Zari shot out of bed when he hears an unexpected noise. It takes him a moment to realize it was the phone ringing. In that moment, Lin had rolled over and shoved him out of the bed.

"Get the phone," she grumbled, already falling back to sleep.

He grunts in response and stumbles out of bed. He stumbles into the hallway of her home where the telephone was kept.

He clears his throat, "Beifong residence?"

"That's how you answer the phone to your home?" Su says on the other line.

"Most people aren't calling for me," he mumbles. He glanced at the clock while leaning on the wall. It read three am.

"Not to be rude or anything, Su, but why are you calling Lin at three o'clock in the morning? You do know she's pregnant, right?"

"Oh right! Sorry, I forgot about the time zone differences…" Su replies nervously.

He sits up straight at that, "There are no time zone differences between here and Zhao Fu. I don't know you that well, but what's up? I'm really trying to avoid waking Lin up, because that means the twins will wake up and that means that neither one of us will get anymore sleep."

She sighs, "Well, Bataar, Opal, the twins, Huan and I were suppose to come into town briefly for one of the twins matches. The coaches agreed to put everyone up at a hotel for the day. However, now that we're here, the hotel's booked because of the Summer Solstice celebration coming up. All the other hotels are booked too. We would go to the island, but Opal said all the airbenders just returned from the temples so it's a little crowded. Can we stay with you guys? It'll only be for a few days."

He groans, "Hold on. Let me ask her."

"Wait! If she says no, tell her I know the house has room. I did grow up there and I know she hasn't changed it that much."

He nods, "Ok, give me a few minutes."

He sets the phone down gently and quietly pads his way back to the bedroom. He walks over to Lin's side of the bed and watches her sleep for a moment. He sits down on the end of the bed and gently rubs her leg until she wakes up.

She shifts around a little and her eyes open slowly.

She yawns and glances at the clock, "Why are you waking me and your children up at three o'clock in the morning?"

He can tell by her tone that she was not above killing him this early in the morning, "Your sister is on the phone. She, Bataar, the twins, Huan and Opal need to stay here for a few days because the twins have some sort of match and they can't get a hotel because of the solstice."

He sees Lin grimace, "Can't you just tell them no?"

He raises an eyebrow at her, "You're just going to leave them like that? Plus Su says she knows you have the room."

She groans, "Fine. But only for a few days."

He kisses her cheek, "Cheer up. At least you'll have something to do."

"Oh goodie," Lin says sarcastically as he walks out to tell Su to come on over.

A half hour later Zari opened the door to see Su, her family, and their stuff standing on the front porch.

Zari gave them a tired smile, "Hey guys. Come on in."

Su returns his smile as she enters the house, "Thank you again for convincing Lin."

"He didn't convince me," Lin says from the couch where she had been lying for the last half hour. As he predicted, once they were up, the twins had woken up and had been moving around ever since, putting Lin in a cranky mood. At least they weren't kicking too hard or else Zari was pretty sure Lin would kill her baby sister.

Su smiled sweetly at Lin, "Aww, look at you all domesticated!"

Lin raised an eyebrow, "Do you want to leave this house unharmed?"

Su's eyes narrows and Zari shared a look with Bataar. He cleared his throat, "You know guys, it's really early. Why don't I show you guys to your rooms and we pick this conversation up later?"

Su nodded, "I think that's a great idea. I'm assuming the house is the same?"

Lin sneered at her and Zari gently rubbed her shoulder, saying "Not really. I can give a more through tour in the morning. I'll just show you where to sleep for now," he says walking towards the stairs that lead to the rest of the house. The kids followed sleepily giving Lin small hellos and good nights, while Bataar dragged Su away from Lin, knowing that they both were in terrible moods.

' Aften saying goodnight to Su and her family, Zari returned to the living room to help Lin back to their bedroom. As he entered the room, he saw that Lin was sitting up and her body was tense. He quickly but quietly walked into the room and saw her rubbing small circles on her stomach. She briefly glanced his way as he sat down on the couch and pulled her closer to him so he could bear most of her weight. He wrapped her in a hug and they stayed like that for about twenty more seconds until the contraction ended. Lin let out a breath and he kissed her forehead.

"I hate Braxton Hicks," Lin mumbled.

"I'm sorry," he said sympathetically. Lin had started getting them a few weeks after they left the hospital. Now that she was almost eight months, they had started coming more often.

"It's Su's fault."

"Yeah, I know she stresses you out. Don't let her get to you."

Lin was about to retort but she felt her lower abdomen start to tighten again. Zari felt it too and began to rub circles on her stomach. Lin grabbed his arm and tried to breathe through the contraction. After a few seconds Lin let out a breath and Zari felt the muscles in her stomach relax. He rubbed her back as she leans back against him.

