Disclaimer: I don't own ATLA

The final chapter (chapter 5) will hopefully be up by week's end.

The rescue team left the spirit world with Katara's spirit, a vial of spirit water and the understanding that children were in her and Aang's future.

Chapter 4

Aang's spirit returned first. It found his meditating body at the infirmary near the Earth Kingdom Royal Palace. Katara's rescue team had discussed the safety of their physical forms before crossing the bridge between the two worlds. It was decided that they should remain with Katara at the infirmary and be protected together by the members of the White Lotus.

Shortly after Aang awoke, Faang returned Sokka and Iroh to their waiting bodies. They opened their eyes and surveyed the room quickly to ensure all had made it back unharmed. Katara had been told that her spirit could not reenter her lifeless form. She hoped the spirit water would heal her body just enough to sustain life and allow her spirit to enter again. If things went as planned, very soon she should feel much worse than she did now, but she would be alive.

"Welcome back." said Master Piandao, standing guard and looking at the three now moving travelers .

"Thanks, it's good to be back," replied Katara.

"He can't hear you, Katara," Aang told her thoughtfully. "We're the only ones who can see or hear you until you're back in your body," he said, motioning to Sokka and Iroh. It sounded so obvious when he said it but she hadn't expected to be invisible.

"This is creepy," she whispered back.

"She's here?" asked Piandao.

"Yeah, we got her back," Sokka brimmed with pride and the excitement of what they were about to do.

"I think we're good now," said Iroh, nodding to Piandao. "Tell the others we'd still like the door guarded, but only from the outside…until we're finished."

"Can you tell Suki we're here?" Sokka knew she'd put herself on guard duty as well and wanted to ease her mind . Piandao nodded and left the room.

"Okay, Roku said to use it quick and use it all, so let's do this." Aang said urgently. He walked over to the table where the body of Katara lay and reached around his neck for the water filled pendent. "I know this will work." His words were sure but his tone wasn't.

"It will," stated Katara simply.

"You sound so sure." Sokka smiled at her unwavering hopefulness.

"The Fortuneteller said so." She replied confidently as she walked towards the table. "She said I'd die in my sleep. It's not my time."

She tried not to shudder as she stood next to the large block of ice which encased her body. Before leaving for their spirit world rescue, they'd wrapped her body to protect her skin and Aang had lovingly enveloped her in ice to preserve her.

"I love you." Aang had wanted to say it since her accident.

Looking around the room she replied honestly, "I love all of you. I'm ready."

Aang noticed the look of fear on her face. "I know you're scared, you don't have to look if you don't want to." With that she turned to look at Sokka and watched his reassuring face as Aang brought her back to life.

Waterbending melted the ice with one hand movement. She was unwrapped and Aang thought it weird that spirit Katara was wearing a blue dress and physical Katara was in only bindings. He wondered if everyone saw spirits the way they wished to see them. He'd talk it over with his friends later when this was behind them.

Her body looked pale and except for her neck, she was unmarred. She looked just as she had almost two days ago. Huu's words "time is an illusion, and so is death," repeated in Aang's head. Had the spirits realized their mistake and made time stand still for her? If death was an illusion then why did it hurt so much to lose those you love? He had so much he wanted to talk about with Katara.

His busy hands kept his mind off of what, or who lay before him. With Sokka's help, he lifted her into the sitting position before using the water, as she had done with him more than a year ago. The impact of the rock on her shoulder would have simply been painful but the sharp edge of the stone had sliced her throat and spilled her blood too fast.

He quickly uncorked the vial and bended the water into his hand. With the water placed on her wound, Katara's spirit felt a familiar pull and seconds later she felt cold and pain and weakness and knew in her haze that she was alive.

They held her and their breath while they waited for movement or sound. She began to shiver from the cold and winced in pain and Aang and Sokka threw their arms around her while Iroh looked on with a sign of relief.

Quickly, the healers were called in to tend to her, to warm her. Aang and Sokka stepped out of the way as the stress and emotion of the moment took over and they hugged and thanked each other and then quietly wept.

Iroh cleared his throat and pointed to the waiting dragon curled up in the back of the room.

"I forgot, thank you Faang." Aang placed the amulet around the dragon's neck and watched him depart for his short journey home.

"You've been quiet." Aang stated softly "Are you feeling okay?"

Katara looked up at him from her place on the couch. "I'm Okay, I guess I'm just…a little mad."

"At me?" He looked surprised.

"No, well honestly, maybe a little." She looked away. "I'm mad at them and I'm mad at you. It's like my life isn't mine anymore. I owe them and I owe you. If we don't work out then I'm obligated to stay and obligated to have children and I feel so selfish for complaining. I'm so lucky to be here and to be with you, I just…..."

"Katara, you're not obligated to stay with me. I want you to." He sat next to her and continued softly, "I love you. I've always loved you, but you don't owe me anything. Well, maybe we need to be together at least once and you need to carry once but if you're unhappy you can leave." He looked down at the thought.

"I don't want to leave, Aang. I just want to know that I have that option."

"I'll never make you do something you don't want to. I guess I should have talked with you first, I assumed it was a deal you wanted me to make. I wanted you back, I was being selfish."

"If we had talked, I would have told you to make the deal. I want to be with you, Aang, and I want to have babies with you." Just the idea brought a smile to her face. "What exactly did we agree to?"

"Children," his eyes met hers and he smirked "at least ten."

"You're hysterical." She grinned again and moved closer to him.

"It's not really clear, I think we're just supposed to do what we would have done anyway. Be together."

"When you put it that way it's not so scary." She touched his cheek with her hand and leaned in and when her lips touched his she whispered against his mouth, "You saved me."

My rationale on the spirit world amulet: Because the spirit Hei Bai was able to pass from the spirit world into the physical world at will near the winter solstice, I'm allowing spirits and in this case, spirit world items, to become temporarily physical. We know Hei Bai became physical because of the way he/she grabbed Sokka and then took the acorn from Aang. Same goes for the amulet. It's a spirit world item that became physical upon Aang's return and was then returned to the spirit world with Faang after its use. In this story the summer solstice is a week away so the line between the two worlds is thinning. Apparently I've given this too much thought and I need to go back to the physical world as well.