well, this is it. the last chapter to this story. I hope everyone enjoyed it. wow! i'm surprised I finished it. :)

thanks to everybody who reviewed. it kept me going.

IDNOATLA

If there are a few typos, i'm sorry. I was excited.

Katara snapped her eyes open when she heard the urgent whispers of her friends. "Twelve?" It was Suki. What was she talking about? She was obviously talking to Toph.

"Yeah." she replied, yawning. "I'm going to bed now. Come and get us if she wakes up." With that, Toph exited the room, leaving only Suki and Katara. The next thing she noticed was the patter of rain out on the patio of her bedroom. It was a calming sound that almost tempted her to fall asleep again. Katara glanced around the room, trying to find where Suki was, but the curtains on her canopy bed were drawn about half way. Slowly, she leaned foreward to a sitting position, but winced when she felt daggers in her back.

"Oh, you're awake!" chirped Suki from the foot of the bed. Katara's head was pounding as she struggled to stay up. Suki obviously saw her discomfort and helped her lay back, onto the pillows. "Don't try to move around too much." she instructed, pulling the curtains back. Something on Katara's bedside table caught her eye. She turned her head to see a bright bouquet of fire-lillies in a deep blue vase. Suki noticed her taking interest in the flowers.

"Zuko brought those in for you. He's been worried sick." She sat on the side of the bed and put a hand to Katara's forehead. "Hmmm, you still feel a little hot." Katara was becoming confused.

"Suki, how long have I been asleep?" she asked. The other girl looked at her with a somewhat guilty expression.

"Maybe... about... a week... or two." she stuttered.

"WHAT?! Two weeks?!" Katara shouted. She began to develop a horrible migrane as a result of her shouting. Katara threw both hands to the sides of her head and clenched her teeth, trying to drown out the pain.

"Calm down, Katara! You're going to get sick again." Suki took both of her hands and layed them back at her sides, forcing her to settle down.

"Get sick again? What do you mean again?" she asked, eyeing Suki suspiciously. Again, the girl adopted the ever guilty look as she answered Katara's questions.

"Well, you've kind of... thrown up a couple of times." she replied. Thrown up? EEEEEEEEEW!!!!! Regaining her initial train of thought, Katara continued with the questions.

"How many is a couple?" Suki sighed in defeat as she rose from the bed.

"If I tell you, you have to promise not to freak out." Katara nodded her head in agreement. "You've thrown up twelve times within the past two weeks." Immediately, she squinted her eyes shut, preparing for another outburst from Katara, but she remained silent.

"What exactly, made me so sick?" she asked, struggling to keep her cool.

"Two things: that sleep inducer that Hama gave you, and the fact that the wound on your back may have gotten infected." Still keeping her composure, Katara just put a hand on her forehead.

"Great." she said, sarcastically.

Katara sat in the bed, completely helpless, as Suki filled her in on that past two weeks. Apparently, they had been working in shifts to watch her. Zuko had been coming in to check on her throughout the day, because he was so busy being Fire Lord and all. Toph had been keeping track of how many times Katara had thrown up and planned to announce it to Zuko, seeing if he would faint.

"How do you feel, now?" asked Suki. Katara didn't really know how she felt. Mostly she was numb and tired.

"How should I feel?" she countered. Suki felt her forehead again.

"You're still pretty warm, but it may just be the humidity. It has been raining for the past few days." Katara stared out the window at the rain, soaking the courtyard outside her room. Suddenly, there was a churning feeling inside her that made her clutch her stomach. Katara shot up, into a sitting position again, and rocked back and forth. "Uh oh! Where's tha bucket?" Just in the nick of time, Suki held a metal bucket before Katara, who immediately wretched into the container. After she was done, Katara layed back on her pillow, overcome by a wave of exhaustion and nausia. Before she closed her eyes, she heard Suki utter one more word.

"Thirteen."

Zuko sat in his throne room, trying to listen to the boring words of the numorous government officials, but his mind was dwelling on other things. How can anyone envy this stupid job? For the past two weeks, he had worried himself sick over Katara. The only sign of life she had shown was throwing up almost every day. He didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. The Gaang had been working in shifts, keeping an eye on Katara and reporting any "activity". Zuko, on the other hand, was busy with meetings and paper work, so he did the best he could to check up on her four or five times a day; once in the morning, once after lunch (if he felt like eating), once after dinner, and once or twice in the middle of the night (he wasn't sleeping well anyway). Suddenly, his thoughts were pulled back to the meeting when his uncle elbowed him.

"This has been a most productive meeting, gentlemen. The Fire Lord and I look foreward on hearing your response to General Ling's proposal." he said suavely. Iroh elbowed Zuko again, wanting him to officially end the meeting.

"Um, meeting adjourned." he said, stumbling over his words. The officials rose, bowed, and left the room. As soon as the door shut behind them, Zuko yanked the golden comb from his hair, letting it fall about his face. "I'm going to go check on Katara." he stated massaging his aching temples. "Could you come and get me before my next meeting, Uncle?" he asked, turning his head to look at Iroh. He just smiled at his nephew/son and chuckled.

"Zuko, can you tell me what we were talking about in that last meeting?" he asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Of course... uh... something about... trade?" he responded. How pathetic.

"That's what I thought. Lucky for you, I have gone ahead and cancled all of your meetings for the next three days. You can't concentrate on your job when you're in love." Zuko was suddenly frightened.

