AN: I'm sorry it's been almost a month since I updated this story. I know I'm only editing and adding to a story I've already written but I've had the worst case of writer's block. See, I started studying for my ASCP License Exam and studying tends to gum up my brain in the worst way. I'm still studying but I think I've managed to knock the writer's block out for the moment. This chapter is sort of set-up to Neo meeting what Pixie would creatively call her "family" and Hawk's trial, among other things. Plus I just wanted to drag Wheeler back into the story. He's always fun to mess around with, especially where Pixie and her friends are concerned. To anyone who is still out there reading this, thanks for taking the time out of your day to read my little story. To anyone who's put me on alert or left me a review…you rock like a box of socks. Remember, I'm open to any and all reviews…good, bad, or indifferent. Just let me know what you're thinking!

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the characters I made up and their Real World alter egos. I don't own The Matrix, The Animatrix, or any of that cool stuff. I'm broke and I just finished graduate school for my Master's Degree. All I own are my Pointe shoes.

"All my problems seem to disappear
Everyone that I miss when I'm distant
Everybody's here…" (From "Friends" by Band of Skulls)

Being careful to make sure no one saw who she was hiding in her kitchen, Pixie slipped out the small crack she opened in her door. Standing on the walkway outside her door were several people, strangely enough, though she knew which one of them had done the shouting. Only one of her friends was loud enough to be heard through a heavy metal door.

"What happened Aisling?" she asked, noticing that Adoh, Aisling's twin brother, and Conall, Aisling's erstwhile boyfriend, were holding a very contrite looking Wheeler between the two of them. "And can you let Wheeler go?"

"We'd love to let Wheeler go, Pix," explained Conall. "But he's not quite himself right now so I think it's best we keep a hold on him."

Pixie gave Conall, who she only knew from Aisling's stories, a skeptical look, unsure if she actually believed him or not. She didn't know Conall all that well, vaguely remembering him from some of her classes at the Academy but he came from a different circle of friends. The only reason he was part of her circle of friends now was that he, on occasion, dated Aisling. Pixie didn't exactly consider Conall one of her friends. He was more Aisling's friend and, therefore, part of the group by proxy. What he knew about Wheeler, who'd always been part of her circle of friends, was beyond her.

"Adoh," Pixie said, turning to the individual she knew was more familiar with Wheeler than Conall. "Why can't you let Wheeler go?"

"Because Aisling said so," Adoh answered, wincing as his sister glared at him.

That made Pixie smile. The world around her might have changed but there were still certain things that stayed the same. The way the two honey-haired twins treated each other was one of those things that hadn't changed. Adoh still listened to everything his elder twin said because Aisling had no issue with whacking him upside the head for doing something she thought was "stupid."

"I think it's safe now, though," Aisling commented in an off-handed sort of way. "Wheeler isn't going to act up around Pix. She might throw him out something if he did."

Pixie sighed as Conall and Adoh let go of Wheeler's arms. Her relationship with the scruffy haired, former pitcher was the subject of any number of jokes by Aisling and Ngaio, her best friend and Adoh's steady girlfriend. Now that they were living together--- an almost necessity because of Pixie's panic attacks. She'd come to rely on Wheeler as her "safe person" during her worst attacks which were now happening at night and in place of nightmares. ---Aisling's jokes had only become not so much worse but more expected and, therefore, less annoying. Less annoying most of the time anyway.

"I wouldn't throw him out," Pixie, indignantly, replied leaving off the part where if she did throw him out, Wheeler would have nowhere to go.

Since neither of them were sure how long it was going to take for Pixie to get over her panic attacks--- more like learn to live with them than get over them as Pixie explained that one was never, actually, cured of panic attacks. You just learned how to live with them as best you could. ---let along ship out again, the young pair had decided to make their living arrangement more permanent. That way he'd be around if Pixie needed him and finding each other, in the rare occasion Pixie was actually home, would be a whole lot easier if they were staying together.

Though changes, particularly big ones, threw Pixie for a loop, she found that this change was more comforting than frightening. Maybe it was because she'd made Wheeler her "safe person" or because she trusted him or something else. Pixie wasn't entirely sure why but she was perfectly comfortable with Wheeler moving in with her. There was just the space issue to deal with--- where to put his things in her living space ---but that kept Pixie's mind busy and, as Wheeler discovered one day, a busy Pixie was a panic-free Pixie.

"Sorry for showing up like this," Wheeler commented. "But they had their reasons for dragging me back home like this. I'm not saying they were good reasons but they still had their reasons."

"It's not a problem. Should I be afraid of why they dragged you back home?" Pixie wanted to know, her voice a whisper as she spoke to only Wheeler and not their friends.

Pixie was completely aware of the fact Wheeler was standing closer than she'd normally allow anyone else to stand next to her. She felt his arm--- covered by a rough blue sweater he'd pulled on before he'd left that morning ---slip underneath her hair to pull her closer. In the world of Pixie and Wheeler, it was the closest thing they had to a public display of affection, especially in front of their friends. Since their return to Zion, Wheeler had been keeping a closer than normal eye on Pixie. Not because he didn't trust her but because he wanted to make sure she was alright.

