A/N: Thanks again for the reviews, and the extra follows. I'm sorry I've kept you waiting, it's been a busy week.
Chapter Ten
"Jason." Linka kissed him sweetly and brushed his hair from his face, smiling as he forced his eyes open. "We are going now."
"We are?" he blinked, trying to make sense of what she was saying, "You're dressed."
Linka chuckled, "Da, I am going to church remember? I just thought you would like know before I left."
He nodded and let his head fall back on the pillow, "Thanks Babe, I'll get up in a minute."
"No rush." She leant down and kissed him again, lingering when he responded. It was strange to leave him in her bed that way but she didn't really mind. He caught her hand briefly as she moved away, smiling at her with a peaceful if sleepy expression.
When she arrived at the lounge her Grandmother was frowning slightly and as they left the house she held her back to whisper, "Are you sure you should leave him here with her, darling?"
Linka gave the older woman a hug, "Do not worry about Jason, he can take care of himself."
"I cannot stand all the fake piety, can you?" Svetlana's voice woke Wheeler from the light doze he'd slipped into. "Mischka can be so self- righteous at times but he does not complain when I use my mouth on him… but then no man does, da?"
Wheeler pushed himself up into a sitting position and leant back against the headboard, watching her suspiciously. "Ever heard the phrase 'too much information'?"
She laughed and straightened from where she'd been leaning (or as Wheeler saw it, posing,) against the door jam. Before he could object she'd slipped the small silk nightdress she wore over her shoulders and shimmied out of it. "Is this also too much information?"
The American's body wasn't immune to what she'd revealed but he was far too angry to react the way she'd expected, "Way too much! What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Do not try to tell me that little virgin you call a girlfriend is enough for a man like you, I know better." She sashayed into the room and over to the bed, "When was the last time you let yourself go, 'Yankee'?"
"This isn't funny Svetlana, get out now and I won't mention it to Mischka," he glared at her, "I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're still drunk."
She laughed and ran her hands down her naked body caressingly, "I always get what I want eventually… I bet you like to watch."
Wheeler made a disgusted noise and got out of the other side of the bed, intending to make his way past her to the bathroom.
Annoyed that he was apparently not tempted by her show, Svetlana stepped in front of him. "You will do what I tell you, I know things about you, things that you would not want this 'oh so good' family to know."
"Like what?" he asked crossing his arms over his chest and wondering if he could move her without actually touching her.
"You were arrested as a child for stealing alcohol, but the police let you off with a caution," She smirked triumphantly at the shocked look on his face, "You see we are not that different."
Wheeler grabbed her upper arms without thinking about it and shook her, though not very roughly "How the hell do you know that? No one knows that!"
She laughed, "I have connections… you look like you want to kill someone, but I bet you know a better way to let off your frustrations. Take me hard Wheeler, punish me if you like, and I promise I will not tell anyone your secrets."
He released her, pushing her away as he did so, her words acting like a bucket of cold water, though it was his temper that had needed cooling down, not his libido. "Do you usually have to blackmail guys into fucking you? It's kinda pathetic."
Svetlana's face changed from a pouty come on to incandescent rage in a second, her hand came up to slap him but he blocked it.
"Tell Linka anything you want," He continued un-phased, "If it's a lie she'll see right through you but if it's the truth she'll understand, because she cares about me, you should try caring about someone other than yourself sometime."
Too enraged to speak, she turned and left, and not long after he got in the shower Wheeler heard the front door slam.
Wheeler was washing up when he heard Linka and her family return and came to meet them looking graver than usual.
"You have been cleaning up, you did not have to." Linka greeted him with a kiss, obviously pleased despite her words, "I hope Svetlana has been helping you?"
"Actually…" He swallowed, knowing all three of them were listening and not looking forward to what he had to relate. Before he could get the words out however the front door flew open again.
Svetlana ran in and threw her arms around Mischka's neck, sobbing very loudly, "I am so glad you are home, I was so afraid, please do not let him touch me!"
Wheeler rolled his eyes, knowing immediately where this was going.
"What is wrong?" Mischka held his fiancée away from him so that he could look into her eyes, only to find one side of her face swelling with bruises, "What happened?"
She cast a fearful glance at Wheeler, "I would not… he tried to… I suppose my behaviour last night gave him the wrong idea about me, I am so ashamed. I know I should not drink, I have no control, but I would never willingly betray you… not sober!"
Mischka looked at the American and Wheeler could see that he was torn. It was Linka however that answered the unspoken question. "She is making it up to cause trouble, it is exactly what I expected of her."
Svetlana turned on her, pointing at her own face, "Do you think I did this to myself? You should take this as a warning Linka, it will be you next… or was it your idea? What did you expect of me? To give in to his advances, is that it? You put him up to it!"
"Do not talk nonsense!" Grandmuska stepped in on her Granddaughter's behalf, bringing on a fresh wave of tears.
"Your family hates me Mischka, I was wrong to ever come back here, you must hate me too…" she seemed to try to pull away but her fiancé stopped her.
Mischka held her to him but didn't say anything to reassure her, nor did he look at any member of his family as he spoke, "Wheeler I am afraid I will have to ask you to leave."
"What?!" Linka was furious, "She is a whore, we all saw that last night, you cannot possibly take her side in this!"
"Don't Linka," Her boyfriend said softly, "I'll go to the bed and breakfast 'til you're ready to go home."
He headed for the bedroom but it was apparent that Linka intended to continue regardless. Mischka tightened his grip on the now shaking young woman, "If you intend to stay I must ask you to speak respectfully to and of, my future wife."
