I totally meant to post this chapter yesterday! So here it is. I'll respond to the last chapter's review in the newer chapter.

Sokka started at the ceiling. It was a bleak new lifestyle. Studies weren't exactly a thrilling feat but now he pined for them. Just as well, he tried not to think about them at all, about how far behind he was getting in his academics by being in here. And he had no one to blame but himself. He had left Katara alone and had given Jet an ample opportunity to assault his little sister. He had promised to protect her and he let her down. He sacrificed her well being for sex. Sex that he could have had at literally any other time, yet he chose to have it then and at a high school party.

He had wanted to cling to his high school days, by all means he was doing a good job; he had the irresponsibility and stupid decisions down to a tee.

He didn't blame his father for only dropping in once. The man had given him a good luck and an, 'I'll do what I can'. He promised that he loved him just as well as he had before the arrest but despite all efforts, Hakoda couldn't keep the disappointment from his eyes.

That had been his Sunday morning.

His Sunday evening was somehow worse.

"What am I going to do?" Suki's voice still vibrated clear as day in his head. He vividly recalled the way her hand swept up and down her baby bump. "I can't do this alone Sokka!" And he knew just what an ugly position he had put her in.

The father of her baby was a jailbird. Even if his crime was a defensive one.

It settled in, all too late, that he wanted to be a father. That he really, truly did, want to be a part of that baby's life. Fully part of it, not just a cluster of visitation hours. His stomach knotted all over again in thinking about the unchecked fear in Suki's eyes. The prospect of having to raise a baby alone. He ran his fingers through his hair. If she dropped out to raise a kid it would be all his fault.

Everything in the past few years had been one reckless and impulsive decision after the next. Somehow each new one made the one before it worse.

That evening he had to watch the cops marshall a weeping Suki out. Visitation hours had ended and she would be alone again. Alone for the appointments she was supposed to go to. Alone when they did another ultrasound. He would be in this dismal cell instead of seeing how his baby was developing.

Even so, he couldn't bring himself to regret blooding Jet's pretty-boy face. The boy had spent so much time instilling so much fear in his little sister, he had deserved the beating he got. Frankly, Sokka hoped that Jet's stunning face would be left scared and ugly. He hoped that he and Chan and brought the ugliness to the surface.

.oOo.

Suki had never felt so lonely. Even surrounded by the softball team she felt isolated. They could give her heaps of support and she would still feel alone. They couldn't help her with the baby, they didn't know what the pregnancy was like.

They didn't know how it was to be started at in the school hallways and at the mall. The judging looks handed to her when she went to religious functions. It was worse still to be on her way to her checkups and receive hard stares from other pregnant woman. It would seem that she couldn't find sympathy anywhere. And she had messed things up with the person who supported her the most.

All because her hormones had her feeling ridiculously horny.

She swore to herself that she'd never be having sex again, it only seemed to lead her to terrible places.

She rested her hand on her belly, thinking over whether or not she should call or text Katara. Katara could use the support, but somehow she felt as though her voice would only make things worse. She also couldn't promise herself that she wouldn't make things about herself. God, she was such an emotional trainwreck.

She was thinking about Sokka's arrest and how it impacted her. She could only imagine where that left Katara. So why was it that her mind always seemed to drift back to herself and how she was going to be affected.

She was a bad friend and she was going to make a worse mother.

She couldn't take care of and watch over her best friend, how was she going to protect her own child?

.oOo.

Sokka was torn from his sleep and hauled carelessly into a room with a large glass window, a large table, and two chairs. The investigator seemed to have no love for him. He stood stoically, a solid wall of muscle and apathy. He got the sense that the man wouldn't care to he to hear a sob story about how he was just trying to be a good older brother-even if his arrival had been late.

No, this officer wasn't a man pathos would work on.

To his luck another officer entered the room. This man looked more approachable. "Don't mind him." The officer gestured to his co-worker. "It's standard procedure to have another officer in the room when questioning a defendant."

Sokka listened to the man's introduction, finding more relief in that he was going to be talking to Katara and TyLee as well. Perhaps he did have someone on his side after all.

"Now, this case is going to be a little tricky." Yu-Ron stated. "That Jet boy is a minor and you aren't. In the eyes of the law, that's a pressing ordeal. However, there's a very strong chance that the jury will be on your side. I haven't seen many cases where there wasn't outrage when the court ruled in support of the accused."

