Happy early birthday Jimjamrn! And for those of you that frequent the message boards, you'll notice a bit of a discussion that went into Wheeler's real name made it's way into my story, except it was Walker's name...so thanks Jimjamrn and LouiseX for the "inspiration!"

"When I left you…what? Walker did what?" Wheeler put his hand on Linka's back and began rubbing it soothingly, urging her to continue.

A week had passed and Walker still had not gotten anything from his family. He assumed that the postal service was either slow because it's workers had been sent to war, or it was just slower because there was more mail that needed to be processed from soldiers and families writing back and forth.

Liliya was sprawled overtop of Walker, covering him like a blanket as she slept. He ran his hands up and down her bare back, tracing her spine and ribs. He could feel her heart beating as her chest was pressed against his. He kissed her cheek and she began to stir. She giggled, slowly opened her eyes and smiled at him.

"Sorry," he whispers against her ear.

"For what?"

"Waking you."

"I should move anyways. This cannot be comfortable for you," she says.

"Actually, I like having you as a human blanket. It's the softest, warmest, most beautiful blanket that's ever covered me."

"Thank you," she says as she presses her lips to his chest. "But my back and neck are going to be sore if I stay like this all night." She rolls onto her side, her back to him, while taking his hand in hers and pulling it around her.

He places a kiss on the back of her neck before rolling over to the edge of the bed and retrieving his pants. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the gift he bought her last week. He curls up behind her and reaches around her, holding the small ring between his fingers for her to see. He places kisses between her shoulder blades and makes his way up the back of her neck and to her ear.

"Marry me."

"Marry you? I do not even know your first name!" She says as she turns around to face him.

"It starts with a 'J' that's all I'm telling you! I told you, I hate it. Besides, I don't even know your last name, or how old you are, but that doesn't matter to me. All I know is that I love you. That's all I need to know about you."

"I love you too. My last name is Malkina and I am 18…and my answer is yes."

"Da?" he asks.

"Da!"

"Well ok then," he grins as he slides the ring onto her finger and then rolls her onto her back, kisses her, and covers her body with his.

"I think we should celebrate," he says against her lips.

"I think that is a great idea."

There's a knock at the front door.

"Did you hear that?" She asks.

"Ignore it," he says as he trails his lips down her necks.

The knocking gets harder and louder. Then there's a voice calling out to them,

"PRIVATE JULIAN THEODORE WALKER…WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE. COME OUT PEACEFULLY OR WE WILL COME IN AND USE FORCE."

"BOZHE MOY!!! HOW DID THEY FIND YOU?" Liliya gasps

"Sssh, I don't know. Answer the door. Pretend you don't know much English. If they have a picture of me, just deny knowing me. I'll hide. Just get them to leave."

"I am scared," she says as she dresses.

"It'll be ok," he replies as he kisses her reassuringly. "I love you."

"I love you too."

"Go ahead."

She opens the door to reveal two soldiers in uniform.

"Good evening Miss. We have reason to believe that an American solider by the name of Julian Walker is staying here. Is that true?"

Liliya just looks at them as if she does not understand. Then the second soldier asks the same question, only this time, in Russian.

Damn it. She can no longer play dumb.

"No, it is just me living here," she replies in Russian.

"What is your name?"

"Liliya Malkina...is there a reason you are here? I was just getting ready for bed so if you will excuse me..." she starts to close the door.

The soldier puts his hand out to stop it.

"We have a letter here from Private Walker to his family saying that he is planning on living here and 'spending the rest of his life' with a girl named Liliya."

"Yankee…what have you done?" she thinks to herself.

"Yes, there was an American soldier here for a while. He was shot and I took care of him until he was better. Once I found out that he had run away from his army, I made him leave. I did not want to get in trouble…and I cannot spend the rest of my life with him. I am married. I sensed that he had developed feelings for me, which was also another reason why I wanted him to leave."

"Your husband, Mikhail Larionov, died last week. Did you not know that?"

"Yes, I knew that. Which is why I went back to my maiden name. Now if you will excuse me, I am still mourning my husband and you are upsetting me," she says as she tries to close the door.

"Still mourning your husband? Is that why you went back to your maiden name? It would not have anything to do with moving on with Private Walker?"

"I told you, I do not know what happened to your Private Walker after he left here. All I know is that he left your army to go back home to his girlfriend. Perhaps he wrote that letter to throw you off."

It looked like the soldier was considering what she said and he relayed her theory to his companion.

"Then she won't mind if we look around?" he says.

"Then you will not mind if we take a look around your house?" the other translates.

"Yes, I do mind. You have no right and no reason…"

They ignore her and push her aside, heading for the bedroom. She follows closely behind them.

The Russian speaking soldier picks up a shirt off the ground.

"This can't possibly be your husband's…Private Walker's perhaps?"

"Or the man who delivers the feed for my livestock…I am not proud, but I was lonely when my husband left, and the feed man was always so nice, he helped with stuff around the farm…it just sort of happened."

"You realize that you can be arrested if you do not cooperate."

"I was unaware that I was being uncooperative…I have answered your questions to the best of my knowledge, let you into my house without you having a right to search it, you pry into my personal life and get me to reveal things about myself that make me look bad, and now you are threatening to arrest me?" Liliya says.

The soldiers grab her by the arms and force her out the door.

"Hey! What are you doing?" she asks.

"Taking you into custody for further questioning. Perhaps your memory will be refreshed and you will remember more details about where Private Walker is."

"NO! You cannot do that!" she shouts.

