A/N: Thanks again for reading and reviewing!

Chapter Three

If their first kiss was brief and hesitant, their second more than made up for it, leaving them both breathless.

Neither could stop grinning and when Linka wound her arms up around Wheeler's neck to play with his silky orange hair, he leant down to slide his arm under her knees, and lift her onto his lap. "Comfy?"

"Mm hmm." She murmured against his lips, encouraging him not to talk, and achieving success.

They were still wrapped up in each other when, a short time later, Gi entered. They both jumped, and Wheeler diplomatically removed his hands from under Linka's loose shirt though, as she didn't try to get up, he didn't release her.

"Oh! Er, hi guys, I was just..." The Water Planeteer's eyes were filled with glee as she correctly interpreted what was going on. She walked over to a side table and picked up a small book. "I was going to read for a while but I guess I can do that in my room…"

"Good idea." Linka replied, making her partner chuckle.

The other girl nodded, making no move to leave. "Okay… oh, I meant to ask you…"

"Gi?" Linka prompted.

Gi smiled, "Yes?"

"Go away?"

The pretty Asian ran out of the room giggling, determined to find the rest of their team and share the good news.

Wheeler was laughing too but gently began to press loving kisses up his girlfriend's neck until he reached her ear, then he whispered, "They're probably all gonna come and spy through the window at us now, you know."

Linka chuckled and pushed back, pulling him with her until they were laying along the length of the sofa, Wheeler slightly above her, and with her legs still over his. "Then we had better give them something to see."

She pulled him down to meet her lips and surrendered herself to his gentle touch, beginning to explore him with equal care.

As it happened, the others did not come back to tease them, and so they were not disturbed until a couple of hours later, when Gaia called them for an alert.

Wheeler groaned and rested his forehead against Linka's. They'd been talking quietly when Gaia called, punctuating their speech with loving kisses, but despite their new understanding he was reluctant to let her go. "Do they always have to interrupt?"

Linka laughed and gently disentangled herself from him. "I thought we were doing quite well, and if it had not been an alert, we would have been called for dinner anyway."

He watched her tuck her t-shirt back inside her shorts and generally tidy herself up. "On the whole, I'd rather have been called for dinner, we'd have been back here in no time, and I could go for a burger about now anyway."

The lovely Russian rolled her eyes. "You could go for any food at any time Yankee! Come on, we can do this later."

"Is that a promise?" Wheeler was already at her side as she headed for the door, careless of his own appearance.

"Da." She linked their hands, smiling shyly up at him, and then tugged slightly to make him increase his pace.

"I do not care what you say Wheeler!" The Wind Planeteer yelled as she got out of the geo-cruiser, she was covered in what looked like dried mud. "Your recklessness endangered all of us!"

Wheeler jumped out behind her. "You're just sore because you landed in…"

"Do not say it! I am very aware of what we landed in!" She was so annoyed that anyone who didn't know them would have thought she hated her fellow Planeteer. "You can clean the geo-cruiser, while the rest of us clean ourselves, I see no reason why you should not live with the smell a little longer."

She stormed off towards the cabins followed by Gi and Ma-Ti. Kwame paused. "You did bring this on yourself Wheeler, but she will calm down soon enough."

"I wasn't being reckless Kwame!" He protested. "If I hadn't opened the sewer hatch…"

"I know." The African grinned. "And so does she, but that does not mean she will not make you suffer for dropping us in all that waste. Do not forget to collect it…"

Wheeler grimaced. "I know I know, it'll help your roses."

The African headed after the others, laughing to himself, and with far more confidence that his friends would make up than Wheeler himself had.

They had been out all night and most of the next day, but they knew better than to allow themselves to crash right away, it disturbed their sleep patterns less, if they stayed up until their usual bedtimes. Trying to keep themselves awake and occupied until then, however, was not always easy.

By the time dinner had been made ready, Linka was a lot calmer and when she entered the kitchen she immediately asked where Wheeler was.

"He said he was not hungry." Ma-Ti supplied, knowing that as far as his American friend was concerned, that was always a cause to worry.

The Russian sat down. "He is sulking I suppose. Did he actually clean the Geo-cruiser?"

Kwame grinned. "Of course. However much he argues, it is rare that he does not do what you tell him."

"He did save us Linka, and at least it was a soft landing." Gi offered, carefully keeping her eyes on the food she was preparing.

"Well, no one said he should not eat…" The blond said stubbornly, and then she seemed to deflate a little. Sighing, she got up again and headed for the door. "I will talk to him."

The Fire Planeteer was laying on his bed, staring up at his ceiling, and wondering if he would ever get things right with Linka.

He was aware of her from the moment she entered, though she didn't knock and said nothing. Wheeler was waiting for the Russian to start yelling again but she didn't and his heart rate increased as she kicked off her shoes and climbed up the length of the bed to nestle beside him.

Automatically wrapping his arms around her and placing a kiss in her hair, which again smelled of flowers, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Does this mean I'm forgiven?" He asked nervously after a few moments.

"Da. Durak." She kissed his bare chest and settled her arm over the waistband of his jeans. "You should know by now that I never stay mad at you for long."

Wheeler gave her a squeeze but shook his head. "So many times I thought we'd be okay and then something would happen and… I just keep expecting something to go wrong… what happened earlier, before the mission… it seems like a dream now."

Linka pushed herself up and leant over to press her lips to his. "Better?"

"It's a start." He gazed at her in wonder as she once more joined their mouths, parting hers to allow him to deepen the kiss.

When they finally broke for air, Linka rested her head on his shoulder and whispered. "Please do not doubt yourself Yankee, I need you to believe in this, in us… we need to make it work and you must not start worrying if I yell, we argue too often."

He kissed her cheek. "I know. I do believe in us Babe, I promise. It was just too soon, we haven't been together five minutes, and I didn't know how to deal with it… I've never been in this position before."

"What do you mean?" She was confused, knowing as she did, that she wasn't his first girlfriend.

Wheeler shifted uncomfortably and hugged her closer. "I practically begged you to be with me… for years. You completely have me over a barrel… I feel like I can't afford to make any mistakes with you and, I just don't know how to be perfect."

"You do not need to be perfect." She exclaimed, looking up at him, obviously surprised that he should feel that way. "I would never expect that of anyone, I am not perfect, no one is."

"Okay." He replied, meeting her gaze. "Then I don't know how to be the guy you want, I'll try, but I can't help being afraid of messing up."

Gently brushing her fingers through his hair she said softly. "You are the guy I want, you do not need to try."

Continuing before he could argue, she explained. "I do not trust easily. I needed to know that you wanted the same as I do, but it is done, you have convinced me. We are together, and as far as I am concerned, on equal footing. We will both probably need to be reassured now and then… at least you have done this before."

He stroked her suddenly red cheek with a lazy finger. "Not like this, it never meant so much to me… it never had a future before."

Linka smiled and brought their lips together for a moment or two, before pulling away once more and sitting up. Taking his hand, she said. "We should go and eat with the others, we can do this later."

"You said that before." He reminded her, sighing as he sat up and swung his legs over the side.

Linka grinned and climbed off the bed, going to retrieve her shoes. "And I meant it, we can keep doing this as often as we like, we just have to do it in between everything else. Are you going to put a shirt on?"

"Why, what's wrong with showing off my rock hard bod?" He teased, as he began rummaging in his drawer for a clean t-shirt.

"Absolutely nothing." She gave him an admiring glance, catching him off guard for once, then giggling she moved back into his embrace. "It was distracting enough when I had to pretend that I did not notice, now I might just stare."

He laughed and hugged her to him. "That'd be fine with me Babe."

To be continued…