At the very least, it sounded like Katara's odds were good. "Good!" He muttered, "if you make the court makes the wrong call then there should be backlash." He regretted it as soon as it was out of his mouth, well-intentioned, it sounded uncooperative as far as the legal system was concerned.

Yu-Ron chose mercifully to ignore the outburst. "If we can find you a lawyer who can get Chan Haga to admit that he had dealt most of the damage before you got there, you will have a much easier time. I will be frank with you…"

Sokka gulped.

"Regardless of the circumstance, because you are an adult who had beaten a child, you probably won't get away without a punishment. If you cooperate with myself and others who you will speak with, jail time can be swapped for fines or community service."

At least there was some ray of hope, Sokka supposed that he wouldn't mind sacrificing some college parties for community service after class. He just hoped that the blotch on his record wouldn't have the campus closing its doors on him.

"So let's begin, shall we? Tell me, to the best of your memory, what occured on the thirty-first of this month."

.oOo.

She was permitted to skip school to visit Sokka. Evidently she found it rather cruel that visiting hours so directly conflicted with school hours. And crueler yet that they had pulled Sokka for investigation during visiting hours on the one day she had to drop in. She had driven all that way only to be turned away. At least they had let her write a letter to explain the conflicting schedules, it did her conscious no good to know that Sokka would be coming back from a grueling investigation to more bad news.

Everything in her brain screamed at her and pleaded with her to contact Katara, but truth be told she was afraid of the confrontation. And she didn't understand why, months back she would have driven right over to Katara's house to talk things over.

But this?

This was a new situation entirely. It wasn't some petty high school spat. She hadn't worn the dress Katara wanted to wear to homecoming. She hadn't began crushing on the same boy Katara had eyes for. No, it was worse. She had left her best friend at the mercy of a predator. And he had struck.

Suki didn't know how to confront that.

She couldn't imagine that Katara wanted to even breathe the same air as her anyways.

Maybe it made her a coward, but she stayed at home with her phone on silent.

And maybe it made her a coward twice over, but when her parents came to check on her she vowed that everything was okay. It wasn't like they could help her anyways, communication hadn't been the same since her belly had begun to swell.

Since they could no longer pretend that they weren't going to be grandparents.

.oOo.

Tuesday and Wednesday were absolutely agonizing. He couldn't see Suki nor Katara. He wished that they would let them drop by after questioning. At least for ten minutes, he'd even take five. But he was a criminal as far as they were concerned and criminals didn't get sympathy.

Sokka could only hope that Jet was receiving much harsher treatment than he.

.oOo.

Every time Suki looked in Katara's direction or passed her in the hallway, the girl turned away from her. She was beginning to think that she'd have to sit with her softball team. Not that she completely detested the idea, but she could do without the doting they usually did.

She didn't fancy leaving Katara alone either.

She took a deep breath and set her lunch tray down. "Hey, Kat."

Apparently, the meal of the day was extra good because Katara was now wholly invested in it.
"I'm gonna sit down, okay?" She had a good feeling that it wasn't but she wiggled her way onto the bench anyhow. She nearly groaned, those lunch tables were not made to accommodate pregnant teens. It was only going to get worse as the baby bump became more prominent. With a huff, Suki asked, "are you doing okay?"

The only response she earned for a while was Katara accidently brushing her arm against her.

"I wish you stuck this close to me at the party."

Suki gulped. She shared the same sentiment. Why couldn't she have just waited until she and Sokka got home? Katara had every right to be furious. "I didn't mean to…" She started.

"You knew that I needed your help. The only reason I came to that party was to hang out with you and Sokka!" This was the first time Katara had ever snapped on her like that. "I was wondering why you didn't just want to hang out at home instead. It's harder to sneak away from your friend to have sex when it's just the three of you."

Suki let her head hang, knowing that Katara was only hollering the truth. "I know, it was stupid."

"Stupid, yeah. Funny how I got to pay the price for your stupidity this time around.

Suki winced. That one had hit home. She stared down at her baby bump. The implication that her baby was simply a price to be paid, a punishment…

The worst part was, she had seen her baby as such too when she'd first seen that little plus sign.

.oOo.

It was salt in the wound to see Katara talking to Azula instead of her. It would seem that she was somehow lower than the girl who had gone out of her way to make Katara absolutely miserable. At least what she had done was an accident. She met Azula's eyes only briefly and she wished nothing but the worst for her, swooping in and stealing Katara like that…

She waited until Katara was deeply into the conversation to leave the table. Katara probably wouldn't even notice if she disappeared to the softball table.

