Korra had nearly dozed, had at some point slumped down even farther, her head resting gently on Wing's shoulder. The hours had passed slowly since she arrived at the hospital, and as far as she knew there had been no change from Bolin's room. Healers came and went, and each time one entered or exited the room Su or Opal or Tenzin would inquire about any changes. Eventually there came a time when the inquisition stopped, and all of them resigned themselves to waiting.

Su and Opal had joined her on the floor but Tenzin remained upright and alert, pacing up and down the way impatiently. His footsteps were the only thing keeping Korra awake. His anxiety felt contagious.

But then his footsteps stopped and Korra lifted her head sleepily. She rubbed at her eyes and followed Tenzin's gaze down the corridor where she could see Lin rushing forward with an urgent expression. A white-capped healer followed her.

"What took you so long?" Tenzin demanded, though his voice remained hushed. He shot a cursory glance at the healer as he entered Bolin's room, then turned his attention to Lin again. "We've been waiting here for hours."

"I got caught up at headquarters," Lin replied shortly. "The investigation hit a wall."

By this time, Su had gotten to her feet. "What's the trouble?"

"We've been combing through the remains of the building all day trying to figure out what caused it to fall. We found loose bricks a block away and one of Bolin's discs ended up on the roof two buildings down. They started digging through the rubble at ground zero tonight, and we found evidence of an explosion, several of them, and even with lavabending there's no way the kid could've…"

A thunderous cry erupted from behind the closed door, a throaty and desperate roar that chilled Korra's blood in her veins. Then the crash of broken glass. A heavy thud. By the time she had even thought to move Lin and Tenzin were through the door with Opal, Wing, and Wei on their heels. They stopped not more than a foot inside.

The first thing that Korra noticed upon entering the room was the body: The healer who had entered the room moments before lay sprawled on his back on the ground, a sizeable gash ripped into his uncapped, tattooed forehead. He wasn't moving. Beside him lay what once had been a metal desk lamp, or so she imagined, but it was dented and broken. This puzzled her, and for several long moments she looked between the two: The man, the lamp, the man, the lamp.

"Get that combustion bender in some kind of restraint!" Lin commanded.

Tenzin, Wing, and Wei set immediately to action, and for one last time Korra stared at the warped metal on the floor. Then she looked to the bed. At its foot, Bolin knelt on both knees, doubled over with his forehead pressed hard into the blanket, and he remained so quiet that she initially believed he had fainted. But then he moved just slightly, rocked forward and back, and clutched at his shoulder with a pitiful groan.

"You metalbent," Korra stammered at him. She couldn't bring herself to move. The sound he had made was inhuman.

"No, he didn't," Lin said, and she rushed forward with urgency in place of panic. "Su, with me. Opal, Korra, go get some help. I need as much security as this place has, right now. And healers!"

Korra had scarcely remembered that Opal was even there. She was standing back behind the commotion with her fingers curled in front of her mouth and an expression of abject horror on her face. She had gone the slightest shade of green and looked fit to burst into tears.

"Opal, go," Korra said, and she gently prodded Opal from the room. "I'll make sure things are okay in here."

"But…"

"Go. You don't need to see this." Korra didn't even know what this would be.

Opal went.

"Get on the other side!"

Korra turned back around and watched Lin and Suyin moving about the bed. They stood opposite each other, Lin on Bolin's right side and Suyin on his left, and while Su wore the same look of horror that Opal had, Lin appeared particularly cool-headed as she issued commands. Together they set to work unfolding Bolin from his tightly coiled ball. He resisted, grasping at his arm, writhing and moaning, but eventually they got him upright and kept him that way.

"Hold him," Lin ordered. She had wrenched the hand clutching his shoulder away. Then she grasped his injured arm by the elbow and wrist, two handed, and when she bent it he groaned sickly. Lin seemed unaffected by the noise. "You have to hold him steady and straight. Don't you dare let go."

Still looking terrified, Su did as she was told. One knee on the bed, she cradled Bolin tightly and held fast to his good arm. She was squinting her eyes closed, her head turned away as if afraid to watch. Bolin squirmed weakly against her and Korra could just barely see him staring, perhaps deliriously, at Lin. And then his eyes went very wide with realization.

