Chapter 15
Linka was smiling as she sat down to check her e-mails.
She'd managed to convince Wheeler to get up early and go for a run with her, which meant he'd initially been grumpy, but by the time they'd reached the assault course he was feeling competitive and they'd ended the exercise laughing.
He'd gone off to work with Commander Clash and Linka had intended to pack for her journey to Oceanus only to realise that she hadn't done any washing since her last two trips. Not entirely sorry to delay her preparations she'd done her chores and then decided to tackle some more of the fan mail.
What caught her eye when she opened her e-mails however, was not the 1328 messages waiting in the Planeteer inbox, but three messages addressed to her private email and containing attachments, from Wheeler's uncle's law firm.
Her heart fluttering in her chest – though she told herself that it was for no good reason – she opened the first message and breathed a sigh a relief. Uncle Donnie congratulated them again and was sending the confirmation of all their paperwork. Linka took a few minutes to read through it, letting it sink in and feeling a return of the excitement she'd had before the accident.
Instinct told her to go and find her husband, put herself in his arms and tell him their news, but she clamped down on the feeling, reminding herself that they were still keeping it private. Reaching unconsciously for the ring that was hidden by her Planeteer shirt, she restored it to her finger and spent a minute or so admiring it.
At last Linka made a decision, and sent a message to her Grandmother asking her to video chat with her. Mishka had recently saved up for a new computer and much to her grandchildren's surprise, Grandmuska had taken over his old one so that she could talk to family and spend her days exchanging recipes on cooking forums, or so she said. As Linka expected, despite it being evening there, she was answered immediately.
"Hello Darling, is everything alright?" the older woman asked in her native language.
The Wind Planeteer nodded, and tried not to give away the state of her feelings as she asked, "How are you and Mishka?"
"We are fine," her grandmother told her with a twinkle in her eyes, "and you are happy, you are trying not to smile. Do not tell me, Wheeler has finally asked you out!"
The modern woman in her rebelled a little at the suggestion, despite its close resemblance to the truth, "That is… it is not…" sighing, "Can I not be happy without people jumping to conclusions about my love life?"
"Of course you can my love, but you have that look in your eyes that you only have when you're talking about Wheeler," her Grandmother said knowingly, "even when you are annoyed with him… but you are not angry."
Linka laughed, unable to hide her feelings and making her relative grin more broadly, "it is a little more than a date."
"Well! I'm glad you feel able to talk to me about that, I could never get your mother to confide. I would not be so open with your brother though, he still thinks of you as a child."
Realising where her Grandmother's thoughts were going, Linka's cheeks flushed red, "Not that! At least… it is not what I meant. We got married!"
She hadn't meant to blurt it out and when she saw the shock on her elder's face, she immediately regretted it, but ploughed on anyway, not wanting any more misunderstandings. She did her best to explain the events of the last few days, and when her Grandmother remained silent, added almost miserably with, "It was romantic."
"I'm sure it was," she said at last, "but, Darling it all seems so… so fast. To go from friends to a couple to… husband and wife, in just a few days. I've known you to take longer to select a book!"
"Technically, I took years to come to this decision. I just did not want to waste any more time once I had made up my mind about what I wanted."
Grandmuska gave a helpless shrug, "I know he loves you Darling, and I am happy for you, honestly, I just know that a marriage is not the same as being friends and I cannot help thinking you have made things difficult for yourselves… or were you living together before?"
Linka shook her head, hating that she still felt the need to justify herself, when she didn't feel any doubt or regret about her actions. "We have dated before, a few years ago, but… I did not do this without thought about how it was going to work, I promise you. We did what was right for us. Please believe that. I am sorry we did not include you."
Her grandmother waved that away and smiled, although Linka wondered if it was forced. "You are happy, that is all that matters. I did not mean to cast a shadow over it, I am sorry."
"You did not," she lied, wishing Wheeler had been there.
"When you come home next we will celebrate," the older woman said, "nothing big, just family. Then we can welcome Wheeler properly. Are you going to take his name? what is it? I do not think you've said..?"
Linka laughed, letting out some of the tension, "Yes, I will take his surname, that is Wheeler. He is Jason."
"Oh. But I think of him as Wheeler… Linka Wheeler sounds wrong." Then seeing the younger woman's dismay, "But I will get used to it… to all of it. I promise."
Their conversation moved onto other topics but left Linka with a sense of unease that was harder to shake.
"Uncle Donnie sent us the paperwork, its official, you're all mine!" Wheeler greeted his wife jubilantly as he entered the kitchen.
Linka turned from making her lunch to tell him to hush - since she didn't know where their guests were - and was immediately enveloped in a loving embrace. Unable to resist, she closed her eyes and savoured the softness of his lips and silky hair still damp from the shower. His presence finally dispelled the gloom that had settled over her after talking to her relative and the excitement began to return.
In the last functioning part of her brain she was glad that Commander Clash had already come to get his lunch and hoped Georgie and the Trans would take their time.
Someone cleared their throat, making the couple part, although they did not bother to put distance between themselves as they would previously have done.
Kwame stood leaning in the doorway grinning, "Gi was not exaggerating about you two, I see."
