"Mika you're fine" Azula insisted, yesterday she had taken off work because Mika was complaining that her stomach hurt. She had been skeptical about it because she didn't have a fever but since it was starting to get cold she decided to play it safe and keep her home, however she never ended up throwing up or anything serious and mostly just complained that she was bored, so today Azula was determined to send her off to school.

"But my tummy still hurts!" Mika whined but knew she had lost when her mother only rolled her eyes. "It really does mommy!" She continued to whine.

"Mika it's all in your head" Azula continued to insist, handing Mika her school bag.

"My head's fine, well except for my mouth, but my it's tummy that hurts" she complained.

"What's wrong with your mouth?" Azula questioned while practically shoving her daughter out the door of the apartment.

"It hurts too," she answered

"You probably just have a tooth coming in" Azula told her and although Mika didn't seem to think that was right she didn't say anything, her jaw only ached a little and it was manageable. Her stomach on the other hand hurt really badly.

She continued to complain the entire walk to school, even after her mom told her that if she continued whining she would be sent into time out immediately following the school day. It just wasn't fair; her mom thought that just because she didn't throw up she wasn't sick. But her tummy really hurt.

"Alright I'll see you later" Azula said to Mika when they arrived at the school

"But mommy" she whined again and Azula crouched down.

"Enough, you're going to school. Now give me a hug and I'll pick you up later." She said and with a groan Mika gave her very unenthusiastic hug before trudging off into the school.

"Hey Azula's back" Zan greeted when Azula came into the bar, "Mika feeling better?" He asked as his friend grabbed a trash bag and began helping him empty the trashcans from the previous night.

"Mika's fine" she said

"One of those phantom bugs?" He asked, knowing that sometimes little kids convince themselves that even the slightest feeling of an upset stomach is a full on virus.

"Yup" Azula huffed in annoyance.

It was the middle of the school day, just before snack time, when the children in the preschool saw Sensei Yong dragging her rocking chair out of the corner and over to the rug, signaling them that it was almost story time.

"Mika it's story time" Bumi said to his friend who was sitting in the corner of the play mat unenthusiastically playing with some dolls.

She normally played house with the other girls but she told them that her tummy hurt and she asked if she could be the sick kid but apparently today was her turn to be the mommy so she asked if she could still be sick, from what Bumi understood the other girls said it didn't work if Mika's character was sick so she couldn't play today. She had been sitting in the corner of the play mat ever since and, to Bumi at least, looked like she was almost asleep.

"I know," she said tiredly as she stood to follow him over to the rug, but the instant she got up she fell over.

Just like every day Katara brought Kya with her and waited outside of the school building for Bumi. Just like every day kids of all ages came rushing down the steps when the bell rang, and unlike every other day Bumi was not among the first ones out. At first Katara thought nothing of it, plenty of things could've delayed Bumi. He could be struggling to tie his show or his bag, lord knows he could've been easily distracted by just about anything. But after about fifteen minutes she was considering going inside and seeing if maybe he had misbehaved again and was being kept after, it wouldn't be the first time. But just as she was about to go in Bumi appeared at the top of the stairs, his bag just barely held in-between his teeth, something else dangling from his neck, and carrying Mika piggyback. He looked scared, scared of falling down the concrete steps of the school. Mika looked to be asleep, and briefly Katara wondered both how and why this situation had come about as she hurried up the steps to the children's side.

Relief overtook Bumi's face when he saw his mother quickly approaching, though he couldn't voice it due to the fabric pinched between his teeth. He hiked Mika up a little in order to keep his hold on her, the action woke her up a little but he could feel it wasn't enough to walk.

"What are you two doing?" Katara demanded, taking the bag from Bumi's mouth with her free hand and noticing that the thing around his neck was Mika's bag.

Bumi spit the bag out gratefully, and gagged slightly upon having it removed from his mouth, clearing the fuzz from his lungs.

"Mika fainted during story time. I told her she could come home with us cause you're a healer and she can't go to bending class if she faints again. So we were leaving the room when the bell rang but she was walking really slow and really funny then she fainted again. I figured we had to get to you so I put my bag in my mouth and her's around my, my neck to carry, to carry them and I, and I woke, woke her up and gave her a piggyback out here. We would've been her sooner only I had trouble walking and we almost fell a couple, a couple of times." Bumi explained, growing rather hysterical and beginning to stutter towards the end.

Katara looked at her son almost in disbelief, a part of her wanted to tell him that Azula would be scared if Mika wasn't at her bending class when she came to pick her up. But really, could they leave her? Bumi was right; Mika wasn't looking well at all. She was awake but she looked very pale and weak, there was no way she could do so much as walk. Sure her Sensei probably wouldn't have any objections to her just sitting on the side in class; but what Mika really needed was to get to a healer, especially if she had already fainted twice today.

Quickly mapping out a route from here to Lao's in her head Katara decided that they would bring Mika to her mother and let her decide what to do, because no way was leaving her here the right thing to do. Katara then placed Kya on the step and told Bumi put Mika down. Obeying his mother the little boy carefully allowed his friend to slowly slide off his back, once she was down he turned to make sure she wouldn't fall but Katara had beaten him to it. She picked Mika up then shifted her into one arm and grabbed the two children's school bags with her free hands.