"No, Lin," he whimpered, his face white as driven snow. He tried to pull out of Suyin's grasp but she held him firm, one arm around his chest and the other around his head. She put her hand over his eyes and drew him even closer to her. He continued to beg, a terrified quiver in his voice. "No, Lin. No, Lin! No! Lin! Lin!"

With one last nod to Su, Lin propped one foot on the bed and heaved against Bolin's arm. Korra cringed and looked away, but she could hear his anguished scream even as it was muffled by Suyin's arms. And then his shoulder gave a sickening, fleshy pop.

It took less than a second afterward for Bolin to faint, and Su stumbled under the unexpected weight. Had she not strained to keep steady, they would certainly have toppled to the floor. "Help me!" she cried.

Together, Lin and Su situated Bolin back on the bed where he lay very, very still and very, very pale.

Korra stood rooted to the spot, gaping and very slightly nauseous.

Lin straightened and looked between Korra and Su with narrowed eyes. "He didn't bend anything," she explained flatly. "He threw his arm out. I've trained enough rookie metalbenders on the cables that I know a bum shoulder when I see one." She patted the cables mounted on her hip idly, as if what she had just done was commonplace. "The quicker you set it back the less painful it is."

Suddenly, it seemed the chaos had ended. The room had gone deathly quiet, and for a time nobody moved and nobody spoke. It was as if they all needed a moment to register what had just happened. But then Korra watched Lin approach the combustion bender, completely unfazed, and restrain him formally. Wing, and Wei had done a passable job of immobilizing him in a pinch, bending whatever metal implements they could find around his body. They seemed to have covered his whole head with what must once have been a metal bedpan, and they and Tenzin had been standing guard over him, waiting and watching for movement.

Lin, Su, and Tenzin began exchanging terse words, but Korra didn't hear what they were saying. Instead, she approached the bed slowly, cautiously, afraid of what she would see. And then she was beside Bolin, gazing down. All the life had gone out of him. He was so still that for a moment she was convinced he wasn't breathing.

She had never seen him like this. She had never seen anyone like this. In her wildest dreams, she could never have imagined the truth of it. Two days ago he had been fine—angry and temperamental, true—but he maintained the same energy and strength of presence as he had since the day she met him in the pro-bending arena. Now he looked dead.

Weak kneed, Korra couldn't help but sit. She touched his arm delicately, as if to make certain he was still there at all. His skin was cold. The muscles felt loose and feeble. Just as tentatively, Korra put her hand flat on his chest and held it there, feeling the faintest heartbeat. She pressed the back of her hand to his cheek. It was clammy and slick with sweat.

All at once, Korra realized that she had never touched him like this, and she became instantly aware of how intimate it had been. She gave a self-conscious look about the room and, satisfied that no one had seen her, folded her hands sheepishly in her lap, uncertain what else to do.

Opal returned to the room within a few minutes, a veritable army of security personnel and a few additional healers behind her, and the room erupted into commotion again. Korra watched as Lin instructed a third of the guards to transport the combustion bender to lockup, and the guards removed him swiftly and quietly. The other two thirds dispersed to thoroughly sweep the building. Tenzin directed the healers toward the bed, and Su wrangled her exhausted children. Opal had stopped crying, the color had come back into her face, and she stared doe-eyed at Bolin. It looked as if she was ready to bolt toward him, but Su held her fast.

One of the healers hooked his arm around Korra's shoulders and escorted her from the bed toward the door. The remaining two rushed past with healing water in hand. She could see the faintest blue glow radiating from the spaces between them.

"Everybody out," said the healer who had helped Korra away. "We need—"

"No!" Korra protested. She ripped her arm away from the healer and glared at him. She felt suddenly very angry. The reality of the situation had finally hit home. "I'm not going anywhere! My friend was attacked by a man who broke into your hospital under your noses. How does that even happen? I'm staying here. Someone has to make sure he's safe, and it's clearly not going to be you."

