diff --git a/src/sql/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/cellViews/linkHandler.directive.ts b/src/sql/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/cellViews/linkHandler.directive.ts
index 03f7533096..1825be105a 100644
--- a/src/sql/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/cellViews/linkHandler.directive.ts
+++ b/src/sql/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/cellViews/linkHandler.directive.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ import { URI } from 'vs/base/common/uri';
 import { IOpenerService } from 'vs/platform/opener/common/opener';
 import { onUnexpectedError } from 'vs/base/common/errors';
 import { INotebookService } from 'sql/workbench/services/notebook/browser/notebookService';
+import { relative, resolve } from 'vs/base/common/path';
+import { IFileService } from 'vs/platform/files/common/files';
 
 const knownSchemes = new Set(['http', 'https', 'file', 'mailto', 'data', 'azuredatastudio', 'azuredatastudio-insiders', 'vscode', 'vscode-insiders', 'vscode-resource', 'onenote']);
 @Directive({
@@ -21,16 +23,16 @@ export class LinkHandlerDirective {
 
 	constructor(
 		@Inject(IOpenerService) private readonly openerService: IOpenerService,
-		@Inject(INotebookService) private readonly notebookService: INotebookService
+		@Inject(INotebookService) private readonly notebookService: INotebookService,
+		@Inject(IFileService) private readonly fileService: IFileService
 	) {
 		this.workbenchFilePath = URI.parse(require.toUrl('vs/code/electron-browser/workbench/workbench.html'));
 	}
 
 	@HostListener('click', ['$event'])
-	onclick(event: MouseEvent): void {
+	async onclick(event: MouseEvent): Promise<void> {
 		// Note: this logic is taken from the VSCode handling of links in markdown
 		// Untrusted cells will not support commands or raw HTML tags
-		// Finally, we should consider supporting relative paths - created #5238 to track
 		let target: HTMLElement = event.target as HTMLElement;
 		if (target.tagName !== 'A') {
 			target = target.parentElement;
@@ -41,16 +43,18 @@ export class LinkHandlerDirective {
 		try {
 			const href = target['href'];
 			if (href) {
-				this.handleLink(href);
+				await this.handleLink(href);
 			}
-		} catch (err) {
-			onUnexpectedError(err);
-		} finally {
+		}
+		catch (e) {
+			onUnexpectedError(e);
+		}
+		finally {
 			event.preventDefault();
 		}
 	}
 
-	private handleLink(content: string): void {
+	private async handleLink(content: string): Promise<void> {
 		let uri: URI | undefined;
 		try {
 			uri = URI.parse(content);
@@ -61,6 +65,16 @@ export class LinkHandlerDirective {
 			if (uri.fragment && uri.fragment.length > 0 && uri.fsPath === this.workbenchFilePath.fsPath) {
 				this.notebookService.navigateTo(this.notebookUri, uri.fragment);
 			} else {
+				let exists = await this.fileService.exists(uri);
+				if (!exists) {
+					let relPath = relative(this.workbenchFilePath.fsPath, uri.fsPath);
+					let path = resolve(this.notebookUri.fsPath, relPath);
+					try {
+						uri = URI.file(path);
+					} catch (error) {
+						onUnexpectedError(error);
+					}
+				}
 				if (this.forceOpenExternal(uri)) {
 					this.openerService.open(uri, { openExternal: true }).catch(onUnexpectedError);
 				}