Chapter 4

"Jason…" Linka breathed, reaching out to stroke his hair. She had found him sleeping on a gurney in an over crowded corridor and was afraid he was already unconscious until his eyes snapped open, making her jump.

"Linka?" He rasped, his eyes focusing on hers, "You shouldn't be here."

Tears flowed and she nodded, "Da, I should. This is exactly where I should be, I should have come here with you when you asked me."

"No!" His vehemence surprised her and she didn't try to stop him from sitting up, or subsequently pulling her into his arms, "You'd have been infected too. I don't want to hurt you."

Linka relaxed into him, moving between his legs and holding him back tightly, and not really noticing the way he nuzzled her neck in the relief of being in his arms. "You would never hurt me."

"You don't understand." He groaned, his hands beginning to explore more than they normally would, "I can't control this. You have to get away from me." He emphasised the point by giving her gentle love bite on her neck.

She gasped but didn't move away as her mind raced through all of her options. There was a good chance that she wouldn't actually be able to get away from him without help but the truth, she realised, was that she didn't want to anyway. "Yankee, do you trust me?"

"I love you," he kissed his way up her neck and over her mask covered jaw to her lips "I'd do anything for you."

The surgical covering somewhat ruined the moment but Linka didn't care, "I will take that as a yes. You need to come with me."

She moved to pull away but his arms tightened, "No, I can't let you go again, we belong together."

"Da, I know." She reached up to stroke his hair soothingly, seeing his internal struggle as he tried to remember what was going on, "I do not want you to let go of me Lyubov, I just need us to go somewhere more private, that is ok, da? There are too many people here."

He looked around but it was as if his gaze kept sliding off his surroundings and coming back to her, "I can't see, there's only you…"

Feeling a slight panic, Linka forced her voice to remain steady, "It is the contagion, please trust me, I promise I am not going to leave you. I want to help you, and then, if you want, we can be together."

"Promise?" His voice was hoarse and his eyes red as if he'd been crying, though she didn't think he had.

"I promise Jason. I just need you to stay focused a little longer." She took one of his hands tightly in her own and stepped back, willing him to follow."

"I want to see your face…" he stumbled as he followed her and she moved back under his arm to help guide him, keeping hold of his hands to stop them reaching for her.

"Not here, it is probably the only reason you still have some control." She looked warily at some of the other patients as their heads turned towards her, "Besides, it is best if no one else sees me, just you."

He nodded at that, "Just me."

It was already occurring to the Wind Planeteer that she was a long way out of her depth. No matter how this plays out I have to be ok with it, for both of us!

Linka breathed a sigh of relief when they found Dr Singh's office still empty. She turned the lock on the door and then faced Wheeler. He looked like he was in pain, and still unable to focus on anything but her, lost and strangely unsure of himself.

She walked back into his arms, throwing her own around his neck and breathing in the scent of him. "I thought I lost you."

"Never," There was emotion in his voice, which she also wasn't used to, but he held her like he hadn't seen her in weeks and nothing else mattered.

Leaning back a little to meet his eyes, Linka pulled off her mask and let it fall to the ground, and then raised her mouth as his descended. From that moment there was only the two of them, all thoughts of contagions forgotten as the feelings they'd been holding back for the last few years came to the surface.

"I can't think straight," Wheeler said as he broke their kiss to pull her t-shirt over her head, "How did we even get here?"

She correctly assumed that 'here' meant ripping each other's clothes off and not specifically the administrative office, and also that the question arose from the relief he was getting from her enthusiastic co-operation. "I will explain later, for now, just let it happen."

He let her guide him to the couch, although it was more a case of letting her push him backwards against it and then sitting as she straddled him.

Her bra was gone and he was far less disturbed by his lack of ability to focus on the room, now that her bare breasts were in sharp focus in front of his eyes. Wheeler found that he loved the appreciative noises she made as he explored them, first with the palms of his hands, then his fingers, then his lips and tongue. He could have done that for hours in fact, if the tightness in his trousers weren't driving him onwards.

One minute Wheeler was once again devouring her mouth, the next he was on top of her, their clothes completely gone. It wasn't any kind of infection in her case, just a natural passion that had her feeling a little overwhelmed.

"Tell me you want this," The American hissed. She deliberately stopped herself wondering if he could halt things, he couldn't, but he needed to feel as if he could, and more than that, he needed to know that she didn't want him to.

"I want you." Linka told him, her eyes finding his and letting him see the truth in them, "I want this."

They'd both passed out for a few minutes. Linka woke first, Wheeler's weight still pinning her down and somewhat to her surprise, she neither felt trapped nor embarrassed by their position. I found him, and he is going to be ok.

In fact she found their present intimacy comforting, and oddly freeing as she couldn't hide from it. After a while however she became a little concerned that Dr Singh would return to her office and decided she wanted to be better prepared… and less naked.

"Yankee, wake up Lyubov." She kissed his head and stroked his hair, wary of any other movement in case it started something she didn't think they had time to finish.

"Mmphh."

She giggled at the vibration on her shoulder, "You need to move Jason, there will be people looking for us. And Dr Singh will probably want a blood sample."

"Who?" he pushed himself up, helping her to sit up as she pressed her legs together and put her feet to the floor, beginning to look for her clothes.

Wheeler sat at the other end of the sofa, one leg bent on the seat, apparently not bothered by his lack of covering. He looked around, "Where are we?"

Linka automatically turned her head to answer his question, and then looked away quickly. It wasn't that she didn't like what she saw, he was relaxed despite the situation and his pose would have made a great artist's portrait - or photograph, as her overactive imagination suggested, - but this was very new to her and she didn't feel she could just stare.

"At the hospital." She explained, "They cannot find a medical cure for this latest attack and people are dying but… that is, I am sure that this is not what Dr Singh had in mind when she said we could use her office but she cannot help you, and I knew I could so..."

"Oh." He began looking for his clothes.

"Are you ok?" She asked, concerned about his reaction.

"Sure." He was getting dressed so rather than watch she finished adjusting her own clothes.

"We should probably disinfect the couch," Linka said, moving to the door on the other side of the room, desperately hoping it was a cupboard or a bathroom and not another office or corridor. She was in luck.

Wheeler shook his head, "Of course we should."

Stopping what she was doing, Linka eyed him cautiously, "You might not feel that this is the time for practical considerations but everyone is going to know what we did, I would rather limit the embarrassment as much as possible…"

"Why be embarrassed? You saved me, you're a hero." He shrugged.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she looked so hurt that it actually got through to him.

He sighed, "I don't know… maybe I'm just trying to beat you to the punchline, you know, 'It didn't mean anything Yankee, it was a logical decision, the Planeteers need you…' I don't mean to be ungrateful, but I've heard it all before and I don't think I can deal with hearing it again, not after… not now."

Linka put down the cleaning things and walked over to him, approaching much like she might a wounded animal, "I did not do this for the Planeteers, or for you... I did not even do it for medical science, although if we can help the other patients we probably should."

He looked at her, surprised and unsure what she was going to say next.

"I did it for me." She told him, "Because I hated that I lied to you and sent you away when all I wanted was to go with you, and because I was thousands of miles away when you needed me, and because I thought I was going to lose you."

Her voice broke and tears began to stream from her eyes. He already had her back in his arms when she added, "I just needed you to be okay, nothing else matters."

They kissed for a long time, and even when they had to stop for air there were smiles and more kisses.

At last they finished cleaning up the couch before going to face its owner, their hands firmly locked together.

To Be Continued…