Korra moaned, and opened her eyes. Sunlight snuck threw the tiny gap in the curtains and wouldn't let her stay go back to sleep. She rolled over, showing her back to the window, and put an arm around Asami. Or not. Even though she was a busy woman, Asami wasn't an early bird, and Korra always enjoyed snuggling with her in the morning, but she wasn't there today. The giant bed didn't go down too bad in general, but Korra found herself restless as she twisted and turned, trying to get comfy. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes again and gazed at the clock on the wall opposite their bed. It read 11:24. That would explain it. Asami had probably gotten up around nine or ten at the latest.
"Wow, I slept in," Korra murmured to herself, and sat up groggily. She rubbed her arms, wincing at the sight of a couple of her scars. She'd been cut up pretty badly, but it was nothing serious, and the medics had given her minimal treatment. She'd only gotten home at three in the morning, due to all the issues with rounding everyone up. From what she heard, two cops were in critical condition from the chase and several more had been severely injured. Most of the Red Monsoon members had gotten away unfortunately, but rumour had it that Kenichi Shinoda had been brought down, although for safety reasons, the hero was anonymous. The police seized all the cocaine, and even though Hazukk had been a little off, it was still in the region of six million yuans' worth.
She planned on visiting Mako later. He'd been badly messed up when she last saw him, which was on a trolley. She still felt awkward around him, but it seemed he didn't remember what had happened thankfully, and there was nothing wrong with visiting one of her best friends who she'd known for four and a half years.
On the bright side, the Agni Kai Triad were crippled as a gang. Most of their goons had been arrested the night before, and if their leader really was gone, that meant that everything would probably go to shit for a good while. Or maybe another Tokuga would emerge. Hopefully not.
Korra stood up and threw on a dressing gown, heading downstairs for breakfast. As she walked, she found her legs barely able to support her weight. She made her way to the dining hall and found her favourite breakfast waiting for her; toast, boiled eggs and porridge with honey. One of the perks of having a rich girlfriend was having whatever you wanted whenever you wanted.
She sank into the seat and dug into her food. As she reminisced over the events of the past night, she frowned at what she'd done to Tokuga, trying to justify it. Sure, he was about to murder her mere seconds after she'd shown him mercy, but she had consciously just bloodbent someone, even if that someone wasn't exactly perfect. Republic City needed no help in reminding itself of the last bloodbender. After Amon, or Noatok (that name just didn't suit him at all) was exposed, the Equalist Movement lost all support, and he disappeared along with Tarrlok. Nonbenders had been played fools the entire time and benders obviously didn't like him. He could still be at large for all she knew, but he wasn't an immediate concern. But the stigma around bloodbending was palpable now.
After she'd defeated the Triple Threats, Korra had been barely able to move The police tracked her down, following the path of destruction blazed by her and the Red Monsoon. She'd woken up Hazukk, who was in very good condition for someone who had been beaten unconscious, and he wasted no time in writing an article. A wagon from the Sun had literally picked him up right after the police arrived.
She thought about Hazukk. He was officially the worst fighter ever, despite him being 'more than capable'. How he had ever made probending standard, she didn't know. She regretted bringing him, a waterbender, along for the chase during the full moon, somehow. She knew that they had also been facing waterbenders but he'd only gotten in the way. The only good thing he'd done was tip them off, which was pretty important to be fair, but she downright refused to believe that Mako had been saved by him. He'd even managed to drive the truck into a Triple Threat hideout by chance. How did he manage that?!
Korra chewed on her food, but none of it tasted nice. She frowned, munching and forcefully swallowing it. Come to think of it, it had been like that for a little while now. She couldn't pinpoint when it had started, but it was long enough now. She stood up, no longer hungry, and suddenly her stomach lurched. She bent over, using the table to support her weight. She tried to take a deep breath, but now she was panting, bile rising her throat. She rushed to the bathroom just down the hallway, but didn't make it in time. She threw up all over the lovely, expensive carpet. A servant, who'd been wandering by, sprinted over to her, putting a hand on her back.
"Korra, do you need anything?" he asked. Spending so much time in City Hall had made Korra resent formalities, so much so that she had told all the servants to just call her by her first name, unlike Asami, who was 'Ms Sato.' They didn't ask questions, thankfully.
"I'm really, really sick," she replied, trying to stop the vomit but failing miserably. The servant helped her up, and practically carried her to the bathroom. She retched and threw up some more there for about ten minutes before finally wiping her mouth and standing up. The servant offered her a towel and she wiped all the sweat off of her face.
