I own no part of Avatar: Fan fiction only.

A/N: Lupita Leal and Kalaong, per your request, "bebe pronto" plus oogies. I wasn't planning on heading this direction, but anything for your enjoyment! I might actually use this chapter as a start for another story because it feels like this is going in a different direction. Thank you for sticking with me—I so appreciate everyone's reviews.

A/N: The Talent felt that there was just too much of a break in the time sequencing of the narrative. After considering, I've gone back and added a paragraph that will make it clearer why we have jumped to this place in time. I hope it helps! Thanks again to everyone for your kind reviews and suggestions.

The Veil

"It's OK if you don't get this right away. It takes Airbenders years to master it—you're expecting too much of yourself to try to do it in a few days."

It was hot. Ticklish strands of hair were plastered to Katara's face and neck in a combination of humidity, sweat, and frustration. Between the whining of the cicadas, beads of sweat crawling down her back, and her clothes plastered to her skin, she was having an enormous difficulty concentrating on the task at hand. Worst of all, there was no room left for her lungs to breathe.

Katara placed her hands in the small of her back for leverage as she stretched her spine up and back, trying to extend her ribs over the baby's stubborn position. She squeezed her eyes shut and tipped up her chin, as though just a little more extension on her part would help. The fool child had found a favorite position crossways within her body, head crammed into her pelvis while tiny toes flexed over the edge of her bottom rib on the opposite side. To make matters worse, she had found that when Aang was close and the baby could hear his voice, the child would stretch, pushing even harder against the rib, which felt as though it was likely to snap off at any moment.

A cold damp cloth was draped around Katara's neck, and she felt Aang sit behind her and then scoot closer so that he could support her back against his body. Strong lean arms came around her and he stroked the taught skin of her belly as he coaxed her body back so that her head rested in the hollow of his shoulder. Groaning in a mixture of relief, discomfort, and frustration, Katara let herself go limp, flexing her back as much as the baby's bulk would permit.

Aang kissed her shoulder through the damp silk, working his way up to her neck while he massaged his thumbs into the small of her back to ease the pressure there. Katara rocked her head back to give him better access to her throat.

Aang smiled against her skin, and she felt his breathy laugh. "Does this help?"

"With the task at hand? No, but I like it anyway." Aang's hands slid from her back down to her hips and started to stray down her thighs. "Hunh uh!" Katara playfully slapped one of his hands. "No one told you to stop massaging my back. Your son is trying to break one of my ribs and suffocate me—it's the least you could do."

"You don't know it's a son . . . could be a daughter," he purred, obliging Katara by rubbing her back. "Lean forward." Katara leaned forward from her lotus position, allowing her belly to rest on her folded legs. Katara planted her elbows on her knees and took the cool cloth from her neck and covered her eyes with it instead. She cradled her sweat-slick forehead in her hands, pressing the heels of her hands through the damp cloth into her eye sockets to further blot out the afternoon haze. Aang's strong fingers worked their way up from the base of her back along her spine. He wrapped one broad hand around her neck to massage the taught bands of muscle while the other hand worried at a knot inside one of her shoulder blades.

"Ohhhhh, no. I know it's a son." She threw a sarcastic glance over her shoulder and scowled at his broad smile. He never seemed to grow tired of this conversation, no matter how many times they had it. "He's got your height, my stubbornness, and Sokka's sense of humor. No girl child would be so obnoxious as to insist on lying diagonally across my body and staying there for two months. That's all you and Sokka." Katara leaned back into Aang's arms. She could feel his amusement building like bubbles through their link and feel his chest trembling with repressed laughter.

"If you loved me—"

"I do love you . . ." Aang squeezed her and started to pepper her neck with brief, brisk kisses, and she tried to squirm away.

"If you really loved me—" Katara twisted as much as she could manage, pushing against his face with both hands and squealing as he pursued her nonetheless. "You would use some of your divine influence—" Aang ducked under one of her flailing arms and allowed her to twist out of his grasp long enough to pin her into the tall grass where he could continue kissing into the deep V of her Fire Nation silks. "Stop! Your divine influence—"

Aang looked up, deeply entertained by Katara's protests and enjoying her resistance thoroughly. "You want me to do something divine?" He lifted his brows mischievously and slowly started to inch a hand back down her thigh.

"That's not what I said!" Katara was now nearly breathless between the baby pressing against her diaphragm and Aang's weight pressed across her body.

His hand continued its path as he purred, "I'd be happy to do something divine . . . all you had to do was—"

He laughed as she cuffed him in the ear. "I'm very pregnant—"

"I know. I like it."

Katara rolled her eyes in exasperation. He'd made it abundantly clear that her pregnancy had done nothing to dissuade his interest . . . quite the contrary. "—and you're entirely to blame—"

"I know. I like that too!"

"—and you're making it impossible for me to concentrate!"

"It's not my fault you're not concentrating. Let's go back to the part where you were telling me about how divine I am. That seemed to have promise."

"Are you listening?"

"Rapt." Aang had released her and laid on his stomach, his head propped on his hands so that their eyes were only a couple of feet apart. Katara reached out and caressed the side of his face where the golden afternoon light wrapped around his cheek.

"You're a clown," Katara delcared fondly. "You're leaving in two days. If I don't master this now, I won't be able to meet you in the Grove while you are gone."