The healer started to argue, but quieted when Tenzin stepped forward. There was something about the airbending master that could, when needed, be supremely imposing. "I agree with Avatar Korra," he said officially. "And having spoken to Chief Beifong, I think we all can agree that some additional security should be provided, at least until we know why and how this happened and can be sure there are no more threats here."

"No way it's coincidence," Lin grumbled from the doorway. "That combustion bender had an agenda. I'll bet anything he's the one that caused the building to collapse and that he came here to finish the job."

Tenzin looked back at Lin, incredulous, and then turned back to the healer. "I understand your concern, and I can agree that too many people can cause unnecessary stress," he said, his tone more relaxed now, "but you must understand our concerns as well."

The healer, now somewhat pale-faced, nodded.

"I'll arrange for the White Lotus to provide surveillance around this place until such a time as Bolin is released. With the addition of Lin's metalbenders there should be no issue, but making these arrangements will take time. I only ask that you allow Korra to remain, at least for the night, for extra protection."

"I don't have the authority to do any of that," said the healer. "But I can take you to the principal healer. He can allow it."

"Very well," Tenzin said. "Take me to him and we'll come to an agreement, I'm sure. Korra, I'll send the sentries as soon as I'm able."

"Call Asami," Korra said. "We never let her know what's going on."

"I'll call," said Suyin. "You all have more important things to take care of."

"But, mom," Opal was pleading now, tears rimming her eyes again. "I want to stay."

Suyin shook her head. "Not tonight, Opal. You need to rest."

"Don't worry," Korra said reassuringly. "You watched over him last night, and I'll watch over him tonight."

It seemed that Opal could not argue. Su led her from the room, coaxing her with promises that they could return first thing in the morning, after Opal had had a full night's rest. Wing and Wei followed, each casting a reluctant glance back into the room as they went. Then Tenzin was gone with the healer, and Korra and Lin were alone.

"You make sure they tend to that shoulder," Lin said, and though the words had come out a command her voice remained soft. "Putting it right is no problem, but it'll be trouble if they don't keep up with it. I'm going to go wake this combustion freak up and question the daylights out of him. It doesn't take a genius to see his connection with what happened today."

"What should I tell Bolin?" Korra glanced to the bed, where the healers had begun to back away as if taking inventory of his progress. She swallowed a lump in her throat. "If he wakes up?"

"Don't think you're going to have to worry about that," Lin said. "He was in bad shape when we found him, no doubt about it. Healers said he was lucky to be alive at all, ten stories worth of concrete and metal on top of him. I didn't realize he was in that mess for more than an hour after I arrived on scene. The twins couldn't find him." Lin stopped for a moment, the slightest edge of guilt in her voice, and she glanced toward the bed. "What happened just now: That was the first time he's been awake since we brought him here. It's a good sign, don't get me wrong, but after all the excitement I doubt he'll be back up any time soon."

Korra nodded, slightly reassured.

"You get some rest," Lin ordered. "I'll need your help tomorrow."

Again, Korra nodded, and Lin walked purposefully out the door.

Korra paced about the room for a while, keeping out of the way of the healers as they came and went, watching as they cleaned the mess that had been left by the sudden and unexpected attack, reminding them periodically to check on Bolin's shoulder. Eventually she found a seat on the floor in the corner nearest the door and fidgeted for a while, occasionally glancing up and hoping for some news, and for a long time nothing came. She could see nothing of what the healers were doing. But over time their visits became shorter and shorter, and continued to dwindle until no one came at all.

She was alone.

For a time Korra continued sitting, fidgeting, picking at her fingernails, biting them, and repeating the cycle until she began to wonder why she had stayed at all. The healers had already verified that she could provide no assistance to them, and she imagined that all the danger would have left with the strange combustion bender. Lin's guards had reported their sweep was clear. With the White Lotus arriving soon—or soon enough—and the already-present metalbending security force on the premises, there were plenty of safeguards even without her.

But that man got in despite it all.

Feeling lost and helpless, Korra closed her eyes but did not sleep for a time that could have been minutes or hours. She focused intently on listening, on waiting for a sound that did not belong, a thump or a crack or the soft squeaking of the door as it opened or closed. Instead she heard a gentle mumbling.