Physically, Wheeler knew Pixie was as healthy as someone with deep bruising up and down her spine could be. He even caught her stretching a few days ago, despite the fact he--- and just about everyone else ---knew that Pixie hated to stretch. Her doctors had told her she had to rest, lest she do more damage to her already battered back but Pixie was already up and testing her limits. She hadn't told Wheeler why, beyond her saying she couldn't stand just lying around doing nothing, but the former pitcher had a feeling it had to do with her past in the Matrix. She'd told him she'd been sick quite often when she was in the Matrix and he imagined that being laid up and injured was reminding her of that time. Knowing that he wasn't going to be able to stop her from stretching, Wheeler only told her take it easy and be careful.

When he returned home to find her fresh out of the shower wearing something like a smile--- along with a sweater he was sure might have been his ---he knew she'd accomplished something. Pixie had later told him that she'd discovered her range of motion wasn't as limited as the doctors had said it might have been. She'd found part of her flexibility hiding under the bruises. It had taken some stretching to coax it out but she'd eventually found it hiding.

It was her emotional well being Wheeler was more concerned about. Between funerals and Hawk's looming trial, Pixie's panic attacks were starting to get worse again. More than once he'd woken up to find her shaking with restrained tension in bed and breathing faster than normal. She claimed nightmares were triggering the attacks, which might have been true, but he knew Pixie was worried about the trial. There were too many emotionally trying situations on the horizon and it always seemed, to Wheeler anyway, that Pixie was moments away from totally freaking out.

Today might have been a good day, though. She didn't seem relaxed--- even before the panic attacks, Pixie never seemed relaxed ---but she didn't look uncomfortable in her own skin either. Pixie seemed a little uptight but she was teetering on the verge of freaking out either. That had to be a good thing in Wheeler's estimation. The more good days she had, the better it would be for both of them when they both had to go their separate ways.

Not that Wheeler was rushing that either. The Council could take all the darn time they wanted with trials and experiments and whatever else they were doing. He was glad for the downtime with Pixie, even if she was hurt and panic stricken part of the time.

"You probably should," Aisling answered, making it clear that Pixie's whisper was too loud. "We have such a story to tell you!"

"We probably should go inside to tell her," Adoh commented. "Talking about what happened out here would be rude. Other people could hear."

"As if they haven't heard what happened already. All you're interested in is whether or not Rain sent down food for Pixie," Ngaio laughed.

Pixie cast, what she thought anyway, was a secretive glance at the door behind her. She knew Neo was inside waiting for her and she knew it wouldn't be fair to him to bring her friends in. The twins were staunch believers in the whole idea of the One and they'd been waiting to pounce him since first meeting him at The Parting Glass. The only one she had no qualms about bringing in with her was Wheeler and only because he lived there now. That and she knew Wheeler wouldn't make a huge deal about Neo.

"You can't!" she blurted. "I have dangerous experiments going on inside and I don't want anyone getting hurt!"

"Pix, now you're the one being silly. You're too good at that science stuff so no one gets hurt when you have your little experiments going and we all act accordingly while you do so we're not going to mess anything up," Aisling stated.

"Unless she's hiding someone in there," Ngaio suggested, giving Wheeler a wink.

Wheeler trusted Pixie completely but couldn't help but turn his attention to Pixie, who was sporting a furious flush across her pale face. Wheeler knew it was an angry flush and not her normal blush because Pixie's face turned an inhuman shade of crimson when she was angry with someone. Blushing always started out as a pale stain that turned darker as she got more and more embarrassed.

Pixie wanted to whisper to Wheeler that it was just Neo and she was keeping him away from the masses until Trinity or Morpheus could take him back to wherever it was he belonged. That would have been too conspicuous, too easy to spot by her ever observant friends who'd noticed her not so quiet whispering before. If Pixie wanted to tell Wheeler what was really going on, she figured she was going to have to get creative about it.

Slipping one hand under the hem of the shirt he was wearing, Pixie tried to write the word "Neo" across the small of his back. She wasn't entirely sure if that part of his back was as sensitive as hers when it came to touch but she could hope it was. If it wasn't, well, she was just going to confuse Wheeler with her actions and have to figure out another way to tell him what was going on.

It took Wheeler a second but he gave Pixie a small nod, showing that he'd understood her covert little message. He'd been part of the crew who'd rescued Neo and had worked alongside him before heading back to Zion. Like Pixie--- but not because of Pixie ---Wheeler had been skeptical about one man being able to end a war that had been going on for one hundred years. Then he sat on a rooftop in the Matrix next to Pixie and watched Neo fly through the air like a super hero out of the comic books he wasn't supposed to have been reading. That changed his mind very quickly.

"Who's in there, Pix?" questioned Adoh, sounding curious.

