Three guesses who forgot they were also posting this here and now feels very bad for neglecting you guys?


Bolin made it to the parapet in time to see Korra hit the water, punching through like an arrow. They didn't need to speak. They leapt, Opal finding a grip on Bolin's arm in freefall.

Opal slowed them before they hit the water, dragging as much air down with them as she could. She clung onto Bolin as he pulled up the riverbed to meet them, then rode the spur down to the bottom. It was impossible to see through the walls of water that enclosed them, dark with filth and sludge, almost like being in a cave of shimmering walls. If Opal lost concentration for even a moment the water would crash down on them and they'd be in no position to help at all.

There was no sign of Korra in that filthy water, no telltale flash of the white minibus. Bolin squared his shoulders and hips, taking as firm a stance as he could on the squelching muck and drew down with all his might. The silt settled to the river bed and they could see the van through the gloom, only a short distance away, lying on its side. The back doors had been torn open, indistinct figures streaming towards the surface. Some were dragging others behind them.

"How long can you hold this?" Bolin asked and Opal shrugged, sweat already forming on her forehead.
"Not long. It's like lifting a boulder in reverse, keeping it down here."
"No time to waste then." Bolin let the muck rise, once again obscuring his vision. He didn't need it. He could feel the minibus now, settled into the ooze. He pushed them towards it, speeding on a conveyor belt of mud and old junk. They damn near collided with it, Bolin once again clearing the water, just enough for them to see what they were doing. Korra broke through into their bubble and tumbled onto their private bit of dry land, soaking wet and gasping for air.
"Four more," she gasped. "Four more. Take, up, resus..."
And then she was gone, diving back into the river that surrounded them.

Breaking back into the river meant fighting buoyancy that threatened to throw her upward, a surreal feeling that she would have enjoyed at any other time. As it was time was very much of the essence. She swam back inside the bus, finding the first unconscious body floating against what had become the ceiling. She hooked an arm and dragged him into the bubble. It was diminishing rapidly, streaming off in ten thousand silver plumes. Opal's arm was shaking when the second arrived. The water was lapping around their knees now as the pocket floated away, their classmates floating in the little oasis of air. Opal was hanging onto Bolin as an anchor as their feet tried to float, pushed around by the current running beneath them. Korra's head barely broke through with the third, snatching a few desperate gulps of air.
"Go!"
"But..."
"GO!"
There was no use arguing. The water was inching up their thighs. Bolin took a firm grip on two of the bodies, Opal grabbing the third, taking a firmer grip on Bolin's belt. He kicked out and the earth kicked back, the spur pushing them from air to water and back up to the surface in a rush that knocked the air from the lungs.

Asami's chest was on fire. Everything was a blur of greenish brown, already going black around the edges. Her lungs were screaming, agony like she'd never felt, her vision was going blurry and the steering column was crushing her legs against the seat. No matter how she kicked or twisted she couldn't work it loose. Stupid, shitty, Cabbage Corp...Something shifted in her peripheral vision. She looked up in time to see the fist slam against the windscreen once again. She opened her mouth in shock, losing more precious air. Asami braced herself against the seat and tried to wrench her legs free but it was useless. Please. Please, please, please...she looked towards the blurry blue figure, still hammering on the glass. Please.

The last thing she saw was a blazing white light.

Bolin had 'found' a way up onto one of the bridge's concrete supports and Opal was having far more success with CPR than was statistically likely. It would have been less painful with Korra on hand to bend out the water rather than just force unwilling lungs to breathe again but at least they were breathing again, huddled together on the tiny concrete outcrop, sodden and shivering, but alive. Someone was doing a headcount, not that Opal needed to be told.
"Korra and Asami are still down there." She looked at her watch but it had stopped on being submerged, not that she'd known the time they'd hit the water. Too long, by any measure. Bolin caught her eye.
"Should we go back down?" He asked quietly, not asking are you strong enough to go back down? Can we risk exposing ourselves? Opal didn't have an answer.

The surface of the water split open, Korra powering towards the concrete perch with a limp body in her arms. She propelled herself out of the water without even bothering to pretend to climb the steep rough sides of the support and lay Asami down gently. Her head lolled to one side, wet black hair fanning out beneath her cheek.
"Shit..." Bolin saw the glowing white eyes of the Avatar state. He pushed one of the more inquisitive students back down before he could spot it too. "Give her some space, for crying out loud!"

