A/N: Happy Easter everyone! Instead of chocolate bunnies, I'll just give you a new chapter. Hope that's ok!

Chapter 5: Day 6

Just as I thought, this mission was a piece of cake. We were done and ready to go home by the early the next morning. Sly Sludge is the stupidest of the Eco Villains…and therefore, the easiest to outsmart. We shut down his latest endeavor in record time. I didn't need to be here. I could've stayed home, where I belonged…with Linka.

The next day, we returned to Hope Island and the first thing I did was go to Linka's cabin. When I walk past her window, I peek inside to make sure she's in there. She is, but she's sleeping. I don't want to bother her and this is probably a good thing. We worked straight through the night…mostly because I insisted on ending this mission as soon as possible so I…we could get back to Linka. No one seemed to have a problem with that. I even flew us back so everyone else could sleep. I was too wired to sleep…and I knew that if I was the one flying, I could control how fast we got home.

That rush has worn off and now I am dead tired. Seeing Linka napping, knowing that she is still here on the island and hasn't left…that gives me the peace of mind that I need to relax. I'll take a nap too and I'll talk to her later. I'll fix everything later.

I wake up in a cold sweat. It's the weirdest thing…I don't remember dreaming, but I know I heard Linka screaming my name. She was in trouble. She was in danger. She was…

"WHEELEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!"

…in her cabin….and I wasn't dreaming. I bolt out of bed, jump into a pair of pants, stumbling as I struggle to pull them up and run at the same time. I get to her window and take a quick look inside to see what's going on. Make sure she's not being attacked. I wouldn't put it past any of the Eco Villains to try and attack us on Hope Island.

She's still screaming...this ear piercing screech...it brings the others running out of their cabins or from the beach, but once they see that I am already here, they hold back. I wave them away once I determine that Linka's not in any immediate danger, just having a really bad nightmare, I hurry towards her door. But it's locked. She really is trying her hardest to keep us out. So I take a step back, and barge forward, leading the way with my shoulder. Almost, but not quite. So I try it again, this time, bursting through the door and falling onto the floor. I quickly recover and rush to her bedside, where she is still thrashing around, moaning and whimpering. I put my hands on her shoulders to hold her still. I need to wake her, but I don't want to frighten her.

"Please…do not hurt him…"

"Linka, wake up Babe."

"Nyet. Leave him alone…do not take him from me."

"No one's going anywhere. You're dreaming. Linka? Linka…open your eyes," I say as I move my hands to hold her face.

"NYET!"

Her eyes fly open and she grabs my wrists defensively and pulls them away from her. The terror in her eyes is quickly replaced by relief as she recognizes me. She gasps, releases my wrists, and touches my face, as if she's trying to determine whether or not I'm real.

"You got away from them!" she gasps, and then throws her arms around my neck, pulling herself up and hanging on for dear life.

"Away from who, Baby?" Then I shake my head. "Doesn't matter, you're safe now, it was just a bad dream."

She's holding onto me as if I'm the only thing keeping her from falling. I wrap my arms around her, holding her as tightly as she's holding me, to let her know that I won't let her fall into whatever abyss she feels she's being sucked into.

"Sssh, it's ok. I got you Babe….hey, isn't that a song? Maybe this year we should be Sonny and Cher for Halloween?"

She manages a chuckle between sobs, but still keeps her face buried in the crook of my neck as she tightens her grip and buries her fingers in my hair.

I soothingly rub her back, trying to comfort her, hoping that she'll concentrate on feeling my fingers along her spine and forget about her nightmare. And I try to forget how I can feel her bones protruding from her skin. She's lost so much weight.

"You're ok. You're safe…nothing's gonna get you. Whatever it was…whoever it was…it's gone."

"Skumm," she whispers.

"He's not here. It was a bad dream. Do you wanna talk about it? What happened? Was it about Boris? Skumm was hurting him?"

