She's pale and listless, thin and stressed. Sitting in a lecture hall, the lights dimmed, the close hum of her professor's voice lulling her into an unpleasant sort of reverie, she tries to take notes, desperately attempting to keep her attention on her class. But she's hot and the air is stifling, and momentarily she considers leaving, desperate to cool down and feel the icy winter wind on her skin.

'Are you okay?' a voice asks next to her, and she turns, her mouth falling open in shock.

It's Ma-Ti.

He's sitting in the seat next to her, wearing a striped sweater, his face earnest as he looks at her.

She shakes her head, rendered speechless, her pen dropping from her hand and clattering to the ground. It rolls beneath his desk and he smiles at her, before dropping to pick it up.

'You might need this,' he says as he sits up, handing her back her pen.

'But I thought...' she begins, before stopping, swallowing hard. 'I thought you were dead?'

He blinks once, and then again.

'Hey,' he says slowly. 'Are you okay?'

She pauses, putting a hand to her head. 'Yes,' she says slowly, before she shakes her head. 'No. No, I am dizzy.'

'Right,' Ma-Ti says. 'Look, I'm going to get you some help -'

She almost laughs. 'Do you not want to fix me up one of the Shaman's medicines?'

He stares at her. 'Stay there,' he says firmly, suddenly standing up. 'Don't go anywhere, okay?'

They are in the middle of a crowded lecture hall, and Linka watches, dry-mouthed, as Ma-Ti disappears between the rows and rows of desks, the crowd swallowing him up whole like a sacrificial lamb.

She looks down at her work, but the pages blur before her eyes.

'Ma-Ti,' she whispers. 'Come back.'

She looks up and tries staring at her professor, but he is too far away and too close all at once, and she looks back down, her mind swimming.

A hand falls on her shoulder, and she jumps, looking up warily.

But it's only Gi, and Linka wants to weep with relief.

'Gi,' she says, reaching up for her hand. 'I do not think I am very well... I need to leave... Ma-Ti has gone ahead -'

Gi's face softens, and she lays her hand on Linka's forehead. 'You're burning up. Come on, we have to get you to the medical centre. Can you stand?'

But Linka shakes her head. 'But Ma-Ti...'

'Helena?' Gi asks. 'Is that your name, Helena?'

Linka stares at Gi, confused. 'Gi, what are you talking about? It's me, Linka.'

Gi furrows her brow, looking concerned. 'Okay then, love, let's forget the medical centre. I think we need to get you to hospital.'

Linka feels hands start to pull at her arms, and she struggles, trying to push them off. 'No,' she protests. 'Gi, who are they? Why are you letting them hurt me?'

But Gi isn't looking at her anymore. She's looking at a man beside her and speaking to him in a low voice.

'We need to call 999... I think she's delirious...some sort of flu, I think, but...'

'Gi,' Linka says desperately, tears running down her cheeks. 'Gi, help me. Don't let Ma-Ti leave again... Gi... please...'

But Gi turns and walks away. The men grasping at Linka's arms suddenly pull her upwards, so that her whole body is trapped between them, and she screams, clawing at them.

'No,' she pleads. 'No, no, no... don't do this... please... please...'

But their arms are like iron against her and she feels her feet dragging against the floor, her body twisting and turning as she fights them every step of the way.

'Do not put me back in the coffin!' she's screaming now, her hands clenched into fists, her breath coming in ragged bursts. 'Do not put me back in the coffin!'

She lashes out, momentarily freeing an arm and slicing it against her assailant's skin. He flinches, wiping his hand against his now bleeding cheek.

'Jesus, you drew blood,' he says, staring at his fingers. He looks down at her, and Linka collapses to the ground.

Wheeler.

She sobs in a ball for a moment before curling her arms around his leg. He seems stunned, watching her cry against his trousers, before he reaches down and picks her up easily, swinging her into his arms.

'You're gonna be fine,' he says. 'Don't you worry, okay? We're gonna take care of you.'

She nods blindly, trusting Wheeler implicity, as she always has, and probably always will.

'You are not in New York?' she whimpers slightly, and he stares at her in surprise as he carries her from the building.

'Not today,' he replies easily. 'It's Helena, right?'

She stares at him.

'It's okay, Helena, you're gonna be okay,' he carries on, as he navigates the steps out into the cold winter air.

