"Mr. Lam?"

Sneers, who had turned bright red at Katara's question and had begun sputtering something that didn't sound like very intelligible speech, broke off and turned his head slightly toward a gravely, masculine voice.

Over Sneers' shoulder, Aang saw two uniformed members of the Republic City Police Department walking toward them. The taller of the two officers – a woman with short dark hair and bright green eyes – looked thoughtful. Her partner – a chunky man with a screw of dark hair above a pudgy face and the amber eyes that usually indicated Fire Nation heritage – looked tired.

Sneers cleared his throat and smoothed the front of his shirt nervously when the police stopped a few feet away.

"Mr. Lam?" the male officer repeated, looking from face to face. "Pui-Yan Lam? Hello?"

"Uh, yeah. That's me." Sneers squirmed uncomfortably. "No one calls me that, though. I go by 'Sneers.'"

"Sneers?"

"It's a long story."

The woman officer glanced at Sneers quizzically, but let it go with a slight shrug.

"I'm Officer Yung. This is Officer Mizuno," she said, indicating her partner with a languid wave. "We're taking over this investigation from Highway Patrolman Kwok and his team. Mr. Lam – er, Mr. Sneers, rather – Patrolman Kwok said you mentioned a woman who may have been with Mr. Suo sometime last night. Can you give us a little more information about that? Who exactly is she?"

Sneers looked very uncomfortable at this question, but Katara stepped forward without any hesitation.

"I guess that would be me. I'm Katara Taslak. Jet is … was … my boyfriend." Her voice wavered. "And yes, I was with him last night."

Aang's eyes narrowed as he saw the two officers exchange a slight glance of disbelief. What was that about? Did they think Katara was lying? Why would she? She was Jet's girlfriend and they'd gone to a party together. It was pretty pedestrian. Tons of couples across did the exact same thing every weekend.

"I see. Thank you for making yourself available, Ms. Taslak," said Officer Mizuno. "We'd like to know a bit more about Mr. Suo – particularly about his state of mind."

Katara frowned. "What do you mean by his state of mind?"

"His mood, his attitude, that sort of thing," said Officer Mizuno, scribbling busily in his notebook. "Was he upset about anything? Depressed? Maybe not just last night, but over the past few days or weeks?"

Katara's eyes went huge. "You can't think Jet crashed his car on purpose?"

Officer Mizuno harrumphed and shrugged one shoulder, but Officer Yung tilted her head and gave Katara a searching look.

"We're investigating all angles of this tragedy, and it's best not to make any assumptions at this time," said Officer Yung primly. "Mr. Suo didn't hit anything on the Huu Parkway, he wasn't boxed out by another driver, he wasn't speeding, and preliminary blood tests indicate he didn't have much alcohol in his system. We're just trying to account for how this horrible accident might have happened."

"I can't think of how it could have happened either," said Katara in a low voice. "Jet was a great driver. He made his living at it. He hated the Huu Parkway, but he used it all the time …"

"Yes, but that's neither here nor there, Ms. Taslak," said Officer Mizuno, with a sharp pitch to his voice that Aang found out of place. "If you're not sure of the state of mind of your … of Mr. Suo, then you only have to say so."

"Of course I know his state of mind! He was fine! Not depressed, not sad, nothing like that!" Katara snapped back, her face dark with anger. "It was little rough for him when he first came to Republic City, but when he got into film school, things started looking up. He didn't love his job, but he was searching for another one and had some good leads. He was a finalist for the Hwang Prize for Young Earth Kingdom Filmmakers. That was a huge deal for him. He'd even gotten permission from work to take a few days off to go to Ba Sing Se to go to the film festival and the ceremony. But even if he were down or sad, Jet would never just … end things. That wasn't who he was."

Her voice broke and she took a moment to get herself together, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes. Aang turned slightly and saw Sneers nodding vigorously in agreement.

"And even if he had been having issues," Katara went on, sniffling slightly, "he would have said something to me or to Sneers or to his other friends. We would've talked."