"Uncle, I can't take a break from being the Fire Lord!" he shouted. Iroh just put a calming hand on Zuko's shoulder.

"You're not taking a break. You're patching up foreign relations with the Water Tribe." Iroh winked when he said this. Zuko suddenly smiled and hugged the old man. Even through all the turmoil he had experienced, his uncle still knew how to cheer him up, even without tea. Zuko bowed to Iroh as a gesture of thanks.

"Thank you, Uncle." he said, then he left the room to go change out of his robes. The regular robes he wore were heavy and uncomfortalbly hot, therefore he was more than happy to trade them for something more casual. As he made his way to Katara's bsd chamber, he wondered when she would wake up. Was today the day, or would it be another week? Zuko shook his head of the thought and continued on to his destination.

When he opened the door, Suki was sitting in a chair next to Katara's bed, wiping her forehead with a washrag. Katara wasn't the same as the last time he saw her. Her expression was filled with pain and her face actually looked a little green.

"How is she?" he asked. Suki whipped around, surprised to see him, but soon returned to her work.

"She was awake." Zuko's heart jumped when those three words reached his ears. Today was the day.

"She was? For how long?" he continued, now wishing that he had come sooner. Suki pulled the rag away and rose from the chair.

"Just long enough for me to fill her in, then throw up." she replied. Well, it wasn't what he was hoping for, but she had woken up, which was a huge improvment. Suki walked over the wash basin on Katara's vanity and rinsed the rag out.

"You can go. I'm going to stay here tonight." he informed her. She turned to look at him, curiously.

"You're staying? Don't you have other Fire Lord stuff to do?" she asked, hesitantly. Zuko just shook his head.

"Uncle cancled all of my meetings for the next three days." he replied, smiling. Suki just nodded and exited the room. Zuko shut the door behind her and turned to face a sleeping Katara. He sat down in the chair and took her hand in his own. Her hands felt cold, now, probably from throwing up. He heated his own hand, attempting to warm hers, and it seemed to work because she lost pained the expression and adopted a more peaceful one. He could have sworn that there was a slight smile to her features as well.

For the rest of that day, Zuko sat in silence in the same chair, dozing off once or twice, but never letting go of her. A couple of times he felt a slight squeeze from her hand, but she never woke up.

That evening, he sat on the large couch and read some old scrolls that Katara had acquired during their travels. One of them was the legend of the Painted Lady. It said that the spirit would help the people of a small village on a river. Zuko chuckled when he saw the picture of the spirit at the bottom of the page. She wore a huge, straw hat, purple robes, and some outrageous red face paint. Wait, how can I laugh at this? Didn't I disguise myself as the Blue Spirit on a couple of occasions? Zuko rolled up the parchment and proceeded to pace about the room. As he approached her vanity, he noticed the blue box that contained the silver comb he gave her. Opening the box, he discovered that she had put her mother's necklace in, along side the comb.

"Bring's back memories, doesn't it?" Quickly, Zuko snapped the box shut and turned toward the bed, where Katara was sitting. She didn't look angry, but like she had just pulled a prank. He had seen that look on Toph's face on more than one occasion.

"I was just trying to steal the necklace, again." he responded, playfully. She eyed him suspiciously, then proceeded to swing her legs out to the side.

"Are you going to hire some pirates and capture me again?" she asked, going along with the jibes.

"Only if I have to." Zuko now made his way over to where she was sitting, on the side of the bed. She leaned toward him, snatched the blue box from his hands, and took the necklace from it.

"I was planning on coming quietly, anyway." Katara slowly stood, taking Zuko by surprise. He wasn't expecting her to be standing if she had woken up just this afternoon. Without another word, she wrapped her arms around his neck and he wrapped his around her waist.

"I'm glad you're okay." he whispered into her hair. Katara had nothing to say, so she just hugged him tighter. Slowly, she pulled out of the hug and gazed at him lovingly. Katara wanted to kiss him so badly, but just as she was about to, he put his fingers in between his mouth and hers.

"What is it?" she asked, looking hurt. Without explaining his reasons, he scooped her up and placed her on the bed, and knelt by her side. He grabbed the bucket from her bedside and showed it to her. "But, I feel fine, now." she pleaded. Zuko chuckled and set the bucket back down.

"You say that now." he replied, snidely. Katara just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest. She had to admit that the nausia hadn't completely worn off, and she didn't want to make him sick too. "I've got to go, for now." he said, suddenly. Katara hadn't noticed that he had taken the box away from her. He opened it up, took out her mother's necklace, and put it around her neck. After that, he took out the silver comb and placed delicately, in her hair.

"Where are you going?" she asked, pleading with here eyes, that he would stay. He took her hand laced his fingers with hers.

"If I'm going to be sitting around, watching you all day, I'll have to get something done." he explained, stroking her forehead with his other hand, coaxing her back to sleep. "Besides, I've been meaning to meet up with an old friend for a long time, now." Katara sat up straight in her bed.

"Who?" she asked urgently. Zuko didn't say a word, but put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her lightly, on the forehead. Reluctantly, she lay down and waited patiently for his answer. He smiled at her and uttered two small words. "...my mother."

With that, he left the room, leaving Katara to gaze out of the window at the sky. The clouds were just beginning to part, revealing a crescent moon in a starry sky. Until she went to sleep, Katara pondered the things to come within the dreary days to come.

A/N - there will, indeed, be a sequel ^-^ I wouldn't leave you hangin'

I hope you guys enjoyed my first story. -curlytop