alone time with Linka, but by then, Kwame and Ma-Ti were back. At least with them, I'd be able to sneak away with Linka and they'd never notice. She surprised me by coming to my room that evening with a movie and a bowl of popcorn.

I was lying on my stomach on my bed, reading a comic book when there was a knock at my door. I figured it was Kwame or Ma-Ti trying to get me to do something productive with my time…geez, do these people not know the meaning of the word "vacation!?" I'm pretty sure it means a break from work, a period of time devoted to rest, travel, or recreation. I plan to devote my time to rest and recreation.

"Go away!"

"Oh. Ok. Sorry. I thought you would like some company."

"Linka?! Wait!" I call to her. I jump up and run to the door. "Come in."

"But you said…"

"I thought you were Kwame or Ma-Ti, trying to get me to work while on vacation."

"And that would be horrible, da?"

"Hell da!"

She laughs and says,

"Mind if I join you?"

"I'd love it if you did. What'cha got there Babe?"

"Well, I know you wanted to catch up on all of the recent movies that you have not been able to see, and there was one movie in particular that I really wanted to see…I thought that maybe we could watch it together."

"Absolutely. Come have a seat." I walk over to my bed and clear off the clothes and comic books that have accumulated on it. "Sorry, for the mess. I wasn't expecting company. And I don't really have a place to sit other than the bed…unless you wanna take this party out to the commons area. At least we'd have a couch to sit on while we watched the movie."

"Nyet, this is fine," she says as she takes a seat on my bed, props up some pillows, and leans back against the headboard.

"So what movie did you bring? The Fugitive? A Few Good Men? Cliffhanger? I already watched Lethal Weapon 3 and Jurassic Park, but I'd watch them again…"

"The Bodyguard."

"What?"

"The Bodyguard. It's about…"

"It's a chick flick!"

"I do not think so. Not completely. There looks like there is some action…"

"Yeah, mixed in with mushy romance!" I complain.

"Bozhe moy! Maybe you should watch it. You might learn something! But that is fine. If you do not want to watch it with me, I will watch it by myself." She starts to get up, but I put my hands on her shoulders to stop her.

"No, stay. I was only kidding…sort of. It's not exactly what I would have chosen, but I've been waiting all week to get a chance to spend some time with you, so if you wanna watch it, I'll watch it with you." I take the movie from her and put it in the VCR.

When I return to the bed and sit beside her, she puts the bowl of popcorn in my lap and moves closer. This is nice. She leans her head on my shoulder. I put my arm around her and lean my head against hers. Maybe this was her way of attempting to get closer? Of letting me know she's trying…that she's almost ready. I know I shouldn't get my hopes up. Linka and I have been here before. It's familiar territory actually. It's the intersection of "Finally! Thank God!" and "Nyet Wheeler, we cannot do this." When I was younger, I used to love spinning around in circles until I was so dizzy I couldn't stand or walk straight. Now, I'm sick of going in circles. Now, going in circles makes me sick.

A half-hour into the movie, I notice that neither one of us have been eating the popcorn. That's weird. Usually I can have a whole bowl finished by myself in the first 10 minutes of a movie. I reach into the bowl, pull out a single piece, and hold it in front of her mouth for her. She opens her mouth and I put the popped kernel into it. She then returns the favor, and feeds me. It's definitely the best bowl of popcorn I've ever had. We continue sharing the popcorn like this until Linka shakes her head, indicating that she doesn't want anymore. I take that piece, toss it in the air, and catch it in my mouth. Linka looks up at me and smiles.

"Impressed?" I ask.

"Nyet."

"Why not?! I'd like to see you do that on the first try!"

"Perhaps I would be more impressed if your target was not so big!"

"What exactly are you implying Miss Petrova?"

"That you have a big mouth Mr. Wheeler!"

"Shut up," I say light heartedly.

"Make me," was her standard, schoolyard, challenge.

"Be careful, Babe. What would you do it I took you up on that offer?" I ask as I lean down and stop just short of kissing her. It's her move.

"This," she replied, closing the short distance between us.

It was short, but sweet. I'll take it though. Anything she's willing to give, I'll take. We sat in silence for the rest of the movie. I can't stand the theme song from this movie. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if it hadn't been so played out on the radio. It seems like they play it twice an hour. I don't even like listening to the radio anymore. Considering the circumstances though, I should appreciate the words and the implications. Then it hit me. Did Linka choose this movie for a reason? She could have watched this on her own, or with Gi. This would have been a perfect movie for the two of them to gush over. But she wanted to watch it with me. The Bodyguard is definitely a "date" movie. Was this Linka's version of a date? As the credits rolled and the theme song played, I built up the courage to let her know that I figured it out.

"Well that wasn't so bad. As a matter of fact, I'm really glad you wanted to watch it with me. I uh…understand what you're trying to say. I mean, the song pretty much sums it up, right? I told you that I'd always love you, and now you bring this movie for us to watch, so if this is your way of expressing it, then I can live with that."

When she didn't confirm or deny my theory, I leaned forward to look at her face because I knew her eyes would tell me everything…and they would have…if they'd been open. I sigh loudly in frustration and say,

"Linka, wake up."

"Hmm?"

"Your stupid movie's over," I say irritably.

"Oh no, I fell asleep?"

"Yeah. Can't say that I blame you." I say as I remove my arm from around her shoulder and fold my arms across my chest.

"You did not like it?" She asks.

"No. It sucked."

"I thought it was good up until I fell asleep. Did I miss something?"

"No. Nothing important anyways."

"I will have to watch the rest of it tomorrow. How much did I miss?" she asked.

"I don't know. I didn't even know you fell asleep."

"I guess I was just so comfortable…you make a good pillow."

"Good to know."