"Nyet...he was...it was...you. He was hurting you."

I don't know what to say. The way she's looking at me…like she has something that she wants to tell me. She really really wants to tell me.

"Wheeler I…"

Yeah? Please. Tell me I try to plead with her through my eyes which are still locked with hers.

"I need to be sick!" She says as she sprints for the bathroom.

What just happened? Do I follow her? She wouldn't want me to, but she needs me to…and I need to be with her. I can hear her throwing up, not just once, but continually. She shouldn't be going through this alone. I don't care if she hates me for not listening to her. I'm going to be there for her. I care for her too much to let her stubbornness keep me from being a good friend.

Soon I am standing behind her, pulling her long hair back, away from where it has fallen forward toward her face, and hold it there with one hand, while caressing her back with my other hand. She's crying and she's heaving. I don't know what to say, so I say nothing, I just continue to rub her back soothingly until she calms down.

Once the sobs stop and the vomiting subsides, I gently urge her to sit on the edge of the bathtub, and then I clean up the sink. Just a few minutes ago, she was looking me in the eye so deeply, I thought she could see right through me…but now she's too ashamed to look at anything but the floor. I'll let it go…for now. I move to the cupboard to get a wash cloth. After I wet it, I place my finger under her chin, tip it up, and begin wiping her face. For some strange reason, I think of what it might be like to be a father, taking care of my frightened little girl who is sick, because that's how I feel. I'm being protective of her, just as a father would be of his little girl. For the first time since I've met her, my feelings towards her have nothing to do with being attracted to her, and everything to do with protecting her. First, I let the cold wash cloth cool her red cheeks, wipe away her tears, the sweat that has formed around her brow, and then around her mouth.

She's being surprisingly cooperative. She's not fighting me, not refusing my help, but instead, she just watches me. I fill a glass with water and hand it to her. She takes it, but looks at me as if she's waiting for further instructions. I smile and say,

"To rinse your mouth out, I'm figuring it's gotta taste pretty bad right now."

She nods, takes a sip, swishes it around her mouth, and then spits it into the sink. She's shivering again. I kneel down in front of her and rub her arms, hoping that it'll warm her. I look at her face and feel like I'm looking at a stranger. She looks awful, but at the same time, she's so beautiful. I guess I'm able to see her as she was…as she is…despite her sunken in eyes with the black circles and her pale skin, she's still Linka. My friend. She's in there somewhere. She's trying her hardest to come back. And I'm going to help her, whether she wants me to or not.

I reach up and lovingly stroke her hair away from her face.

"See? I can help you! Just because you can do this alone, it doesn't mean you have to," I say, trying not to sound like I'm saying 'I told you so' but keeping my voice at a tone that says, 'I'm here because I care.'

I can see that her eyes are filling up with tears again. Come on Linka, I'm not giving up on you! She's hesitating…could she be considering giving in? Maybe there's hope…so I continue,

"I can't fix everything, but I can help make it easier…please?"

After just a few more seconds of silence, she finally speaks, her voice soft with a hint of fear.

"Promise you will not send me away…I cannot go back there."

I frown, not knowing what is so upsetting about the clinic, but hoping that she'll tell me.

"Why are you so afraid of the clinic?"

"Promise me!" She pleads.

Is this about doing things her way? I've done everything she's asked of me so far, including backing off when I knew she needed help getting through this. What do I have to do to prove to her she can trust me? Easy. I have to trust her. There's a very good reason she doesn't want to go back there. She'll tell me when she's ready.

"I promise," I finally say, looking into her eyes and hoping she can see the truth. "I won't send you away. I get it, you're better off here…with me."

And then, right before my very eyes, that tough "I don't need help" act that she had previously been putting on crumbles. She falls into my arms and begins crying.

To Be Continued...

And don't forget, to get the full affect of the story, you HAVE TO read Linka's side of the story in Chapter 5 of LouiseX's Codependence!