A/N: Before I say anything else, I have to credit the first chapter to Alluring Alliteration. She submitted the idea, and I thought it was so awesome that it should go first and foremost. Her idea was this: "Where did Lieutenant Jee get that kimono? Why would he have it, anyway?" There was so much potential for this that I just couldn't resist. (Plus, she kind of won my two-hundreth review contest…) Ahem! Anyway, this part is dedicated to her. ^-^

However, this Omake is a tad angsty. It takes place after the Agni Kai with Zhao, but before the Zu-crew reaches Kyoshi Island. And no, this does not count as a spoiler for my fic. If you guys didn't guess that Julie would end up there at some point, then I have failed you as an author.

Anyway, I originally was going to make this one funny, but...well...I'm not so good at following my own plans. I just got into writing Jee's past, and this was what came out. Anyway, here you go. Presenting the first chapter of Happy Endings: The Deleted Scenes! I hope it's good enough to make you cry.

All scenes will be written in the third person. They're better that way.


"Lieutenant Jee's Secret; Part I"

Night had softly stolen upon the ocean, washing away the rosy sunset that Zuko's ship had been basking in mere moments ago. Lieutenant Jee couldn't keep his mind focused as he gazed up at the sky. In silence, he watched as one by one, the stars made their appearance. Their faint light seemed so cold and distant, but the Lieutenant seemed to take comfort in their presence anyway. Even though he couldn't reach them, he made himself content watching them.

"She loved the stars, did she not?"

Jee glanced at General Iroh as he came to join him on deck. "She did."

The older man nodded sympathetically. "You seem troubled."

The Lieutenant didn't reply. His eyes became saddened. He kept his eyes locked on the sky above him, as though the answer to his dilemma. For a moment, he and Iroh stood there in silence like a pair of statues on a hill. The wind gently caught the fabrics of their sleeves, swaying them. It was almost as if the breeze was trying to reassure them, to comfort them.

Finally, Lieutenant Jee turned away. "I'll be retiring for the evening, General Iroh, Sir."

"There is no need to be so formal, my friend. Feel free to stop by if you are in the mood to talk."

He nodded. "Yes, Sir. Good night."

Iroh watched, nonplussed as the other man retreated through the door. His gaze didn't waver until the sound of his footsteps had faded. Then, the ex-General heaved a low sigh.

"What a shame," he murmured, looking back at the moon, which was almost full. "There is no solace at sea, it seems."


It was late, but the ship was still alive with activity. The men who were scheduled for the night shift were getting ready while those who had just finished were preparing for some well-deserved rest. That should have included the Lieutenant himself, but he didn't feel like he'd be able to close his eyes. Already he knew in his gut that this would be one of those nights.

He was looking forward to a deep glass of sake and the oblivion it would bring him.

"Screw you!"

Looking up suddenly, Lieutenant Jee found himself nearly knocked over as Julie stormed past him. Her hands were balled into fists and her expression was that of sheer outrage. Behind her, Prince Zuko of all people followed her down the hallway, looking annoyed. He didn't seem to notice the Lieutenant watching them, focused solely on the furious red head.

"Get back here," Zuko ordered. "Damn, peasant! You do as you're told this instant!"

"No!" Julie yelled over her shoulder. "I've had enough of your freaking comments, you jerk! If I'm such a distraction, then go meditate by yourself!"

"I already told you! You weren't distracting me; you were manipulating my chi! Why won't you listen to me, you stupid girl?"

"Because it's ridiculous! What do you take me for, anyway? You just don't want to admit that you're not as good of a Firebender as you think you are!"

Zuko looked livid. "Fine, then! Let all your chi bleed out of you! Go into another coma! See if I care!" Turning on his heel, the Fire Prince stormed away, his jaw clenched so tightly, Lieutenant Jee could have sworn he was biting back the very flames that threatened to spew forth. He watched, perturbed as the young man disappeared at the end of the hallway, ripped open the door to his bedroom and slammed it shut behind him.

Julie just sniffed. She looked like she was going to cry. "Jerk," she muttered. "Stupid bastard."

"Language," Lieutenant Jee barked, causing her to jump. She blinked owlishly at the darkness, seeming to notice him for the first time. "Just who do you think you are, speaking like that to someone of higher rank like that?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" was all Julie had to say for herself.

"Answer me, girl. Who do you think you are? A queen?"

Julie looked sullen. "No. Obviously. But dammit, Jee, Zuko was being such a...he thinks I'm bending his chi...! He's out of his goddamn mind!"

Lieutenant Jee's face turned to stone. "A lady," he said coldly, "does not talk back to her betters, no matter how much she dislikes them. Prince Zuko may be difficult, but you will show him due curtesy young lady."

She stiffened at that. "Young lady? Who do you think you are? My father?"