There are blue flashing lights and a crowd of people gathered around an ambulance. They move aside as Wheeler carries Linka to the back of the vehicle, and Linka buries her face into his shoulder, avoiding their pitying gazes. It's only when she feels his arms begin to lower her, laying her gently onto a gurney and strapping her in, that she cries out again.

'James,' she begs. 'James, do not leave me. Please do not leave me alone again.'

But Wheeler is already gone, and she struggles against the straps of the gurney, crying out in pain and frustration, until she feels a needle prick at her skin.

'Calm down,' a voice is saying. A voice Linka knows as well as her own.

Gaia.

'Calm down and sleep,' the voice says again, and Linka obeys.

The needles is withdrawn from her arm, and her head lolls to the side tiredly.

She's numb and she's bereft and she breaks into a thousand pieces before she falls away entirely.

When she wakes, she's in hospital, on a ward with three other sleeping women. She looks to her side, and relaxes instantly.

Kwame is there, asleep in a chair by her bed.

'Are you real?' she whispers, remembering Ma-Ti and Gi.

Remembering Wheeler.

Kwame's eyes flutter open, and he blinks as he takes stock of his surroundings. Suddenly, his face relaxes, and he smiles at her.

'So you are back with us, old friend.'

'How long was I...' she swallows. 'Incarnated?'

Kwame grins. 'Incapacitated,' he suggests, and she nods weakly, laying her head back down on her pillow. 'Six days,' he replies. 'You had me worried for a day or two there, Linka.'

She sighs. 'You are meant to be working in Calais,' she says blankly. 'You should not have come all this way for me -'

But Kwame shakes his head. 'They will not miss me for a week. You need me more than the refugees do at this point.'

Linka closes her eyes. 'What happened to me?'

Kwame sighs now too, stretching out his long legs. 'You caught a strain of influenza. A nasty one at that. Your body was already so weak from how little you've been eating and sleeping and... well, when you came out in a fever you began to hallucinate. Apparently you started babbling away in Russian,' for a moment Kwame stares at her. 'You scared the student sitting next to you badly, I think. He was the one who went for help.'

'Oh.'

'You spoke in English too,' Kwame suddenly adds, and Linka opens her eyes. 'The paramedic... you thought he was...' Kwame stops. 'Well, it does not matter. I am here now, Linka.'

Linka nods. She closes her eyes again, to stop her tears from falling. 'Yes,' she exhales. 'When can I go home, Kwame?'

Kwame looks at her sternly. 'When the doctors say you can, Linka. You gave everyone a fright. There was a day when they thought we might lose you. I nearly called...' he stops again, and Linka nods.

She knows what he was going to say. Who he would've called.

'You need to rest,' Kwame says firmly. 'Eat more, sleep more, take care of yourself.' His voice sounds wretched. 'I cannot lose you too, old friend. Not when we have both already lost so much. I know you are hurting... but punishing yourself is not the way forward.'

She nods.

'Yes,' she decides. 'Yes, it is time to move on. I am sorry, I should not have let things get to this point...'

But Kwame only sighs, wiping his thumb across her forehead. 'No more apologies. Not between us.'

She nods.

He leans forward, pressing a kiss to her cheek. As he leans back, he grins at her.

'What?' she asks. 'Why are you smiling so?'

'I've met someone... well, at least, I think I have... it is very new, and strange for me... but I am very happy.'

Linka cannot help the smile that spreads across her own face. 'Kwame... I am so happy for you. Who is he?'

Kwame smiles. 'He is an immigration lawyer who works from Paris. Sam.'

'Sam,' Linka repeats. 'I like his name. Tell me everything.'

He nods. 'There is not much to tell, just yet. But, it is as you said; time to move on. And I don't know... I have nothing to compare it to... but it feels...' he frowns slightly. 'I do not even know how to describe it. All I know is I have met the person I think I might be meant to be with...'

Linka feels a dart of pain. A memory steals over her, of a cabin on a tropical island, hot and humid, and of Wheeler lying next to her, his naked skin covered in a light sheen of sweat. There is an ache between her legs and her mouth is bruised from his kisses and he's telling her how right it felt to make love to her.

'I don't know,' Kwame is saying, and she forces herself to look at him. 'It just feels...'

'Right,' Linka whispers. 'It just feels right.'

She closes her eyes.

Linka opens her eyes with a start, sitting bolt upright in bed.

