Hey thank you for reading. I really hope that you are enjoying the story so far.

Denise530. Thank you, I am glad that you like it. I have been thinking about that as well. I have an idea for the very end of the story that maybe quite cool.

He heard her taking in a sharp breath and saw her knuckles turn white as she clenched them at her sides. Despite this he had to admit that he was very impressed that she was able to keep her temper for this long. It had been a week of the same thing. None of the five specially selected students all in their mid-teens, two girls and three boys had made even the hint of any progress. Every day they would spend what felt like hours trying to bend a small sheet of metal. They held them in their hands and Aang watched as their hands started to shack with tension as they focused all their energy onto bending the metal.

"Ok. Try again. Remember how to feel the earth. There are small traces of earth in metal. See it."

Two of the students used one of their hands to tap the metal. Trying to feel for the traces of earth in the metal. This had all been a little funny to him for the first two days. Now it was getting to be a little sad. He of course once or twice had tried to metalbend himself. It of course had not worked. He hadn't tried for this long however. He and Toph had agreed to stay here for a week before returning home to the southern air temple. Today was the last day. That explained why the student's seemed more focused then before. Also why Toph seemed more frustrated. She hated to fail.

He didn't want to step in, but he knew that all of this stress could not be good for her or the baby. She would be mad at him, then again she seemed to get mad at him a lot easier recently. He also knew that her pride would not let her give up trying to teach metalbending to her students. In the long run she would be glad he stepped in to give her a break.

"I think maybe we should call it a day. The sun will start to set soon."

He was exaggerating but no one questioned him. The five students jumped to their feet and ran off in the direction of the dorms. Two of them took their piece of metal with them. They he believed would be the first ones to get the handle of metalbending if any of them did.

Moving carefully towards her he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and gentle led her to her office just off the veranda that surrounded the court lard that the advanced students trained in. with his free hand he closed the door behind them, then carefully placed them both on her shoulders. "Ok." He watched her take in a deep breath, before she let out the tirade that he knew was coming.

"They are hopeless. Utterly hopeless and they are the best I have. It is hopeless. For sprites sake I might as well try teaching you how to metalbending."

"Hey."

She had been talking so fast he didn't know if she had heard him at first, till she responded to his comment.

"It's the truth. I am amazed that I even got you to earthbend."

"Hey, I resent that."

"You are an airhead. A big airhead." She finally seemed to stop for a breath. His hands slide down her arm a little as he too relaxed a little. This only lasted for a second as she lifted her hands and gave him a sharp shove to his chest, pushing him back a few steps. "Your big airhead. If you pass that onto our child. I will kill you."

He didn't take her seriously. He had been warned by both Sokka and Zuko repeatedly about this. The best thing for him to do they advised was not to argue back with her. Just smile, but not too much and nod. So that was what he did. Though rather than nod, he gave her a quick kiss of the check.

"They can have your ears though….I'm told they are quit cute." She smiled a little. Feeling very stupid for getting so worked up.

"Fine, but they have to have your eyes to compensate for the big ears."

Toph took one step backwards. "That was a mean thing to say."

"A mean thing to say. Why are you talking like that."

"Now you're making fun of the way I talk."

"No I'm not, because you're not talking like yourself."

He watched her bite her lip a little, before it cracked into a smile. "Sorry." She said after a faint laugh. "You are just too easy."

"So you were pretending to freak out and…."

"I didn't freak out! They are hopeless."

Not wanting to set her off again he once again placed his hands on her shoulder. "It'll be ok. No one said that you had to teach them in a week. You learned it because you had to, they don't have that pressure."

"So you're saying I should use pressure, like threaten…"

"No! Just give it time." She scoffed and looked like she was about to argue back. "Wait and listen. Remember."

She couldn't very well argue with her own logic. So she nodded. Feeling relieved that she was calm again, Aang kissed her on the check again. "So I have cute ears."

"I don't know, you tell me."

"Well I can tell you, that you have beautiful eyes. I hope they do get passed down." He lowered his right hand onto her bump. He still thought it should be bigger, but he always sort of thought that Toph being as small as she was wouldn't show so much.

"Now they are."

"They were always beautiful. Jade to emerald."

