High school passed, and Linda graduated. Even though she wasn't going to move on she also wasn't going to let her grief completely run her life. So while she vowed never to marry anyone else, she also vowed to make the most of her single life. She decided to devote her life to volunteering and raising money for good causes, only keeping enough of the money to live off of. She moved into a small one-room house at the edge of the suburbs, with only Newton and Buttercup for company.

Then, when she was twenty, her parents called her over for a visit. Since she was so busy they only did that if it was something important.

"Hi mom, dad, what's going on?" Linda asked as she walked through the door of her childhood home.

"Well, the thing is honey, we're very poor at the moment." Mrs. Bliss began. "Your father and I made a few bad choices with stocks and lost a lot of money. It's gotten so bad that we might lose our home and everything we own."

"You two, just like Ned's parents: not good with money." Linda sighed, shaking her head disapprovingly.

"We know, we feel bad about it." Mr. Bliss hung his head shamefully. "Especially since we've had to take drastic measures in order to keep our home."

"What? Work as servants?" Linda guessed.

"No, Rusty came over yesterday asking for your hand in marriage in exchange for helping with our financial troubles." Mrs. Bliss explained; Linda paled. "And we agreed."

"WHAT?" Linda shrieked.

"Linda, we knew you would be upset about this, since you're still devoted to Ned, but we figured that this way not only would we get to keep our home but you could be taken care of and won't need to live in that awful shack anymore." Mr. Bliss said regretfully but insistently.

"But I like living in that shack, I chose to live in that shack!" Linda snapped, losing her temper entirely. "I don't want to be well off or anything, I just want to help others! With Ned dead I will never be well off anyway! How could you do this to me! Losing the money was your fault, not mine, so punish yourselves by being servants for that creep! Don't punish me by marrying him, I'd rather DIE!"

Linda stormed out, slamming the door so hard that the house shook. Mr. and Mrs. Bliss looked at each other awkwardly.

"Well that went a little better than we expected." Mrs. Bliss shrugged.

Mr. Bliss could only nod in agreement.

Linda then burst into the shack and gave Newton and Buttercup Zippo. That's where most of the money went.

"What's wrong Linda?" Newton asked, knowing that she was really upset even though she hadn't said anything; pets are just good like that.

Linda told them everything, and they were appalled.

"You ain't takin' us alive see? Yeah, we won't go down like that." Newton said as James Cagney.

"Oh Newton, Newton, whatever shall we do?" Buttercup said as Scarlett O'Hara.

"Now listen see? We're gonna bust outta this joint. Yeah, that's what we'll do. We'll cross the border, change our names. Grow a beard and shave it off."

"Newton, despite the ridiculous statement about the beard since I never will be able to grow one, that is brilliant." Linda smiled.

So that's what they did. That night, they snuck out. They decided to follow the Unfriendly River surprisingly. Or not, considering what they wanted to do: go to a calmer part of the river and say a final farewell to Ned before leaving the country. Before they continued down the river Linda tossed in one more rose, since she wouldn't be there for the anniversary anyway.

Now reaching the calmer part of the river took a night and day. So, imagine their surprise when they reached a bare part of the woods near the river...with a still-wet rose on the riverbank.

"Could that be the rose you tossed?" Newton asked.

"Couldn't be any other rose." Linda shrugged.

Then, imagine their shock when a brown-haired, blue-eyed man went towards the river and picked up the rose with confusion.

"Weird, it's come earlier than usual." He said to himself.

Linda and Newton dropped their mouths open, speechless. When they recovered they noticed that the man was wearing pants made out of woven vines. No shoes or shirt, though he didn't seem to need them. That area of the woods was well shaded, making sun protection methods almost unnecessary.

Now, even though the man's voice was deep, it was still familiar. That, with the blue eyes and brown hair, made Linda and Newton think of only one person. Ned.

They walked out of the woods, startling the man. Buttercup stayed behind, deciding to leave them alone for now.

"Who...who are you?" The man looked nervous, and maybe even a little scared.

"Ned? Is that you?" Linda said hopefully but fearfully.

The man frowned with confusion.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." He said.

"It's me, Linda."

Now the man frowned as if that sounded familiar. He also realized that his heart started beating rapidly.

"You must have amnesia." Linda realized.

"I'll handle this." Newton said. "Seeing my morphs might snap him out of it."

He then turned to the man.

"Ned, buddy, remember me? Your old pet and best friend Newton?" Newton tried; the man just looked at him blankly. "Well maybe you remember when you first got me."

Newton multiplied in two and turned into both kid Ned and the man who sold him Newton.

"Or maybe you remember when I threw a boulder instead of a pebble at Linda's house."

He turned into a boulder and window, and the boulder crashed through the window.

"Or how about when we performed crazy stunts to stop your cousin Renfrew from tattling on you constantly?"

Newton imitated the stunts, being both Ned and Newton. Good thing he can multiply himself or that would've been really difficult.

The man's eyes started to widen.

"Oh, and there was the time I helped you dance your way into being king of the school dance so that you could dance with Linda. Wound up too tired at the end, but at least Rusty didn't win."

Newton turned into 'giant dancing Ned' and danced.

"Well that explains why Ned never danced like that again." Linda remarked.