Officer Yung took this all in before murmuring something to her partner that made him glance up from his precious notebook. Officer Mizuno scrutinized Katara briefly, but suddenly his eyes rolled curiously toward Aang.

"Excuse me, are you a friend of the deceased, Mr. … Mr. …?"

"I'm Aang Namgyal," said Aang, bowing slightly. "Jet and Katara were at my party last night."

Officer Yung looked at him sharply and studied him carefully, as if trying to place him.

"Aang Namgyal?" she repeated. "Aren't you an attaché to the head of the Republic City Council?"

"No, ma'am. I'm the owner-operator of Avatar Efficiency Services," said Aang, with another shallow bow. "Though I do admire the new policies of President-General Yi. Well, some of them."

"I see. And you say that Mr. Suo was attending your party? Was this a regular gathering of friends or a special occasion?"

"Well, a little of both. My friends insisted on throwing me a 21st birthday party," Aang said with a lopsided grin. "I didn't really have too much choice in the matter, but at least I got to set the menu!"

Neither officer smiled, and Aang's grin withered. Tough crowd.

"So you invited Mr. Suo to your birthday gathering?" Officer Yung's glance washed briefly over Katara. "And allowed him to bring a guest? Or did you invite both Mr. Suo and Ms. Taslak?"

"Actually, uh, I personally didn't invite anyone," said Aang casually, hoping that if sounded unconcerned, the police wouldn't find the whole situation to be weird beyond reason. "I think maybe my friend Satoru asked Jet to come. He was talking to him a lot last night. I didn't have much to do with the party, really, except for providing the venue, and, uh, showing up."

Officer Mizuno was writing all of that down, but at those words, he flashed Aang a look laden with suspicion.

"Doesn't sound much like any birthday party I've ever heard of, except a surprise party. Was it a surprise party, Mr., uh, Namgyal?"

"Um, no." Aang wilted a little. "It wasn't."

Officer Mizuno gave an unlovely snort. "Do you usually outsource your entertainment planning to your friends and allow them to pack your home with people who are strangers to you?"

"I'm an Air Nomad, officer," said Aang somewhat coldly, not liking the man's tone. "We like to have fun and we love meeting new people, so my friends' friends will always be welcome in my home."

"Yet you don't exactly sound as if you were much into this party," said Officer Mizuno, giving Aang a side-eyed glance. "Maybe you might want to rethink the 'friends' friends' thing and just get a pet."

"I actually have a cat and a dog." Aang spoke between almost-clenched teeth. "Air Nomads aren't much for huge parties outside of the celebrations of some of the noted figures of our history or on Remembrance Day to commemorate the massacre of my people. But my friends wanted to celebrate. After all, turning 21 is sort of a big deal for Air Nomads these days, since there's so few of us left from my generation. Or any generation at all, actually."

It was rare that he was so blunt about the near genocide of his people, but Aang was starting to really dislike Officers Mizuno and Yung.

At any rate, his comment hit the mark. Officer Mizuno's face burned bright red and he immediately averted his eyes, shamefacedly. Officer Yung shifted from one foot to the other, looking supremely uncomfortable.

"Please stick around, Mr. Namgyal," said Officer Yung, being the first to regain her composure. "We may want to talk to you some more."

Her eyes flicked to Katara. "Ms. Taslak, if you'll come with us? We only have a few questions. We won't keep you long."

Katara glanced worriedly back at Aang. He nodded and tried for an encouraging smile, but it curdled under Sneers' suspicious glare. Katara didn't notice – or at least seemed not to. She nodded back and then followed the police officers into the little room, where the door closed with an ominous click. Despite there being a little more activity on the floor than when he and Katara had first come in, the hospital seemed almost unnaturally quiet.

"Jet never mentioned knowing any Air Nomads."

Aang looked around and was unnerved to see Sneers still glaring at him. His lips were in a tight line and his eyes were painfully red.

Now that he had a chance to see him close up, Aang didn't think he'd ever seen a man who looked less like a "Sneers." Though, he didn't really look like a "Pui-Yan Lam," either.

