Chapter five was, in my opinion, the best chapter in the story. So far…

Recap: A new triad called the Element Striker killed six non-benders and were captured by Lin and Kuzon. Mako officially became a cop. Bolin was forced to hire two new members for the Fire Ferrets that aren't as good as Mako and Korra. Asami, Kuzon, Lin, and Lian were ambushed by the triad who escaped from the officers and attacked them for revenge.

I laughed when I wrote how Lin told Kuzon Tenzin was an orange. I laughed sooooooo hard my face went red, which doesn't happen often since I'm kinda dark-ish.

I'd like to thank the people who took the time to read this story. Whoever favorited, reviewed, followed, or just read it, thanks! You guys are awesome!

So here's the chapter you've been waiting for. Again, sorry for the long wait.

Chapter 6

Korra was conflicted. She was standing in front of the phone a nurse had kindly let her use to call Tenzin. He needed to know. But there was a pretty good chance he'd hang up on her and then come to the hospital as quickly as he could. He still deserved to know though.

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and dialed Tenzin's number.

"Hello?" Tenzin said, answering the phone. He sounded slightly tired.

Korra took a deep breath. She hoped he would stay calm. "Hey Tenzin. I'm at the hospital." she said casually.

Maybe she shouldn't have said that. "What? Are you injured?" he asked worriedly.

"No, but Kuzon is and so is his mom."

"Oh no." he whispered and he hung up.

"Tenzin? Tenzin?" Korra said, still on the phone. No answer. She sighed and hung up.

_line break_

Everything was a blur to Kuzon. He blinked rapidly and then he could see clearly.

He was in a white room, laying down on a white bed. Bandages were around his stomach and he pressed his hand lightly on it. It ached. Kuzon winced from the sharp pain.

"Hey sleepyhead." Asami said, smiling down at him.

"Where am I?" he muttered and rubbed his head.

Bolin's face popped into view. "In the hospital. Turns out you'll be fine! Some waterbenders healed you."

"How's Lian?" Kuzon asked.

"She's fine. Don't worry." said Korra and in her arms was his baby girl.

' He rubbed his eyes and then became alert. "Are the Element Striker triad in jail? Who's running the Police Force? What time is it? Man, I've got to get to work!" Kuzon said and began to sit up. His stomach began to hurt a lot and he yelped from the sudden pain.

"Easy, man." Mako said. He was wearing an officer uniform. He must've passed his test. "They're in jail. Saikhan's taking the reins and some officer took your position."

Bolin patted Kuzon's shoulder. "You need some rest."

"I can rest later. This is Saikhan we're talking about. He was the worst chief of ever! " he said stubbornly and began to get off the bed. His stomach was hurting but he didn't care.

Asami pushed him back on the bed. "Rest." she said firmly.

He sighed, knowing he couldn't argue with her. "Fine."

"I got something for you and Asami." said Mako, holding something behind his back.

Korra punched him lightly on the arm, her other hand carrying Lian. "Give me some credit!"

"Okay! Korra and I got you and Asami something."

"What is it?" asked Asami.

He gave Kuzon a package. "Open it."

He ripped it open and found papers. "What is this?"

"They're adoption papers. Now you two can officially adopt Lian and be her parents." explained Mako with a smile on his face.

"Officially!" added Bolin, a goofy smile on his face.

"Wow, thanks guys!" said Asami and gave them each a hug..

Kuzon grinned. "This is amazing. You guys are the best!"

Then he frowned.

"What's wrong?" Korra asked, a worried expression on her face.

"Lian's safe." he mused. "So is Asami. I'm at the hospital. Saikhan's the temporary Chief of Police. Where's my mom?"

The rest of Team Avatar was silent and they looked at each other.

Kuzon was slightly annoyed and worried. "Where. Is. My. Mother?" he asked through gritted teeth.

_line break_

"I'm here to see Lin Beifong." Tenzin said to a nurse.

She pointed to a door marked 142 and he ran there and opened the door.

Lin was on a white bed, sleeping. There were bandages wrapped around her torso and her breathing was slow. She looked so small and weak, her skin paler than usual. Tenzin bit his lip. She looked like she was dying.

"I'm here Lin." he said and sat next to her. She didn't reply or stir.

He took her hand in his and lightly stroked her soft skin. "I'm so glad you're alive." he whispered. "Please don't ever scare me like that again."

Tenzin sighed. "If you leave me, I don't know what I'll do. I love you, Lin. I can't bear to see you like this. Get well soon."

"Tenzin?"

He turned and saw Kuzon. He had crutches and was wearing bandages over his stomach.

"Kuzon. Are you alright?" he asked, helping his son on a chair next to him.

He gestured to his bandages. "Do I look alright to you?"

Tenzin shook his head. "Never mind then."

