I can only imagine how much trouble I'm in.

Reviewers, oh my loves, I love you dearly. I'm back in the saddle, as well. So let's get ready to rumble.

One more chapter after this, I do believe. And no, I'm not laughing evilly at all…..no way…..

Wheeler

Wheeler stared into his popcorned ceiling, trying his best to divine some sort of sign from the heavens or the contractors who built the apartment or whomever. While his body lay in a puddle in his bed, his senses were on overload. His skin felt the coolness of his sheets, his mouth tasted of Linka's, his ears echoed with all of the little sounds she'd made, and he could smell her on the pillow under his head.

He allowed himself to flashback to a few hours before again, a happy smile playing across his lips. In his memory, he skipped his anxiousness, jumped over the way he'd dawdled and shook. She'd scared him; he had wanted nothing more than to do it, and when the time came, none of his fantasies had prepared him for the bout of nerves that demanded he not disappoint her. In his dreams, he'd always been confident, they'd always just melted together and it all worked out. In the real world, they'd more crashed than melted, and an overdose of hormones and an insane lust wasn't enough to make him even as suave as he'd been the first time he'd had a girl.

As nerve-wracking as it had started out, the entire experience had been unimaginably amazing. Bursts of images shot somewhere behind his eyes, of fluttering lashes and bit lips, of miles of skin stretched across the perfect frame.

All of these perfect memories made him feel sick.

They'd been sitting in the living room, replaying the movie they'd tried to watch in the first place, surrounded by their fellow Planeteers. Linka was tucked up between Gi and Kwame, her eyes never leaving the screen. Wheeler, too, tried his best to over-pretend like nothing had happened, but he couldn't help the silly grin that kept erupting on his face. The movie finished without much said, and Kwame had announced that they'd better leave; they had work in the morning, and needed to get back to the hotel to sleep. Gi woke up Ma-Ti, who'd crashed on the recliner rather quickly, and they all began heading out.

"Linka, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"I will be right there," Linka said, hanging behind. Wheeler caught the bewildered look Gi tried to give her, but everyone shuffled through the door.

"Babe, you know you can stay here tonight," he tried when the door shut. Linka stared at the floor and shook her head. "Well, then, I could come back to you guys. It's not like my mom doesn't spend half of her nights at the hospital anyway. No one would think it was strange."

Linka shook her head again.

"Are you ok?"

She nodded.

"I mean," he rambled, "I know that this whole…" he motioned vaguely to her midsection "Is a little new. I'm not asking for anything, you know. Just, like, hang out. Talk about it…stuff..things."

Still not looking at him, she shook her head. With a sudden wave of worry, he stepped towards her. "Linka..."

Her head shot up, eyes blazing. "Nyet, Wheeler. It was a silly mistake, and I do not think that we need to talk about it or hang out. It was like those stupid 'just kisses.' It just happened. That is it."

He felt his brow shoot down. "Bu-"

"Ah! There is not and will not be any 'buts.' This does not need to be discussed again. You and I were just together in the right place at the right time. No nothing about it. It could have been anyone. So we can just pretend like it never happened. Nothing. Ever. Happened."

"That's fine! We don't have to tell the others. And if you need some time to think, I know—"

"I do not need time to think. I don't think that we should ever bring it up again. None of it. No kisses. No nothing."

"We can't just—"

"Da," she said, shaking. "We can. It was a mistake. It could have been anyone to me." Her hand shot out, and she grabbed his, shaking it like he was a new acquaintance. "Goodnight, Wheeler. I will see you tomorrow for work."

Mouth agape and head spinning, he watched as she turned on a heel and strode out the door. If anyone else had one-night-standed him, he would've blown it off, but this was Linka, his friend, and she was mad…

The Benadryl he'd taken was finally kicking in. It was 4 am. He'd be so tired tomorrow. He felt it fighting off the sleepless worry, pulling him down to the abyss of drugged-out sleep.

He was too far fallen to yell at himself for hearing her voice in his ear as he held on to consciousness. The echo of her breathing his name.

CP—CP—CP—CP—CP—CP—

He awoke in the Geo-Cruiser, passed to a note on the seat in front of him. He stretched drowsily, trying to put everything in place. He remembered that he'd managed to drag himself out of bed long enough to get into the vehicle before passing right back out.

Wheeler,

Thanks a lot for not waking up. We're heading in to check out the surroundings. Ma-Ti will be looking for your thoughts and let you know where to find us.

-Kwame

Great. So not only was yesterday an absolute disaster, but he wasn't even doing what he needed to do. Fantastic.

He rubbed his hands through his hair and tried to shake the sleep off, trying to figure out why he had woken so abruptly. Something had to have shocked him awake, but he couldn't quite place it…

Suddenly, the door to the Geo-Cruiser opened.

"Wheeler!" His name echoed in double-time, with Ma-ti in his head and Gi in his ear.

"Yeah. Sorry guys, I just woke up."

"Hurry, we have to go," she said, rushing over to him.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Just give me a momen-"

"They have Linka," Gi blurted before turning around and rushing out the door.