Opal kneeled at Korra's side, trying to block the Avatar from view as much as possible as she pulled dirty water from Asami's lungs and pushed air in. Asami's chest rose and fell but at Korra's command, not under her own power. Korra's brow furrowed. With one hand she kept moving the air, in and out, the other rolled a ball of water into being, easing the glowing sphere across Asami's chest. She found a spot and focused on it, until Asami winced and coughed, fighting Korra's control of her breathing. Korra relaxed, letting the water splash back onto the stone. She closed her eyes, blinking them back to blue.
"Whoa..." she closed her eyes again for a moment, feeling dangerously lightheaded as she sat back on her heels. "Ope? We get them all?"
"We did." Opal reassured her. Korra grinned, punching the air weakly.
"Fuck yeah we did! Oh." She rested her hands against her thighs, as if to steady herself. "Ok. Opal?"
"Hmm?"
"I think..." she paused, thinking hard. "Yeah." She nodded. "Yeah, I think I'm gonna pass out for a little bit, ok?" She gave Opal a rather dopey-looking smile. Opal put her arm around her as she sagged against her.
"You did good, you big lump."
"We did good," Korra mumbled, leaning against Opal's shoulder. "Wake me up when rescue arrives, ok?"

Kya was not going frantic. She was not. She was a medical professional and medical professionals are never frantic. But she did set a new hospital record for time to A&E as the ambulances began to arrive from the bridge crash, and the knot in her chest did only loosen when she saw three very familiar faces sat together, wrapped in matching foil blankets. Korra stood as she approached, welcoming the hug.
"You kids had we worried for a second there," Kya told them when she finally let go of Korra, hugging Opal and Bolin in turn. They shared a guilty look. "Not on the bus, huh?"
They nodded. Kya surveyed them, still dripping and shivering.
"It's a stupid, stupid world when you think you might get in trouble for doing the right thing. Everyone's still alive and that's down to you three. If anyone, particularly certain robe-wearing buffoons, has a go at you for it they'll be answering to me." She turned, calling down the ward. "Hey, Himiko, any problem with my jumping in and dealing with my goddaughter and her friends?"
"Go nuts!" Himiko called back. Kya collected their charts from the desk. "Ok. Korra, you're up first."

Korra hopped up onto the little table, shrugging off the foil blanket. Kya passed her a bag and she pulled off her sodden shirt with a little difficulty, dumping it inside.
"I hate pretending to be normal," she grumbled as Kya looked her over. "Do you know how aggravating it is to have to let yourself get hypothermia, just so you don't stand out?"
"Oh, I don't know, about as aggravating as finding out your favourite idiot forgot to mention to the paramedics that she was bleeding?"
"I'm not..." Korra stopped. There was a cut across the back of her arm. "huh."
Kya circled her.
"Your back as well, and judging by the stain on your jeans your cut your leg too."
Korra closed her eyes, trying to remember. The cold and the adrenaline crash were fogging up her brain.
"I broke through the windscreen. Maybe some of the framework, I can't..." The picture in her mind was hazy. She thought she remembered shattering the glass, her bruised knuckles certainly testified to that version of events, and then ripping apart the panel, bending back the steering column... "Asami!" Korra remembered. "Her lung. She had a punctured lung and I tried to fix it but I don't know..."
"I'll make sure it's checked out, don't worry," Kya told her calmly, pushing her back on to the bed she didn't remember jumping off. "They tend to do a full work up on car crash victims. She's in good hands. So take a breath and let me have a look at what you've done to yourself this time."
Korra scowled a little but she did so. Kya took her arm gently, turning it a little. Broken glass glittered when it caught the light. "Well this is kind of nasty. Can you, just once, do the heroics without getting yourself hurt?"
"I'll work on that." Korra promised.

Lin Beifong hung up the phone, pinching the bridge of her nose. This was not going to be fun. She picked up the handset again, dialling a number.
"Mako, can you get in here please?"
She shouldn't have said 'please'. He'd known something was wrong the moment she said it.