Walker was in the closet and heard everything that was going on. He couldn't understand most of it since they were speaking Russian, but he did not like that fact that they had entered Liliya's house. Then he heard a commotion and Liliya's voice had become panicked and Walker could hear her struggle. Once he heard her yell "nyet," he knew he had to do something.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" He yells as he bursts out of the closet.

"WALKER, NYET!"

"It's ok Babe. I'm not going to let them hurt you."

The soldiers release Liliya and grab Walker.

"They were not hurting me. You should not have come out. They would have had to let me go eventually…why did you not stay where you were?" she asks sadly.

"I couldn't let you spend one second in lock up. Not for me."

"I would have done anything for you, do you not get it? Now what? Now we cannot be together. They will take you away, and I will never see you again!"

"I'll figure something out. Maybe they'll go easy on me."

"Private Julian Theodore Walker, you're under arrest for desertion. Under military law, you will be subject to court marshal and subsequent jail time."

"Look, what if I go back and finish my service? I was injured, but now I'm better…Can't I just go back?"

"No. You're a traitor. And you must be punished."

"I'm not a traitor…I still love my country…I just thought I loved my girlfriend more…but when I realized that I made a mistake, it was too late to go back. So I stayed here while I got better…and then I realized what love really is…don't you get it? Can't you just pretend you never saw me here? Come on guys. Is getting me court marshaled really gonna help us win the war? This STUPID WAR!!! No. It's insignificant…Just think of the big picture."

"Nice try kid. We should probably arrest the girl too...but we won't. Consider THAT your favor...Now say goodbye to your girlfriend…this will probably be the last time you ever see her."

"Nyet! That is not true!"

The soldiers hold Walker in front of Liliya as she cries.

"Can you at least let go of my arms so I can hold her and comfort her?" he asks them.

"No…now hurry."

"Please don't cry Babe. I don't want to remember you like this."

"You say that as if this is the last time I will see you…"

"It's gonna be a while. But I'll do my best to find you again. But don't stop living. Move on with your life. Don't waste it waiting on me."

"Nyet…stop talking like that…"

"Promise me. Promise me that you'll be happy."

"I will be happy...when I am reunited with you. I love you Yankee."

"I love you too Babe. And I'll think of you every day for the rest of my life."

"I will save my money. I will find out what happened to you and then come to America!" she says.

She wraps her arms around his neck and buries her face in his chest as she hugs him.

"Let's go," one of the soldiers says as he jerks Walker and the other soldier pulls Liliya away from him.

She yanks her arm out of the soldier's and throws her arms around Walker's neck as she kisses him, tears streaming down both their faces.

The soldier, now angry with her, roughly pushes her away.

"LEAVE HER ALONE YOU BASTARD!"

Liliya follows them outside and sobs as they handcuff Walker. He stops once more to look at her.

"I'll write to you. Let you know what's going on and when or if I can come back to you...and if not, we'll find a way to get you to the States. Forget what I said before...don't give up on us!" Walker calls to her

The soldiers are getting frustrated with him now and punch him in the stomach. Once he is doubled over in pain, they push him into their vehicle, and continue to beat him.

"WALKER…NOOOOOO!!!"

"And that is when I woke up. When I noticed you were gone, I came out here looking for you," Linka says.

"Wow. I'm kinda glad that I woke up when I did. Your ending is upsetting…I mean, I thought it was a weird dream, and I was freaked out by the similarities and kinda happy with where things were going. It was a happy ending…but yours…it's sad. And it makes me wonder what happened next. It's too bad we can't just fall asleep and pick up where we left off."

"What if…never mind."

"What if what?" he whispers.

"We know their names now. What if they were real people, not just characters made up in our subconscious…what if we looked them up? There has to be some sort of military record for a Private Julian Theodore Walker. We can find out what happened to him…marital records, medical records…"

"What happened to 'it is just a dream Yankee'?" he asks, mocking her accent.

"Da, but maybe we had it for a reason…maybe…"

"Maybe we are supposed to fix something?"

"Da, but what, I do not know."

Wheeler opens his mouth to say something, but quickly closes it.

"Go ahead," she prompts.

"Remember when the psychic said that she sensed a connection between us? And she asked if we've ever been in a relationship and when we said no, she said that she sensed that we had been together before?"

"Da, I remember," she says, blushing slightly when she remembered the implications.

"She suggested reincarnation."

"And we both laughed at her…you were a little more vocal about your disbelief than I was."

There is a long pause while Wheeler thinks about what he is going to say next and what it would mean.

"But what if she was right?" he says quietly as he reconsiders.

She remains quiet. Wheeler gets worried. Is she considering the possibility or is she trying to think of a polite way to tell him that he's as crazy as the psychic.

"Forget it. It's stupid..." he adds, trying to save her the trouble of telling him he's an idiot...although she's never had trouble doing it before.

"Nyet…what if we went to see the psychic? Do you think she could elaborate on what she saw between us earlier? Or maybe if there is such a thing as reincarnation…she can tell us about our past."

"When do you want to go?" he asks.

"We are supposed to meet her at 9am…I say we talk to her at 7."

"It's 5:30 now. Do you want to try and get some more sleep?"

"Nyet. I could not go to sleep if I wanted. I think we should get ready and call her to ask her to meet us earlier.

To Be Continued...

Ok, as much as I'd love to keep posting updates on this story...I gotta hurry up and write the rest of the Thanksgiving story! IT'S ONLY 2 DAYS AWAY!!!