A/N: Okay, this chapter is freakishly short, I know. But bare with me, please?
Wooo! Two more chapters after this and then I'm done! Yeah! XD I think the last few chapters are going to be rather short, oh well...
Chapter 15—Crossing
The ferry cut smoothly through the waves of the channel to Copenhagen. Zuko sat in the driver's seat of the truck they had brought on board with them and glanced at his burn in the mirror. As he removed the bandages, he saw that the burn had begun to scab, making it possible to no longer wear the cotton gauze around his head. He was happy for the freedom his face was allowed and marveled in how wonderful it felt to feel fresh air on his face.
Getting out of the anchored truck, the German tossed the dirty bandages in a waist basket near the pilot house of the ferry and walked over to Jet and Longshot who stood leaning against the railing at the forward end of the boat. When he approached the two Russians, he stood next to Jet and mimicked the two of them. He stared down at the blue waves that crashed onto the hull and immediately turned into white foam. Zuko savored the feel of the cool sea breeze and the cold salt water on his skin. He stole a glance at the two Russians he was traveling with. Neither one of them turned to look back at him; both of them staring out into the vast ocean just as he had been doing.
Two more days, two more days and he would be able to see Katara once again. Zuko's heart ached with anticipation and impatience. He wanted to reach Sweden now; he wanted to see Katara now. He just could not wait until the day he could hold her in his arms again.
Inclining his head to the side in order to look at the two Russians he stood beside him, Zuko decided to strike up conversation. "So what are we going to do with the truck when we get to Helsingor?"
Jet did not turn to answer him right away, but stared long and hard at the cool blue waves crashing up against the side of the ferry. For a moment, Zuko thought that the Russian was not going to answer his question and ignore him altogether until Jet finally turned his head to the side and stared at the German. "Sell it," he said bluntly. "When we get to Copenhagen, we'll sell the truck and take the train up to Helsingor. I'm sure the good people up north have not the time or money to buy a truck such as that one. Besides, we cannot take it to Sweden with us; it cannot come on the fishing boat with us."
"We're taking a fishing boat to Sweden?" Zuko asked, obviously confused.
Jet nodded and turned back to staring at the waves. "There is no ferry to take us across the ocean to another country. We either turn around and go around through Russia, or take a fishing boat."
Zuko pursed his lips at the thought of going back through Germany to Russia just to get to Sweden. Jet was right, the fastest was to get to Sweden was to get in illegally by way of fishing boat. The three travelers were silent for the remainder of the ferry ride, spending most of their time at the bow of the ship. Zuko marveled in the new and yet familiar feeling of the sea breeze on his face. He enjoyed the feeling his face had from being free of his bandages. A few times, he left the bow and went aft to the stern to stare back the way they had come. He smiled at the distance he had put between him and his messed up country. The Fuehrer would not be happy that he who knew so many secrets about Hitler's plans had betrayed Nazi Germany and was now on his way to Sweden before heading for Russia to give Joseph Stalin all the information he knew. It was time to end this war, end it once and for all for the sake of those whose lives had been so terrible affected by Hitler's "New World Order".
By the time he returned after his fourth time to the aft part of the ferry, Zuko arrived at the bow to see the Copenhagen Port looming closer and closer. Within minutes, the ferry had arrived in port and was ready to dock. After another ten minutes, the ferry had docked successfully and Jet, Zuko, and Longshot were climbing into the truck to drive it off the ferry onto the dock. Once the ramp was lowered, Jet started up the engine and drove the gray truck down the ramp onto the concrete docks and into the large city. It did not take long for them to find someone to purchase their truck. Once they exchanged the truck for the money, the three of them took their bags and set off for the train station. They only used a quarter of the money they got from the truck to purchase their tickets.