She's disoriented and lost, and she looks around wildly, searching for anything in the dark that can ground her and bring her back to the present.

'Hey,' a sleepy voice murmurs from the bed. 'Hey, babe, you okay?'

She stares down at him in shock. 'Wheeler?'

He slings an arm over her waist, trying to pull her back down to bed. 'We need to sleep,' he says, nuzzling into her. 'We're gonna need all our energy, babe. You especially. Go back to sleep.'

But the past is too closely linked with the present in that moment and Linka feels it sit heavily on her heart and mind. She gasps again, pushing Wheeler off and moving to the edge of the bed, where she sits and takes short, shallow breaths.

She hears Wheeler shuffle beside her before a lamp clicks on, and she closes her eyes at the intrusion of light into both this room and her dark frame of mind. She covers her face with her hand and feels Wheeler lay a hand on her arm.

'Babe?' he asks, sounding wary and worried all at once.

'I do not even know if you are real,' she says fretfully. 'I do not know what is real and what is not, and that terrifies me more than anything.'

Wheeler says nothing, simply continuing to rub at her arm in soothing circles while she hides her face from him.

'Because how can any of this be true?' Linka continues pitifully. 'How can you be here next to me? How can I be pregnant? How can we be here, with Kwame and Gi... Gi who is not even really Gi, but someone else? How can this be truth, Wheeler?'

'Babe -'

'It cannot be truth,' Linka says firmly, at last looking at him. He's staring at her with wide blue eyes, clearly worried, and she wants- so much in that moment- to rely on him. To fade into him and soothe all her fears and worries and hurts on his shoulder.

But she cannot.

'I wanted you so much these past years,' she tells him. 'Everyday I wanted you, and you weren't there. Sometimes I wanted you so much I would imagine you were there, and then when you weren't -' her voice cracks, and she hides her face in her hands again.

'I wanted you too, babe,' he says quietly. 'Everyday, I wanted you too.'

'No,' Linka shakes her head. 'No, you were the one who walked away. That was you, Wheeler.'

He opens his mouth to speak but Linka stands, brushing his hands away when he tries to touch her.

'Lin,' he calls after her. 'I'm here now. I'm here now, and we're together, and we're gonna get that Navsegda we always talked about, and -'

'Stop using that word like it means something, Wheeler,' Linka spits. 'Do you not understand yet, Yankee? There is no 'forevermore' for us. There was never going to be one, not for you and me. It is an impossibility.'

She watches as he pales before her. 'Babe -'

'This does not make any sense to me,' she says slowly. 'I have spent years telling myself one truth, over and over again, until it is etched into every cell of my body. Wheeler does not love you, Wheeler does not want you, Wheeler used you, Wheeler used you. That now makes sense to me. Not this... this sudden reality where I am pregnant, you are the father, and we are together,' she stares at him, shaking her head, brushing away the tears on her cheeks. 'This cannot be real,' she says again, crying openly now.

Abruptly, Wheeler jumps out of bed. He comes over to her, just about hauling her into his arms and wrapping himself so tightly around her that she almost feels suffocated by his presence. 'I'm real and I'm here,' he says fiercely. 'We are forevermore, babe. This is it for us. That truth you told yourself? That goddam fuckin' idiocy I rammed down your throat years ago to get you to leave me? That I didn't love you? That I didn't want you? That was never a truth, Lin. That was a lie, a stupid, idiotic, reckless fuckin' lie from a scared kid. You know the truth. The real truth, the one that's so big and obvious and under our skin that it's never gonna leave us: I love you, you love me, and we're meant to be. That's the truth you need to tell yourself now. I know it's the only truth that's ever counted for anything for me.'

'You hurt me,' Linka says softly.

Wheeler's arms soften around her and he sighs. He uses a hand to tilt her head to his, so that she's forced to look him in the eye.

'Yeah,' he admits. 'Yeah, I did. I hurt you, and in the process I hurt myself too. But I'm not gonna do it again. I love you and I'm gonna love these babies of ours and I'm gonna spend the rest of my life provin' it to you and them. Okay, babe?'

She sighs into his arms again, resting her head on his shoulder. 'You are real, and you are here,' she repeats, and he nods above her, kissing her hair.

'I'm real and I'm here. I'm not goin' anywhere without you from now on, babe. And fuck anyone who tries to get me to do otherwise,' his voice rises slightly, and Linka feels his head turn towards one of the cameras buried into their ceiling. 'And that includes you Gi, and that bitch Barbara Blight.'

