A/N: Thank's for reading and reviewing.

Chapter Ten - Day Eight Midday

My old home is full of people when we arrive, all preparing things for the wake, but my grandmother still comes immediately to welcome us. She hugs me tightly and when she looks at me again there are tears in her eyes, it is nearly enough to set me off crying but as I step back I feel my Yankee's hand in the small of my back and I regain my composure.

"This is Wheeler, he is a friend." I say, blushing slightly as I suddenly realise the implications of bringing him home with me.

She squeezes the hand she is still holding and tells him he is welcome, but he just looks at me, seemingly lost. Oh! "I am sorry Yankee! Grandmuska, he does not speak Russian."

She chuckles and repeats her welcome, this time in English, directing Wheeler to take his things into Mishka's room. I hope my brother will not mind him using it, he is away at university at the moment and Grandmuska's letter said he would not be able to make it back for the funeral… another reason I am glad to have Wheeler with me, I would feel very alone without him.

"Go and put your things away Linka. Then we will have a nice chat before your uncle gets here." Grandmuska tells me and I agree, though I do not think that any chat we have right now, will be nice.

I say hello to my old friends as I make my way through the sitting room, but there are too many there and I am very grateful when I can close the door on them and sit on my bed in silence. I stay there for a while, not wanting to face the crowd outside with the endless polite questions. I know it is stupid but I felt as if they were willing me to break down and cry, as if they were judging how upset I am… that is unfair to them but it is how I feel.

After a while there is a knock on my door. I sigh and tell them to come in, assuming it is Grandmuska, but quickly relax and smile when I see that it is Wheeler. He closes the door behind him and comes to sit on the bed next to me.

"I was getting worried, you okay?" He asks, brushing a stray hair out of my eyes.

Before I can answer him, my door opens again and my uncle strides in. "So!" he bellows. "Is this what you were doing while my boy was dying, canoodling with your American boyfriend, learning all his city ways and corrupted habits?"

I am shocked and my body is trembling violently in response. I cannot speak…. but Wheeler can.

"WHERE THE HELL DO YOU GET OFF TALKING TO HER LIKE THAT?" He yells and it is all I can do to make an inarticulate noise in protest. I do not want this to happen, I do not want them to argue…

My Uncle looks shocked too, as Wheeler continues. "Do you have any idea what your son did to her? This is HIS fault not hers! He did this to himself and he nearly killed Linka in the process!"

Uncle Dimitri's face has gone ashen. "Are you saying that he committed suicide?" he gasps in horror.

Finally able to speak I stand up and place myself between them. "Nyet, that is not what he means. Boris did not mean to kill himself Uncle, he was out of control…"

"That's not the point…" I hush him and place a hand on his chest, pushing him back gently. I want more distance between them, I do not know what my Uncle is going to say next but I do not want them close enough to hit each other.

I lower my voice, hoping to explain without my Uncle hearing. "Nyet Wheeler, if someone suicides they cannot have a church funeral. My Uncle must not think that."

"I want the truth!" Dimitri says, looking at Wheeler. "Did my son kill himself?"

I am holding Wheelers hand and squeezing it, wondering how mad he is at my Uncle, but I need not have worried. "Not deliberately no." he says carefully. "He didn't have a clue how much Bliss he'd taken, it was an accident."

My Uncle nods as Grandmuska shoos people away from my door and closes it behind her, but as Dimitri starts to speak again, Wheeler interrupts him. "I won't let you blame Linka for this, she feels bad enough already and it wasn't her fault. Boris took the drugs and he snuck them in Linka's food, this is all his fault but now she's the one that has to live with it."

"I left her looking after him!" Uncle Dimitri says, but I can see the fight is going out of him.

Wheeler too sounds less annoyed, though his voice is still determined. "There was nothing she could do, I was there, we tried to save them both but it just wasn't possible."

"But you managed to save your girlfriend." My uncles says, turning and leaving the room without looking at me.

I feel Wheeler tense and for a moment I think he is going to go after my uncle and hit him, so I tighten my grip on his arm and when he looks down at me, his expression softens and he pulls me into his embrace.

"Look after her Wheeler." My grandmother says - surprising me a little - and then leaves in search of her son.

Wheeler and I do not speak, I do not think either of us knows what to say, we just stand there holding each other until my door opens again and my grandmother returns. I keep my head buried in his shoulder, I cannot face her right now.

"I am sorry about all that." She says. "I am afraid Dimitri is not himself. I did not know that Linka had taken that dreadful drug too…" I can hear her voice crack and I know she is crying and it makes my own tears flow faster.

Wheeler is not finished though. "Let me just make one thing clear…Linka DID NOT take Bliss. Boris slipped it into her food. One of our enemies used Boris to get to Linka. He promised him more drugs if he got Linka Blissed out. As long as her mind was polluted, we couldn't call Captain Planet and the Eco-Villains would have been free to destroy the world."

I did not want her to know, but now I am glad he told her. I do not want her to think me irresponsible… to hate me the way Uncle Dimitri does.

"I cannot believe Boris would do that to her. He loves…loved his older cousin so much. He looked up to her. I do not believe he could hurt her." I quake against Wheeler, I will never be able to face her again, she does not believe him! It is my fault and that is all they will see, I wish Mishka was here, surely he would listen?

"The drug made Boris do what he did." Wheeler explains, but even as he says the next words I know he does not believe it, he is just being nice for my grandmother and I am grateful to him for that. "Of course he would have never hurt Linka if it weren't for that. And if Linka hadn't been tricked into taking it, we would have gotten there much sooner to help…then who knows how things would have turned out…maybe we could have gotten to Boris before it was too late."

"Is she…" Grandmuska begins and I am glad Wheeler interrupts her, I do not want to know what she was going to ask.

Wheeler grips me protectively. "She'll be okay, I'll make sure she is… she doesn't need that though."

"He will not say anything more." My grandmother assures him. "The ceremony will not begin for a little while, stay here and compose yourselves."

She sounds uncomfortable… my Grandmuska never sounds uncomfortable… she is going to treat me like the others, like I have some terrible disease, I wish I had never come.

Once we are alone again, Wheeler strokes my hair. "I'm sorry Babe, I didn't mean to make things worse… I know you didn't want them to know, I just saw red."

I am not really processing all of this, I think the things that my Uncle said will come back to haunt me later and we have only just got here. "I know." I swallow, trying to control my sobs. "I did not expect my Uncle to… I am glad you are here."

He looks relieved and leads me over to the bed, sitting and pulling me down beside him. I lean into him as he tucks his arm around me but it feels a little weird… after all this is the bed I slept in as a child, aside from Mishka I do not think a boy has ever been inside the room before, and he does not count.

"I have made you soggy again." I apologise, feeling his shirt.

Kissing my forehead, Wheeler replies. "S'okay beautiful, that's what I'm here for."

I wrap my arms around his waist and we stay like that until Grandmuska calls us for the ceremony. Thankfully we do not need to dress up for this first part.

Wheeler stands and takes my hands to pull me upright in front on him, then he cradles my face and kisses my forehead. "You can do this."

It is so easy to believe him when he is like this, though I know it won't last once the ceremony has begun… then he suddenly gives me a hug. It is the kind of hug you give someone when you do not think you will see them again, the kind you want them to remember… but then he whispers in my ear, so close I feel his lips brush against me and it sends a shiver down my spine - a good shiver - and once again I believe him. "We'll get through this together."

To Be Continued…

And don't forget, to get the full affect of the story, you HAVE TO read Wheeler's side of the story in Chapter 10 of Becks7's Co-Dependents