"Thanks," she mumbled, shaking her head.
"Anything for the partner of Ms Sato," was the gracious response, and Korra marvelled at how patient these people were. They had never snapped at her in the four months she'd been living there, and hadn't spilled the word when she and Asami had first gotten together and tried to keep it a secret because of the attention they had both got with Mako. It had been confirmed out by a nosey journalist after a month and a half, but all of them had kept their mouths shut up until that point, true professionals.
"Do you think you could drive me to the hospital?" she asked. "This has been going on for a while now, and I'm not in great shape, as you can tell. I'd really appreciate it."
"Of course," the servant said. "You shouldn't think of it as asking favours of me, it's my job. I'll have a car prepared in ten minutes. Do you need a female servant to help you up the stairs or get dressed?"
"I'm fine, thanks," Korra replied, and walked out the bathroom. She would've bent the vomit on the carpet into the toilet or something to save the servants the trouble of cleaning up her mess, but even that was too much effort.
"One more question if you may, Mast-" he started, then caught himself. "If you may, Korra," he corrected.
"Yes?" she asked, turning her head.
"Should I inform Ms Sato of your current health, or do you wish to keep it private?"
Korra thought about this for a second. Technically, Asami already knew but Korra didn't want to worry her any more than was necessary. "No, it's probably not worth her time, whatever it is."
"As you wish," he responded with a bow, and hurried off to get keys.
Korra waited nervously outside Dr Xavi's office. She had been there for 42 minutes but thankfully no-one there in front of her was seriously bad. Finally, Dr Xavi opened the door and gestured for Korra to come in. She slowly rose of her seat and fiddled with her hair on the short walk to his office. When she sat down in front of his desk, he clasped his hands and started the conversation;
"So why are you here, Korra?" he asked. "Did you sustain any physical injury that you think might need surgery? Or is it a health problem?"
"Well, it's-" Korra started, then stopped. "Actually, now that you mention it, I did get cut up pretty badly in a fight last night, and my right shoulder got dislocated temporarily, but that's not important. I have a different reason why I came here."
"It's not?" he replied. "It sounds serious enough. I think it's for the best that we just take a quick look at that. Could you remove your waistcoat, please?"
Korra began to object, but then shut her mouth, figuring she may as well kill two birds with one stone. He checked her arms, frowning at the scars and then also had a look at her legs, but although they all looked nasty, they'd heal themselves. Next, he checked her shoulder. It was a little bruised, but he shook it a little bit, twisted it gently, and judged it to be fine.
"Now that we got that looked at," he said, satisfied with his examination, "what was your more pressing issue?"
"It's, em, it's been making me feel really sick," Korra started, then mentally slapped her palm on her forehead. "What I meant to say was that I've been sick for a few weeks, and it doesn't seem like it's going to go away."
"Mhmm hmm," Dr Xavi said. "And when can you pinpoint it starting exactly? What day or night, if you can remember any particular event where you may have caught a virus? And what are the symptoms you feel would best describe your predicament?"
Korra pushed the one answer that was screaming at her in her head away, despite the fact that Dr Xavi was very professional and didn't even tell his wife about his patients.
"I can't think of when I woke up and thought I was very sick, it just kind of happened gradually," she lied. "As for symptoms… I've been getting really bad mood swings recently even when nothing happens to put me in a bad mood, and none of the food I normally like tastes nice to me. I've been eating very healthy for the last week in particular, but all my energy gets sapped even when I've just got out of bed, and my stomach feels like it's about to explode." She hesitated for a moment, before continuing. "I've also missed my period."
"I see," Dr Xavi said. "Is there anything you'd like to add? Something you may think is unrelated may also be a major symptom."
"Bending takes so much more out of me than it did before, and during the full moon two weeks ago, I couldn't control myself and lashed water at everything around me. To add to that," she said, more quietly this time, embarrassed by the next part, "the Avatar State just switched off on me in the middle of a fight. I've never experienced anything like it before. It activated, then started stuttering almost, then stopped altogether."
Dr Xavi took this all in for a minute. He then said: "I'm afraid that I will be no help to you in terms of your current problem regarding the Avatar State. You may need a therapist or monk for that. But the other symptoms you were talking about… They sound very identifiable to me, and I have an idea in my head of what you have."
"Really?" Korra asked, perking up. "What is it?"
"I'd rather not give you false information, so it's best that run a few tests on you first. First, I'll need a blood test. If you could hold out your arm that didn't get injured, please. Just to avoid any unnecessary movement."