Zuko sat on the wooden bench awaiting the arrival of the train that would take them to Helsingor. Jet and Longshot had run off to find someplace to eat lunch, leaving Zuko alone to guard their baggage. He sat with all their bags surrounding him with his own pack on his lap. He listened intently to the announcer over the loudspeaker, waiting for the voice to announce the arrival of their train. He was so engulfed in the sound of the loudspeaker that he almost did not noticed a little girl walk up to him and stare at him curiously. It was her voice that brought him back to the world around him.
"Mister, what's wrong with your face?"
Startled, Zuko glanced around the station in search of the voice he had heard. A few faces were staring at him oddly, but he was used to it. Several weeks wearing thick bandages around his skull would definitely invite odd stares.
Finally, the German glanced down by his knees to see a small girl with long dark hair tied back in a ponytail. She had a look of fascination on her face as she stared up at Zuko with intense curiosity. He smiled gently down at her, hoping to make his ugly disfiguration look more normal. "It's a burn, little one," he answered. "A fire left this mark on my face."
The little girl's mouth opened in a silent "oh" when a woman from near the tracks came running up them and grabbed the girl's hand.
"Rachel, what have I told you?" the woman scolded. "It is not nice to bother strangers. Leave the poor man alone."
Zuko looked up to see that the woman had a striking resemblance to the little girl in question. He assumed that this woman was the girl's mother.
"It's okay, ma'am," he told her. "I was not bothered at all." It was a lie and he knew it. Zuko was a terrible liar, but the woman somehow seemed to believe him.
"Nevertheless, I do apologize for my daughter," the woman replied. "She sometimes does not know when to—" The woman stopped immediately once she saw the scar on Zuko's face. "Oh my," she gasped.
The German let out an awkward chuckle. "It's quite alright," he assured her. "It was an accident a long time ago; an oil lamp accident when I was a child." Definitely a lie this time; an injury from childhood would not still have scabs that needed healing.
Nodding, the woman pulled slightly on her daughter's hand, dragging her off back to their position near the tracks. The little girl named Rachel continued to stare after him even while her mother was dragging her off. He smiled back at her, making her yelp with embarrassment and turn her head away to hide in her mother's skirts.
After that, Zuko was not bothered again. It was not until half an hour later that Jet and Longshot returned with their lunch. The three of them ate in silence as they waited for their train to arrive. They sat and waited for at least two hours before the train finally came. The train stopped just in front of them and as the doors opened, many people came spilling out. A few minutes later, they were able to board and found themselves a nice compartment near the rear of the train. Closer, they were closer to arriving in Sweden every day. And now that they could travel freely, they were able to get closer every hour.
---
Katara stood, leaning against the railing of the small fishing vessel they had boarded not two hours earlier. She sighed for the hundredth time since coming aboard the boat and wrapped her arms tightly around her body for added warmth. She widened her eyes with surprise when a thick blanket was suddenly draped over her shoulders and a strong hand rested upon her upper back.
"The wind can be chilling sometimes," a voice said to her as the young, fisherman's son came and stood beside her, mimicking her leaning against the rail. "You should have taken a blanket with you when you came up from below deck."
Katara smiled sheepishly as she gripped the blanket and pulled it tight around her body. "Thank you, Haru," she said. "That was very thoughtful of you."
Haru beamed and turned to face the waves that skipped passed the hull of the vessel. Both of them faced east and squinted their eyes at the still rising sun. At six in the morning, the sun had already slipped completely into few passed the horizon and appeared to hover just a few feet off the surface of the water.
"You have beautiful sunrises up here," the gipsy girl commented, attempting to make small talk with the young man who stood next to her.
Haru smiled smugly and nodded his agreement. "That we do. It is quite enjoyable to see the sun rise over the water every morning." He let out a slight chuckle. "It is also part of the reason I chose to accompany my father on his fishing trips."
Katara turned to stare at the young fisherman. "You mean you chose to become a fisherman?" she asked, perplexed.
