"You died," Iroh verified, and the young girl nodded while still hyperventilating. "Calm down, you'll be fine. I'm sure that we'll get to the bottom of what's going on, but right now we need you to calm down and tell us who you are and what you remember."
"Sarah," she gasped, and they frowned at the strangeness of her name. "I remember…fight with… mom then… I ran…fell asleep…next to… warehouse… was in… a puddle…"
"Match your breathing with mine," Iroh repeated holding her to him. "We won't hurt you."
Sarah leaned her head up against Iroh's shoulder and whimpered as she focused on matching her frantic breathing with his. The only sounds in the room were her deep gasps for air and then her shaky method of exhaling. Just as Iroh was about to put her down back on the bed, she clung to his shirt, making the trio realize that she was still awake.
"I-I don't know how I got here," she said shivering. "I-I remember running away from my mother when she threatened to take everything out of my room except my bed and clothes and desk, but things get a little hazy after that. I remember fighting with a male friend of mine when he was trying to calm me down and take me back to my mother, but I ended up yelling at him and then running off behind the warehouse because I knew he couldn't drive there because he didn't have the password."
"All true so far," Lin confirmed as Iroh glanced at her. "Go on."
"I-I remember wishing that I was a firebender here, and then giving reasons and things I'd do with my firebending… I think one of them was to keep myself warm and to defend my honor and belongings with an Agni Kai… but I don't remember anything after that until I woke up here," she said shivering.
"Again, all true," Lin said calmly.
"What about with you dying?" Korra asked. "How did that happen?
"I-I think it was from the cold?" Sarah guessed. "I-I remember watching myself, but it was a different me, if that makes any sense. I mean, it was me, but at the same time it wasn't. I don't know, it's so confusing!"
"Just tell us what you know," Iroh said calmly as he rubbed her arm to warm her up like he was used to doing. "We'll sort out the rest."
"I-I was watching myself as a phantom, but I wasn't me. I mean, I was me, but the other me had brown hair and eyes like I used to before I came here, back the way I did when I ran away from home. The other me was in a hospital gown, and there was this machine that kept track of my heart rate. Well, the machine made a loud beep, indicating that my heart had stopped and… and…"
"You woke up?" Korra guessed.
"No," Sarah shivered. "I watched them try to revive me. I could literally feel them pushing electricity into me to try to get my heart going again, and-!"
"How does that work?" Korra asked, and Lin and Iroh glared at her for interrupting. "Sorry, go on."
"I-I could show you if I had some of those electric sticks or gloves that the chi blockers used," Sarah said shivering. "On a practice doll, that is. I-I remember them shaking their heads and saying that it was no good and that the other me, the one with brown hair, had died. I tried to scream out to them to let them know I was alive, but… but…"
"You woke up to find us," Iroh said calmly, and Sarah nodded and turned to cry into his shirt.
"Whatever happened to boundaries?" Korra mouthed, and Iroh scowled.
"Avatar Korra, women don't have to ask permission when it comes to most things with men in situations like this," he said calmly. "Men, however, are supposed to ask permission so as not to cross a boundary with the woman that they are with."
"Does that work in marriages, too?" Korra asked, and Iroh blinked.
"that would be a question for grandfather, not me," he said at last. "In the meantime, could one of you go get a couple of cups of tea? I find that it soothes the nerves very quickly, and this young miss is in need of it."
"We're on it," Lin said calmly as she dragged Korra out of the room.
"What was that for?" Korra hissed, and Lin smirked. "What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking that she's calmer around him, and that even though her heartbeat is still as quick as when we went in there…"
"She's in love with him," Korra realized, and Lin nodded. "Wow, you're good at detecting these kinds of things. And it's all in the heartbeat?"
"It's just a theory, but yes it is," Lin smirked as Korra grabbed two cups of tea.
"Heehee… just for kicks and giggles… let's spike it," Korra snickered.
"Don't even think about it," Zuko snapped as he took the two cups from the young Avatar. "If you two are in that mindset, then I'll go take these to them myself."
…
"I'm so sorry for your loss," the hospital security guards said stunned that they had kept a woman from seeing her dying child.
"If you were sorry you'd let me see her," the mother snapped, going into hysterics. "You kept me from my baby, MY ONLY DAUGHTER!"
"Ma'am, we're going to need to ask you a few questions," some cops said warily coming up to the sobbing woman. "It's about why your daughter was alone on a freezing cold night like last night."
"I have nothing to say to you," the mother spat glaring at them. "If you want someone to blame, blame the damned school systems that destroyed her from the inside out!"
…
Iroh kept rocking Sarah back and forth gently as he had once done for a frightened child that he had rescued in the line of duty, judging by what the child had said his mother would do when he was frightened. This seemed to soothe her somewhat, so he could only assume that it worked on some frightened females as well as children. He heard a soft knock at the door, and looked to find his grandfather coming in with the tea.
"Here," Zuko said gently as he set it down on the nightstand, and Iroh now noticed that there was a candle on the tray. "It's nothing to be afraid of, little one. The candle is merely there to test something that we once did with Avatar Aang."
"To see if I'm a firebender," Sarah muttered, and Zuko nodded.
