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Avatar Aang passed on three months before. The White Lotus was already narrowing down possibilities for the next Avatar, as she would be most vulnerable right now.

Kya moved to the tribe with her mother. Tenzin buried himself in work at the Council. Lin tried to keep the city safe. Criminals got a lot bolder with Uncle Aang in the Spirit World.

Unfortunately, no matter how strong Lin was, she wasn't invincible.

"Stop!" She saw a burglary suspect running down the street. She gave chase and when she saw him trying to get onto his motorcycle, she got a metal cuff on him. He rammed the bike into her attempting to get away. He failed miserable when she bent his motorcycle, but he did manage to break her arm.

"I hate hospitals," Lin growled. They just reminded her of the worst parts of her life when Yakone attacked her mother, when Suyin jacked up her face, and when uncle Aang died.

Making matters even worse, she was alone. Tenzin was still working. "How had he not gotten radioed by now?"

An orderly came in. "How are you feeling?"

"High as a kite and angry my boyfriend isn't here! Has Tenzin received the call?"

She went to go check. She had a somber look on her face. "We called his office, but he wasn't there, so we left a message with another Councilman. We also called his house, but there was no response. I don't know where he is. I'm sorry."

Lin didn't have any ideas. Where could that idiot be?

She closed her eyes, hoping that he would be here when she woke up, but instead a bang woke her up.

She looked and it was Bumi. "I guess walking with crutches is harder than I thought," he said with his signature grin as he lied on the ground.

The nurses ran in and got him up. "We're getting you a wheelchair."

"Fine, I guess walking's too hard right now." He turned and saw Lin, even with her cast on and weary eyes, she was gorgeous. "What happened to you?"

"Thug hit me with his motorcycle. I still got him!"

"Of course you did Linny. Like a broken arm could stop you."

"What happened to you?"

"Fell off a cliff." His leg was broken.

"You weren't fighting ten bandits in the rain again, were you?" She teased.

"No. It was a training exercise, but I was in a bad mood so I kind of hit my partner harder than I should have and when he responded in kind, I fell off a cliff."

Lin winced. "That sucks. What got you so mad that you ended up shoved off a cliff?"

"A lot of people remember my father. Apparently, he only had one child, Tenzin."

Aang was a great man, but Lin didn't think he realized how much his favoritism of Tenzin affected his other two children. Yes he needed to teach Tenzin airbending and the nomad ways, but Bumi and Kya needed him too. There was a reason they both left the nest as soon as they could. It was a message, one Aang never fully received.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, and it's not like I can ask for pity. You don't even know who your dad is."

"I don't, and I'm not sure if want to. If he didn't show up, there had to be a reason or it."

"Maybe he's dead," Bumi shrugged.

"Speaking of dead, I'm going to kill your brother when I seem him next. It's been hours and no sign of him anywhere."

Bumi wheeled closer to her. "I'm not him, but we're allegedly brothers. What would he do right now?"

"Probably lecture me on how dangerous the job is and why I should retire and have airbenders."

"EW! And you still want him around?"

"Stupid right."

"Well, my injury is a lot stupider than yours, so I guess I'll let that slide."

They stayed up talking and laughing together. Lin couldn't remember the last time she laughed. It was so hard these days. With Bumi, she forgot all about Tenzin.

"We can't keep doing this," Tenzin said as he sat in bed with Pema. They started sleeping together shortly after his father died. They both said it was a one time thing, but two months later, they were still at it.

"Why don't you just leave her? She'll never give you airbenders."

"She might."

"She's an earthbender from a strong bloodline. The odds are against it."

Tenzin frowned. He knew it was true, "but there has to be a way to increase the odds."

"Your father couldn't." Aang hadn't bothered to try. He just wanted kids. He loved them all; he just wasn't the best at showing it.

The conversation ended there, just like it always did. Tenzin didn't realize anything was wrong until the next day.

"I'm sorry about Lin," his secretary told him.

"What?"

"Breaking her arm like that. I can't believe a thug tried to run her over."

Tenzin's eyes got huge. "No one called me!"