Kuzon looked at Lin, who was still unconscious. "Is she gonna be okay?" he asked and looked like a five-year-old when he did so.

"I don't know." Tenzin replied and looked at her. "I don't know."

The earthbender studied him. "You seem worried."

"Obviously. Do you think I'd be here if I didn't care?"

"Of course not, but…"

"But what?"

He waved it aside. "Never mind. Can you please leave? I want to be alone with her."

Tenzin nodded. "Of course." He hugged his son before leaving the room.

_line break_

"Alright guys, let's practice!" Bolin said. "I'm still bummed for Kuzon, but I'm still gonna put in some good effort!"

The waterbender sighed and looked at the floor.

"Uh, Bolin?" asked the firebender.

"Yeah?"

"I don't feel like practicing." he said. "I'm only doing this 'cause my mother threatened me to do something instead of being depressed in my bedroom."

Bolin's shoulders slumped. "Aw, c'mon! You'll love probending! Now let's practice some techniques, shall we?"

His fellow teammates sighed and did the techniques without effort or the spirit Mako and Korra had.

_line break_

"Hi Mom." he said to Lin. "How are you?"

There was no response. "I'm fine. That guy Chen and his friends are in jail now, thank goodness." He sighed. "Mom, I wanted to thank you. For saving my daughter, your granddaughter. If she died…" Kuzon trailed off, shuddering at the possibilities. "Anyway, Mako gave me and Asami adoption papers. We can officially be Lian's family. The weird part is, Hai is actually Lian's biological dad. So that's kind of awkward. I don't want her to be raised by him. I don't want her to know about him, but I can't hide everything from her. Eventually, she'll know. But for now, I'm glad she's alright and so is Asami. But…"

He glanced at Lin's still body. "I don't want you to die." he whispered, tears trickling down his face. "I want you to wake up, to roll your eyes at me and tell me what to do. Mom…I really miss you, and I want you to know I love you."

Kuzon changed the subject. He couldn't handle such emotional moments. "So Tenzin was just here. I think he plans on staying here the entire time. Probably wants to be here when you wake up. Saikhan's taken over as chief for awhile and some other guy took my position. Bolin's got two new members for the Fire Ferrets, but he sure isn't happy with them. I know you probably don't care about probending, but I thought you might want to know just in case. Asami, Lian, Mako, Bolin, Korra, and many others send their regards and hope you're back on your feet. Not to mention Tenzin. I've never seen the guy so worried before."

He heard his stomach growl. "I'm going to eat, then I'll be back when I can, okay?" Kuzon squeezed his mother's hand tightly and stroked her scars. He had given her those. "Bye. I love you, Mom."

_line break_

"Mommy, where's daddy?" Ikki asked Pema.

She looked at her tea. "At the hospital. Visiting Lin." Pema said her name in disgust.

"Hero lady's sick?!" Meelo exclaimed, panicking.

"Injured, actually. So is Kuzon. Your brother."

Jinora gasped and looked up from her book. "Kuzon's our brother?"

"Yes. Apparently Lin was pregnant with him when Tenzin broke up with her."

"Wow!" Meelo said. "I have a big brother!"

"But why didn't Daddy tell us?" Jinora asked.

"He didn't know until two months ago." she answered bitterly.

Ikki clapped her hands. "Yay! We have a big brother! And he's fun to talk to!"

"But he's still injured." Jinora pointed out, abandoning her book altogether.

Ikki's smile disappeared, and then came back. "Let's go take Oogi and visit him!" she said and led her siblings outside to the sky bison stables.

"Wait!" she called out after the children. She turned to an Air Acolyte and asked, "Can you please watch Rohan?"

_line break_

Asami stroked Lian's hair as she filled out some of the adoption papers in Kuzon's hospital room. Kuzon had to fill the rest out himself, but he was still visiting his mom. It must've been heartbreaking to see his mother in that state. She knew how it was. She had lost her mother to a firebender, and she had just lost her father when he was about to kill her. He was still alive, but he would never be her father again.

"Go to sleep, Li." she murmured softly and the baby's eyes began to close.

"Hey Asami!" Korra said brightly and sat down next to her.

Lian woke up and began to cry. She sighed and tried to calm the baby down.

"Sorry." Korra said.

Asami shook her head. "It's fine, don't worry about it. Where's Mako?"

"Working. It's his first day and he was really excited. He only came for a little bit just to see how your boyfriend was doing." she replied.

"Have you seen him lately?" asked Asami.

Korra said, "No. I saw him having a short lunch with Tenzin, but he left-"

"Agh! Doc, I told you, I'm fine!" Kuzon said, the doctor and a nurse holding his arms as they pushed him inside.

"Can you ladies please make sure he doesn't leave his bed?" the doctor asked, ignoring Kuzon's protests.