It had been nearly a year since Katara had ventured into the spirit world with Aang to complete their soul-binding, and she had yet to successfully return. Since the soul-binding provided a way for them to remain connected while his duties required for them to be parted for weeks at a time, she was determined to master the transition to the spirit world before he left. Even when separated by great distances, she could get a sense of his well-being through their linked chi, but it wasn't the same as being able to speak directly to him or touch him, even if it was in the Grove. Although she hated to admit it to herself, she was also anxious that he was leaving when the baby was so close to coming. Even though he was due to return well in advance of her anticipated labor, knowing that she could reach him through the Grove comforted her.

"I'm only going to be gone for a few weeks, and you won't even have time to miss me. Mai will ply you with anything you can think of to eat . . ."

"It's too hot to eat."

" . . . you can stroll through the palace with Izumi . . ."

"Neither of us stroll. I waddle like a penguin, and Izumi only runs spirals from the floor to the walls to the ceiling."

" . . . you can research ancient Waterbending scrolls in the Fire Sages' library . . ."

"I stole them the last time we were here, remember? I'm going to be bored senseless."

"Maybe I can get Mai to teach you to throw knives . . . or I can see if Toph will come."

"Spirits, no. I'd rather just come with you."

Aang pushed damp tendrils of her hair out of her face. "I know—I would prefer that too, but Zuko is worried there's going to be another uprising. I'd feel much better if I knew you were here safe with Mai." He leaned forward and leaned his forehead against hers, and asked quietly, "Do you want to try again?"

Katara rolled her eyes. "No." Huffing, she continued, "Yes, but why don't you go first this time. Maybe if you are already there, I can follow your chi."

Aang shrugged. He had been trying to encourage her into the spirit world from this side, worried that unless she could manage to find her way to the Grove on her own, she would get lost on the way. It couldn't hurt to try it the other way, though. Aang sat up and then helped her raise herself from her position flat on her back in the grass.

Katara huffed and then laughed at the ridiculous predicament. "I'm like a turtle duck stuck on its back!"

Finally arranged knee to knee in the shade of a flowering oak, Aang smiled encouragingly at his wife before closing his eyes and slipping effortlessly into the Grove.

Katara closed her eyes and tried to calm her mind. After several minutes of deep breathing, the cicada song and heat had started to make her sleepy, and she finally found stillness. She shifted her consciousness to focus on her chi rather than her discomfort, and she found it glittering before her. Katara reached out with her mind and drew it towards her, but found that it was tethered far into the darkness. Using the feel of their linked chis as a guide, she felt her way into the black. Finally she found resistance before her, and she extended her chi. Aang had described the passage into the spirit world like a softly glowing door, but Katara sensed more of a veil or membrane before her. She found that with just a bit of pressure, it relented, like the yolk of an egg broken by gentle prodding with a chopstick, and she stepped into the void, finding beyond it a reprieve from the heat and the rasping insects. When she opened her eyes, Aang was waiting for her, grinning from ear to ear.

"See, piece of cake!" Katara smiled, his excitement contagious. "Now, see if you can go back."

The smile slid from her face. "Go back? I just got here."

Aang clasped her hands. "I know, but you need to be able to find your way back. See if you can manage on your own. Getting here is usually the easy part—the real danger is in not being able to find your way back to your body."

Disgruntled, Katara closed her eyes. It took less time to find her calm this time, and now that she knew what she was looking for, she could easily grasp the threads of her chi and use it to lead her back through the veil to her body. Once she stepped through, she immediately registered the oppressive heat and the humidity that laid on her skin and heard the chorus of the cicadas.

Opening her eyes to find Aang waiting for her again, she exclaimed, "That was much easier! Let's do it that way from now on!"

Aang smirked, but seemed unsure. "We can, but you need to eventually be able to guide yourself without my help. Great progress, though!"

In the time remaining before he left, Aang and Katara practiced several times each day so that when he soared up to the top of Appa's saddle next to Zuko, she felt confident that she would be able to find her way to the Grove by following the path of his chi into the void. They agreed that they wouldn't attempt to meet in the Grove until the following night.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Momo had taken a great liking to Katara over the years, and was now more often her companion than Aang's, as Aang often had to leave Momo behind for more formal occasions. He settled happily on Aang's pillow next to Katara, and she watched his delicate ribs rise and fall slowly as he fell almost immediately into sleep. She felt herself drowsing, and decided to try to find her way into the Grove before she was too tired to try.

Katara closed her eyes and shifted her focus to find her chi. It was different this time . . . almost muted, and the color wasn't quite right. Maybe it's because Aang is a day's travel from me. When she reached out and grasped it, her chi danced sideways, no longer taught. With rising apprehension, she followed it quickly into the dark, anxiously pushing the veil away when she found it.

Katara opened her eyes to the Grove and found it peaceful as ever, but this time bathed in soft dappled light under an enormous moon. Expecting Aang to be waiting for her, it took her a moment to find him, and when she did, her heart nearly slammed to a stop.

Aang was curled into himself on his side, one arm cradled protectively against his chest. When she flung herself to the ground next to him, she was afraid to touch him, lest she damage him in some way. His robes were charred and smeared with soot, and his arms and face were covered with superficial burns and scrapes. She carefully turned his face to hers, and he slowly opened his eyes.

First alarm, and then recognition registered. "They are coming! Get out!"

Katara's eyes widened and she scanned the flickering shadows. "Get out of the Grove?"

Aang grabbed her arm in a vise-like grip. "Not the Grove, the Pal—" Aang groaned, clearly in pain, flickered, and was gone.