"Oh, and then there was the time we went to Mars to get tomato paste for your mom, though it tasted awful."

"Mars is made of tomato paste?" Linda was surprised, preventing Newton from morphing.

"Yeah. Oh, and then when we were accidentally separated due to that Snapperware party thing. Then we were able to meet at the statue of Gus Gingrich."

He turned into the very statue, and then turned back. There was no response from the man, though Newton and Linda didn't see that tears started to form in his eyes.

"Maybe he's not Ned-" Newton was cut off by the man hugging him!

"Newton!" The man said joyfully. "I can't believe it's you!"

It was Ned!

"I can't believe you're alive!" Newton sobbed happily. "We all thought you were dead!"

"No, just suffered from amnesia." Ned then turned to Linda, and a mixture of emotions flowed within him. "Linda..."

Linda hugged him, also sobbing joyfully.

"Oh Linda, I knew my heart felt hollow all these years but due to my amnesia I didn't know why." Ned sobbed a little. "Now I know. It was because you weren't here with me. Linda, I love you so much. I love you more than life itself. Deep down in my heart I missed you."

"I missed you too, without you I didn't have a reason to live." Linda sobbed back. "The only thing that kept me going was my promise to you to take care of Newton. I love you too Ned, I have ever since we were kids."

"You have? Then why didn't you say anything?"

"Because I wanted to wait until we were a little older before dating. Actually, I was going to tell you my real feelings back when we were thirteen, but that obviously didn't work out."

"Well, as long as you love me and we stay together it doesn't matter. The past is the past."

"Say Ned, what have you been doing all these years?" Newton asked.

"Living with the bears, a mama bear took care of me until I learned what berries were good to eat and how to fish. They still had to get honey for me though since I don't have fur to protect me from bee stings." Ned explained. "Here, I'll take you to our den. I have to get something anyway."

Ned led Linda, Newton, and Buttercup to the den. Along the way Ned and Buttercup talked. Ned was glad that Buttercup had been found and was safe - not to mention Newton's mate - and Buttercup was glad that Ned was alive. She always believed that he was one of the best owners in the world.

When they reached the den there was no one there except for a mother bear and her cubs. The other bears were out gathering food. Because Linda, Newton, and Buttercup were with Ned the mother bear didn't growl or anything, though she did look at them warily. Ned went over to a hollow place in the rock and pulled out a bouquet of dried roses!

"Every year, around the time I fell into the river, I would find a rose lying where I was when I woke up." Ned explained. "I felt some sort of connection to the roses, so I dried and saved them all. You were the one who tossed the roses into the river, weren't you Linda?"

"Yes, back when I thought you were dead I decided to send you part of my love since I couldn't be with you in person." Linda smiled.

Ned smiled, and then went over to the mother bear. He said something to her in bear language, hugged her, and then got up and went back to Linda, Newton, and Buttercup.

"That's my sister, so to speak." Ned explained. "I just told her what was going on. She understands, and is glad that I'm going back to my real family."

"You can speak bear?" Buttercup was surprised.

"I learned while I was living with them. I also spoke to myself a lot so that I wouldn't forget how to speak human." Ned nodded. "Speaking human was one of the few things I remembered, along with how many days there are in a year."

He pointed to the wall as he said that, and looking closer his friends could see tiny marks on the wall. Loads of tiny marks. Obviously this was how Ned kept track of the years, though his friends had a feeling that he started from when he appeared on the bank of the river instead of in January.

Ned and his friends then headed back to Friendly Falls. Along the way Linda explained to Ned why they had been in the woods in the first place. Ned was shocked, but touched that Linda loved him enough to run away from the marriage even if it meant never seeing her parents again. Since Ned was back Linda decided to risk confrontation to bring Ned back to his parents.

"Wait, before we reach Friendly Falls there's something I have to take care of." Linda realized.

Ned, Newton, and Buttercup stopped, confused.

"Ned, ever since we were kids I knew that we were meant to be together, and that 'back entrance of the school bus' incident confirmed it." Linda began before joking: "I'm still mad at you for that by the way, I was really worried about you."

Ned smirked, and Newton and Buttercup chuckled. Buttercup knew what Linda meant because Newton told her of all his adventures with Ned.

"Anyway, after you died, or so Newton and I thought, I realized that you were more than my soulmate. You're my true love Ned, you're the only one I want to spend the rest of my life with." Linda continued, becoming serious again; she took Ned's hands in her own. "So, after you catch up with your parents, please marry me Ned. I don't even care what kind of wedding we have. The sooner we become husband and wife the happier I'll be. I never want to be separated from you again. I'll even go so far as to say that-" Here she blushed. "That I want to have your children."

Ned blushed, but it was out of happiness. He was too touched by Linda's proposal to be embarrassed by the thought of having children. Newton and Buttercup didn't react to the children thing either, they were too busy sobbing with joy.

"Linda, marrying you will be even better than going to heaven." Ned smiled. "I never want to be separated from you either, and as for our children, well, I'll bet they'll be as good and kind as you."

"I'll bet they'll have your common sense and fairness." Linda smiled back.

They kissed on it. They also became overwhelmed with the amount of true love they felt for each other. After the kiss, they realized what people meant when they said that someone was lovesick. For that was definitely how they felt: lovesick.