As much as she wanted Katara to have someone to talk to, the idea of her choosing Azula was enough to drive her up the wall and then to the ceiling.

When Katara called her that night, she found herself feeling horrible for wishing Azula the worst. She had a feeling that Katara wouldn't have reached out to her at all, if the other girl hadn't made an attempt on her own life.

Suki hoped that she didn't stress Katara out that much, she didn't want the girl thinking that she was going to hurt herself too. But she had an inkling that Katara was reaching out to her just in case. She grabbed her car keys and gave her mother a goodbye and a warning that she may be spending the night with Katara.

Katara opened the door and let her inside. "Mom says you can spend the night." She paused. "Will you spend the night with me?"

Suki nodded.

She followed Katara to her bedroom. It was more than a relief to be back there, she almost thought that she would never see the crazy overload of boy band posters nor the collection of octopus plush toys piled in every corner. The baby blue of the walls brought Suki a sense of calm and faintly she pondered upon how she'd be painting her baby's nursery or if she would at all. It brought an ache to her heart, Sokka was supposed to help her with the paint job. He was supposed to help her pick the color.

As she laid her pillows and blankets out out Katara spoke up. "You can bring those onto the sofa, you shouldn't be sleeping on the floor, you're back is probably already killing you!"

Suki gave a soft laugh. "No kidding."

"If you want, you can take the bed."

"Sofa should be fine…" Suki trailed off.

"I'm sorry I've been such a jerk…"

Suki cut her off. "I think that you get an ass pass this time."

"A what?!" Katara sputtered.

"An ass pass! You know, like a pass to be an asshole."

"Gee, thanks." Katara laughed.

"You don't have to apologize." Suki sobered. "You needed Sokka and I and we left you. You should be mad. If I were you I wouldn't have called me over."

She knew what Katara was going to say before she opened her mouth. "I didn't want you to feel alone, like Azula…"

"I'm not going to hurt myself, Kat. I've got a baby on the way." Suki assured.

"I didn't want to take any chances." Katara mumbled. "There's already enough tragedy to go around. Shakespeare could write a play about us all."

"Wow, you're such a dork." Suki tried to lighten the mood. "Really, Kat, I'll be fine. I'm worried about Sokka, I wouldn't do anything to make things worse for him." She paused again. "Or for you."

"I'm worried about him too! I'm so worried. And I'm worried about Azula. And Aang and Toph…" Katara rambled. "It seems like everyone's having a bad time."

"It's kind of reassuring if you think about it." Suki noted.

"Reassuring?"

"Yeah. To know that you're not the only screw up." She knew that Katara didn't take solace there, so she added, "to know that you're not alone." She drummed her fingers on the top of her belly, in a few weeks she'd probably start feeling some kicking. "Everyone is going through something, maybe if we can all get it together we can help each other."

"And Sokka gets on my case for being too optimistic." Katara rolled her eyes. Suki noticed her look down at her phone. She was quiet for a while. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you leave me?"

There it was, the question she dreaded because she couldn't answer it. "I...I don't know, Kat. It was a horrible idea, I was just tipsy and horny. I guess." That's how her first happy accident came to be. She was just tipsy and horny. It was even worse reminding herself that she had drank enough to get tipsy with a baby in her belly. It hadn't even occurred to her until just then and she feels tears coming to the surface. "Kat, what if I hurt the baby!?"

Katara sighed rather loudly. "I'm sure one night of drinking won't do anything."

The horror remained plain on her face.

"Alright, alright." Katara plopped down in front of the computer. "How about we consult our, always truthful internet doctors."

Suki rolled her eyes, she supposed that that would have to do until her appointment tomorrow.

.oOo.

Thursday was now Sokka's favorite day of the week. It was a day that he hadn't really put much thought into before hand. It was never the best day of the week but it was also never the worst. It was no Friday but at least it wasn't Wednesday.

It was however, the day Yu-Ron opened his cell door and said, "you're free to go."

Sokka leapt off of the bed and hustled out of the cell as though he though Yu-Ron would shout, 'just kidding' and shut the door on him.

"But you will be place under a house arrest of sorts, until your trail. Meaning, you go to your classes and to any make-up sessions and then you go to your dorm and study. You will be monitored." He held up a very stylish looking GPS bracelet. Sokka couldn't wait to show that off to his mates. Yu-Ron handed him a few slips of paper. "Read them over and sign them and you're free to go."

Freer than he was now anyways.