"I am sorry you did not like it," she apologizes.

"I knew I wouldn't, so it's no big deal."

"Well, it is getting late. I guess I should be going."

"Ok." I stood up, ejected the tape from the VCR, walked to the door, and held it open. She followed me, but stopped in the doorway.

"Unless…"

I interrupted her and gave her the tape.

"I'm making a trip to the video store tomorrow to return the movies I rented. When you're done watching the ending, I can take it back for you."

"Umm, ok. Thank you. Maybe we can go together and pick out a movie we can both agree on?"

"I don't know. I'm kinda all movied out. I've seen all the ones I wanted to see."

"Oh. Ok. Goodnight then Yankee."

"Goodnight."

She lingered for a while, waiting for something. For me? To say something? To do something? I'd already said what I wanted to say, so I shut the door. I don't know why I was so angry with her. It's not her fault she fell asleep. But it is her fault we aren't together. I was just frustrated by our whole situation.

I made a promise to myself that I'd smooth things over with her the next day and take her up on her offer to pick out a movie together. Maybe I could talk her into watching Wayne's World with me! Unfortunately, Gi got herself into some trouble on her trip and we had to go rescue her. That's how our mini vacation ended.

Our next mission was quite a shock, to say the least. We were attacked by visitors from the future, or some possible version of the future. The weird part was, these visitors were offspring of Blight, Plunder, and Skumm. The fact that those three actually found someone to reproduce with is unbelievable. Maybe they were a result of some science project gone horribly wrong. Whatever it was, they were defeated by Planeteers and Captain Planet from the future. A good future, a clean future…a future where two of the Planeteers looked like they could be descendants of Linka and me. The Fire Planeteer also had red hair, but his bangs were styled like Linka's. The Wind Planeteer, she was a dead ringer for Linka, same hair, same facial features…she even had the same belt. Passed down as a family heirloom? The only difference was no accent. The other future Planeteers looked like they could be related to the current bearers of their rings, but not only did the Fire and Wind Planeteers look like Linka and I, there were enough similarities between the two that they looked like siblings.

When we got back to Hope Island and were repairing some of the damage done to the Geo Cruiser, I couldn't shake the thought. Gaia wouldn't give me any answers, but I just KNEW my suspicions were true. Linka caught me daydreaming and must not have liked the fact that I was staring at her.

"Do you have a problem?" she had asked me in an angry tone. She must still be upset about what happened…or didn't happen…during our little movie date.

"It's weird…I mean, the future Planeteers…two of them…they…they kinda looked like us…do you suppose that we…?"

"HA! That is one future that is NOT possible, Yankee."

I remember her tone so clearly. She nearly spit fire with her words. The way she said my name…well, her nickname for me…it was with so much contempt. Like, she hated it. Like she was yelling at a bad kid. It hurt. I didn't even care that she did it in front of our friends. I'm used to them seeing her bash me. She does it best when she has an audience.

So that's it. That's the answer I've been waiting for. It's time to move on Wheeler. She's made that perfectly clear. "That is one future that is NOT possible, Yankee." Message received. She's not the one. I thought she was, but she doesn't want to be. Well fine. It won't be easy, but I'll get over her. There's plenty of other girls out there that would love to have a guy like me. I was ready to give her the world. Anything she wanted, I would have done. Who would pass that up? Linka would apparently. Oh well. Her loss.

On our next mission, a boring trip with JASON to some boring Mayan ruins. I tried flirting with one of the locals. She wasn't havin' any of it though. Maybe I'd lost my touch? I wasn't too worried about it though, I was just throwing it out there. If she bit, cool, if not, no biggie. I was just lookin' for a no strings attached fling. If it turned out that she was a great girl and I really liked her, then that's a bonus. But since she wanted nothing to do with me, at least I made Linka mad. I'm done feeling guilty about hurting her feelings. She obviously never thought twice about hurting mine. It's strangely satisfying knowing that she's jealous. She's got no one but herself to blame.

Then I got the phone call I'd known was inevitable, but was still dreading. My mom called to ask me to come home. My dad was sick. She said I needed to see him. That's not true. I didn't need to see him. SHE needed me to see him. She needed to try and fix something that was damaged beyond repair, and if she couldn't fix it, which she knew she couldn't, at least she could say she tried.

This news had shaken me up more than I was willing to admit. Part of me wanted to go home. I knew that this was important to my Mom. I also didn't want to have any regrets. On the other hand, I had a pretty good feeling that me and my Dad would fight…just like we always have. Did I really want my last memories of him to be of us fighting? Not that it made a difference. That's what my current last memories of him are. These conflicting emotions had me on edge. I was short tempered by nature, but lately, I'd been even worse. The others had noticed it and had been steering clear of me.

When we were helping out at a shelter after helping put out fires started by rioting in L.A., Linka and I accidently bumped into each other. She jokingly accused me of flirting. I knew it was a joke and under normal circumstances, probably would have loved the opportunity to banter playfully with her. The others were close by, but not close enough to hear. We could have had a classic moment, I could have said something suggestive to her, and she would have either went with it, or shot me down…but nicely since the others weren't around so she didn't need to put on an "I hate Wheeler" act. Instead, I blew up and told her to leave me alone, I was just doing my job. She fought back and said she was just joking. Then she called me out on my "miserable mood." By now, the others had seen and heard our fight and came over to see what was going on. It wasn't unusual for her to yell at me, but for me to yell at her was very strange.

Kwame took me aside and got me to open up. I could feel the others looking at me, waiting for answers. It was time to be honest with everyone. They were my friends, if anyone could help get me through this and guide me to make the right decision, they could.

To be continued...in the conclusion, Wheeler's trip back to New York stirs up feelings that he didn't know he still had...but who are these feelings for? It might not be who you think.