"Welcome home!" Linka said cheerfully but with a sinking heart, since it was her signal to leave. At least Jason will take me down there, we will have a little more time alone… "We should find Georgie."
With obvious embarrassment and a slight smile, he said, "I have already seen her, she went to give Gi's parents the good news."
"Good news?" Wheeler asked hopefully.
Their friend bowed his head in assent, "Pontus woke up early this morning, he is going to be fine. That is why I delayed my journey, I was waiting for the Doctors to confirm his condition."
Hugging each other in celebration, they both expressed their happiness and relief that their friend was recovering.
"Hopefully it will not be many days now," Linka added, "and when I return, I will bring them with me."
"No." Kwame laughed at their surprise, "Gi told me to say that you are forbidden from joining her, though she deeply appreciates the gesture. She will be busy looking after Pontus for the next few days, and they are both eager to return home as soon as possible."
Linka shook her head, "She is still trying to match-make!"
"Fine with me," her husband teased, but couldn't say more as the rest of the island's inhabitants arrived to get as much information from Kwame as they could.
"You and Linka appear to be getting on well." Kwame commented as he took one of the plates Wheeler had been washing and began to dry it with a tea towel.
There had been an air of celebration since Kwame returned and even Commander Clash had joined them for dinner, and followed the others to the main cabin afterwards.
The American couldn't help smiling as he thought about Linka, but his response was subdued. "Yeah, we're good."
After a few moments of silence, Kwame asked, "Is something wrong my friend? You seem unusually quiet, especially when it comes to talking about Linka."
That made Wheeler chuckle but he couldn't explain what he had been thinking about, namely the fact that having taken her aside in a quiet moment Linka had refused his suggestion that they share their marital status now Pontus was going to be ok, on the basis that she wanted Gi to be there when they told their friends the news. He'd understood her reasoning, Gi would certainly want to be one of the first to know, but it still bothered him a little. And then there was what she'd told him of her conversation with her grandmother and he couldn't help wondering whether this would be the last time they put it off or the first in a long line of excuses.
He told himself he was being unfair and tried to shake off the mood as he replied to Kwame, "I'm fine, it's just been weird with the accident and everything, you know?"
"Yes of course. Gi was concerned that it might impede your relationship, but since I had understood from Georgie that you are, er.., sharing a room, I thought that perhaps it had not done so?"
Grinning widely, Wheeler turned to look at his friend, trying hard to keep the laughter out of his voice, "are you asking me if we've got naked?"
"No!" The young man's embarrassment was acute, despite being used to his friend's teasing, and tried in part to retaliate. "I was merely suggesting that if you are roommates and Linka has not yet tried to kill you, you must have made significant progress."
Wheeler was laughing as he continued the washing up, "I thought she was going to kill me when she saw you'd dumped the entire contents of my room into hers, but other than that... She's pretty amazing actually." More serious now he continued, "I think we're past the point of other things getting in the way, now it's just us that could screw it up and we're at least trying to prevent that. We just need to keep being honest with each other."
He realised with some irony that he'd just given himself the answer he'd been looking for and silently promised that they'd find some time to talk things out later.
"That is good to hear my friend." Kwame told him, and then sighed "I wish Georgie and I had reached that stage but for every meaningful conversation we have there seems to be an awkward one to follow."
"You'll get there." The Fire Planeteer assured him, "It's obvious she's into you, maybe you should try letting her know where you want the relationship to go."
His friend looked sceptical, "I am not sure either of us is ready for that."
"Tell her that too… believe me man, guessing how a woman feels will get you into much more trouble than just asking her and being honest in return. I learnt that the hard way." He shook his head as he considered his history with Linka.
Kwame nodded as he considered Wheeler's words, "I will keep that in mind. Thank you my friend."
"Are you going to be long?" Linka asked as she entered the kitchen, "We have picked a movie to watch." She placed a tray on the table as she spoke and fetched a jug of lemonade from the refrigerator before beginning to collect some glasses.
Wheeler put the last of the cutlery on the draining board and dried his hands before holding them out to her, "Com'ere."
She looked from him to Kwame and back again but complied with his request anyway and walked into his arms, which slid around her holding her close. "What?"
He kissed her softly on her mouth, pleased when it curved into a smile, "What was that for Yankee?"
"Cos' I can?"
She laughed and lifted her lips to his for another chaste salute, "Will you bring the other jug through when you are done please? And some popcorn if there is any left."
"Sure." He let her go after one more kiss and turned back to help Kwame dry. "Save me a seat, huh?"
"I think we will have to share." she called over her shoulder, knowing he wouldn't mind at all.
When she was gone Wheeler said cheerfully, "I bet they've picked a chick flick. Linka's got the highest IQ of anyone I know and she watches mush."
The African laughed, "And you love anything that makes her happy."
"No way dude," Wheeler said with a frown, "I put up with that stuff, because I love her. There's a difference. I'll sit through just about anything if she's cuddled up next to me, doesn't mean I'm enjoying the film."
"Keep telling yourself that." Kwame replied, and their conversation fell into the friendly banter they'd developed over the years, although neither of them lingered in the kitchen when their task was complete.
To be continued…