Asami blinked the world back into focus. She felt like death. Warm, groggy, high-as-fuck death. Everything hurt from her the roots of her hair down. She went through the checklist as much as she could remember before she'd drifted off. Concussion, six stitches in her scalp. Broken nose, which was more upsetting than the broken ribs from hitting the wheel, her legs were aching where they'd been crushed, and it felt like she was bruised inside and out. Which, give or take twenty long medical words that won lots of points at scrabble, was pretty much the case. Overall, she'd had better days. At least they were giving her the good pain relief. Her dad was going to pitch a fit when he found out that it had been a Cabbage Corp van. And speaking of Hiroshi...Asami belatedly looked to the bedside, expecting to see her father sat there, probably working away on his laptop and too engrossed to notice she had come round. He wasn't there. Asami blinked again, wondering what exactly they'd given her because she was clearly hallucinating. Korra was apparently lying across two chairs, wearing baby blue scrubs and fluffy red socks. There was a blanket in the process of falling off of her as she fidgeted in her sleep. Opal and Bolin were sat up against the wall, curled round each other, so wrapped in blankets they resembled an overstuffed burrito. Asami sat up a little more, despite the painful protest from her broken ribs. Wait...She remembered a fist beating frantically against the glass. A glimpse of wide blue eyes in the murk, just before she'd blacked out. She looked back to Korra, to the bruised knuckles resting on top of the blanket. Asami sank back into the pillows, trying to process. She'd realised someone had had to have pulled her out, she hadn't been having much luck herself, but she'd assumed someone in the bus had gotten ahold of her. How could Korra have even gotten down to the water fast enough?
"Hi there."

Asami turned. An older woman was stood in the doorway in a lab coat, holding a cardboard drinks carrier, complete with four steaming takeaway cups. She set them down on the bedside table.
"I'm Kya. Doctor Kya, if you're feeling formal, but I'm off the clock now so...Kya."
"Asami. But it probably says that on the end of the bed. If you're off the clock..." Asami's foggy brain made the connection. "Oh, them. Right."
"We couldn't get through to your father," Kya said apologetically. "And they offered to stay and keep you company..." Bolin chose that moment to let out a loud snore. "...and a fantastic job they're doing there..." Kya muttered, and then continued in a louder tone, "If you want I can ask them to leave."
"No, no, that's fine," Asami said hurriedly. She looked back at Korra who seemed to be struggling to find a comfortable position in her makeshift bed. "It's, um, it's nice." She added honestly.

Korra groaned in her sleep, turning over and losing her blanket in the process. Kya frowned.
"Excuse me a moment?"
She set down the drinks and crossed over, bending over the sleeping figure. Asami couldn't hear what Kya was saying but the tone was low and soothing, one hand on Korra's upper arm and the other on her cheek. Korra seemed to wake rather abruptly and Kya held her against the chair for a moment before letting her sit up, all but jumping to her feet when she saw Asami was awake. She tried to sock-slide across the lino to the bedside, forgetting she was wearing grip-lined hospital issue socks. She bounced over instead.
"Well hey there!" she beamed.
"Hey," Asami gave her a small smile, but it was no less bright.

Mako arrived a little later, with a change of clothes for everyone. Well, almost. Korra examined the pile he'd offered her with a raised eyebrow.
"Forget something?" She asked. Mako looked at her blankly. Judging by the look Opal was giving Korra she was in the same boat. Korra sighed. "Underwear, Mako. Did you bring any?"
Mako went pink.
"I...uh..."
"Oh, Kyoshi's tits!" Korra swore, to Asami's amusement. "And unsupported tits at that! Seriously? How the fuck can you be embarrassed by underwear? We dated, Mako! You've taken my underwear off with your damn teeth..."
"I did not need to hear that," Bolin groaned to Opal who made a sympathetic noise and put her hands over his ears.
"...you've worn my underwear..."
"Wait, what?" Bolin pulled Opal's hands off quickly.
"But you couldn't fish a sodding pair of pants and a bra out my drawer?"
Mako was properly scarlet by this point. Asami was trying to stifle her giggles, the laughter hurting her busted ribs.
"I'd like to clarify that they were boyshorts and it was dark..." he started.
"Oh, spare us from fragile masculinity," Korra muttered, loud enough for them all to hear. "Did you at least bring a hoody or something?"
Mako found the garment in the bag and threw it to her.
"Sorry." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I uh, I wasn't thinking. I kinda panicked."
"Don't worry, supercop," Opal smiled. "I won't tell my aunt that you're afraid of ladies' underwear."
Mako sagged. He'd have thought finding out his brother had jumped off a bridge would have been the lowest point in his day but he had clearly been mistaken. He did his best to compose himself, gave them a nod, and stepped through the door. They heard a muffled 'oh FUCK' from the other side. The remaining four looked at each other.
"How long do you think he'll stay in the bathroom before he admits he got the wrong door?"