Sneers looked to be in his early to middle 20s, and while you never could go just by facial features, the big man's green eyes, dark hair and slightly tanned skin seemed to indicate that he was an Earth Kingdom native. Dark circles under his eyes made him look exhausted, but Sneers had a broad, good-natured face under a heavy fringe of inky hair.

Aang wondered why the man would go by something as unflattering as "Sneers." Then again, there had been a "Smellerbee." And a "Longshot." Maybe it was an Earth Kingdom thing.

"Maybe he did know some, but he didn't know me," said Aang. "Uh, by the way – I'm the guy you were talking to on the phone earlier. I mean, after you called Katara."

Sneers folded his arms and stared Aang up and down.

"Yeah, I managed to figure that one out all by myself," Sneers said stonily. "Why are you even down here if you didn't even know Jet? Actually, if you didn't know him, why invite him to your party?"

"Well, like I just told the police officers, I didn't invite him," said Aang wearily. "One of my friends probably did."

"So you invited Katara then?"

"No. She and I met only this morning," said Aang by way of explanation. "She needed a ride down here, and I offered. That's why I'm down here."

"You met her this morning?" Sneers looked astonished. "Dude, are you high or something? What was she doing at your place if you only met her this morning?"

Somewhat reluctantly, Aang told Sneers the story – as near as he could piece it together – of the past 24 hours. Sneers' eyes never left his face, and when Aang had finished, the Earth Kingdomer dropped heavily into a nearby chair, moving his head back and forth as if his neck hurt him.

"So that's why she was in the Pasaang Quadrangle. I thought ..."

He darted a quick look at Aang and then looked away.

"Forget it. I dunno what I thought. …"

Aang suspected that wasn't quite true, but that Sneers didn't really want to vocalize exactly what he might have been thinking. Under the circumstances, Aang considered it to be a smart decision.

"They don't really think Jet was suicidal and crashed on purpose, do they?" Aang asked, taking a seat opposite Sneers. "Katara pointed out that the Huu Parkway has a billion problems and people are always complaining that it's a ..."

Aang paused. He'd been about to say "death trap," but under the circumstances thought that would be a heartless opinion to voice.

"… A bad stretch of road," he finished sheepishly.

"They know he didn't do it on purpose," grumbled Sneers. "They're just fishing. You heard them – he wasn't drunk. He was barely going the speed limit. They've got it on the traffic cameras. He was actually slowing down to take a curve and he just lost control of the car."

Aang shuddered. It was one of those whims of fate, it seemed. It could have happened to anyone. One moment, simply driving quietly at night along a largely deserted highway, and the next …

"I really wish Katara hadn't come," said Sneers, tiredly rubbing the bridge of his nose. "It would've been better if she'd stayed away for a while."

"Why? Because of that Smellerbee girl?" Aang was a little annoyed on Katara's behalf. "Look, I don't know what's going on there or why there's bad blood between them, but Katara has every right to be here. She thought maybe Jet gave you a message to give to her, before … before he …"

"– I never saw Jet," interrupted Sneers. "By the time I got down here, he was already in surgery. They didn't want him to see anyone until he talked to the cops … and he never got a chance to do that."

"Hold it. That doesn't make sense," Aang looked doubtful. "If you never saw him, how do you have his cellphone? Katara said he was really protective of it. And you would've needed to talk to him to get the passcode, at least."

Sneers sighed softly. "First off, the phone's jailbroken. Jet bought it cheap from some shady dude he knew who works down by the docks. I'm not gonna go into detail, but let's just say it's pretty easy to get around passcodes on a jailbroken phone if you've had practice. That's probably why Jet was always so weird about it. Second, he didn't give me his phone. I got it by accident. Sorta."

Aang's eyebrows jumped. "By accident?"

"While he was in surgery, one of the orderlies came out here with his stuff," said Sneers. "They were gonna move him to another room after he got out of recovery, but they didn't have any rooms available right then, so the orderly asked me if I could hold onto Jet's things until they got him assigned. All the lockers were full or something."