A small frown crossed Pixie's face, knowing even her attempt at a subtle ruse hadn't worked. Her friends might not have seen what Pixie had "written" onto Wheeler's back but they'd seen Wheeler nod and look in Pixie's direction. Odds were on the fact the pair weren't sharing a look of affection since that wasn't Pixie's style. She'd just told him her secret and now the others wanted in on it too.

"There's no one in there. Like I told you, I have some very sensitive experiments running and I don't want any of you getting hurt if something goes south," Pixie answered, trying to keep a very straight face and knowing she wasn't at all succeeding at it.

"Liar," Aisling quipped, taking her usual place as Pixie's friendly tormentor. "Now are we just going to have to rush the door or are you going to tell us the truth?"

"I'm not lying!" Pixie insisted, her voice going up an octave. "Please, Wheeler, tell them I'm not lying."

Wheeler gave Pixie a small, understanding smile. He knew that she was a terrible liar and couldn't pull of surprises to save her life. Still, he felt the right thing to do was to help her out. He didn't want to leave her hanging out to dry especially when it was Aisling she was being left out for.

"Why would Pix lie?" Wheeler brought up, trying to stifle his own laughter. "I know for certain she had some very dangerous experiments going on in there before I left. Maybe we could talk about what happened another time."

Aisling groaned and pointed out, "The pair of you are terrible liars. What is so important in there that you can't let us in, Pix? Are you like hiding the One in there or something?"

Pixie looked down at her boots, embarrassed now. Aisling squealed--- a fact Pixie knew the honey haired Zion Born would dispute later on ---and a very wide grin broke out on the face of her brother. If they'd celebrated Christmas in Zion, and some Pod Borns still did, it looked like had come early for their honey-haired twins.

"I can't believe you're hiding the One in your house! That is like beyond awesome," Aisling exclaimed, her voice ringing down the unusually silent corridor.

"Aisling, please, keep it down," Pixie warned, in a hissed whisper, "I don't want all of Zion trying to batter down my door just because of who I happened to have visiting me at the moment."

Shrugging, the darker haired Pod Born added, "Besides, he's just Neo. He's not really that big a deal when you think about it."

"To you he's not that big a deal because you're lucky enough to work with him," Adoh stated."Come on, Pix, can we please meet him? I'd be your best friend forever if you let me."

"You already met him, remember?" Wheeler cut in, buying time for Pixie. "At The Parting Glass when we went with Pixie and her crew."

"Yeah but he was busy talking to everyone else. This would be a one-on-one meeting with the One. That's something you tell your grandkids about when you're old and gray," Adoh countered, turning his attention back to Pixie.

Pixie scuffed her boots against each other, wishing she was still wearing her socks instead of adding more scuff marks to already badly scuffed boots. She felt like it was wrong not to let her oldest friends actually meet Neo, even though at least two of them were strong believers in the One. Then again, she didn't want to freak out one of the newest members of Zion's population--- and a crewmate of hers if she got her job back ---by letting her friends meet him. One at a time, it might have been a different story but this was the whole group of them. That was a different story entirely.

"I guess I could let you all in but you have to promise not to make a big deal about him." Pixie mumbled. "He's just another new person living in Zion. I think he's only the One when we're in the Matrix or something."

She was hoping that, if she asked nicely enough, they would do as they were told. That way, she wouldn't feel bad about leaving her friends out and she could keep Neo away from a potentially awkward situation.

"You sure about this?" Wheeler whispered into her ear, his breath tickling her neck.

She gave an involuntary shudder as Wheeler spoke to her and managed a nervous sort of smile. Though it impossible, philosophically speaking, she both loved and hated the fact Wheeler could usurp all her logic and make her as nervous as a grade schooler on Valentine's Day with nothing more than a whisper. Pixie was sure that meant something but didn't feel the incredible need to figure out what it meant at the moment. That was something to think about later.

"I think I'm pretty sure," she whispered back in. "You met Neo and you didn't make a big deal about him, even after we came back from the Matrix that time."

"That's true, Pix," Wheeler said. "But I'm also not a believer like the twins are."

"You mean you'd let us meet the One?" asked Adoh, sounding awed.

"So long as you don't do anything to scare him or anything," Pixie amended. "You can meet him. I don't want him running back to Morpheus and Trinity and telling them I cornered him or something. You're not the rear end they'll be kicking when everything is said and done."

"So, that's it. So long as we don't act weird, we can meet the One," Aisling summed up, "Sounds like a good deal to me."

The group of teens made their way to Pixie's red door, Aisling going to open the door. Pixie slipped into the small space between Aisling and the door, frowning when she felt the metal of the door dig into her bruised back. It wasn't exactly her brightest moment but, then, she wasn't sure if what she was doing was bright to begin with.

"Let me and Wheeler go in first…please," she requested.

"Why?" questioned Ngaio, from her spot next to Adoh.

"He...um...knows us better and he won't freak out if he sees Wheeler," Pixie answered as she pushed the door open. "Since he knows Wheeler lives here and all. You guys can come in after us, I guess."