Disclaimer: AtLA is property of VIACOM and Nickelodeon. No profit is made from this story.

Notes: Due to not-so-subtle-requests by reviewers, I'm going to start trying to make my chapters longer. Wish me luck xD

She was aware that things were going on around her, but she couldn't see anything. There wasn't enough energy in her body left to enable her to open her eyes. For several days she drifted between dreams, unconsciousness, and reality. It was hard to separate the three, usually she couldn't tell.

*

She was standing on the edge of the ice, looking out towards the ocean, deep blue, mysterious like an unanswered question. The sun was hanging lazily in the sky, such a pale shade of yellow it was almost white.

'Mom?'

Kya of the Southern Water Tribe was standing beside her, a blue-mittened hand on her daughter's shoulder. She looked up. Her mother's face was just as she remembered it – or at least as she thought she did – very beautiful, but this Kya, Dream Kya, was also very sad.

'I always knew this day would come.' She sighed. 'But you were so young …'

Katara blinked, thinking. This wasn't like her other dreams where Aang was before her in Fire Nation clothes, saying things that didn't make sense. This almost seemed real.

'What happened?'

Kya sighed. 'I am afraid that you have departed from the mortal world into the next – to be blunt, Katara, I think you might have died.'

'What?' Katara gasped. 'No – no, I can't be dead! What about Toph and Zuko? And Sokka and Suki? They all need me! I still need them!' Her words were coming out fast, all jumbled and confused.

When she looked up into Dream Kya's face, oddly enough, she saw that it was smiling. 'Well then,' said Kya, looking pleased, 'it seems you've made up your mind.'

'What do you –?'

The South Pole was gone and then there was darkness.

*

Something cool was being pressed to her forehead.

'Ugh …' she stirred.

'Sweetness?'

It was Toph … stupid nickname …

Katara drifted away … back to sleep …

*

The next few days passed in a confused blur, slowly becoming clearer as Katara rejoined the land of the living. On the third day, she recognized her surroundings as her own chambers. On the fifth day she saw Toph; by the sixth she was having steady conversations with the girl.

The seventh day passed, and she still hadn't seen Zuko.

On the eighth day Katara decided to ask Toph where the Fire Lord was.

'Huh? Oh, he hasn't been here since you – got sick. Did you know that Iroh's here?'

Katara knew that what had occurred by the turtleduck pond hadn't been mere illness. What had happened that day?

*

Several days later – by now Katara had given up trying to keep track of the time – Zuko came to visit her.

It was a warm day, but Katara could see that a storm was imminent. For starters, there was a steady, cool, breeze blowing through her bedroom window and purple-black thunderclouds were resting lazily in the sky.

Toph had been dozing on a wooden chair that she had pulled up by Katara's bed for some time now, but instantly woke as Zuko entered the room.

'Sparky!' she cried, staggering across the room – slightly drowsy – and throwing her arms around the Fire Lord's waist.

In Katara's eyes the sight was almost comical, the small, green-clad figure juxtaposed against the tall man clothed in red. One the Blind Bandit, champion of the Earth Rumble fights, earthbending master, always solving her problems with her fists, the other the Fire Lord – so changed from his old self, now reserved and blank. Yet Katara had seen Zuko fight before, as his enemy and by his side, and knew there was power burning inside of him.

Remembering how Toph's hug had almost squeezed the life out of her, Katara almost felt sorry for the guy, but she was still slightly groggy and her emotions were raw. Perhaps her supposed concern for Zuko was actually hunger. When was the last time she had eaten …?

Somehow, Zuko had managed to detach Toph from his waist, and had walked across the room to stand by Katara's bed.

'How are you feeling?' he asked. Toph went back to her old seat and sat down, looking slightly sheepish.

Katara tried to shrug, limply raising and lowering one shoulder. 'Fine … I guess …' There were nursing staff in her rooms – had been nursing staff, since the day she had woken up – and they had taken care of her every need ever since. Not only did they provide the basics for her – food and water – they also did the little things: opening a window to let the breeze in, changing the position of her pillow so it didn't deflate. Katara had grown to like the five women assigned to her care to a certain degree, and their assistance was always helpful.

'Are you sure?'

She nodded.

'You really had us worried there,' said Toph, 'we thought you were gone for good.' She sniffed.