It was all she needed to be on her feet, her heart in her throat. "Bolin?" she asked quietly, but there came no response, not even the sound of mumbling.

Had she been hearing things?

Cautiously, she approached the bed, her eyes straining in the semidarkness to see. At some point, he had rolled onto his side, and to Korra he now appeared much more sleeping than he seemed unconscious. Some of the color had come back to his face. Except for some thick black binding on his bare shoulder there was no indication that anything had gone wrong at all. The healers had done their job well.

Caution turned to curiosity and Korra sat as she had earlier on the side of the bed, staring and trying to piece together what had happened, trying to reconcile Lin's report with the building collapse and subsequent madness. Her mind would not cooperate. She was too tired. She yawned and stretched, and without thinking she lay down, a comfortable distance between her back and his front. She was asleep in seconds.

Korra woke without waking and lay in comfortable warmth. She dared not open her eyes: She was too tired and knew that once she did, she would not be able to drift off again. Her body felt heavy and sluggish, her mind in an exhausted daze. Drowsy, she nestled in to the warmth and reached instinctively to pull the blanket tighter around her shoulders.

There was no blanket.

She remembered.

This was the second time she had woke with Bolin's arm around her middle. It was the second time they had shared a bed. But it was the first time that it felt strange. It was the first time that his bare skin was touching hers. Whether by accident or by choice, his hand had found its way beneath her shirt and rested lazily on her stomach. Startled, she reached to remove it.

"Mmm, Opal."

Korra froze, her hand on his, and listened. There could be no mistaking it; he had talked in a voice that seemed not his own, low and hoarse and intensely quiet. As she lay, breath held tight, she could feel his lightly calloused fingers moving slowly and purposelessly in lazy circles around her middle.

He thinks I'm Opal, she thought sleepily, and then hopeful, she rolled about to face him. "Bo—" the word caught fast in her throat. His face was closer than she had thought, so close that their noses were nearly touching, but his eyes remained undoubtedly closed.

"Opal," he murmured again in the same quiet, husky voice, "I'm sorry." His fingers traced goosebumps up her arm. "I'm so sorry." His hand was on her face.

He thinks I'm Opal, Korra thought again, and this time the idea came with more urgency. A wave of pure panic washed over her, cut through the drowsiness and rooted her body to the spot. Should she wake him? Would he even wake if she tried? Would he even know what he was doing?

Racked with indecision, she did not act in time.

The kiss itself did not come as a surprise, but the feeling of it did. Warm and soft and altogether pleasant, it was over in an instant that left Korra stupefied. A long silence remained.

"You're not Opal."

Korra's eyes popped open. The room remained dark, but she could see that Bolin's eyes had opened as well. They remained heavy lidded and shuttered. "No, I'm not," she replied gently, and somehow the shock she had felt moments before had gone. There remained no more anxiety, only relief and gratitude that he'd awakened at all. She didn't flinch or pull away as his hand began to explore her face, touching her forehead, drawing one finger down her nose. He moved as though underwater, slow but deliberate.

"You didn't feel like Opal," he said, and then a slow half-smile crept onto his face, a bashful and mildly ashamed smile. It faded after only a moment. "You're Korra." He tapped her pointedly between the collarbones. He had sounded proud of his declaration.

A shred of worry crept up on Korra then, and her own tired smile faded. Something was wrong here even despite the good. There was something in the way Bolin moved, something in the dreamlike quality of his voice that unnerved her. There was a distance in his eyes, a thickness in his speech. It was a quality well beyond off. It felt as though she was talking to a child. She felt her brow knit with concern, and Bolin touched it.

"Don't make that face," he slurred, and then he paused for a long time until Korra relaxed. "Did I kiss you?"

"You did."

The slow smile came back; his fingers continued their tender exploration. "I'm sorry. I think I hit my head."

Korra nodded. An unexpected lump had developed in her throat that made the words hard to say. She felt her eyes growing suddenly quite warm. With a deep breath and a hard swallow, she said, "There was an accident."

But Bolin shook his head very slowly. He closed his eyes. "It wasn't an accident."

So he remembered.

