Linka blinked awake, confused to see the sun was already high in the sky. She stirred slightly, intensely comfortable with Wheeler's arm around her, his beating heart quiet in her ear.

Gi's head rested close against his other shoulder. She was still asleep. Linka watched her quietly for a moment, until she decided she felt no real jealousy or fear against Gi having squirmed closer to Wheeler during the night.

Things seemed to be returning to normal again. Or, at the very least, things seemed to be developing into a new sort of normal. Linka suspected there would be new challenges and jealousies that would rear their heads at some point in their future, but things would be handled better. They would know, next time, to pull together and work things through together, rather than fall victim to impulse and selfishness.

Linka gave a small smile and closed her eyes again, listening to Wheeler's slow, steady breath. She wasn't sure how long it was before he woke, but she felt his fingers curl against her hip, and he hugged her closer. She tilted her head up and kissed the point of his jaw without opening her eyes.

Wheeler looked down at her and then at the top of Gi's head. Her eyes were open and she was chewing her lip.

He hugged them both to him gently. "I had a dream about this once," he said after a moment. "You were both naked and –"

"Bozhe moy," Linka said, shoving him away.

He laughed and Gi sat up, grinning down at him and wrinkling her nose. They all stretched.

Kwame rolled over and looked at them with a tired smile. "Ready to do some work, Planeteers?"

Linka looked back towards the forest and smiled. "Gaia has been hard at work all night, it seems," she said.

The Planeteers all sat up and looked back towards the forest. Trees had shot up during the night, and though the evidence of Zarm's Planeteers still laid everywhere, smashed and burnt, greenery and tropical flowers clambered messily across the ruins.

Things would recover.

"Don't hammer my finger," Gi said nervously.

Linka gave a giggle, clutching the hammer. "Be steady, Gi."

"Don't hammer my finger," Gi said again, starting to giggle as well.

Linka grinned at her and took careful aim striking the long nail on the head with perfect accuracy. Gi breathed a sigh of relief and took her hand away, watching Linka strike at the nail until it was embedded deep inside the timber.

The frame of Gi's hut was almost completed. Through the increasingly-thick shrubbery, the girls could hear Kwame and Ma-Ti hammering the frame for Ma-Ti's hut.

"Where did Wheeler go?" Linka asked after a moment, digging another nail out of the pouch on her belt.

"To see Gaia. The Crystal Chamber must be almost finished by now."

The sun was starting to set. Linka could feel it on her skin, and knew she was a little sunburnt. Sweat and dirt was tight against her face, and she felt a pleasant warmth and tiredness that came from working so hard on something so satisfying.

The Planeteers were unable to work as fast as Gaia, but they were determined to rebuild Hope Island themselves. Gaia had provided them with the materials and they had set about building their huts again from the foundations up.

"Did you manage to salvage anything from your hut?" Gi asked after a moment, helping Linka hold the next beam steady.

"Nothing," Linka said regretfully. "It was all charcoal. Most of my things were left behind with Viktor, anyway. The only thing I will really miss is the Queen of Hearts playing card Wheeler gave me all those years ago. I used to take it out and look at it when things became difficult for me."

"You have Wheeler himself now," Gi reasoned, giving her a smile.

Linka smiled back. "And you."

Gi reddened. "Yeah."

Linka chuckled at her embarrassment and focused on hammering the next nail in.

Wheeler appeared through the trees with a grin on his face. "Time to wrap it up for the day, girls," he said.

Gi shot him a look. "There's still plenty of daylight left, you know."

Linka agreed. "Anything to get out of physical labour, hm, Yankee?"

He grabbed her around the waist with a growl and she shrieked and giggled as he tickled her.

"Come on," he said. "I've got a surprise for you."

He walked with them both, his arms around their waists, listening to them talk about what they would have to do the next day in terms of beginning the walls of Gi's hut. Then they would start work on the cabin that would become Wheeler and Linka's.

Linka smiled up at him and he kissed her gently. "Ready for your surprise?" he asked.

"I think so," she answered, looking down at her hands. They were dusty and slightly-blistered. "It is not more hammering, is it?"

"Nope," he answered with a grin. He nodded towards the beach. "You've just got to be an aunt for a little while."