"You know that means nothing to me."

"They got cleaned up is all." Both of his hands took hold of her face to pull her into a kiss.

Once they pulled apart, Toph took a step forward. Wrapping her arms around Aang's chest. While running his hand through her hair he returned the embrace. If he focused hard enough he was sure he could feel the baby kick a little. The family moment was interrupted by a faint knock at the door. Before they had time to fully pull apart the door was opened by Shan. Toph's assistant at the academy. In truth recently with Toph married she had been doing most of the work.

"Sorry to interrupt…but a message just arrived for you."

"What does it say." They was a hint of irritation to her voice.

"I haven't read it yet…."

"What not."

It was common practice for Shan to read all messages that were sent to the academy. If there was anything that would be of any real interest to her than she would pass it on to Toph. Apart from students that didn't try their best, paperwork was the thing that she hated the most about running the academy.

"It was from Gaoling and has the Bei Fong seal."

The slightly nervous women stepped forward handing the message scroll to Toph. Who reluctantly reached out to take it. With a small smile of understanding Shan left the door, closing the door behind her. The second that she did Toph turned to face Aang handing the message scroll to him. He didn't know if he should take it from her. It was from her father most likely. Whatever it was he knew it couldn't be good. Then again maybe he had heard about the baby and wanted to try and reconnect with his daughter and thereby get to know his future grandchild.

He wasn't even a father really yet and he already knew that he couldn't stand it if he had the same kind of relationship with his child that Toph had with her father. He knew that that wouldn't happen, but he still hated the idea of it. Both he and Toph were only children. He didn't know what would happen in the future, but he knew how important family is. Even if it wasn't a blood family, was one that you created yourself. Family was very important.

"Aang, please."

With a small sigh he took the scroll from her. Broke the seal and started to read it. Toph listened to his heart rate pick up a little as he read on. She thought she knew what her father would have written, now she was not so sure. Whatever it was it was clearly worrying Aang. After what felt like an extremely long drawn out time he finally spoke."

"It's from your step-mother." Toph nodded a little for him to go on. "Your father is sick."

She took in a deep breath as she felt like the ground had just been pulled out from under her. She had not been expecting that. "How sick."

"She didn't really say. I think he must be really sick for her to write to you." Again all she did was nod and he moved over to her to pull her into a hug.

That night she tossed and turned a lot. Clearly having a lot on her mind. He did what he normally did when she was like that. Wrap an arm around her, so she couldn't move around as much. After what felt like a long time he drifted up to sleep. This didn't last for very long as he suddenly became aware of the empty space that had been created in the bed next to time. Slowly he pushed himself up, rubbing his eyes he was able to adjust to the darkness of the room. Toph was standing in-front of the open window, leaning on the frame.

"I have to go, don't I."

Pulling the sheets off of himself he moved over to stand next to her. "That's up to you."

"Please Aang. I need some of your mightily avatar wisdom."

Crossing his arms over his chest he leaned back against the wall by the window. "Whatever he has done. He is your father. He loves you. Your about to be a mother, start your own family. Maybe you should reach out to him now. Have some closure whatever that is with him, before you start a new chapter in your life."

He had watched her as he spoke. She nodded her head along with his words. Clearly taking them in and processing them. "I hate it when you're right."

With a small scoff he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and led her back to bed. It was clear that they would be heading to Gaoling tomorrow at the earliest. At least that was on their way back to the southern are temple, so they didn't have to go out of their way. If they wanted to they could also maybe visit Sokka and Suki again. That was depending on how long they had to stay in Gaoling it may be best for them not to travel all the way home.

Again I am sorry about being a day so late with the up-date. I thought I would just like point put as I don't think I made it clear that the spool of metal had that Sokka gave her was meant to be what will become the spools that the Metalbending Police Force use. Though I have changed a lot, I wanted to try and link this story into the legend of Korra as much as I can.

I would very much like to hear what you think, and any ideas that you may have for the story. The last part of the whole story, part 20 will be a two parter. With only the main six characters in it. So I wanted to know, as this is the last chance for them to be involved. Which characters would you like to see one last time. There some of course that I have killed off and some that it would be hard to bring in as I never used them in the story, but I will do my best.