Lin took the next day off to try to relax herself. This is going to be fine. Everything is going to be perfectly fine. Lin told herself. Despite the gnawing feeling of anxiety nipping at the back of her head, she managed to steady her hand from its tapping as she neared a cup of her favorite tea to her lips and took a sip. The hot beverage eased her nerves somewhat but Lin still had to take a shaky breath to calm her ragging heartbeat.
The esteemed chief of police huffed and tapped the heel of her foot against her wooden floors under her chair. Her pale hands apprehensively rubbed each other until she snapped at herself to stop. Despite the calming atmosphere of Lin's apartment and the reassuring silence, she still went back to her self-irritating actions of tapping every untouched surface of her dining table. She growled like an animal and stood from her chair and marched to her bathroom.
Lin ceased the opportunity to scan her hallway and the very few photos she had hanging on the walls. Many were taken a few years back but most were from her early twenties or late teens. All were from decent times, happy even, but they were long gone. She was entering a new time that she's been avoiding for over a decade.
Taking a sharp turn when she reached the destined door, Lin reached for the sink and let the cold water flow. She allowed her hands to rest and be bathed in the cool, calming feeling. Eventually she raised her hands in a lighting motion and splashed her face repeatedly until her white tank top was sopping wet and clinging to her chest and stomach. Lin breathed in and out and kept her eyes shut and felt the slow steadiness of the water droplets streaming down her face and puddle onto her chest.
"Get a hold of yourself, Lin." She said out loud.
She imagined what her mother would say- or do –if she saw her like the heaping, hot mess she currently was.
"Jeeze, bagdermole, I would've thought you were having a heart attack! Did someone die?"
She imagined that would be Toph's first reaction to her rapid heartbeat and irregular breathing patterns. Lin knew her mother would be her usual teasing self if she was here at the moment but she would also tell the chief to "suck it up and take it like a Beifong" but damnit, it wasn't as easy as it sounded! Her life was changing right before her eyes, her heart was speeding, her blood was pumping, her ears were ringing and for the first time in years Lin actually felt like she was fifty-two. And there was nothing she could do to stop any of it.
Lin stood with her back straight and opened her bright green eyes to stare at her reflection. Baggy eyes, two healed scars running down her right cheek, short graying hair, with one fine wrinkle under each eye.
"Spirits help me." She whispered. Her hand stretched out until she felt the soft, fuzziness of a white towel graze her fingertips. She snatched it up and brought it up to her face, completely ridding herself of the excess water on her skin and chest. Her eyes shied away from the mirror and stared at her clean floors.
"Calm down," she whispered, "nothing's going to change . . . that much. You'll still be chief, everything will be completely fine."
But she knew this was far from fine. Nothing will be the same and she would have to deal with it. Like a Beifong.