Chapter Five: Help
It was a deceptively easy pregnancy.
That's the first relatively calm thought in Toph's head when all is said and done and she is wide-awake with a real-live baby in the crook of her arm. She hasn't decided on a name yet. Everyone around her has told her that the baby is a girl and that she is beautiful, but Toph doesn't measure beauty the same as the others.
To her, this baby is radiant—and terrifying.
She's alone in the birthing room with a bell pull to signal for the nurses and the instruction to think of a name soon. The baby cried a lot at first, but with some direction from the nurses latched on and was soon fed. Toph's face and hair feel stiff with drying sweat, but this little person—she feels new. Small, squishy, soft, and new.
Toph hasn't moved since the baby fell asleep, but it's not exactly new mother jitters. Not the way Katara described it, anyway. This is more full-blown panic, a fear that cuts her to her core. She's never been around babies before. She doesn't know how to take care of a poodle-cat, let alone a tiny human. This—she can't do this, she isn't qualified—
Even her usual stubborn obstinacy sounds weak and feeble when it announces that she is Toph Bei Fong and she can do this on her own. She's learned a lot in the past twenty-odd years since she first ran away from home, and one of those things is that…well…sometimes, even the Mighty Toph can't do everything.
Not that it helped this situation any. This baby…she only has one parent. One blind parent who would be just as likely to accidentally give her a bottle of alcohol as milk. Toph hates feeling this way, hates hates hates it, but even if she does still use nicknames and pick her nose, she can do this. She just needs a little direction, is all.
Sokka finds her in her quiet panic mode, fear evident on her face even in the weak morning sunlight. The baby is fussing a little, and Toph's hand is frozen, just inches away from the bell pull.
"Morning," he says quietly, leaving the door open as her fingers twitch.
"Morning," she croaks. The baby grows more insistent.
Sokka wordlessly takes the baby out of Toph's arms and sniffs her.
"Needs a diaper change," Sokka announces.
"And a feeding," Toph grimaces. Sokka reaches over and is about to ring the bell pull when she grabs his wrist.
"Toph," he frowns, but she shakes her head firmly.
"I can do it," she says stubbornly. "Show me how and I can do it."
"I'm no expert, but I think we need diapers first," he replies. "I'm not any good at this stuff, either. Just let the nice nurses take care of everything until you're good to go home, and then Katara can show us both. Okay?"
Toph relents and lets Sokka ring for the too-perky too-motherly nurse.
The first few days are a trial. The baby won't stop crying, and Toph is so flustered by it that she actually screams back at first. She's unnerved by Aang's uncanny ability to quiet her daughter with a few gentle bounces and resents Katara's skill with diaper-changing. The only thing that makes it better is that it's both Toph and Sokka getting lectured by her when they decide it's a good idea to just let the kid run free for a while (not so good when they both have to clean up the mess before the baby can go down in the crib, but hey, it's a work in progress). Her "family" are in her house so often it's like they live there, too; Sokka comes over every day before and after work and brings her news of the outside world as she tries to give her daughter a bath in two inches of water. Yuuko stops by a few times, too, bringing some much-needed and suspiciously new baby equipment. He's enchanted by the baby, of course, and babbles at her for a full hour before Toph, straining to contain a smile, asks if he wants any tea.
She decides on the name Lin. When asked she shrugs and says she just always liked the name. She doesn't mention that it reminds her of when she first ran away, all the campfires and dangers and excitement in the Earth Kingdom forests before they gave way to oceans and islands and then cities.
Lin is an easy baby, by Katara's standards, but she's not there at two in the morning when Toph can't figure out what's wrong and gets so frustrated she cries, too. She's not there when Lin spits up and Toph gets a faceful.
Lin is three months old, though, by the time Director Chang pays a visit.
Sokka's over, playing with Lin, and Toph is catching a much-needed catnap when the knock on the door wakes her. She trudges up and opens the door to admit her boss. He doesn't cross the threshold, but Sokka's voice is audible and the baby's giggles are, too. She imagines the line of his mouth tightening (then imagines punching it), but his first words are congenial.
"Congratulations," he says, shaking Toph's limp hand. "Got that motherhood glow about you, I see."
The only glow Toph can think of is the increasingly irritable itch spreading from her head to her stomach that has an unruly amount of control over her fists.
"It's about work," he says, more uneasily, and Toph sets her jaw, ready for his well-worn "You're pushing it" speech.
"We…the directors, that is…we just want to make sure that you'll be alright," he says, and there's a touch of genuine concern in his voice that throws her off-balance, "and we want to tell you that your job is ready and waiting for you when you feel fit."
"Thank you," she says stiffly.
"One more point of business," Chang sighs, lowering his voice. "The directors also want to be sure that the child is…well…"
"Well taken-care of?" Toph injects bluntly. "She is. They don't have to worry."
"Not just that," Chang replies delicately. "You recall the…ahem…fiasco, with Councilman Sokka?"
Toph cleans out her ears. Then she cleans them again.
"I'm sorry," Toph says, a dangerous edge to her voice that makes Chang take a step back, "are you referring to the incident that almost killed a perfectly good friendship because you directors wouldn't butt out of my life?"
"Chief—" Chang tries, but Toph raises her hand like she's about to slap him and he quiets.
"We've been friends for almost twenty years, maybe more, I can't keep track anymore," Toph says heatedly. "He's been here for me since Kenji—" she swallows hard and Chang opens his mouth, but he's woken the beast and he's going to get his due earful, "since I got pregnant, and he's going to be here as long as I need him. And what business is it of yours?"
"He's a city official, Toph, it looks—" Chang does not miss the profanity in her glare as she takes a step back herself.
The door slams shut, and Chang stares at it, a few undignified words of his own stirring in his throat before throwing his hands up and leaving. Toph doesn't much care if he fires her now or not, because Sokka's arms are suddenly around her.
"You are," he says, voice quavering with exaggerated (and some real) emotion, "the craziest, stupidest, most wonderful person I know." He pats the top of her head. "I could never give my bosses that kind of what-for. Well done, your Amazing Metalbenderness!"
"You're too much of a pansy," Toph grins, poking his stomach and making him flinch back. "How's the badgermole?"
"Happy and healthy as an ostrich-horse," Sokka announces, returning to Lin's blanket on the floor. "Isn't she? Isn't she the happiest healthiest baby in the world? Yes she is! Yes she is!"
"I'm gonna gag," Toph laughs. "Stop talking down to my kid."
The unspoken truth between them is that Toph would never ask him to stop, not really. She sips her tea in her customary chair and listens to the sounds of relative peace and quiet. For now, at least.
A/N: I noticed that up until this moment there'd been a disturbing lack of good old-fashioned Toph and Sokka Banter. So, Toph finally stands up to her boss, and adjusts to being a mom. With her friends there to help her all the way, of course.