The Forgotten Child

Onesmartcookie78

Summary: "You're," she pauses, "you're orphans? I didn't know you were—"

"You didn't know we—what, did you think we just like hanging around in alleys?"

Or: Lin and Tenzin have a child, but Tenzin doesn't know it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Korra or Avatar: The Last Airbender, but I do own any of the characters you don't recognize

A/N: This fic was inspired by "Sparks to Fire" by bipolar . poet08, as well as by my most recent watch-through of season 1 of LoK following its drop on Netflix. I hope you enjoy this fic. Please review!

LIN

Lin has had a trying day.

First those jaywalking non-bending protestors, then the bank robbery on 3rd Street, and now a boy telling her about a secret child trafficking ring.

"And they have this girl I know—"

"Let me stop you there," Lin says, leaning back into her chair and crossing her arms. "If there was anything of the sort going on in Republic City, don't you think that we would know about it?"

The boy in the red scarf (Macho?) shakes his head in frustration. "That's why it's secret! You have to listen to me—"

Lin ruffles. "Listen? I've been listening for the last ten minutes, entertaining your conspiracy theory. Look, kid, we're the police. Unless you have evidence of a credible threat—"

The boy slows down and takes a calming breath. "I don't have evidence. But!" he uncrosses his arms and leans forward to slam his palm on the table. The sound echoes sharply throughout the room. "There's this girl I know, Sarri. Please just go check the warehouses by the docks, I would feel so guilty if she—"

Lin's eye twitches. "Sarri, you said?" she asks, and her mind is whirling. Surely it can't be her daughter, her daughter who spends all day at home, safe and sound. There have to be lots of Sarris out there, lots of girls with wide gray eyes and dark brown hair, lots of girls with cherubic cheeks and who grin wide grins while they copy her metalbending stances, lots of girls who wonder about their fathers, who—

"Yeah, Sarri," he says in a tone of complete exasperation. "Her nanny said some items from the house were missing and that Sarri was gone. It seemed like a kidnapping."

As he says this, her desk phone starts to ring.

Still eyeing the boy skeptically, she slowly reaches for the device. "Chief Beifong," she answers.

"Oh, Lin, thank the Spirits," comes the voice from the other end. "It's Pana. Sarri—well, I think Sarri's been kidnapped and the house has been ransa—"

Lin almost drops the phone. "Did you just say—"

"No note, all the expensive electronics gone," she continues, and her voice sounds like it's coming from far away. "I'm really sorry, Lin," she says mournfully. "I was late and she must have—" Pana chokes.

"Pana?" Lin asks slowly.

"Y-yes?"

"You're fired."

"Yes, ma'am."

She hangs up the phone as slowly as she'd answered it and rises to her feet. "Stay here," she directs the boy absentmindedly. Then, she walks over towards the officers currently chatting about pro-bending around the water cooler. "All of you, with me. Except Chen. Chen, you watch the boy," she directs, and with that, they're off to the docks.

Because her daughter, her Sarri, her sweet, non-bending daughter, is gone.