He nodded and Katara could see the light from the waves reflecting in his brown eyes giving the illusion that they danced with happiness. "I was born into the life of a fisherman but my father always told me that I could choose to travel to Copenhagen and attend a good school. He told me that I could get a good education, become a lawyer, an accountant, I could be somebody." He laughed at the notion. "But those professions never seemed to interest me. I've always been fascinated by the sea. Just as the earth holds its secrets, so too, does the ocean, but the depths of the sea have always been inaccessible to man for centuries."
The gypsy raised an eyebrow at Haru's statement. "And how does being a fisherman work its way into all this?" she asked.
He glanced at her briefly before turning back to look out over the water. "Aside from its mysteries, the ocean holds adventure for those who travel its surface. Leading a life behind a boring desk was never for me. I told my father that I wished to live a life with excitement, something with danger around every corner. When I told him that, he laughed heartily and said 'My son, you have chosen the right profession. Follow me to the boats and we'll begin your training.' I was only twelve years old at the time but every day after that; he and I have manned this boat soundly. I still have no wish to leave."
"Wow," was all Katara was able to get out when Haru finished his story. She had not meant for him to give her his whole life story when she had asked if he had chosen to be a fisherman or not, but that was what she got. Finally, after quite some time of silence with only the sound of crashing waves and Aang's soft voice leading Toph around the ship in the background, did Katara finally find her voice again. "I don't think I would ever be able to do what you and your father do every day."
Haru seemed confused by her statement. "But you're a gypsy," he started. "Don't you travel around all the time?"
She nodded. "We do, but we don't get up before the break of dawn every day and we certainly don't spend all our days out on boats catching fish and stuffing their dead carcasses in the holds." She smiled sarcastically up at Haru who smiled in return.
"I guess I deserved that one," he said in defeat.
Katara chuckled. "Yes, you did."
There was another silence for a moment before Haru spoke up again. "So, that woman…" He paused for a moment, as if the thought of the person in question was shocking. "Smellerbee, she says that your group got separated. Is this true?"
Her face became grave at the mention of their separated group. She sighed before nodding and staring back out to the blue waves. She missed Zuko with all her heart and hoped desperately that he had survives Auschwitz and was on his way to meet her as they spoke. She also wondered if he had suffered the same as Suki. Had his strong, muscular physique been diminished to just skin and bone? Or was he still the same man he had been when she first saw him standing at the entrance to that room with his rifle in hand staring dumbstruck at her and her brother perched on the uncomfortable cot? All these thoughts and more raced through her head as she stared out over the water. She must have been in a daze for quite some time because Haru's voice suddenly became imminent to her and he sounded a bit worried.
"You seem distraught," he said concerned. "Who was it exactly that got separated from you and your friends?"
She did not answer right away, but remained silent, wondering if she even wanted to talk about the subject at all. Deciding that it would do her more harm than good to not say anything at all, she spilled everything she knew.
"His name is Zuko," she said. "He was a German soldier who saved my brother and I from the clutches of the Nazi concentration camps. He also helped us free our friend Suki from Auschwitz, but that was where he got captured." Her voice grew thick with anger when she spoke the next part of the story. "My brother was the one who betrayed him. Sokka had never trusted him and because of that distrust, he handed Zuko over to those whom he had betrayed to help us. It was painful to see him being led off to his terrible fate, but there was nothing I could do." One tear fell from her eyes as she talked, but she quickly wiped it away and pretended it had never been there.
Haru noticed the tear and caught on to her feelings right away. "You love him," he said. It was more a statement than a question. "And your brother, your love for him forces you to forgive him but you feel as if you are betraying Zuko if you do."
Katara was speechless at how well Haru had summed up all her mixed feelings into two sentences when she had had a hard time trying to fit them all into one paragraph. She opened and closed her mouth trying in vain to find something to say. Finally, she clamped her mouth shut and turned away from the young fisherman.