'Do not antagonise her, Yankee,' Linka whispers fearfully.

But Wheeler shrugs, looking down at Linka with that grin she loves so much. 'No one can hurt me more than I hurt myself, Babe,' he says, before his face falls into more serious lines. 'I know it's gonna take time for you to completely trust me again. I know that.'

Linka suddenly shudders. 'Time is something we may not have, Yankee.'

He stiffens. 'I told you already, I'm gonna get you out of this, Lin.'

She prods him gently. 'All of us,' she reminds him.

'Yeah,' he says. 'Of course. All of us.' He pulls at her softly, dragging her back to the bed in the middle of the room and burrowing them both under the covers. He snaps off the lamp and Linka watches as the room plunges into darkness. Wheeler is warm and she is safe in his arms, and she allows her body to relax against his.

'Ma-Ti is here,' she suddenly whispers, and Wheeler inhales sharply beside her.

'What?'

'Gi and Blight... they have Ma-Ti...' she swallows hard. 'Or at least... a body that looks like him. He is in a laboratory, and they have him covered in wires and... and I think it is a life support system.'

'Jesus,' Wheeler whispers, clearly shocked, and Linka presses herself against him.

'Gi took me to see him. She was so... so proud of him. She went right up to... to the body and stroked him and talked to him and...' her breath staggers, and Wheeler grips her hard.

'Don't talk about this if it upsets you, Babe.'

'I fainted,' she confesses, her voice tinged with embarrassment. 'I fainted when I saw him. Gi thought I would be so happy and I fainted on the floor. I was a Planeteer for years, and I never fainted once then. But this...'

'You're pregnant, you were alone, and you were disoriented, Babe,' Wheeler whispers. 'You're the strongest person I know. But Christ, I know that if I saw Ma-Ti like that... all hooked up to wires and shit, when we saw him dead before our own eyes...' he shudders.

'Gi thinks he will wake. She thinks we are going to be the Planeteers again.'

Wheeler rubs a hand on the small of Linka's back, and she knows he's thinking hard. It's an achingly familiar gesture, one from their shared past. He likes to touch her when troubled or lost in thought, she knows that. Like it was just yesterday, she recalls one of their first missions, where they were bound together, back to back with their wrists locked entwined in place. All she'd been able to think about was how the backs of her thighs grazed the bottom of his, and how infuriatingly warm and comforting his skin was, while he stroked her fingers, clearly deliberating on what to do next. It became a habit of his, reaching for her when upset or needing clarity, and while she might have brushed him off time and again under other circumstances, she never did so during those moments.

When the Yankee needed her, Linka always gave in. And secretly, she enjoyed every minute.

'Gi said somethin' about a trade,' he mutters now, and Linka nods.

'Yes, I know. Our rings perhaps? Blight was always after them...'

But Wheeler sighs. 'She already has our rings, and yet we're all still here. What else could she want?'

Linka sighs too. 'I do not know. We are just three people now, you, me and Kwame. We are not Planeteers now. We have nothing of value to a person like Blight.'

Wheeler nods. 'Let's sleep on it,' he suggests.

'I do not know if I will be able to sleep now,' Linka replies. 'My mind is all...' she frowns. 'I do not know the word... but I am so...'

Suddenly, she feels Wheeler's face break out into a smile. 'I know a way to tire you out, Babe.'

'Yankee,' she admonishes. In the dark, she gestures to the cameras she knows are dotted about the room, watching their every move. 'We have an audience, James.'

But he's already moving on top of her, kissing the side of her mouth and allowing one of his hands to roam below the covers. She sighs into his mouth, giving in to the warmth of his body and hands. It doesn't feel wrong. She knows that when her Yankee needs her, she will always give in.

'We're under the covers, we're in North fuckin' Korea and you're already pregnant,' Wheeler shrugs. 'What's the worst that could happen now?'

She can't help the giggle that escapes her mouth, and she feels Wheeler smile against her neck.

'I like that sound,' he murmurs huskily. 'But let's see if I can get you to make some better ones.'

She smiles at him, resting a hand against his cheek. 'You're real, and you're here,' she says again, her voice small, and he nods.

'Yeah Babe. I'm real and I'm here. And I'm not goin' anywhere, ever again.'