Author's Note: Thanks for all the positive reviews! I really appreciate it. So, there's an issue I'm going to address because I can see from some reviews you all just HAVE to know about...

Pairings. Which I deliberately left out, because I'm really not sure. Not sure... at all. There may be no pairings, it may just be a friendship fic. But then again, there's that slight chance of Toko, huh? Don't worry if you're not a fan of that pairing, because clearly this isn't a pure romance, so you won't have to deal with it. Just stick with me, please.

That's all.

Chapter Two: Brewing Tea

They say there are seven stages for grief. Toph, with cheeks finally dried from outraged tears, had run through all seven in her dreams. When she woke up in darkness, only her ears were completely functional. Even her brain was lethargic with hopelessness.

Afraid to think, she lay still. The former earth bender had no choice. However, her keen ears were free to wander-heightened by total lack of sight. They picked up on some action behind the closed door that must have been close to the end of her bed.

"Zuko, you can rest now," Katara was saying in a whisper. "You've been in there all night and morning."Zuko replied hoarsly. His voice was rough and quiet, as if he had been sick or exhausted.

"I know, I'm waiting for her to wake up, I guess,""... No one holds you responsible for what happened,"

"I do," said Zuko and the door opened and shut. She heard several footsteps as he entered the room and sat on a chair by her side. Toph kept her eyes closed, and let her chest rise and fall slowly so that it would appear that she was sleeping.

"Toph," he whispered above her, seemingly to himself. "I don't think I'll ever get over the guilt that's inside of me now, not unless you get better. Katara said there's still a chance-if she finds more water from that spring. It has healing properties, but... she's not sure how she can help. I swear I'll try to..."

Toph fought gallantly with her tear ducts to suppress how upset she was. Sparky just clued her in on the reality of the situation, but she didn't know which was worse. She would never 'see' again, or she would never earth bend again.

She pretended to wake up with a yawn.

"Hello?" she called weakly with the most heart-breaking voice she could summon. The bed rustled as Zuko shifted, alarmed.

"Toph! I'm here. I mean, it's me! Zuko! Yeah, uh... should I get someone, or..." Toph snorted gracelessly.

"Can they bring my legs back?" she asked bitterly, leaving the boy temporarily shocked. Unwelcome guilt washed over her when he fell silent, but it didn't erase the agony she felt about what she had lost. "No, I'm fine."

"Okay-um, right. Toph, you should know that... there's still hope."

A tiny flame that lied deep inside herself flared feebly.

Zuko continued, "Katara said that sometimes when people have paralysis, it isn't permanent. There's a chance you can be healed. It requires a lot of physical therapy, but if you're determined... !" He broke off, leaving room for her to comment.

"... I can't see," she said simply. "I want my legs back, but more than that I want my 'sight'. How can I do anything when I'm even more blind than I was before?" Zuko's chest sunk, but he knew it would take her a while to get her spirit to rise again. Toph had been wounded in more than one way. After his own wound was inflicted, Zuko remembered, it took him a very long time to recover.

"You'll get through this," he promised, in that quiet, deep voice of his. "I'll help."

I couldn't help you last time, but this time will be different.

It had been three days, and Toph had not yet summoned the will to begin her therapy. The bed was permanently imprinted with her small form, and the white, neat little hospital room was host to a number of visitors. One of them was Iroh, but he didn't say much. Like tea, he said, she needed time to sit and brew in order to get stronger.

Sokka thought all of this was crap. The tea needed to be stirred.

Without telling anyone of his whereabouts, he at once made for the hospital. To him, Fire Nation hospitals always looked more eerie than the rest. There were so many casualties of the war that had once filled them that they seemed more used. Entering the pert building, he checked in with the secretary and headed up to the second floor.

The boy knocked once on Toph's door before entered in. As expected, his friend was laying on the bed with her eyes closed-either feigning sleep or thinking to herself. Her stillness bothered him deeply, more than he had let on within the past few days.

"Toph," he called, standing at the foot of her bed. She cracked open an eye to signal she was awake. Immediately all the stony intolerance he had felt before melted away. "How are you feeling?"

"Great," answered the sarcastic little ex earth bender. Sokka sucked in a deep breath, and eyed the object in the corner of the door.

"Well, I thought today you could get out and feel the sunshine. I'm taking you for a walk," he announced, seizing a wheelchair from the corner of the room, and wheeling towards the bed.

"No," Toph mumbled.

"What was that?" Sokka asked, pretending not to hear.

"I don't want to, Sokka," she said. Her resigned tone broke him. She wouldn't even yell at him. Desperate anger surged through him, to see his friend in this pitiful condition.