"Do you want some of that tea Kya gave you last time?"

Lin nods silently but leans closer into him. He pulls her closer and flicks his wrist to turn the kettle on.

She smirks up at him, "I thought you didn't use bending like that?"

He raises an eyebrow at her, "Did you want me to get up?"

She shakes her head.

"That's what I thought. It's too early in the morning to risk your wrath and it wouldn't be good for the twins."

"Smart man," she says as she lays back against him.

Yeah, if only your sister was that smart, he thinks.


Su wakes up the next morning at what she assumes is some time around eight. She glances over at Baatar and sees that he's still knocked out, and would be for awhile. Chances are, her kids would be too. She untangles herself from him and tiptoes out of her old room. She quickly checks on the kids before heading down the stairs. She's surprised to see that Lin is sleeping on the couch in virtually the same position she left her in, except for their being a blanket on her and a mug on the coffee table. She reaches the bottom of the stairs and quietly walks past her sister to the kitchen.

"Tea?" Zari asks her standing by the stove as she enters the room.

She almost screams when she sees him, "Um...yeah. I'm surprised you're up."

He shrugs, "Never really went to sleep. After you guys went to bed Lin started having Braxton Hicks. Around four thirty they started to stop, but by then twins were up. Lin fell asleep about an hour ago."

Su winced, "I'm guessing the contractions came because of our argument?"

Zari nodded, "Not going to lie, she's not above killing you right now."

"Good to know," Su says as they sip their tea and drift into silence.

After a while she says, "You guys seem to be in a good place."

He smiles, "We are. It's been...nice."

She raises an eyebrow at that, "Nice? It looks like more than nice with that smile and your interactions last night. I have never seen Lin be that comfortable around anyone. Except maybe Tenzin, and it's been awhile since then."

"It's been a while since I was in a relationship too."

"I'm sensing a story there."

He smiles, "Like Lin and Tenzin, we were childhood sweethearts. She was actually an officer. She died in a shootout."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's been almost 20 years. Plus, if she had to go out, at least she went out doing what she loved."

Su nods, "Did Lin know her? I know there wasn't that many female officers."

He shrugs, "Probably but I don't know. Her partner was Saikhan."

"You were the one Nya didn't stop talking about?" Lin asked quietly from the doorway.

Zari and Su looked up.

He nods as he stands up to greet her, "Yeah. I thought you were sleeping?"

"I was uncomfortable. I heard voices in hear so I came to check it out. To answer your question, Su, I did know her."

Su gave her sister a small smile, "Well?"

Lin nods as she sits on Zari's previously occupied stool and leans back into his embrace, "Pretty. Saikhan, Nya, Jun, and I used to grab lunch together during the rookie days. You came up often, except she always referred to you as Pi. It's probably why I didn't recognized your name."

He smiles, "Probably."

"Why'd she call you Pi?"

Zari briefly tensed for a moment and made eye contact with Lin. She nods and he says, "It's a nickname. Short for Piando."

"Like the sword master? I didn't know people knew who he was anymore. Why were you called that?"

"Um...technically it's my first name. My biological father named me that."

"You're adopted?"

He nods.

Lin clears her throat and tells Su bluntly, "His dad was Sokka."

"Way to ease into that," he mumbles into Lin's ear.

Su's eyes widen at that, "Da-Uncle Sokka has a kid?!"

His eyebrows raise at that, "Were you about to say Dad?"

Su immediately says "No" as Lin says "Yes."

Su glares at Lin, "Maybe."

"Really blunt today, hmm?" he mumbles into Lin's ear again.

She shrugs.

Looking at Su, he smiles simply as he reaches for his tea, "I mean if you were, it's fine. He was your dad."

Su's eyes grow wide eyed at Lin, "You told him?!"

Lin snatches Zari's tea from his hand and says, "One, he's part of the family now so it shouldn't matter and two, he already knew."

"How'd you know?"

"Sokka. He was excited to have a baby. Well at least one he could be around in public without people getting suspicious."

"He talked to you about us?"

Zari nods, "Sometimes. He thought I'd want to know I had a half sister. He mentioned Lin on occasion too."

"Wow," Su says as she drifts into silence.

Lin continues to sip what was now her tea, amused at her sister's shock. She admittedly had taken this information a lot better when her mother and Zari had told her.

"This...this is a lot," Su finally said.

Lin snickered quietly against Zari's shoulder.

"Yeah. It is."

They sit in silence for a few moments before Su says, "I um...think I'm going to head back to bed. Lin, I'm sorry about last night. I'll see you two around lunch time," and walks away.

Zari helped Lin up so they could also go back to bed, "I think we broke her."

Lin grinned, "Definitely. It was worth it since it's her fault we were up all night."

"I don't dispute that," he says as he leads her out of the kitchen to get some much needed shut eye.