Korra obliged and held out her left arm. He slid a syringe into an uncut part of Korra's arm and extracted a tiny amount of blood, before smothering it with a small cloth and putting a plaster over it. "If bending really takes that much out of you, then I think that a plaster will do you no harm rather than heal it yourself. You'll have to put bandages on your arms and legs regardless." Korra nodded, and Dr Xavi walked away to another room. Korra sat there absentmindedly, ignoring the sharp, unpredictable pains in her stomach. Dr Xavi came back after a few minutes, and Korra sat up, expecting an answer, but only got another question.
"Sorry, but I'm afraid I need a urine sample."
Korra blinked, taking a second to register his request and hide her disappointment of not having an answer, and walked feebly to the small toilet, still very weak, where she found a small basin. She returned after five minutes, and Dr Xavi took the basin wordlessly and headed off to the other room. When he returned, he sat down and looked at her with a neutral expression, and had piece of paper in his hands. Korra twiddled her thumbs underneath the desk, anticipating something bad. But she never would've predicted the answer she got.
"Korra, if I am correct, you're in a relationship with another woman?"
"Yes, I am," Korra challenged, ready for an argument.
"That's completely fine," he reassured her. "What stage of your relationship are you both at?"
Korra pursed her lips, wary of why he would care, but then answered truthfully: "Well, we just moved in together a couple of months ago. We're just taking it slow, we haven't had much time together because of our schedules."
"I understand. In that case, I don't know how this is going to affect you both, but the tests have both resulted positive," he said, and then dropped the bomb. "You're pregnant."
"What-wha-what do you mean I'm pregnant?" Korra asked, her anxiety rising. She wanted him to burst open a smile and laugh at her for being so gullible, but he didn't. He kept the same neutral expression.
"It's not my business to go probing around your personal life," he said. "But do you know who the father is?"
Korra only stared at him, her eyes watering, the realisation slowly setting in. She was pregnant. She had a child growing inside her womb. She trembled, and Dr Xavi pressed the prescription into her hands, which were now above the desk. He closed her fingers around it.
"I need to talk to you about your prescription," he continued, ignoring the fact that she didn't respond. It is not safe for the baby if pregnant woman bends any respective elem-"
"LIAR!" she screamed. She stood up and stumbled to the door, tears streaming down her face. She spotted Chief Beifong walking down the corridor in her direction, the sunlight glaring off her armour. Beifong walked up to Korra, who now had a hand on the wall.
"Korra, I was just going to visit Mako," she started but then stopped and raised an eyebrow, visibly confused.
Korra, on the other hand, froze. I should tell Mako, shethought. He has a right to know as the father.
Dr Xavi appeared in the hallway. "Korra, please, we need to discuss-"
"Get away from me!" she snarled, and tried to blast him with a wave of air, but a feeble gust only made him blink. She tried to run to the stairs to the outdoors, but suddenly lost all her energy, as was the trend recently with her. She had an explanation for it now though.
"Korra!" the servant who had driven her there called out. He had waited patiently up there with her, and brushed off her current outburst of emotion. He caught her in his arms as she fainted, the prescription sheet falling to the ground. He glanced at it, and couldn't help but catch what the first line read.
PREGNANCY: POSITIVE
His jaw dropped, but then he shut it. Whatever might happen in the future, he wasn't going to interfere unless necessary in his employer's personal life. It still shocked him, but he picked up the paper and put it in Korra's pocket. Dr Xavi walked over to them and sighed.
"I assume you're with Korra?" The servant nodded. "Everything she needs to know is on that piece of paper. Make sure that she reads it when she's accepted what I've told her."
"I'll take her back to the mansion," he replied, memorising what he'd just been told.
"Wait, who are you? What's your name?" Beifong interrupted. "We can't just let anyone take the Avatar."
"My name is Theo Guivante. I'm a servant at the Sato Mansion," he answered politely, gesturing to his uniform.
Lin Beifong stared at him, etching his face in her memory. "If I weren't up to my eyes at the minute, I'd send an escort with you. I'll remember your face, and she goes missing, I'll hold you responsible, Theo."
"I wouldn't expect anything less from our chief of police," he assured her with a passive-aggressive smile. She harrumphed, then turned on her heel and kept on walking to her destination. Theo draped Korra's hand across his shoulder and carried her down to the car, brooding over what he had just seen written on the piece of paper.
I guess it's been pretty obvious up until this point, but now the secret is out! If these notes at the beginning and end of chapters are annoying, tell me please. Thanks for reading otherwise!