There was silence. Jee stared at the girl, taken by surprise. Julie just stared right back at him, meeting his startled gaze boldly and obstinately. Her brow furrowed as irritation (her most common expression) returned to her face. She threw her gaze to the floor in disgust.

"Whatever," she spat. "I don't care, either way. I don't need a father, and I sure as hell don't want one. So quit acting like one, you prick."

The Lieutenant felt like he had been punched in the stomach. Anger and dismay flitted across his face, his mouth opening and closing in speechless outrage. But before he could get a single word out, Julie flung herself down the hallway and stomped off towards the hold.

The little...

The man shook his head, but couldn't get her words out of his head. Just who do you think you are? My father? Of all the presumptuous things for the silly girl to say. Of all the idiotic, disrespectful things to come out of her mouth. She should be on bended knee, thanking him. He didn't have to go out of his way to teach her what any girl her age should already know. He had taken pity on the girl, and this was his reward?

It wasn't like her parents were going to tame the little monster. Someone had to take her to task before her flippant remarks got her knifed...or worse.

"Brat," he muttered. "I don't need this."

The darkness swallowed his words. Still fuming, the Lieutenant stalked quietly to his study. Once inside, he sat down at his desk, pulled out the bottle of sake and filled his glass all the way to the top. He chugged it one gulp, not even bothering to taste it.

Ridiculous.


Julie hadn't gone to sleep like she had wanted to. Instead, she sat in the hold and fumed quietly, plumping her thin pillow and trying to get comfortable on her cot.

"Somethin' eatin' at you, hon'?" Bo-Fen's voice queried from the cot next to hers. "I could hear you stomping all the way down the stairs."

"I wasn't trying to wake you up. Stupid jerk. Does he really think I'm stupid enough to believe that I'm a bender? I mean, seriously!"

"Prince Zuko's on your mind again, I see." The snide comment made Julie jerk up into a sitting position, her face flushed in indignation.

"As if! Anyway, he's not the only one. I swear, one of these days I'm going to knee Lieutenant Jee straight in the crotch! All of his manners-bull...do you know what he said to me just now?" Julie's voice twisted into a sing-song impersonation. "Show Prince Zuko due curtesy, young lady. Young lady. As if I were a child or something!"

Bo-Fen went very still. "I hope you didn't say anything stupid," she said bluntly.

Julie sniffed. "I told him to quit acting like my father. That's all. It's not like I cursed him out or anything. I wanted to, though."

The older girl uttered a low curse. "Sweet Agni, it's like you're a bubbling geiser for the worst possible things to say to people."

"What's wrong?"

"What's wrong! Are you seriously trying to tell me no one warned you about Cheng?"

Julie paused, turning to stare at Bo-Fen. "Cheng...who's Cheng?"


Hours later, the Lieutenant had gone through half the bottle. A significant portion of the candle had melted away, casting a low red glow over the portrait that had been carelessly tossed out on the desk. In it, a young girl was smiling a wide, dimpled grin. She was still a child, but her eyes were large and pretty. She seemed to be laughing at something someone had said seconds ago. Her long, pin-straight black hair swayed in the breeze.

Jee had taken the kimono out of the trunk again. It had been the kimono he had given Julie to wear as a disguise back at the docks. But taken out of that context, it held a deeper significance.

"I'm sure she'll like the dress," Iroh had commented as Lieutenant Jee made the purchase.

"I hope so. I feel terrible for missing her birthday. She's sixteen now, you know...and she's due to be married next summer," Jee added, running his hand over the fabric fondly. But there was a sad gleam to his eyes. "I wish I could be there, but I have my orders. I've missed...so much of her childhood. How can I blame her for not replying to my letters anymore?"

Iroh put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure it is merely a phase. Teenagers can be rather...difficult at times. They act impulsively, say and do things that they may later regret. That is why we must quietly sit by and guide them." For a moment, the General's eyes skirted to a much younger Prince Zuko, who was yelling something at one of the engineers. He sighed.

"That's the thing," Jee murmured. "I can't guide her. I can't even see her. Not while I'm on this crazy goose-chase."

"Stay hopeful, my friend. We might complete this mission sooner than you think."

"Please. The Avatar hasn't been seen in a hundred years. Do you really think that your thirteen year old nephew is going to be the one to find AND capture him? Erm...no offense, General Iroh, Sir."

"None taken. Zuko himself wonders the same thing a lot of the time. But he is determined to succeed."

Lieutenant Jee ran his hand over the now dirt-smudged kimono. At the time, it had been an impulsive decision to lend it to Julie...one that he half regretted, given both its current condition and the fact that her escape attempt failed miserably. For days afterwards, he wondered why he even bothered to give it to her in the first place.

But then, it wasn't as if she would ever wear it. He had sent it to her as a birthday gift, and it had been returned, unopened.