When he opened his eyes again his expression had gone quite grave, burdened by something that Korra could not understand. "There was a man," he started, but then he shook his head again and fell into silence, almost as if he had forgotten what he was going to say. "Everything hurts," he groaned. "Everything's blurry."

The lump grew. Korra could feel tears welling in her eyes. "Are you okay?" she asked. "Do you know what's happening? Do you know what you're doing?"

Bolin looked back at her emptily. He had gone expressionless again, looked exceptionally tired. Korra finally pinpointed the off quality as some kind of delirium.

Korra closed her eyes tight against the tears and turned her head away, but Bolin caught her gently by the chin and drew her back. Then his hand was on her cheek, his thumb brushing the moisture away. He looked confused again until she gave a great sniffle and rubbed at her own eyes, stifling the emotion. Once she regained her composure, his confusion seemed to go.

For a while they lay in the brittle silence of predawn hours. Korra watched him carefully, marking the changes in his expression as he thought, and he absently continued to caress her arm with his fingertips, slowly moving up and down, up and down, so much that the motion seemed to be automatic, so much that it had ceased to give her goosebumps. But then he stopped with his hand on her wrist as if a thought had suddenly come to him, and he looked at Korra with a profound sadness.

"I'm not going to remember this, am I?"

It had been the first truly self-aware thing he had said since waking, though his face gave no indication that the clarity was genuine. He still looked tired, sick, and altogether confused. The dreamy tone in his voice persisted. Only now he sounded sad as well.

The lump came back with force, and Korra shook her head, unable to respond. Her eyes filled with moisture once more.

"If I won't remember," Bolin uttered pensively, and his hand began moving again. This time he did not follow her arm. This time his hand traced the contour of her hips, dipped into the small of her back, brushed against her spine and all the way up to her neck. The whole while his gaze stayed low. But then he looked up again, and his tired eyes confessed a desire that set a flutter in Korra's stomach. Suddenly she remembered the South Pole, the conversation that they had had the morning after his bending came back. "If I won't remember," his voice had gone back to the same throaty whisper he had used when he first woke. "Then let me…Just once…" As he spoke he moved toward her again, this time quite slowly, as though he was afraid she might disappear. But Korra stayed, teary-eyed and startled by his sudden boldness. The hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up.

This time the kiss was different. Full of purpose and intention, it sent a shock of cold electricity from her head to her toes and filled her with a tingling warmth from her toes to her head. She could not be sure when his hand had found its way back to her cheek, but she could feel the blushing of her skin as he made contact, the cold-but-hot rush of blood to her face as his mouth parted ever slightly beneath hers. For a single passionate moment, it lingered. Then it was through. Silence remained.

"I think I loved you once," Bolin sighed, his nose still touching hers, and he drew his thumb delicately over her lips. "But I can't remember."

As if to punctuate his idea he kissed her again but gentler, barely enough to touch and release, and a second shock of electricity shot through her. Just as it reached her toes, he pulled away.

At some point Korra had begun to cry. She could feel the wetness on her cheeks. Her vision swam. It had all been wrong, she thought, none of this should have happened. He shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be here.

"Why are you crying? Was it bad?"

Against all instinct, Korra burst into tears. She wanted to say "No," but the word would not come. She wanted to reassure him that it was not the kiss itself that had made her cry, but its implications, the consequences, the thoughts he'd left unfelt and unsaid for years. It was her own feeling of sudden overwhelming guilt for not being there to protect him. It was her own fear. Instead, between sobs she cried, "I want the old Bolin back!"

To her surprise, Bolin's mouth twitched in the slightest smile, a smile of understanding and acceptance, of resignation. He wrapped his arm around her once again and drew her in, all romantic intention apparently forgotten, and held her close as she wept. He cradled her head in his hand and stroked her hair as if to comfort a child, and when he spoke she could feel his lips brushing against her forehead. "Don't cry," he whispered. "It'll be okay." He paused, and a sad, sleepy tone entered his voice. "I won't remember any of this," he said. "It'll be like a dream."

Korra sobbed again.

"Don't cry," he repeated. "It was a good dream."