Linka looked down towards the shore in surprise. The water was still murky and full of silt, but it hardly mattered. She gave a cry of joy as she saw Mishka standing on the flat, firm sand by the shallows with his wife and children.

She took off across the beach, a smile wide on her face as she watched him pass one of the boys over to Natalya in preparation for the hug his little sister was about to launch at him.

She leapt at him and wound her arms tight around his neck. He laughed and spun her around quickly, hugging her tightly.

"You promised to call when it was over," he said, narrowing his eyes at her in jest.

She reddened, but the grin never left her face. "Sorry," she said, not sounding it at all. She was too excited to see him.

He laughed and rubbed his hand against the top of her head, causing her to squirm.

"This is Natalya," he said after a moment, stepping back and motioning to his wife.

Linka smiled at her. "It is nice to meet you, Natalya."

"You too, Linka," Natalya answered warmly. "I would give you a hug, but my hands are full..." She hefted her sons slightly.

Linka laughed breathlessly and held her hands out. "May I?"

Natalya passed one of her boys over. "Nikolai," she said with a smile.

Linka kissed her nephew's cheek with quiet reverence, her heart drumming loudly in her chest. He looked up at her with bright blue eyes and smiled, though he wasn't still. He squirmed and thrust his arm towards the ground in an obvious effort to be put down.

"They are almost walking," Mishka said. "They are keeping us on our toes."

Wheeler sauntered up, looking rather proud of himself. He greeted Natalya with a kiss on the cheek and Linka felt a pang of regret as she realised he knew both her and Mishka much better than she seemed to. She shook her head and dismissed the thought. She'd soon catch up to him.

"How did you get here?" she asked Mishka, bouncing the squirming infant in her arms slightly.

"Gaia," Mishka explained. "Wheeler asked her to bring us here once she had enough energy."

Linka smiled and kissed Nikolai again before handing him over to his father. "He does not seem very happy with me," she explained.

"He just wants to get down," Mishka sighed, setting the little boy in the sand. He immediately started curling his fingers into it curiously, raising them to his mouth to taste.

Linka gave a giggle and stopped him.

The other Planeteers wandered down and introduced themselves. Linka watched Kwame as he took Aleksandr into his arms with practiced ease. Though the expression on his face was one of genuine warmth and happiness, she knew he was thinking about Safi. She watched him heft her giggling nephew slightly, and smiled, pleased that children had not become totally absent from Kwame's life.

Wheeler took her hand and they wandered away a little to sit in the sand, watching the others paddling in the shallows or chatting and watching the children crawl about on the sand.

Wheeler stretched out and propped himself up on his elbows. After a moment Linka rested her head against his shoulder.

"Thank you for having Mishka visit," she murmured. "It is a nice surprise."

"He has to work for it," Wheeler said. "I told him he's building us a house tomorrow."

She laughed and nudged him.

He grinned and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, kissing the top of her head. They watched as Ma-Ti chased Gi with a handful of seaweed, until she threatened to swamp him with a tidal wave.

"I told Mishka we'd take him back in the geo-cruiser in a few days, once Gaia has repaired it for us," Wheeler said after a moment.

"Mmhm," Linka agreed tiredly.

"Did you want to stop off and see Viktor?" Wheeler asked hesitantly. "Get any of your things or – or just see him?"

She thought for a moment, her brow furrowed, and then shook her head slowly. "I do not think so," she said. "There is nothing there I want. And there is nothing I want to say to him. No matter how strong I feel or how brave I am, Viktor will not believe it or listen. I will be able to prove nothing to him. I do not want him to tear me down. I have walked away from him and I do not want to go back."

Wheeler hugged her tightly, and the subject was dropped.

Linka smiled as Kwame held Aleksandr just above the thin shallows. The little boy shrieked with laughter, kicking and squirming with delight as the water ran along the sand below him.

Wheeler traced a hand over Linka's waist, letting his fingers slide beneath the material of her t-shirt to sit against her warm skin. "Hey," he said softly in her ear, "if I asked you to marry me one day, would you say yes?"

She looked up at him in surprise and he grinned at her.

She smiled back at him. "Maybe."

He chuckled and kissed her forehead. "One day I will, then."

She laughed and burrowed her face into his shoulder.

They watched as Gi aimed her ring at the water and attempted to settle the silt and sand floating about in the bay. The sun sank slowly towards the water, staining it pink and red. The sky turned orange.