"What the hell Toph!" Sokka shouted suddenly. "Who are you? You've been sulking in bed for a week. I know what happened is... is beyond bad, but you're not even Toph anymore. the Toph I know woudl be up by now, trying to get those useless legs to work! How can you sit in bed all day?" he cried.

The girl seemed at first stunned by his sudden speech. her brow furrowed, but she remained limp where she was. She closed her eyes.

"That's great for you to say, Sokka," she said.

He was dumbfounded that his words did not stir her. She felt herself sink a little as Sokka sat on the bed.

"Is that it?" he asked softly. His eyes remained on the speckled floor, hands knitted together.

"I'm never going to feel the earth under my feet again. I'm never going to earth bend. I'm never going to 'see' you again, Sokka... " she said.

She sounded scared, he realized, not hopeless. Sokka turned around, and grasped her hand.

"You can feel this, can't you?" he asked. "You're still live, Toph. There's so much more... and there's hope. Please don't let all that go. Just... Just get in the chair." When he held her hand, she squeezed back. Sokka was sure it was a positive sign. But tightlipped and pale-she made no effort to move.

"Just get in the chair," he repeated, and in one, swift movement she delivered a numbing punch to his arm.

"I can't, genius!

The wheelchair was no more than a free ride, but as Toph glided around the streets of the nation she had really grown to despise, the sightless world was different than she had remembered it. Instead of recognizing a hot day by the baking clay beneath her soles, she now realized she was at the mercy of the beating rays of the sun. Feeling was everything.

And it was no comfort.

"Where are we going?" Toph asked Sokka wearily, with her face still in the same sour expression that it had been in when she first recoiled from the sunlight.

"Iroh's new teashop," he announced, pushing scenic route,

Vaguely Toph wondered about the outside world. She couldn't see any gawking faces, any damaged building, anything. She felt like a vegetable, The time stretched slowly as they headed towards their destination,

"Why are you doing this to me?" Toph asked at last. Without her earth bending, she could not sense his heart rate increase. She waited almost patiently for him to answer

"I don't like seeing you like this," he replied. "And everyone misses you-we're here." A fury of chiming and ringing told Toph that Sokka had thrust open the door and pushed them into Iroh's second tea shop. With a pang, she realized the whole gang must be there.

"Hey, you two!" called Suki, and a symphony of other voices joined her as the wheeled in.n The scent of freshly brewed jasmine tea reached Toph's nose.

"Jasmine or Rock tea?" Iroh asked, carrying over two piping hot tea pots.

"Doesn't matter," Toph replied, not wanting to be rude. She felt Sokka abandon her wheelchair to sit on the table they must be around. She was wrong about one thing-there were only the four of them. Iroh poured the hot liquid into a cup and handed it to Toph. Toph, who was somewhat used to handling herself while totally blind, took the cup gratefully, bringing it to her least those stupid earth benders didn't cut off my tongue or something. Anything but that,

"How are you, Toph? I'm so happy to see you outside of that hospital room," Suki was saying. The girl spared Sokka's girlfriend the snide remarks and didn't reply at all. There was nothing more Toph wanted to do that to curl up into herself like a turtle and tune out the world.

"Are Katara, Zuko and Aang on their way back?" Sokka asked Suki, trying to cover up Toph's rudeness. At this, Toph turned an ear towards the conversation. She was interested as to why they were not here.

"Probably not. They will probably take more time," Suki said. "They didn't send a message."

"Where did they go?" asked Toph without much enthusiasm, but her lack of energy was made up for by Sokka. The boy suddenly exploded with hidden hope and excitement as he told Toph the plan.

"They went to the North Pole! They're looking for another oasis to get more of that magicky-healing-type water that Katara used on Aang! And when you start your physical therapy, she's gonna use it and see if it works!" he said. A genuine smile grazed Sokka's face when he watched a flicker of hope light up in Toph's features.

Yes, didn't she realize? They were doing all of this for her.

"Oh," she responded, and she could just hear Iroh's quiet chuckle. Little one, things are far from over. The end of one thing is only the beginning of another.

Sokka was taking Toph back to the hospital-only he was the one whining like a child.

"Do you have to go," he whined.

"I'm tired," Toph said.

"I mean, like back to the hospital. You can stay anywhere else! I still can't believe you want to be cramped up in that place."

"It's probably best I stay there for now..."

"Who ARE you?"

Toph sighed, unconsciously playing with the space rock bracelet she fashioned a long time ago. Sokka noticed this, and smiled again.

"You still have the space rock," he pointed out more seriously. As if only noticing this now, Toph nodded.

"Duh..."

It was more permanent then it had ever been. The bracelet that closed around her wrist-she would never be able to get it off without earth bending, or mold it into any other shape. The token of her and Sokka's friendship was forever intact, even if her bending had faded.