Chapter 3: Gaoling

The baby was strong, standing on his own two feet, with help of course from his father's hanging fingers. "We should bring him to the festival!" Tenzin suggested absentmindedly as his lady folded his clean robes and put them away in the dresser in the room they shared.

"No! Absolutely not!" Lin said firmly. "We agreed he'd remain hidden until he was strong enough to fight and defend himself from ALL potential threats!"

"All potential threats? Lin, he may never be ready! If you just let him face the world-"

"HE CAN'T EVEN WALK! HE IS EIGHT MONTHS OLD! HE CAN'T EVEN SEE YOU CLEARLY LET ALONE FACE THE WORLD! Are you INSANE, Tenzin?" Lin yelled.

"You're being paranoid. The people need hope," Tenzin went on quietly.

"Hope? What hope? He's just another earthbender..." Lin replied. The truth even hurt her heart a little.

"This isn't about him specifically," Tenzin said.

"Then what?" Lin demanded.

"If you two are going to fight, then leave your son out of it, please," Katara said appearing just in time to whisk her grandson away to safety.

"It's about you," Tenzin confessed.

Lin froze.

"I want to bring him to the festival to show the world that we're trying, that you're trying to save us and that we're not just wasting time-," Tenzin said pulling a newspaper out of his bedside table and showing it to her.

Chief Lin Beifong of Republic City Conspiring against the nearly extinct Air Nation by wasting the Last Airbender's Very Valuable Time

"Well I'm sorry you being with me was such a waste of time! I'm sorry you agree with them that my only purpose in life is to breed!" Lin yelled skimming the unfamiliar article quickly before pausing.

"Wait, why haven't I been seeing these?" she demanded looking up at the date on the paper.

"I.—I didn't want you to be hurt by the recent headlines, so I've been having the papers intercepted. I didn't want you to feel any pressure. I know how it bothers you to see—"

"SO YOU KEPT THE PAPER'S FROM ME? You must have intercepted my mail here AND at the station!"

"It was for your own sake, Lin, Honey!" Tenzin insisted.

"HOW DARE YOU TRY TO CENSOR THE WORLD FROM ME! You FOUL, EVIL, LYING, LITTLE, COCKROACH!" Lin yelled throwing plates and photo frames at him as he dodged some and blew others away.

"I thought you could wait for me, for HIM to be ready, but clearly, you're too easily swayed by the people of that WRETCHED city. I'm done here, and I'm taking MY son with me," Lin said marching past him.

He grabbed her wrist. "Lin! Wait!"

She turned and produced a concealed throwing knife, holding it tight against his pale throat.

"Why don't you wait for once, Tenzin," Lin replied. She yanked her hand free and removed the knife and went to fetch her travelling cloak her passport and her baby from Katara.

"I'm leaving!" she explained to the waterbender who sighed, and reluctantly handed over the child to his mother, understandingly.

Lin took the ferry wearing green and black robes with a heavy coat over everything covering her body and her baby. She took the city tramway straight to the international train station and went to board the first class car.

"Lady Lin Beifong Of Gaoling," she said showing the conductor her crisp, bright green, gold trimmed first class passport stepping up onto the train without any ticket needed.

"Ch— Chief?" the conductor stammered in disbelief.

"Call me that again or let anyone know I'm on this train and I'll personally spear your head on a pike and stick it in the ground along side the tracks of this train as a warning," Lin growled moving to take a seat near the front of the train car so that hardly anyone would see her in their passing.

The conductor gulped and proceeded to check everyone else's passports in the first class cabin.

The master earth and metalbender found her grandparents' house easily enough once she reached the Southern Earth Kingdom village, considering she lived there for four years during the Yakone proceedings.

"Who goes there?"

"Lin Beifong, daughter of Toph and Granddaughter to Lao and Poppy, let me pass." Lin replied loudly and clearly.

"I am sorry, the master says no one is to be allowed in past sundown. Family or friend makes no difference," the guard said firmly.

"Then you leave me with no choice but to force entry," Lin replied as she bent the ground out from beneath the wooden gate, causing it and the archway above to sink a dozen feet into the ground.

The guards jumped off the wall and raised rocks at her. With one hand Lin shielded the baby tied across her chest and with the other she bent a myriad of jagged pillars and fissures to swallow some guards and launch others over the wall. One guard appeared behind her. She whipped around and sent a boulder at his face, throwing him back into the ground. She turned to face the gate again to find only the captain of the guards, not yet incapacitated. Her hood had fallen off revealing the infamous scars that marred her face and her cloak had slipped from her shoulders revealing the innocent baby tied to her waist.

The captain of the guard gasped. "You are with child."

Lin looked down. Right. She probably should have mentioned that before and avoided this little battle. Oh well. It was nice to stretch a few limbs after such a long train ride anyways.

"Come in," he sighed waving her past the carnage of the wall and its guards.

"Lin, you should know a proper lady never shows up unannounced," Lao Beifong scolded his grand daughter from his seat atop the throne in his house while she kneeled before him, holding her baby.

"Forgive me, Grandfather. I had no time to send notice. I had to get out for myself and my son-"

He looked down at the baby with disapproving eyes.

"Is he another bastard like his mother?" Lao asked venomously. Lin blinked away tears of anger as she held him tighter.

No. He's legitimate and I AM married. Lin wanted to say, but couldn't. "I have a boyfriend,"

"Is he one of your prisoner's then?" Lao asked.