'So did you ever find out what was wrong?' asked Katara, quickly changing the subject. She pulled herself up into a seated position.

Something flashed in Zuko's eyes – she couldn't discern what – and he made a motion with his hand. The five women instantly left the room, and Zuko and Toph's faces both turned grave.

Zuko took a deep breath. 'The official story is that you collapsed from stress and fatigue, and you're been assigned to bed rest by the palace physician.'

Katara bit down on her lip, unsure of what to say. Finally, she decided to speak up, regardless of what came out of her mouth. 'But you know and Toph knows and I know that I didn't collapse from being tired or whatever you said. Stress doesn't rip through you like fire,' she paused, briefly taking herself back to those agonizing moments by the pond, doubled over, crying from the pain, 'and it doesn't make you scream because it hurts.' She looked up, uncertain.

To her surprise, Zuko's face was suddenly wrought with pain – was that fear in there, as well? Katara couldn't tell. Perhaps he wasn't here, in her rooms, perhaps he too was by the pond right now.

'After Uncle arrived,' Zuko began, 'we talked. I came up with thousands of possibilities and explanations as to why you collapsed by the pond, but only one of them drew a logical conclusion.' He took a deep, shaky inward breath. 'I think you were poisoned.'

You could have heard a turtleduck rustle its feathers. Even Toph didn't dare to open her mouth.

'It would have been so easy …' Zuko was talking more to himself than anybody in the room, 'to slip something in while in the kitchens …' He sighed again, and stared at the ground for a moment, before lifting his gaze to meet Katara's.

'I'm so sorry for all of this,' he said, voice breaking.

This wasn't right – this wasn't the Zuko she knew. Had what happened to her really affected him this deeply?

Katara felt a stab of pain, purely emotional, when she saw what Zuko was going through. She prepared to speak – something about the weather – but Toph beat her to it.

'So why'd this jerk poison Sweetness?'

Always to the point.

'That's the problem,' said Zuko, 'this attack on Katara was clearly planned with deliberation, we – Uncle and I that is – think it meant something, perhaps an act of rebellion.'

'But what if it was me who was poisoned?' asked Toph. 'Would it have been an 'act of rebellion' too?'

'That's the thing: it wasn't you – it was Katara, the Avatar's fiancée. With Aang gone, and this is purely my opinion, I'd say that she's become almost a symbol to the people for Aang and everything he stood for: the end of the war. I mean, the rest of us were there and all of that,' he shot an apologetic glance at Toph, 'but Katara was closest to him.'

'So you're saying,' began Toph, 'that whoever did this didn't want the war to end?'

'Yes. But this sort of thing wouldn't have been accomplished by an individual; I think it might have been the act of a group of people. Of course, in order to get the poison into your food they would've had an insider placed in the palace, the staff are being interrogated as we speak, and Uncle has arranged for several White Lotus members from the Earth Kingdom to have a look around there, but so far nothing. '

Katara didn't say anything. Instead, she closed her eyes and let her head fall back onto her soft pillow, thinking.

Oh, Aang. I miss you so much. I think about you every single day. Would you still be with me if I had gone to fight Azula with you and Zuko?

We're all so lost without you, and now it looks as if there'll never be another Avatar – just because you died too quickly.

She was too sad to cry, if that was possible.

'– pond?'

What? Katara wondered if she had fallen asleep.

'It was horrible.' Zuko's voice was unmistakable, even though her eyes were closed. 'She was shaking all over and moaning, and then all of a sudden she was cold.' There was a pause.

'Still trying to figure out which one was worse?'

There was a good ten seconds of silence. Katara wondered if Zuko had left the room. But then there was that single, solitary word that confirmed that Zuko was still there.

'Yes.'

***

The day after the meeting with Zuko, Katara was told by the palace physician that it would be okay for her to start walking again. Although her progress was slow, it was steady, and in less than a week she was walking around her rooms with ease. Nobody was more delighted by her recovery than Toph, who visited her every day with news of what was happening, from the interrogations with the staff – still nothing to report – to how she had finally managed to beat Iroh at Pai Sho, much to Katara's amusement.

But Zuko didn't come back.

***

It was a cool night, with rain falling on the roof. The steady drumming was a soothing sound to Katara, enough to make her want to fall asleep. Toph was looking sleepy, too, but had made no effort to leave Katara's side.