Linka reigned in her temper so that she wasn't shouting when she replied but he could still hear her emotions in her voice, "Do not worry I am not staying, but I know Jason much better than you will ever know Svetlana and he would never do what she accused him of. It is against his nature." She walked away but then stopped and turned back, adding in a much kinder tone, "If you really want to help her, find out who did hit her."
Wheeler had just finished stuffing his things into his bag when Linka entered their room, "Babe, I swear I didn't…"
"Please, let us just get out of here," She told him brushing tears from her eyes.
"You don't have to leave because of me…" he replied guiltily, feeling bad even though he knew he had done nothing to deserve it. He couldn't help wondering what she was thinking, and how far she blamed him.
Linka shook her head, packing as fast as she could while still folding everything carefully. "I do have to leave, because of her. I knew how it would be."
The American sighed, "I'm sorry. I came here to help and I just made it worse."
A little of what he was feeling finally penetrated the red haze that was surrounding her and she stopped what she was doing to wrap her arms around him, "Nyet Yankee, you did help. I gave her a chance that I would not otherwise have given her, it is too bad she did not give herself one."
Svetlana was nowhere in sight when they brought their bags out into the lounge but a tearful Grandmuska came forward at once to hug them which just made them feel worse.
Mischka refused to meet their eyes as he held the door open for them and after Linka had passed by him without a word or glance, Wheeler paused to look at his girlfriend's brother straight in the eyes "I didn't touch her Mischka, she's lying, and I think you know that. But whatever you think of me, don't let her come between you and Linka, it's too important."
The older man looked away first, "Take care of her."
"Always." Wheeler replied sadly.
Wheeler and Linka ran through the pre-flight checks with professional efficiency and an otherwise awkward silence that continued for the first ten minutes of the flight. It was broken by Gaia, asking them to divert course to join the others, who had been called to help a relief effort the day before. "The flooding was bad but it was over quickly, so I'd intended to let you finish your weekend but as you're coming home anyway…"
"It is fine Gaia, we are on our way." Linka had told her, and they'd relapsed into silence.
Not being able to stand it any longer the Fire Planeteer began with, "I was going to suggest we go out to dinner, just the two of us, to give us a chance to talk, but I guess that's out of the question now."
"Da." Linka agreed, keeping her attention on flying and not giving him any clues about how she was feeling.
A few more minutes and then, "Look, I know I haven't had the best track record, I understand if you're having doubts about me…"
Linka looked around in surprise and confusion, "What are you talking about?"
"Flirting, only I didn't, I swear! She came to your room and practically demanded I fu... uh, well anyway she didn't like it when I turned her down. She threatened to tell you stuff about me and I told her to go ahead, and then she stormed out. I didn't expect her to come back with a black eye."
Understanding dawning she put their craft into autopilot and held her hands out to him. "Jason I did not doubt you for one moment, I thought you knew that. The story she told… well it is just not you, even if we had not been together and I had no hold over you, I would have known it was lies. It is my brother's sanity that I am having doubts about."
Wheeler released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, then he undid his seat belt so that he could stand up and lean down to kiss her.
When he finally returned to his seat, retaining one of her hands in his, she said, "You know I do not think that even Mischka believed her, not really."
"He didn't," Wheeler replied with conviction, "If he had, he'd have told me to stay the hell away from his sister too."
"Then why? I know they say that love is blind but I am not sure that I even believe that he does love her."
"Pride maybe?" the American shrugged, "Maybe he's just hoping that the girl he knew at College is the real one. It's Gram I feel sorry for."
Linka nodded sadly, "Da I hated leaving her like that."
"You know, I can't get it out of my head that something else is going on, too much doesn't add up."
The Russian cast him an interested glance, "Go on."
He shrugged, "Just some of the things she said… I'm not going to repeat them, let's just say she convinced me she doesn't love him. And it was like she was desperate to get me to sleep with her, which doesn't make sense, we obviously didn't need to do anything for her to cause trouble between you."
"You probably broke her record." Linka pulled a face making him laugh.
"Nah, there was more to it, I'm sure of it… even how they met sounded suspicious to me but I thought I was imagining it when they told us, you know, getting too caught up with how you felt." He sighed but he wasn't done. "There's something else she said, something I need to tell you. It's not a secret, just one of those 'not a first date discussion' kind of things."
He explained about the arrest and she proved her understanding immediately by saying, "You stole it for your Papa."
"Yeah, I was still young and stupid enough to want his approval. He came and got me from the Police Station and I'm fairly sure they knew exactly how things stood, the cops were pretty nice to me actually. Dad told me I was a loser but at least he never asked me to do it again."
"You stopped me from hitting Svetlana, you might need to stop me again when I meet your father." She said, only half joking.
Wheeler laughed and lifted the hand he was holding to his lips.
Linka smiled at him but then frowned, "And Svetlana knew about this?"
"Not about Dad, but yeah." He shrugged, "She said she had connections and figured it meant we had something in common, like I didn't belong there any more than she did."
"She was wrong." His girlfriend told him firmly, "Everything would have been perfect if she had not been there."
The American smiled at her but said, "Yeah, but fair's fair Babe, if she hadn't been in the picture you might never have taken me home with you."
Linka glanced round at him and said shyly, "I think I would… it might have taken me longer to admit that I needed you but it is not like my feelings for you are new."
"Good to hear." He said it jokingly but she could see the impact her assurances had on him and it made her glad she'd said it.
To be continued…