"Are you sure?"

He went to his desk and there had been a message, left ofr him twelve hours ago. "She's going to kill me!"

Tenzin scrambled to the hospital only to find.

"I am not eating whatever they are pretending is oatmeal," Bumi scowled as he looked at his tray. "I bet Oggi wouldn't eat this!"

Lin laughed. "I would say Tenzin will come and buy us breakfast, but his ass seems to have flown the coop."

"Well he is a nomad. Maybe he wandered away and didn't get the message."

They laughed until they heard a throat clearing. "Bumi, what brings you here?"

"Where the hell have you been?" Bumi snapped. "Linny's been waiting for over half a day. She can't drive herself home genius." Otherwise, she would have checked out of the hospital hours ago.

"I'm sorry. Work was just so hectic."

"That you couldn't call them back and tell them to send me home in a cab?"

Lin couldn't see it from her angle, but Bumi could. "What the heck is that?"

"What is what?" Tenzin turned, unsure of what he was talking about.

Bumi managed to get himself up, just to grab his brother's head.

"Let go of me."

"That's a hickey! A fresh one!"

Unfortunately, there was a lot of metal in the room. Even in a bed and in a cast, Lin was still a metalbender.

Tenzin found himself chained to the chair. "Let me go."

"Who is she?"

"Nobody. It's not a hickey."

Bumi gave him a look. "Really. You don't think I've gotten enough hickeys to know when I see one."

Lin could see it too now that she was looking.

"You don't believe him," Tenzin said, "do you?"

"Usually not," Lin said, "but I believe him now. Get out, and I never want to see you again."

She unchained him, and he left. Pema was getting her wish after all or maybe the hickey was more strategic than that.

Lin waited until Tenzin left before she started to cry. "I knew something was wrong. After your father died, Tenzin would stay out later and later. He was always working. He never had a straight answer as to what he was working on and no one else seemed to need to spend so much time at the Council. I saw the signs and I ignored them." Lin felt like a fool.

"He's a jackass," Bumi said. "He always has been." Tenzin was the favorite. Tenzin was the baby. Tenzin gets everything he wants no matter what. "Our parents spoiled him too much."

Lin had been with him half her life. "Now I'm alone, in my thirties with a scarred face and a broken arm. I'm totally going to be on every guy's hot list."

"You've always been on mine," Bumi told her.

"You don't have a list!"

He pulled it out of his pocket, and she was on it, along with the Crown Princess and some women she never heard of.

"I don't know if I should hug you or slap you."

"I'd take either from you, especially if you're into …." She slapped him and then she hugged him.

"Let's get out of here Linny."

Bumi had planned on recovering at his brother's house, but he wasn't going to do that now.

They checked out and took a cab to go to her house. Lin insisted on him using the wheelchair to get in the house. "If you're going to wipe out, I'd rather you do it inside where the neighbors don't see you."

"Thank you for watching out for my reputation."

"What reputation? I meant my reputation."

They got into the house and Lin wasn't sure what to do. Her dominant hand was broken, so she couldn't write. "I can't even do desk duty. I'm useless right now."

Bumi pulled her into his wheelchair, so she was sitting on his lap. "I can think of plenty of things we can do without your arm or my leg."

"Like what?"

He silenced her with a kiss. "I think we have an Airhead to forget about."

When Bumi would flirt with Lin, she always thought it to be teasing. For the first time, she actually thought he found her attractive. She liked that idea.

"I think I still remember."

He kissed her again.

It took six weeks for Lin's arm to heal. It took eight before she went back to work.

"Welcome back Chief!"

"The vacation's over!" she yelled. "Everyone back to work!"

Not another word was said as everyone found something to do.

Lin sat down and saw a stack of papers with her name on them. She was not eager to get started. Instead her mind drifted to last night when she and Bumi celebrated their last night of freedom quite enthusiastically.

A rookie came up to her. "Are you alright Chief?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Um, you were smiling."

"GET BACK TO WORK!"

"Yes Chief."

Idiot! Lin only put up with one idiot, and right now he was in her bed, probably still naked.