Sneers gestured toward something benath the chair he was sitting in. Aang stared and was able to make out a set of folded clothes in a plastic bag.

"So … no message for Katara from Jet." Aang murmured, feeling horrible for Katara. "There's not … anything?"

"No. No message." Sneers' expression changed from annoyance to one of regret. "Nothing."

Aang looked at the closed door behind which Katara was sequestered with the two officers and swallowed painfully. She'd been verbally attacked by that Smellerbee girl, forced to defend Jet's state of mind to two bored police officers who likely just wanted to close out the case and go home and enjoy the rest of their weekend, and for what? There hadn't even been a final farewell from Jet. No words of comfort or love. Nothing at all.

"She came here because she thought he must have talked to you," said Aang, sighing. "If she'd known what you just told me about the orderlies giving you Jet's stuff … well, I think she probably still would've wanted to come."

"You're right. She would've. But she shouldn't've. I was stupid – I should've called her back right away and told to sit tight. Stupid!" Sneers smacked a closed fist into a meaty opposite palm. "By the time I thought about calling her, Smellerbee and Longshot showed up, and then the traffic cops were all over us and I didn't get a chance. I could've at least warned her …"

Sneers stopped talking abruptly and spots of red darkened his cheeks. Aang peered suspiciously at him, wondering why he'd stopped talking so suddenly and what possibly could have been the cause for the sudden look of guilt on his face.

"Warned her about what? That Smellerbee was going to be here?"

"No, not about Smellerbee." Sneers mumbled, not meeting Aang's eyes. "That Jet hadn't been alone in the car. That he had been … with someone."

With a jolt, Aang recalled 'the girl' that Smellerbee had mentioned, the one Katara had started to ask Sneers about.

"A Fire Nation girl, Smellerbee said," said Aang, musingly. "Who is she?"

"Was. Who was she." Sneers' voice was quiet. "The girl died at the scene. Went through the windshield."

"Spirits."

Aang looked away, his stomach roiling. He couldn't even imagine the terror this girl must have felt in those few seconds after impact, and then –

"I thought it was Katara."

Aang's head snapped up, his eyes constricted with horror.

"What?"

"I got a call like at one in the morning from the hospital that Jet was real bad hurt, and I rushed down here," said Sneers. "The cops were basically at the door of his hospital room. Not those two clowns, the highway cops. The doctors told me Jet was in surgery and then the highway cops came over to me and said Jet's passenger wasn't so lucky and if I knew who it might have been. They were … having some issues with identification because …"

Sneers' face turned slightly green, and for the next several moments, he took deep breaths. Aang joined him, but was somewhat quieter, feeling the need to center himself, as well in the midst of such a disaster.

"Anyway, the cops said they figured by the clothing, whoever it was had been a woman and if I knew any girl that Jet might have been with that night," Sneers said in a subdued voice. "I told them he was going to a party with his girlfriend. They asked me if she had dark hair and I said yeah and they asked her name and I told them that it was Katara. Then they went away for a while. I couldn't believe it. All I could think was that Jet had been working a lot on his film – the one nominated for the Hwang Prize – and he and Katara hadn't really been hanging out as much because of that. He seemed excited about this party and being able to finally spend time with her."

Sneers ran a hand over his broad chin and sighed. "So then I wondered if Sokka knew and if he'd be coming through those doors next. I didn't know what to say to him –"

"Who is 'Sokka'?" Aang recalled that when he'd picked up Katara's phone, Sneers called him by that name.

"Katara's brother. He wasn't the biggest fan of Jet and Jet thought Sokka was kind of a douche," said Sneers, scowling slightly. "But I think Katara made Sokka back off and mind his business, and she'd tell Jet to cool it whenever he started talking shit about her brother. Anyway, I was waiting to see Sokka come through those doors, but then the police came out again and asked me for Katara's full name.

"I gave it to them and they both got these really weird looks on their faces and asked me if I was sure that's who Jet had been with. I didn't get why they were asking something like that. Like I'd make it up or something? So I got a little pissed and told them Jet and I had been roommates for years and he and Katara had been together for a while, so yeah I was sure. Then they went away again.