Asami examined her face in the bathroom mirror. She didn't look too bad, a little drained, and her hair was a complete mess, but for nearly dying she was doing pretty well. Nearly dying. She tried to unthink it, gripping the basin. Ok. Slow breaths. You're ok. Just a little wobbly, that's all.
"You ok in there?" Korra called from the room. "Haven't blacked out on me, have you?"
"I'll just be a minute," Asami called back, turning on the taps to splash cold water on her face. You're alive. You're ok. Everyone's alive. The little, nasty thought bounced around her head. No thanks to you. She could hear Korra moving around in the next room, and it was a reassurance as she closed her eyes and tried to remember why, how everything had gone so wrong. The van jerked to the left...It hurt her head just thinking about it.

She gave up, splashing her face again. She pushed her way back into the main room and stopped dead. Korra was facing away from her, pulling the borrowed scrub top off over her head. Asami watched the muscles shift, saw the square of bandage taped to her shoulder where the worst of the scraping seemed to lead to. She stooped, grabbing the loose shirt Mako had brought her and put it on. She turned, seeing Asami watching her.
"Enjoying the show?" She teased, and Asami blushed.
"I didn't mean..."
"It's fine, not like I've never shared a changing room before," Korra said easily. She studied Asami. "You feeling ok? You look a bit...odd."
Asami shrugged. It hurt and she stopped quickly.
"How am I supposed to feel?"
Korra thought about it. "Yeah, fair point. How's your head though? Looks sore."
"Oh, it is. It really is."

Asami sat on the edge of the bed and Korra hopped up beside her.
"I wish I could remember what happened."
"Retrograde amnesia. It's pretty common." It was Korra's turn to shrug at Asami's questioning look. "I've had more than my fair share of knocks. Go through it enough times and even a concussed hogmonkey will pick things up."
Asami's hand found Korra's. She looked down at it rather than at the girl sitting next to her.
"Thank you." She said. It seemed woefully lacking in the circumstances. "I should have said it earlier I just...thank you." Her voice wobbled. "I'd be...fuck, I'd be..."
Korra squeezed her hand.
"It's ok. Hey, Asami, look at me. It's ok. You're ok."
Asami looked up into those pretty blue eyes.
"Thanks to you," she said, and she leant forward and kissed her. Korra was too stunned to reciprocate for a moment but she soon got over it.

Asami flinched when Korra's hand brushed against her ribs and Korra jumped back.
"Fuck!" she put a hand to her head. "Fuck, I shouldn't be doing this. Not like that!" She added hurriedly, because Asami was looking heartbroken. Korra took a breath, finding Asami's hand again. "Asami, no, not like..." she sighed. "You're kinda having a rough day. And you're still really quite stoned, and you're concussed, so I just...it's like I'm taking advantage."
Asami looked at the expression of pure worry on Korra's face and didn't know how to react. She settled for sarcasm.
"Oh yeah," she said dryly. "Really taking advantage of me... you all...having lips and...stuff..."
Maybe Korra had a point about her mental faculties right now. Korra grinned. She craned her neck up, giving Asami a kiss on the forehead.
"In the morning, or whatever, when you're feeling a bit more like yourself, if you still want..." she gestured vaguely between the two of them. "Well, you just let me know, ok? Because, as I think you might have guessed, I'd be very much on board. But I like my women compos mentis so we might need to hang fire here."
Asami shook her head ruefully.
"Such a gentleman. Gentlewoman. Gentle...whatever. Your parents should be proud."
"I also open doors, pull out chairs, and buy flowers," Korra responded in a mock-serious voice. Asami snorted.
"I will, you know? Want this. You. Besides," she added, feeling warm inside at how brightly Korra was smiling, "pretty sure you still owe me a drink."
Korra laughed.

Lin rubbed her temples and reread the statement from the bridge security office. It didn't make any sense. She knew exactly which officers had been on that bridge, right down to the crime scene techs in their white plastic onsies. The description of the officer who had collected the tapes did not match any of them. She sent the balls of the little executive toy Mako had bought her clacking together with a wave of her hand. The clicks helped her to think. She halted the balls. Official procedure could catch up on its own time. She was calling Kya and inspecting that van tonight.


Apologies again. Feel free to yell at me in the comments.