Note: This is the final chapter, but the story continues in the sequel Steal My Heart. Thank you to everyone who reviewed and encouraged my first Captain Planet fic! I hope as I write more, I get better. :)

"So we get to rest for a day, right?" Gi pleaded. "I know we've got five years to catch up on, Gaia, but –"

"Your welfare is my first concern, Planeteers," Gaia replied with a smile. "Linka, you need time to recover. Wheeler, you need sleep. And you all need to shower."

"I hear that," Wheeler said, sniffing the top of Ma-Ti's head. The youngest Planeteer shoved him away with a smile.

"You did very well," Gaia said, smiling at each of them. "That was a difficult case and it went deep. I'm sorry it was so dangerous for you – but everything turned out well in the end."

"I suppose," Gi sighed. "Though some of the damage to that river will take years to repair."

"There's not much we can do about that, Gi," Gaia said sympathetically. "Just be proud that you stopped it and that all those people Skumm was trying to control will be getting better."

"I wish we had caught him," Linka said, chewing her lip anxiously. "It is not right that he got away."

"Unfortunately we can't have a 100% success rate," Gaia soothed. "But Skumm will show up again, and you'll be ready to stop him at a moment's notice. Won't you?"

They all swore to it, before breaking up and drifting back to their huts to shower and catch up on their sleep.

Linka was sitting in the middle of the bed combing her wet hair when Wheeler suggested going down to the beach.

She hesitated for a moment. She was exhausted and craved sleep more than almost anything.

Almost anything.

She followed him down to the beach and sank into the sand, cuddling into his arms as the breeze off the ocean swept over them, sending her damp hair into wild curls.

"You know the next time I see any of those guys it's going to be harder to let you out of my sight?" Wheeler asked, his lips pressing against the bare skin of her shoulder.

She pressed her back further into his chest, tipping her head back to catch his eye. "I am fine," she whispered.

"That's not the point." He gave a brief smile and then looked out at the waves running up the sand. "If I lost you, Linka..."

"Wheeler –"

"No, don't. Just hang on a second." He furrowed his brow, trying to sort his thoughts into sentences. "The past five years were the worst years of my life," he said eventually. "And that includes my upbringing. All I could think about was you, and the way I felt about you and the way we left things... A hug and a kiss on the cheek, Linka." He squeezed her tightly. "That last day on Hope Island, and we both knew it was the last day, and all either of us could manage was a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and every time I thought about it, I felt sick to my stomach because it seemed like such a waste...

"So I threw myself into work – trying to work so hard I'd forget you. And the irony of choosing a job that seemed like an executive Planeteer wasn't lost on me. I even – I..." He sighed and buried his face in her neck. "I even went to Russia last year, after visiting Gi, to try and find you," he mumbled. "There was a different family in your house... your grandmother was gone, Mishka was gone... you were gone. I had no idea where to start looking after that. I figured it was a sign that I should just move on."

She was breathing heavily, her throat aching at the effort of holding back sudden tears.

"Only I couldn't," he sighed, nuzzling her neck. "I know I was just a stupid kid when we first met, Linka... I know I annoyed you. I know I made you mad sometimes, and I know I thought about myself and my own feelings before I thought about yours... but I loved you so much, even then."

She couldn't answer. She had tears spilling down her cheeks and she was trying to breathe steadily so he wouldn't notice, her body tuned to hear the slightest noise from him as he continued, his whispers lost in her hair and her skin.

"I know the past five years were much harder on you than they were on me," he continued softly. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you, Linka."

"Nyet," she gasped softly. "It was not your fault, it was me –"

"I gave up," he argued. "I just stopped. I was selfish. Hurt. And I felt guilty because I knew you what you were dealing with and I felt pathetic about needing you to pay attention to me as well. I guess I had a lot of growing up to do. And I know, lately, after finding you again, things have moved fast between us... But I want you to know, I'll do anything for you. And I've changed – I hope."

"Wheeler..." Tears ran freely down her face. She was exhausted and the trauma of the past few days had hit her like a tonne of bricks, but every inch of her was focused on him, her heart beating in unison with his.

"So, if we go on our next mission and I tell you I want you wrapped up in cotton wool and waiting for me in the geo-cruiser..."

She laughed helplessly, squirming around in his arms and shifting on the sand to face him, her arms around his neck, her tears gleaming in the silvery moonlight.

"I know you can take care of yourself," he said, a small smile on his face. He looked pale and drawn. "I know you've been through things that have changed you... Sometimes you seem like the same old Linka, but I know you feel a lot more vulnerable than you used to, and I know you don't like that."

She blinked up at him wordlessly, almost aching with the realisation he could read her better than she could read him. For a split second she doubted everything – whether she could make this work, whether she could throw herself into something that might bring more heartache than she'd ever experienced. But the thought of turning away from him filled her with an uncontrollable surge of panic and grief, and she knew – she knew – that this was it, for the both of them, and if it ended between them, everything ended. This was how it was going to be now – no more games. From here on it was just the two of them; heavy and combined as one forever.

She nodded slowly, thoughts still churning through her mind. "I do feel vulnerable," she whispered. "I hate it."

He laughed softly, his forehead against hers. "It'll be okay, babe. I feel vulnerable, too."

"You do?" She wiped a hand across her cheek, leaving a trail of white sand clinging to her wet skin.

He brushed it away gently. "All the things that could go wrong here? I've never felt more terrified. The fact that maybe you'll wake up one day and realise you could do a thousand times better than a guy from Brooklyn... Or that working together is going to complicate things between us, or us and the others, and one of us is going to want to leave? That scares the hell out of me."

His arms tightened around her slightly. "And when you went missing and I knew..." He sighed. "I knew something bad had happened to you, I thought I was going to die right then and there. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think..." He shook his head and brushed his lips against hers. "It's so dangerous, Linka," he breathed.

She kissed him. "I worry about you like that too," she said. "But... Wheeler, if we spend our lives thinking about what could go wrong..." She wiped her eyes again, and again he brushed away granules of sand with trembling fingertips.

"One of the last things my grandmother said to me... Before she got so ill, and confused, she told me to live," Linka wept. "And I want to live, Wheeler. I want to be with you and get married to you and laugh with you and be with you forever."

He smiled and kissed her, his hands twined in her wind-blown hair, her body trapped against his in a helpless tangle of arms and legs. He rolled her into the sand and she felt the beautiful weight of him, the sand still warm beneath her and the sky open and glittering above them.

The uncertainty of everything had blown away like smoke. She was going to be just fine.

They were going to be just fine.