"When the doctors came out and said Jet was resting after the first surgery, I started wondering what was keeping Sokka," continued Sneers. "I thought maybe the police had gotten through to him and he might've been talking to his parents and arranging for them to come to Republic City – well, talking to his Dad. Their mom died when he and Katara were little kids."

"Really? I didn't know that." Aang's voice was thoughtful. "About Katara's mom, I mean. That's horrible. Was she sick? Or …?"

"Fire Nation raid." Sneers gave Aang a knowing look. "Right out of those assholes' playbook – not that I have to tell you that."

Aang's breath caught. Was that why he'd felt an instant pull toward Katara? Other than the fact that she was amazingly beautiful, that is. Because they'd both lost their families to the violence of the Fire Nation?

He pushed that thought out of his mind immediately. Of course that couldn't be it. Plenty of people had had their lives upended and obliterated by Fire Nation attacks. There had been more than several dozen people at his birthday party last night and he was sure that the majority of them had stories similar to Katara's – or to Jet's, for that matter.

"But Sokka never showed up," said Sneers, breaking into Aang's thoughts. "Then I thought, 'Duh, of course he won't come here.' Because ... she wouldn't have any use for a hospital and he might've gone straight to – to where they keep dead bodies. To identify her. Or try to."

The big man shuddered.

"I didn't think about it again until later, when the doctors said Jet was out of surgery and might be well enough to talk to the cops in a couple of hours," said Sneers. "Then I fired up his phone figuring I'd check on Sokka to see if he needed anything or if there was something I could do. I knew Jet had Sokka's info in his phone because he talked about texting him before. Then I realized Jet's phone was out of juice, but I was able to borrow a charger from that security guy who kicked Smellerbee out. But as soon as I was able to turn the phone on, I saw all these missed calls and texts to Jet from Katara. From this morning."

Sneers swiped a hand over the back of his mouth. "So then I was like, '… if Katara was in the accident, how can she be calling and texting Jet?' I didn't even think someone might just using her phone the way I was using Jet's, because wouldn't her phone have been in the car too? Maybe damaged, but maybe not. Jet's phone came through the crash without a scratch on it. But when I started reading the texts, it hit me: Katara hadn't been the one in the car. That's why the cops looked so confused when I said it was her.

"But that didn't make sense … Jet told me that he was taking Katara to some swanky party by the river, so how'd he get in his car with a girl not Katara? He wasn't the type to pick up hitchhikers or anything and the cops say that they don't think he stopped anywhere before he got on the Parkway. That means he likely met this girl at your party."

Aang started. He hadn't considered that. When Katara began to feel sick and went to his bedroom, could Jet have peeled himself away from his conversation with Satoru and instead of looking for his girlfriend, gone on the prowl among the women who'd been at the party? Aang hadn't noticed anything like that, but then again, he'd only known about 10 or so people at the party, so aside from some superficial conversations, he hadn't really been keeping track of what everyone was doing.

"I don't know," said Aang. "I know it sounds weird, but I didn't really know more than a handful of the people who were there. I told my friends they could bring whoever as long as the people were respectful of my home and property and were okay that all the food was going to be vegetarian."

"So you didn't see Jet talking to anybody in particular?"

"I've never seen Jet before in my life." Aang raised his shoulders. "He might've been giving a speech in my entryway, for all I know. If someone held a gun to my head and asked me to describe him, I'd be in a lot of trouble."

Sneers looked briefly incredulous. Then, rolling onto one hip, he unearthed a cellphone from his pocket. His thumb moved quickly for a few seconds before he stopped and held the phone, screen out, toward Aang.

"That's Jet."

Aang studied the picture on the screen, which had been taken in fairly low light and without flash, and there were a few people in the background. But the central figure of the photo was unmistakable.