Jee took another sip of his sake as Julie's words came back to him. I don't need a father, and I sure as hell don't want one either.

There was a soft knock on the door.

"Dammit," the Lieutenant cursed, slamming his glass down on the desk. "What do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?"

Shen-Long turned the knob and tentatively poked his head into the room. "Lieutenant Jee? I have the maps you requested and...are you all right, Sir?"

Clearly, he had noticed the bottle of sake and the bleary-eyed look his superior officer was giving him. Almost like he couldn't see him very clearly. It made him pause, especially when he saw the kimono in the man's arms.

"Oh, Agni. Not again."

"Shen-Long," Jee muttered. "How's my daughter?"

Shen-Long sighed. Quietly, he closed the door and took the bottle of sake away from the Lieutenant. "I think you've had enough, Sir. Your daughter wouldn't want to see you like this, would she?"

"She never answered my letter. No respect...none."

"She couldn't help it, Sir. You know that." Shen-Long spoke as he straightened up Jee's desk. He hesitated as his hands came across the portrait, but after a slight pause he opened up the drawer he knew it belonged in, rolled it up carefully, and slipped it inside. The candle had been extinguished and thrown in the trash, along with the sake bottle.

"That girl..." Lieutenant Jee's brow furrowed. "That girl has no respect. She said I'm acting like her father. Can you believe her?"

"Um...who, Sir?"

"Julie. She's nothing like Cheng. Nothing at all."

Shen-Long saw immediately what had set this on. Mentally, he cursed Julie's low blow, ignorant though it was. He knew there was no way the girl could have known about Lieutenant Jee's daughter. But as the General was fond of saying, "a vase still breaks even if we have our eyes closed when it falls." And Jee's face looked exactly like a broken vase...well, metaphorically speaking.

"Now, Cheng...she knew how to act. She'd never talk to me like that. She'd have...she'd have listened to me."

"I know, Sir," said Shen-Long quietly.

"You want the picture of a lady, you should have seen my daughter. Most beautiful, well-mannered girl in the entire southern province...more than good enough of a wife for General Choi. She didn't want to marry him, at first, you know. But I told her it was for her own...for her own future."

"Of course, Sir. Why don't you go to bed? You have to rise early tomorrow. Remember, the inspection?"

Lieutenant Jee hiccuped. "Tell my daughter good night, Len-Shong...I mean Shen-Long. Tell her I'm sorry. I knew she was unhappy about Choi...but I didn't mean for this to...to..."

His words trailed off as a heavy silence filled the room.

"Go to sleep, Sir. It's late."

The superior officer only mumbled something that sounded eerily like a nursery rhyme. Shen-Long swallowed the lump in his throat and pushed the Lieutenant up on to his feet. Then, grabbing his shoulders firmly, he guided him towards his bed. His footsteps were unsteady, and it took about a minute to get the man to close his eyes. Shen-Long heaved a sigh as Jee's breathing finally slowed, indicating that he was finally resting.

"Poor man."

Outside the door, the floor creaked. Shen-Long frowned, annoyed that someone had been eavesdropping, stomped to the threshold and pulled open the door. He was ready to tear into whomever had been inconsiderate enough to spy on the Lieutenant during one of his low moments.

But he wasn't expecting to see Julie there, her eyes wide and flooded with confusion.

"What...what are you...?"

"Is Lieutenant Jee okay?" she blurted, her voice higher than normal.

She looked almost childlike as she blinked up into Shen-Long's face. For a second or two, the soldier just stared at the girl. He was barely able to keep his jaw from sinking to the floor in surprise.

"I...I mean...not that I came to apologize or anything. He was the one who was being so...condescending. I shouldn't even be here, right?"

"No," Shen-Long agreed quietly. "You shouldn't."

Julie averted her gaze, flushing red in embarrassment. "It's just that...Bo-Fen told me...told me...everything. And...she wouldn't let me sleep until I talked to Lieutenant Jee." Quickly, her stammering took an angry tone, as it was prone to do whenever the girl got nervous...at least, as far as Shen-Long had noticed. "But, dammit! How the hell was I supposed to know that his daughter had gone and..."

"That's enough," he snapped coldly.

Her mouth snapped shut. She looked like she had been slapped in the face.

"Do you want the whole ship to hear you? For once in your damn life, girl, think before you speak. Do you think it will help the Lieutenant any if his men were to find out what happened to Cheng? Do you?"

Silently, Julie stared at her feet. She looked remorseful and confused, her mouth curved into the shape of an upside-down V.

"There are some things a man needs to keep to himself. Give the Lieutenant that much, at least."

"I'm sorry."

Shen-Long scrutinized Julie for a moment. She wouldn't, or couldn't, meet his gaze. Indeed, for once she really did seem sorry. Her very posture was the admission of guilt. For a split second, he was reminded of the kind of girl she must have been as a child...small and unsure of herself.