Asami nodded. "Sure."

The doctor and nurse left the room. Korra smirked at Kuzon. "Wow Kuzon."

"Yeah I know. I have to rest. But I don't want to." he said stubbornly.

Korra frowned. "Then we'll have to do it the hard way." she said and picked him up. He was surprised, then tried to get out of her grip. But Korra was surprisingly strong. She set him down on the hospital bed and pushed him so he was laying down.

Kuzon scowled. "Seriously?"

Asami laughed. "Nice one, Korra."

"Thanks." she said, grinning down at him. "You should be careful. They're considering tying you down to your bed."

"But-"

"No buts, Kuzon. " Asami scolded. "You have to rest. You just got electrocuted."

"It wasn't that bad!"

Korra rolled her eyes. "Tell that to your bloody shirt. They had to cut it off of you because the blood was sticking to it and your skin."

He slumped down on a pillow and muttered something intelligible.

"I'm going to go. Pema just arrived and Tenzin probably needs my help with the airbending kids." said Korra and left the room.

"Pema's here?" Asami asked.

He nodded. "Yup. The kids just found out they have a big brother. That's why I ran away and the doctor spotted me and scolded me for not staying in bed and all that nonsense."

Lian looked at Kuzon. "Daddy!"

His mouth was agape. "Daddy?"

Asami laughed. His expression was priceless. "Yup. We've been working on that one."

Kuzon smiled. "That's my girl." he said fondly and stroked Lian's soft cheek.

She turned to Asami. "Mommy!" she chirped. "Mommy!"

The young parents laughed and hugged their daughter.

_line break_

"Hi Daddy!" Ikki said when she saw Tenzin. She hugged his neck. Jinora hugged him briefly and of course, Meelo started gnawing on his head.

Pema stood behind the children coolly. He sensed their was something wrong.

"Dad, is Lin going to be okay?" asked Jinora.

"I hope so. But she's a fighter, so she'll alright." Tenzin replied. "We'll have to worry about the triad who did this though. When she's back on her feet…"

"…They're gonna get it!" Ikki finished.

"That's right." he said and looked at Korra, who just walked out of Kuzon's hospital room. "Is he alright?"

She chuckled. "Yeah, he's fine. Just grumpy. Reminds me of you."

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Can you please watch the children while Pema and I discuss something?"

"Sure. C'mon kids, are you hungry?" Korra asked them and led them to the hospital cafeteria.

Pema walked up to him. "So Lin's going to be fine."

"Yes. Hopefully."

She hesitated, then asked, "Tenzin, do you still have feelings for her?"

He bit lip and nervously looked down at the floor. How was he supposed to answer this? Should he be honest with her, and just tell her yes? Or should he lie and say he loved Pema more? Tenzin didn't know what to do. He didn't want to answer this question. It made him feel uncomfortable.

Tenzin decided to stall. "Have you seen Lian? She's quite the adorable little thing."

"I haven't, but that's beside the sub-"

"You know what, they serve amazing food in the hospital cafeteria. I'm going to go eat some." he said and ran away while Pema fumed.

"TENZIN!"

_line break_

"You should be honored…you're my first arrest." Mako said to a thug as he handcuffed him.

The guy snorted. "Right. Congratulations, officer. Like I care. Why don't you run along to Mommy and tell her your big accomplishment?"

He gritted his teeth. It wasn't allowed for an officer to beat up a criminal when they weren't trying to escape. The mommy comment stung, but Mako stayed strong and indifferent.

"Whatever. Let's just get you behind bars." he said, pushing him forward to Police Headquarters.

_line break_

Hai hated jail.

It was cold and boring. The food wasn't that bad, though. He still missed the rich food he used to eat when he was rich. Hai wanted to go back to Ba Sing Se.

Having a child with the woman he was courting was a bad move. Of course, his parents wanted that but it was too early for that. He was supposed to propose in five years and then have children with her. Now her family did not want to see him again and his family disowned him.

When she gave birth to their daughter (in the rain, and on the streets, no less), Hai told her to leave the baby with someone. She was fond of their daughter but she wanted her inheritance even more. So he persuaded her to give some pathetic thugs their daughter about five months after she was born so they could go back to Ba Sing Se.

But when they had reached Ba Sing Se after a long and tiring journey, her parents had taken her back but his had not. They said Hai had shamed them and banished him from their home. He was angered but left Ba Sing Se to start a new life in Republic City. He arrived two weeks later and met Chen and Quan. They were attempting to rob him because of his rich clothing but he told them he had nothing. When they didn't believe him, Hai bloodbended them. Impressed, Chen allowed Hai to join them and so the Element Strikers Triad was born.

Then the Police Captain crashed their hideout and everything went downhill from there. They barely escaped the officers o their way to jail. Hai wanted to just leave Republic City and cause trouble elsewhere, but Chen persuaded him to get revenge on the Chief and Captain.