"I guess you're right," she said after a long moment of silence. She felt the warmth of his fingers begin to sneak their way over her own and she gasped, turning suddenly to see what was happening for herself. Sure enough, his hand had found its place atop of hers as it rested on the rail. She felt her cheeks grow warm and looked up at Haru. He was not looking at her but staring off into the ocean as if deep in thought.
Katara was about to comment on his hand being there, but they were interrupted by Haru's father calling him over to help him with on-deck chores that he could not do while manning the wheel. The gypsy was glad for his absence; it gave her a moment to think over what he had told her and his slight actions towards her. She did not know what to think about his small advances. She did not love Haru. But something about the way he acknowledged her presence made her feel happy. He was smart, he was strong, and he was handsome. He was everything she loved and more.
But he was not Zuko.
She no longer wished to dwell on the topic and attempted to push the confusing thoughts from her mind. She was saved from the thoughts returning by her brother stumbling as if drunk next to her and leaned against the railing. His face had a hint of green to it from what she was able to see of it before Sokka leaned his torso over the side of the railing and puked up his guts into the water with an unpleasant gurgling noise. He groaned and mumbled something that sounded like "Should not have eaten those pancakes this morning" when he raised his head up, a hand still on the railing to keep himself from collapsing on the deck as his other hand clutched his stomach.
Katara's own stomach churned at the sight of him but she ignored it and placed a wry smile on her face.
"Seasick, Sokka?" she asked mockingly. He glared at her in return before lurching for a second time and throwing up over the side.
"Oh shut it, sis," he groaned. Sokka managed to lower himself to the deck and sit cross-legged in close proximity to the edge of the boat. "And just for the record," he added. "This never happened."
Katara's grin grew wider. "Never happened to whom, exactly?"
Sokka rolled his eyes and suppressed another queasy lurch. "Just don't tell Suki, okay?" he demanded. "I've been avoiding her like the plague ever since we boarded. It's pretty hard to do on such a small boat."
His sister let out a hearty laugh. "Well, it looks as if Karma is catching up with you."
Sokka growled at her before lurching once again and hurling over the side. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he muttered angrily to himself. "Well, at lease my situation can't get much worse than seasickness, can it?"
Just as he said it, a white, and rather large, bird dropping splattered on the top of his head and dribbled down his forehead to the tip of his nose. Katara burst out laughing, pointing at her brother and making a mockery of him. Aang and Toph came round the side of the pilot house to question Katara's sudden joyous laughter, and to Sokka's great dismay, so did Suki.
"What's going on?" Aang asked as the three of them approached the siblings by the railing.
Katara managed to stop her incessant laughter long enough to tell the teenager what had happened. "Sokka started complaining about his seasickness and as soon as he said that things couldn't get much worse, a seagull pooped all over his face!" She then doubled over, her mirth made all the others join in the hilarity.
"Aw man!" Toph complained. "Of all the times to not be able to see!" She crossed her arms in disappointment but soon joined in the laughter with everyone else. She may be blind, but she had the iron stomach of an ox.
Sokka did not find his situation hilarious, however and tried suppress his need to throw up over the side of the boat. He managed to get to a somewhat standing position before his stomach lurched for the tenth time that day and vomited over the side once again. He grabbed the blanket Haru had draped over his sister's shoulders and used it to wipe what he could of the bird poop off his face before handing it back to Katara.
"Oh, yuck!" Katara exclaimed in disgust. "I don't want it back! Keep it and use it to wipe the remains of your vomit of your face."
At that point, Suki had stopped laughing and had walked over to her boyfriend standing with wobbling knees against the railing and tried to hold him up, a large smile still plastered across her face.
"Jeez, Sokka," she said as she allowed him to lean on her shoulder. "My health is worse than yours and yet you're the one who is seasick. It seems we have traded places."
"Yeah, even I'm fine," Toph added in. "Though Aang could stand to have his feet on firm ground again. I sense he's felt better on other occasions."
"What?" Aang started, sounding affronted. "I feel fine!"