In life, Jet looked quite a bit like Aang suspected he might: Tallish, tan, lean, and handsome with dark eyes and a wild mop of dark hair. In his mouth was piece of straw or wheat or a stick of some kind. Even in a still photograph, Jet exuded confidence and more than a bit of cockiness, but there was also a caginess in his expression that made him look a bit jaded, maybe. And despite the pose of outward swagger, Aang thought he could discern a hint of vulnerability in the flashing, dark eyes.

"Well?" Sneers looked expectantly at Aang as he put the phone away. "Ring any bells? See him talking to anyone?"

Aang shook his head. "My apartment's not huge, but it's not tiny, either, and there were just too many people around for me to notice everybody. But why would Jet pick someone up with his girlfriend right there with him?"

Especially, Aang thought, if his girlfriend was someone like Katara. A guy couldn't get any luckier than to date someone like her, so if Jet really had been flirting with another girl under Katara's nose, it was not just a dick move but a greedy one.

"I don't know. Nothing makes makes any sense!" said Sneers, looking frustrated. "I even asked Smellerbee and Longshot if Jet had said anything to them about him and Katara maybe having problems. Both of them said no, and believe me, Smellerbee wouldn't have missed something like that. She's never liked Katara and she was always rooting for them to break up."

Aang nodded grimly. No kidding.

"Still, there was some girl who wasn't Katara in Jet's car with him when he crashed. And then just before those two clowns came along," Sneers jerked his head toward the closed door, "Jet was rushed back into surgery and the highway cops went at me again. They'd identified the girl and asked me if I knew her and how Jet might have known her. Name was …"

Sneers leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling, deep in thought.

"On Ji." His head snapped down. "On Ji Koyama."

Aang's mouth fell open.

No … no … it couldn't be. It can't bel!

"Are you …" Aang gulped air. "Are you sure that's the name?"

"Positive." Sneers looked at him curiously. "Why? You know her?"

Aang immediately took a long breath through his nose and breathed out through pursed lips in the tried-and-true Air Nomad way of relaxing and inviting calm.

But calm seemed to want to visit someone else, because his body was tense and he felt sweat beading up at the base of his neck.

"A while back," he said slowly, "my friend Meng said she wanted to introduce me her old college roommate who had just moved back to Republic City. The girl's name was On Ji, and I'm almost positive her last name was Koyama. But … that can't be a unique name, can it?"

"I don't know anything about ashmaker names," growled Sneers, ignoring Aang's dark look at the usage of the slur. "I never heard of this girl. Jet was like a brother to me and never said a word about anyone called On Ji. Was this friend who wanted to introduce you to her at the party last night?"

"No. She was going to come, but had a family emergency," Aang said, gnawing his lip. "Her aunt's really sick and she went back to her village to see if there was anything she could do."

"D'you think she might've invited this On Ji girl to your party anyway?" Sneers asked. "Would this girl've shown up even though your friend wasn't gonna be there?"

Aang wasn't sure what to say. It was possible. And the utterly stupid thing was, he didn't know what On Ji looked like, either, so he couldn't say for sure. When Meng had wanted to show him a picture of her friend to "whet his appetite," Aang had refused. Meng, who'd had a short-lived crush on him when they were kids, was trying her hand at matchmaking – something her sick aunt had made a living at for decades – but at the time he hadn't really been all that into the idea of being fixed up.

Now he cursed his shortsightedness. On Ji might have been there, or she might not have been. No one by that name or any other introduced themselves to him last night.

The evidence seemed to point to On Ji having been at the party, because somehow, she'd ended up in Jet's car. The odds she and Jet would have gotten entangled with each other somewhere else seemed slim, though not impossible. There was just the slightest possibility On Ji had been in distress of some kind and Jet, rushing to find Katara, had run into her and offered her a ride.

But even as he played that scenario out in his mind, Aang dismissed it. There were cabs and ride shares. He'd never known On Ji, but she didn't seem like the type who would've accepted a lift from a stranger, and if Jet really had been trying to find Katara, why would he stop to pick up a woman presumably he didn't know?