"Forget about it," he said curtly. "I'm not the one you need to apologize to. And you can talk to the Lieutenant tomorrow, when he's sober."

Julie winced. "Okay," she whispered.

Then, quickly, the girl turned abruptly and scurried away, disappearing around the corner in the blink of an eye. She was all too eager to try to forget what she had learned, it seemed. Shen-Long couldn't blame her. The Lieutenant was still trying to forget too.


"You idiot," Bo-Fen snapped. "Cheng was Lieutenant Jee's daughter! His only daughter!"

Julie frowned at her. "What do you mean...was? What happened to her?"

The older girl heaved a sigh, running her hand through her dark hair. She shook her head, despairingly. "Of course, you don't know. How could you know? You weren't here when it happened." Bo-Fen sat up on her cot, giving Julie a severe look. "Listen closely, hon', because I'm not going to tell you this again. Not many people know about Cheng, and with good reason. The Lieutenant doesn't like to talk about her."

Julie nodded. "I'm listening," she muttered.

Bo-Fen gave her a look. "Before Lieutenant Jee got his position in the Fire Navy, he was involved with the daughter of a wealthy merchant named Hsia. This was when he was living in one of the Southern provinces. He loved Hsia, but the thing was, she was born and raised as a citizen of the Earth Kingdom. If she had married him, she'd have been called a traitor by her friends and neighbors."

Bo-Fen's voice dropped, so she was speaking barely above a whisper.

"Hsia got pregnant, and Lieutenant Jee tried to convince her to marry him. But her father found out and...well, he was furious. He kept her from contacting him. So the rest of the time passed, and Hsia gave birth to a girl she named Cheng. Jee tried to visit them a number of times, but was barred contact. Eventually, he found out the truth...that Hsia had died in childbirth."

Julie stared at her with wide eyes. "So...what happened to Cheng?"

"She was raised by her grandfather. By that time, Jee was able to make a deal with him, to be allowed to see Cheng once a year...on her birthday. But soon, Jee got promoted to Lieutenant. His commanding officers didn't know that he had a young daughter. It had all been kept quiet, for the girl's sake. If word had gotten out that Jee had an illegitimate child in the Earth Kingdom, he never would have gotten promoted...and Jee had plans for Cheng's future."

"Plans?"

"He wanted the best for his daughter. He wanted to protect her and provide for her since he couldn't do that for Hsia. So, when Cheng was of age, he arranged a marriage for her with General Choi."

Julie jumped. "He did what?"

Bo-Fen shrugged. "They were on relatively good terms, you know. It wasn't like he was giving her away to a stranger. But Choi thought that Jee's relation with Cheng's grandfather was purely business related. The man didn't know he was proposing to his Lieutenant's daughter."

Julie looked angry. "I bet Cheng hated it. How could Jee do something so freaking cold like that? To his own daughter! I mean, I can understand him trying to marry me off...we don't exactly get along. But his daughter?"

"General Choi was and still is one of the richest men in the Fire Nation," said Bo-Fen quietly. "If Cheng had gone through with the marriage, she would have been provided for, for the rest of her life...and then some."

"But...wait. She didn't go through with the marriage? She ran away?"

Bo-Fen was very still. "No. She considered herself to be an Earth Kingdom citizen, and was loyal to her people. The thought of marrying one of the men trying to destroy her country was apparently...abhorrent to her. Or so I seem to understand. This part is pure speculation. I mean...no one really knows for sure why Cheng hung herself. But we assume that this was the reason."

Julie froze. "Oh, God."

"Yeah."

"She...she hung herself?"

"That's right."

Silence.

"Lieutenant Jee may be a lot of things," Bo-Fen told her squarely. "But he's still human. Shen-Long and I both know how much he wishes he can go back and spend more time with Cheng...to get to know her better. He wishes he could have raised her himself...maybe then he'd be able to understand why she would want to kill herself.

"He wants to fix his mistakes just like anyone else," she added. "He might not even realize that he's trying with the wrong person...and too late."

Julie didn't say a word. Silently, she climbed out of her cot and went to the door. Bo-Fen watched her cooly as she opened it and slipped out into the hall, padding quickly up the stairs. The sound of her footsteps faded within seconds.

"I guess he's not the only one who wants to fix things," she said to no one.


A/N: So? Was it sad? Again, I'm sorry to start off this fun little fic with such a downer, but I thought it was too good not to post. I guess this isn't so much an omake as it is a depressing one-shot...well, two shot. There's a conclusion on the way if this chapter receives enough attention. Well? Anyone else itching for a conclusion to this?

Part II will be a lot more light-hearted and fluffy. Julie will try to make amends with Lieutenant Jee, but seeing as we're talking about Julie here, it all goes horribly awry. Zuko's going to need a hell of a lot of therapy when this is over. That's all I'm saying.

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