'How long is it until Suki has her baby again?' asked Toph with a small yawn.

'I don't know. I think around now. We could both be aunts for all we know.'

'They're both really young. I mean, your dad doesn't feel old enough to be a grandfather – his heartbeat is so steady! I thought that grandparents were old.'

Katara laughed, remembering the look on her father's face when Sokka and Suki had first announced their news. Of course they were both ridiculously young, but at least they had Dad and Gran Gran to help them out. And Suki was responsible enough to make up for Sokka's lack of maturity.

'I'm sure they'll be great parents,' said Katara, voicing her thoughts. 'Although Sokka –'

Toph chuckled. 'I'm still having trouble linking Antsy Pants and the word 'dad' together. It just doesn't seem right. When we last spoke it was like talking to another kid … not a future father.'

'I don't know,' mused Katara aloud, 'he seemed pretty nervous about the whole thing – but we all know how much he loves Suki. Hopefully he's done some growing up in the past few months.' Her last statement only made Toph laugh louder.

'Let's just hope he's not in charge of naming it,' she wheezed out between laughter. 'Imagine this: 'Hi sis, meet your new nephew: Foo-Foo Cuddlypoops, named for that moose-lion cub that I didn't get to eat!''

Katara just laughed harder. 'I wish Zuko had been around to hear that one,' she said, smiling – it felt incredibly good.

'He was going to come,' said Toph quickly, 'but there was another one of those boring meetings to go to, that Earth Kingdom admiral came back.'

'Ouch. Poor Zuko.'

'Yup,' said Toph, 'poor, poor Zuko – literally. Some Fire Nation guys exploded a factory in Ba Sing Se and heaps of people were hurt and Admiral Nasou wants heaps more gold for those pension thingies he keeps talking about.'

The Fire Nation doesn't have that money. But Katara couldn't say that aloud. So instead she changed the subject.

'Hey Toph,' she said lightly, 'did you ever find out why Zuko didn't burn my old Water Tribe stuff?'

Toph shrugged. 'Nope – I thought you were going to ask him. But I did come up with an idea.'

'And?'

Toph's face quickly turned red, and Katara felt her stomach shift. 'I think Sparky cares about you – but not that way,' she added quickly. 'Let me explain: he was best buddies with Aang for so long, and then Aang died all of a sudden. And like Sparky said before, you were always closest to Aang. Then you randomly ask him to burn your Water Tribe clothes, and – I know you probably already know this – he could tell how sad you were, and that you were hurting really bad. And maybe he thought that you would regret it later, so he put them in storage in case you ever wanted them again. So,' Toph took a deep breath, 'I think that Sparky was trying to do something nice for Aang by being nice to you.'

Katara wasn't really sure what to say – maybe Toph was on the right path, or maybe not. She tried to remember what had happened … their exact conversation …

After …

'Are you sure?'

She nodded, not saying anything. This was what she wanted.

Those clothes, the blue dress and matching parka, were the ones she had worn the year she had traveled with Aang. She had floundered, waist-deep in water, into a bay on Kyoshi Island to rescue Aang from a giant man-eating fish while wearing this parka. She had fought Master Pakku for her right to learn waterbending in these clothes, while Aang cheered her on from the sidelines. She had held his limp, lighting-struck body under the crystal catacombs in this dress. She had agreed to marry him, standing by a pillar in the Southern Air Temple, in these clothes.

Katara couldn't look at this stuff; it was like a slap in the face. Every time she tried to talk herself – mentally, of course – into putting on her dress again, another memory of Aang popped up, each one more painfully bitter, yet sweet at the same time, than the last one.

Aang wasn't here. He wasn't coming back. Maybe he was in the Spirit World, that was supposedly where everyone went after their deaths, but Katara hoped that it would be many years before she went there.

Or maybe she didn't.

'Fine.' Zuko took the pile of clothes out of her arms. He didn't say anything else.

She watched Zuko walk down the hallway, feeling too empty to move. Aang wasn't coming back. Aang wasn't coming back.

Then he stopped walking and turned around, mouth slightly open, about to speak. For a second their eyes met. Then Zuko's mouth closed resolutely, and he continued walking away.

They both knew that some things were better left unsaid.