"I'll need to talk to Meng when she gets back to town," said Aang, tiredly rubbing the back of his neck. He was starting to get a headache. "I never met On Ji. She might've been there, but then why –"

Aang jumped slightly when the door to the small room where the police had taken Katara suddenly flew open, nearly hitting the opposite wall.

Katara came out first, dry-eyed, tight-lipped, and with an air of forced calm around her, though Aang saw her hands trembling as she gripped her purse. Trailing behind Katara were Officers Yung and Mizuno, both of whom had the half-ashamed and half-remorseful expressions of people who'd just witnessed a kitten being surrendered to the pound. Aang even saw Officer Yung attempt to reach out to touch Katara's shoulder, but the policewoman stopped herself at the last minute and shoved her hands in her pockets.

He and Sneers stood up, trading worried looks.

"Katara?" Sneers' voice was soft, tentative. "You okay? Can I do anything?"

Ignoring Sneers completely, Katara looked Aang and said in a gentle, bland voice, "Aang, I'd like to go home. Would it be too much trouble for you drive me …? If it's a hardship, I can get a taxi. I don't want to be a nuisance."

Aang looked uncertainly at Sneers, who stared at Katara with an apology written all over his face that went unseen because she wouldn't even glance in his direction.

"No, of course it's no trouble. I'll be happy to take you home." Aang turned to the police officers, who were silently observing the scene. "Are we, uh, free to go?"

"Yes, thanks, Mr. Namgyal. I don't think we need anything from you at this juncture," said Officer Yung in a gentle voice, her eyes on Katara. "We've looked up your company and I assume if we do need to ask you any questions, the contact information on your website is accurate?"

"It is but have one of these." Aang unearthed his wallet and took out a business card, handing it to the tall woman. "That's my office phone number. When I'm not in, it rings through to my cellphone."

The officers nodded almost in unison and then turned back the way they came, ducking into the little room but leaving the door open this time.

Sneers looked dismayed when Katara still acted as if he were not there, but said nothing as he bent to gather the plastic sack that contained Jet's belongings and mumbled a goodbye, walking out the front door just as quietly as Smellerbee and Longshot had done.

Katara said nothing. She regarded Aang politely, like a person waiting for the bank teller to call them to the window.

Aang didn't like it at all. Even when Katara had been absolutely devastated, there had been the spark of something there. There had been tears. There had been rage. There had been grief.

But this Katara was like an automaton, polite and quiet but with absolutely nothing behind her eyes.

Aang figured that the police must have apprised Katara of Jet's final moments – and with whom he'd spent them – and, she'd put two and two together, and only by pasting a veneer of courteous disinterest over her face, could Katara hold it together. Horrible news following horrible news on a horrible day.

Aang wasn't sure he would've been able to handle it much differently than Katara was doing now. Meditation could only do so much.

Lowering his head, he led the way out.

Katara said only a few words when they got into the car – giving Aang her address – before falling silent for the duration of the ride.

Aang knew better than to try to make small talk, just as he knew better than to take the Huu Parkway over to Huynh Heights, the hilly neighborhood that overlooked Yue Bay where Katara lived. He went the longish way, winding through Downtown before picking up the Skybridge that spanned the Bay and led right into the Heights.

Aang thought his head was doing a good impression of a washing machine – so many disparate thoughts tumbling around inside, tangling with each other. He realized that he couldn't realistically blame on Jet's demise on his friends or on himself for going on with the party, but guilt and sadness gathered in his stomach like a lump.

And then there was On Ji. What were the odds? If he'd just let Meng hook them up, what might have happened? He might've liked On Ji. She might've become his girlfriend. And she would have been at his side at the party, not going on what would be the last car ride of her life.

Katara's home was in a block of neat garden apartments built around a very pretty water fountain that spurted clear water endlessly into the air. In a disinterested voice, Katara asked him to pull up to Apartment 5A, on the ground level. Amid the identical brown-wood doors, Aang noticed that 5A had, under the large brass knocker, a large decal with the Water Tribe wave emblem painted in blue and white.