"No! He is a GREAT MAN! We just got into a disagreement!" Lin yelled at her grandfather with tears streaming down her face.

"If he is so great, then why have we not heard of him or our own great grandchild? You couldn't put this in a letter, Lin?"

"Because I am the Chief Of Police, and his father, is the Avatar's son, Tenzin. We—I was afraid the triads in Republic City would target in his infancy to get to us since he is so small and weak and vulnerable at this stage.

"So no one knows of him?" Lao asked.

"No one knows about him but us, his parents, my mom, and the White Lotus, until now," Lin confirmed.

"Why did you leave the City? Did the Avatar's son strike him or you or something?"

"No, it was nothing like that! Tenzin just wanted to reveal him at the gala after we had already agreed to keep him a secret, so I had to flee just in case he went through with his little plan to announce the existence of our baby."

"So you came here seeking shelter?"

"Yes, but not permanently."

"Then for how long?"

"A week."

"Is the baby an airbender?"

"No," Lin replied.

"It's a shame. Such a link would have helped the family greatly,"

Lin gritted her teeth with frustration. "I will NOT let you use MY son for your own selfish gains!"

"Dear grandchild, you are not in Republic City. Here, family is everything. You of all people should understand the social game we are all obligated to play," Lao said. Lin closed her eyes and turned away while Lao shifted his attention to a maid. "Now, you, go prepare a room for my granddaughter and a nursery for my great grand son,"

"The latter won't be necessary," Lin interrupted.

"Pardon me?"

"My son STAYS BY ME, even when we sleep," Lin growled like a mama saber-moose-lion protecting her baby.

"Very well," Lao nodded. "Just the one room will do,"

The next morning, Lin woke up alone. She grabbed her silk robe and ran outside and across the courtyard to the main house bare feet and angry.

"Where is he?!" she demanded finding her grandmother eating with the baby in her lap.

"He woke up early; we didn't want to wake you. Besides, I've never held a baby before and must admit, I was rather curious,"

"What?!" Lin asked in disbelief.

"When Toph was born blind, the doctors showed her to me and offered to kill her for free. I declined their offer, but did consent to she being fed by wet nurses after her father told me the blind child would simply be a waste of my time,"

"Well that explains so many things," Lin muttered under her breath remembering her mother's utter refusal to engage in any physical form of affection..

"What was that?" Poppy asked.

"Nothing, may I please just have my son back?" Lin asked frustratedly.

"Yes, here he is," Poppy said handing the good-natured, little, bubble-blowing boy to Lin who held him tightly, listening peacefully his beautiful little heart beat.

The day after the festival happened in Republic City, a sky bison appeared over the Beifong Estate in Gaoling.

"A Master Tenzin of the Air Nation wishes to speak with your granddaughter," the servant said to Lao as he had lunch with his wife and granddaughter.

"Tenzin, the son of the Avatar?" Lao asked incredulously wanting to not believe for the longest time that his defiant young granddaughter would ever land a mate so… worthy of courting the Beifong name.

"Yes, sir," the servant said bowing and backing out of the room.

Lin sighed and rolled her eyes.

"What do you want, Tenz?" Lin asked bitterly shifting her son in her arms.

"Now, now, let us all calm down and hear what the man has to say," Lao said to Lin more than anybody.

"I wanted to say sorry to— Er..." Tenzin glanced at Lin. "My girlfriend for overstepping my bounds, censoring information from her and making stupid decisions regarding our child. Our son's existence will remain a secret until he is old enough to be able to defend himself from any potential threats in the world. And sir, Mister Beifong, if Lin will have me again, I've come to take her home." Tenzin said to the master of the house, while not taking his eyes off of his lady the entire time. "Please Lin, forgive me and come home. I have missed you sooooooo much." Tenzin begged.

Lin looked down at the small eight-month-old boy in her hands. A boy needed his father. She needed a father but never had one. She could not do the same disservice to him.

"But wait! Other than you honoring your promise to me regarding our son's safety, what else will you do if I come home?"

Tenzin bent down on one knee and opened a small box and pulled out a piece of jewelry, an obsidian pendant on a black satin ribbon, and presented it to his favorite person in the entire universe. "I will make you my wife, officially and love all of our children equally. I swear to you, complete loyalty. I will never hide information from you ever again. I will help you with the laundry and in the kitchen and—,"

His promises were getting cheesy, she thought as she raised her free hand to silence her stupid, little arrowhead. "Alright, I'll come home," she said with a smile as Tenzin moved forward to tie the necklace around her neck. "The color will blend with your uniform perfectly. Nobody in the force or in the prisons needs to know about you, and me," he whispered as he kissed her cheek tenderly.

"I must say Lin, I am impressed. We didn't think you could land a respectable husband," Lao confessed.

"Thanks grandfather," Lin said sarcastically frowning at her rather infuriating grandfather.

I always imagine that Lin's interactions with Grandpa Lao and Grandma Poppy would be rather... strained. Just read "You will be both" if you want to see more details on how I picture their rather toxic relationship to be. Lao kind of being controlling again, and hella passive aggressive with his comments, and Lin, enduring. Anyways, Lin and Tenzin are engaged now so all of their children will be legitimate and Lao can't call them bastards, like he sometimes called Lin whenever he was annoyed or angry with her.