Katara smirked at the teenager's attempt to defend himself. "Toph has a point, Aang," she agreed. "You do look more pale than you have before."
Aang pouted in annoyance but it was obvious it was taking everything in him to make sure he also did not vomit. Sokka meanwhile had managed to take a few steps without hurling with the help of Suki and decided he wanted final say in the conversation.
"What about me, guys?" he asked angrily. "What can we do about my seasickness?"
Toph shrugged. "Nothing that I know of can help aside from letting it run its course." At his disheartened grumble, she added "Sorry."
Suki shifted Sokka's weight on her shoulder. "Can someone help me?" she asked. "I want to take him to the back where he can vomit without getting it all over the side of the boat but I need help to carry him."
"I'll help," Aang piped up and rushed to take the gypsy's other arm and wrapped if around his shoulder much like Suki had. The three then turned around and marched aft to let Sokka throw up without leaving vomit stains on the side of the boat.
The rest of the trip across the ocean was quite uneventful. Smellerbee, Pipsqueak, and The Duke mainly busied themselves with helping Haru and his father man the boat while the rest of them saw fit to relax or, in Sokka's case, try to overcome his need to hurl every ten minutes. Suki and Aang remained aft with the sick man while Katara went below deck to grab a small bite to eat now and then. Toph had a harder time finding her way around the ship than she could when she was on solid ground and kept near Katara as much as she could. Mostly Katara spent her time on the deck, staring out at the vast body of water. She knew it was more like a small lake compared to the Atlantic, but she still could not help but be fascinated by the sheer size of it.
It was an hour passed midday when they docked on the shores of Sweden. Haru had prepared a small life boat to carry the group across the small stretch of ocean that separated the fishing boat from the beach. The draft of the fishing boat would not allow it to dock directly on the beach.
Sokka, Suki, Smellerbee and The Duke went across on the life boat first while Haru rowed them ashore. When he returned he helped Pipsqueak, Aang, Toph and Katara into the boat before settling himself into the boat last. He rowed them ashore in silence. When they came ashore, Haru helped Katara off the boat last and when he did, his hand lingered over hers for only a moment before he let her go.
"You know," he started as he splashed his feet in the water to push the small boat back out to the sea. "You won't betray Zuko if you forgive your brother."
The gypsy stared at him. Had he been thinking about that conversation all morning? "Excuse me?"
The young fisherman nodded towards Katara's brother who had been so exuberant about standing on firm ground again that he had completely immersed himself in the sand, bending down and kissing it as well as tossing it in the air and burying himself in it; a satisfied smile on his face. "I've seen how you act with him. You have already forgiven him but have not told him yet. Tell him, you will feel a lot better inside."
Katara gaped at him but did not say anything. Haru then waved a goodbye and pushed the small life boat into the water.
"A family friend of ours will be waiting for you at the top of the hill," he said as he rowed away. "Take the path up the side of the cliff and she will be waiting for you in a small cottage." He then turned and faced his father's fishing boat and was soon gone.
Katara turned around to face the cliff that stood tall against the sandy beach. Today was the start of a whole new life for her. She was both scared and excited and smiled as she and the others left the beach to meet their new caretaker.
A/N: Wait, what? Sokka's seasick? That's new. I realize that in the actual show, there would be no way that Sokka would get seasick and Toph would be in his place, but keep in mind that this is an Alternate Universe and Sokka is a gypsy. I think that gypsies travel mostly by land and not that much by sea (although how the hell would I know? I'm not a gypsy, but my friend is, how strange). I made him seasick cause I thought it would be funny, let me now if I succeeded, would you? Thanks.
You will have to pardon my poor explanation of Sokka's seasickness. I have never been seasick myself nor have I seen anyone get seasick so I do not really know what getting seasick is like. What I am portraying is things I've seen in movies or read about. Although I do hear that being seasick is not fun (my dad gets terribly seasick ;) ).
Review Please! :)