"Thank you," said Katara in a dry, detached voice. "I appreciate all you've done for me today."

Aang could see in his periphery that she was facing straight on, not looking at him at all. Much like when they'd first pulled up to the hospital, she didn't immediately make any move to leave the car.

Hesitating a moment, Aang removed another of his business cards from his wallet and scrawled his cell phone number on the back. While it was true what he'd told the police about calls ringing through to his phone if he were out of the office, he saw no need to have Katara jump through those hoops.

"I … if there's anything you need, please call me. Anytime …" Aang murmured, holding the card out toward her. "Even if you just want to … talk or anything."

His words died when she shook her head gently and made a slight negative gesture with her hand.

Stung, he brought his arm down, feeling a little ridiculous.

"Please don't take this the wrong way," she said in a careful voice. "But I'm going to call my brother. And my grandmother. And my father. And explain what happened. Then I'm going to order a bottle of wine – not like yours, sorry, I'm getting the cheap stuff – and I'm going to drink most of it so I can forget the past six months of my life ever happened … so I can forget the past 24 hours ever happened … and I'm going to forget you along with it."

The words hit him like a fist, but his jerked forward in acknowledgment. That was clear enough, and could he really blame her? Of course not.

Katara looked as if she realized she'd somewhat hurt his feelings because her face softened for a moment and she smiled sadly at him.

"I was just thinking that when I turned 21, my brother and some of our friends took me to a Southern Water Tribe restaurant on the waterfront and then we went dancing. It was basic, but it was fun, and I'll always remember I had a good time on that birthday." Her smile was a faint thing that didn't reach her eyes. "On your 21st birthday, you had to deal with discovering some girl you didn't know in your bed who later finds out her boyfriend ditched her and died in a car crash alongside the girl he was cheating with."

She paused and reordered her face into nonchalance.

"I think under the circumstances, you should want to forget about me, too. After all, I ruined your birthday."

Aang hesitated, knowing he had to be careful. The last thing Katara – who'd been dealt so many blows just that morning – needed was for him to go all mushy and tell her that on the contrary, the one saving grace any of this was that he'd gotten to meet her. It was true sentiment, but a selfish one, and Katara had dealt enough with selfishness for a lifetime.

"You didn't ruin anything. Please don't ever think that," he said, softly. "I'm so sorry, Katara. About everything. … Take care of yourself."

Katara laughed mirthlessly under her breath, as if such a suggestion was completely impossible.

"Goodbye, Aang."

Aang sat and watched as she walked to her door and paused to hunt for something in her purse – likely her keys.

Then, to his shock, she whirled around suddenly and looked straight at him. She was framed in the doorway, her hand lightly on the doorknob, unmoving. Just ... staring directly at him.

Aang was transfixed, realizing that the bland mask of polite disinterest had worn away. Her eyes were large and blue and beautiful and hauntingly melancholy. Her lips trembled and Aang's heart pounded at the pain he saw in every line of her perfect face. Was she going to come back to the car? Had she changed her mind about taking his contact information? Did she want to talk more? Did she need a hug? Had she changed her mind after all about wanting to forget he existed?

But the little spark of hope that was born when she turned to look at him was soon submerged when she turned round again and was swallowed into darkness, not looking back as she shut the door quickly behind her.

Aang stared for many seconds at the closed door of Apartment 5A, his eyes lingering on the Water Tribe artwork that marked this particular apartment – and the person who lived there – as so different than all the rest.

When he was sure Katara had well and truly disappeared, Aang started his car and drove silently, slowly back home.

Hey so I got some complaints about this being a modern AU. If that's not your thing there's like a billion Kataang stories that take place in canon. This isn't one of them. It happens! But in transparency I added to the summary that this is a modern, no-bending AU. Please stop sending me weirdo DMs. Just read another story if you don't like this one. For the rest of you all, thanks for reading, reviewing and supporting. See you next week. I think Chapter 5 is gonna raise some eyebrows, haha. Just remember that this is going to be Kataang, so anything outside that isn't going to last too long at all. Toodles!