Mishka wandered up and sat beside Linka, taking her hand and watching Natalya and Kwame chat as they kept a careful watch on the twins sitting at the edge of the water.

He looked down at his younger sister. "You look much happier than you did a few weeks ago," he said, squeezing her hand.

"I do?" she asked, smiling at him.

He nodded. "Tired," he said, looking at her carefully, "but very happy."

She reddened slightly under his scrutiny, but smiled. "I am very happy," she said. She realised how long it had been since she'd truly felt that way, and it made her a little sad and a little surprised that it had taken so long .

Gi squealed as Ma-Ti swept his arm behind her knees and draped her over his shoulders, wading out into the water with her. Wheeler and Linka could hear her threatening him with increasingly-violent outcomes if he dared drop her.

"What is next for the Planeteers?" Mishka asked after a moment.

"Just rebuilding," Wheeler answered, waving his hand back towards the forest. "We've got a lot to do."

Linka smiled to herself as she watched her friends on the beach, her head against Wheeler's shoulder. "It will not take long," she said. "We have rebuilt so much already."

"Do you want me to drop it?" Kwame asked, grinning down at Gi as she bounced around him watching him hold a beam up against the wall of her hut.

"Not really," she answered. "I'm just excited it's almost done."

He chuckled and nodded to Ma-Ti, who started to hammer. Kwame looked around at Gi again. "It is nice to see you so light-hearted again," he said after a moment. "You have not seemed this happy for a long time."

She reddened, feeling rather self-conscious about being called out on her exuberance. "I feel a lot better," she admitted. "I didn't realise how heavy the weight of guilt was until Linka helped lift it away."

Kwame smiled at her and turned back to the task at hand.

"You seem better too," Gi said. "You smile a lot."

He grinned at her. "There is more to smile about now."

"Yeah," she agreed happily.

"Where are Wheeler and Linka?" Ma-Ti asked suddenly, checking his watch.

"Is our conversation boring you?" Gi asked, rolling her eyes at him with a smile.

He grinned at her and gave her shoulder a nudge as he walked past. "I'm hungry. Let's go and find something for lunch."

They almost ran into Linka as they headed towards the beach.

She smiled at them. "I was just coming to get you! We made lunch. Mishka and Natalya are settling the boys for a sleep, but they told us to go ahead and eat." She led them towards the picnic tables in front of The Crystal Chamber, which stood new and repaired and whole against the backdrop of Hope Island's green mountains.

"How's your hut coming along?" Wheeler asked Gi as she settled herself beside him and reached for a sandwich.

"Almost done," she answered happily. "How's yours?"

"Linka wants a mansion," he said, rolling his eyes.

Linka protested immediately, sending a mock glare at him from across the table. "You are just terrible at following measurements, Yankee."

"You wrote everything in metric!" he complained. "It's not my fault I can't convert it properly."

"Yes it is," Ma-Ti answered with a grin, reaching for the jug of water in the middle of the table.

Wheeler gaped at him and the others laughed.

"How much longer do you think it'll take before everything is finished?" Gi asked.

Kwame shrugged. "I am not sure. A couple of weeks, maybe, before everything is totally complete. But we should be able to sleep in our huts in the next few days, if the weather stays nice."

"I feel a little guilty," Linka admitted.

"Do not feel guilty," Kwame said reassuringly. "We have helped rebuild many villages as Planeteers. It is not selfish to stop and rebuild our own."

She smiled at him and glanced across the table at Ma-Ti, Gi and Wheeler. Their faces were all slightly sunburnt, and dusty, but everyone looked happy and whole.

She felt Wheeler's foot nudge hers under the table and she smiled at him as she took a sip of water.

She finally felt whole, too. They had come through missions that had frayed them to the very core, but as she looked at them then, sitting in the afternoon sun laughing and sharing stories, she knew that what existed now was stronger than what had existed before.

It had been difficult, and she would not forget the hurt and pain she had been through, nor did she expect that the road ahead would be an easy one.

But it wasn't a road she intended to turn her back on, and she realised now, more than ever, that there were four other people travelling it with her. They would face each obstacle as a team, leaving their past mistakes behind them.

They had come through the shadows of their own failings and they had survived.