Hai was shocked to find his daughter in the arms of that rich girl and alarmed when the Captain defended her and his daughter. When he said the baby was his daughter out loud, he was knocked out by the Chief and woke up in prison.

"So, Captain." he muttered. "You seem awfully fond of my daughter."

He had been talking to himself a lot lately. He didn't share the cell, so he was often bored.

What if the young Police Captain was planning on adopting his daughter? It seemed possible. The rich girl-he remembered her name, Asami Sato-acted motherly towards her. And they even named her. Lian. Her birth name hadn't been Lian. They had named her Yun.

It didn't matter to him if they wanted to adopt his daughter. Hai did not want to be in her life.

_line break_

Tenzin sat on a chair and stared at Lin's unconscious body.

He missed her. A lot. He couldn't even express it in words.

Sometimes he wondered what would happen if he had raised a family with Lin. He loved his children with Pema, but he felt like he would love them more if he was in love with their mother.

Which he wasn't.

Tenzin sighed. Life was so complicated.

He was planning on staying here the night, much to Pema's displeasure. Kuzon told him to go for it, but he thought the boy only wanted that to irritate Pema. He didn't like her and Tenzin supposed that he couldn't blame him. She was too soft, too easy to be with. Opposites attracted. That was one of the true things about love.

"Tenzin?"

He lifted his head and saw Lin sitting up. She winced from the pain.

Tears of happiness trickled down his face. "Lin." he said and hugged her neck.

She was surprised, but then hugged him back. "Hello, Baldy."

"I was so worried." Tenzin said and buried his face in the crook of her neck. "So worried."

Lin patted his back. "Don't worry, I'm fine. Just a couple of bruises and all that." she said nonchalantly.

He frowned and looked her in the eye. "You almost died. Don't you remember that the firebender shocked you with lightning?"

"Of course I do! I'm not that old." she said, rolling her eyes. "But do you really think some firebender could kill me?"

Tenzin laughed and swooped down to kiss her lightly on the lips. "Of course not. But still. Do you know what I'd do without you?"

"Hmm…that's quite a good question." she said mockingly.

"I would never love again. I doubt I'd even eat, sleep, or breathe." he said, his hot breath tickling her ear.

Lin rolled her eyes again. "Don't be melodramatic Tenzin."

"It's true."

"I need to discuss something with you." she said seriously.

"What is it?"

"It's about us…"

His brow furrowed. "What's wrong?"

She took a deep breath. "We need to be clear about this. I know you love me, and I love you too. But there are still important things that we need to sort out. This isn't fair to Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, or Rohan. Not to mention Pema, or Kuzon for that matter. So what are we going to do? Your children with Pema deserve better than this. They're going to be heartbroken if you divorce her."

Tenzin sighed. "But she's not the one I want to be with."

"There's no guarantee they are going to understand that. Either divorce her, or…we end our relationship."

His jaw dropped. "What?"

"Trust me, I don't want that." she said quickly. "But this secret relationship is hard for me. We need to settle on something."

Tenzin nodded and stroked his beard. "I should go and break the news to her." he decided.

She kissed his cheek. "It's all up to you. I won't hate you if you chose her."

"Bye Lin. I'll come by tomorrow if I can to visit you and Kuzon."

Lin frowned and grabbed his arm. "Kuzon's here? Is he alright?"

He smiled kindly and stroked the side of her face. "Yes. He's fine."

She relaxed. "Good. I'll see you tomorrow."

_line break_

"Good night, children." Pema said as she tucked in her daughters.

"G'night Mom." they replied and closed their eyes.

Meelo was tugging on her pajamas. "Can I sleep with you tonight?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Sorry. I really need my sleep."

He pouted. "Aw!"

She kissed his forehead. "Good night." she said and Meelo ran to his bedroom.

Pema went to her bedroom and found her empty bed. Tenzin was still at the hospital. He insisted that he wanted to be there when Lin woke up. He told her it was so he could answer her questions but Pema knew better.

Tenzin was still in love with Lin.

She knew that. Ever since she heard him say her name that night, she had been thinking a lot about that. Originally, Tenzin broke up with Lin because she didn't want children and he did. But they had never stopped loving each other.

He had said her name during the early days of their marriage, but she never confronted him about it. She had ignored it and after three months, Tenzin stopped saying Lin's name. But no even once did he ever say her name in his sleep.

Pema knew after twelve years of being married to Tenzin that he did not amrry her because he loved her. They were more like good friends.

So she made her final decision.

Cliffhanger! Yeah, I wonder what Pema's going to do…so read next time!

Oh! Just wanted to say Lian's original name was Yun, whih means clouds. She was born in the rain, so that makes sense.