"Grab your sister," she ordered Bumi who complied without protest and lifted his baby sister awkwardly into his little arms.

He carried her as if she was a sack of sea prunes but he did so without complaining and followed his mother as they set off down the streets of the city.

Azula only had just under two hours left of her shift when Katara, of all people, came through the door carrying, again of all people, Mika.

"What are you-" Azula began, enraged, but Katara was quick to cut her off.

"Bumi carried her out of school, he said she fainted twice and she almost fainted a third time when I tried having her walk on the way here!" She hurriedly exclaimed, Bumi's struggle to pull the door open in the background going unnoticed by the two women as Azula quickly stepped out from behind the bar.

Mika, who had her face buried in the crook of Katara's neck, turned to face her mother with an almost guilty expression.

"My tummy still hurts" she murmured.

Azula quickly collected her daughter from Katara and took a mental note that her skin felt rather cold and clammy, the way it did right after a fever broke. But she knew that Mika hadn't had a fever, she had checked her temperature just this morning. In a panic Azula looked around, as if the answer to what she should do would be written on a wall somewhere.

"Just go, that girl needs to see a healer." Lao finally said, looking almost annoyed with the fact that he knew Azula was considering just handing Mika back over to Katara.

"Lao I can-" she tried to argue but her boss cut her off

"I know but all children need their mothers, now get out." He ordered and Azula thanked him before she left with Katara, and Bumi and Kya who never actually made it into the bar.

"Bumi go watch your sister" Katara ordered for the third time since arriving home after shutting both Bumi and Kya in the playroom, but of course Bumi got out and made a break for the living room while she was busy getting some water and now the current argument had ensued.

"No! She's my friend!" Bumi cried; Mika was awake now and sitting next to her mother on the couch, nervously waiting for Katara to begin.

"I know but I need it quiet in here-" Katara began

"I'll be quiet! I promise!" Bumi swore but his mother wouldn't give.

"And I need someone to watch Kya." She finished

"Can't you just bring Kya in here?" Bumi questioned, disappointed beyond words when his mother shook her head.

"She won't be quiet," she said

"Yes she will" Bumi pleaded and before anything else could be said, more importantly before Katara could lose her temper, Azula stood up and walked over to Bumi.

"Bumi" she said gently as she knelt down and put her hands on the shoulders of the little boy, "thank you very much for looking out for Mika today. That was very responsible of you and I know you don't want to leave your friend if she's sick. But you need to be responsible for just a little longer and this time that means making sure Kya doesn't get herself into any trouble." She explained to Bumi

"But-" he started to argue, wiping away tears from his eyes.

"Do you trust your mom and me?" She asked him gently and he nodded in response.

"Then you can trust that Mika is in good hands" she assured him before releasing his shoulders. Bumi nodded but before he left he went over and hugged Mika.

Katara tried not to let it show how amazed she was by Azula being so gentle and caring with her son, she really has changed. Once Bumi was gone Katara shook off the feeling a told Mika to lie down. Mika complied with the order, though her mother had returned to her seat and so she used her lap as a pillow as well as held onto one of her hands. Katara summoned the water to her hands and it began to glow with her concentration, she heard Mika's breath hitch in her throat.

"Sshh, baby. It's alright," Azula said soothingly while running her fingers through her daughter's medium length hair, she had heard it to.

Mika relaxed a little at her mother's words, and even more when the glowing water came into contact with her skin and she realized that this only slightly tingling sensation was as bad as it was going to get.

"I'm not finding anything wrong with her stomach" Katara announced, her eyes remaining shut in concentration. A few more minutes passed in silence, all three of the room's residents holding their breath. Eventually Katara opened her eyes and began to move the water around more, trying to find what was wrong.

It didn't take long. Katara shut her eyes again as she focused the energy of the water onto Mika's chest, normally in healing there was no reason to close your eyes but detecting an internal injury is much harder than healing an external one. So Katara had adopted Toph's way of seeing the world and, much like her blind friend saw through the vibrations of the earth, she 'saw' the problem through the energy flowing through the water. When she found the problem, she fought to contain her gasp. But she did it successfully and bent the water back into the bucket.

"We're all done Mika, why don't you play with Bumi?" The water bender suggested and excitedly Mika sat up and hurried from the room, she felt better and that was all she cared about.

Katara closed the door behind Mika before turning to Azula, fear in the eyes of both women.

Sokka never really knew what to expect when he came to the island with Aang after work. He had seen everything from his sister doing calm work around the house with the kids both asleep, to Bumi running to the bathroom has he vomited all over the halls on his way. But never did he think he would find what he did today; Katara sitting on the living room couch with her arms wrapped around the crying figure of Azula.

"What happened?" Sokka questioned urgently while Aang, though he did look worried, stood in the doorway unsure of what to do.

Not even waiting for an answer, Sokka hurried over to the couch and Katara released Azula, who looked embarrassed but almost didn't care.

"Mika fainted today, I examined her and… well her heart is pretty weak." Katara confessed and upon hearing this both Aang and Sokka went wide-eyed. Sokka glanced down at Azula who looked like after hearing the news a second time she was about to start sobbing again.

Instinctively he wrapped her in a hug just as Katara was doing when he came in and she sobbed into his chest, clearly she no longer cared about looking weak. He held her tight and buried his hand in her hair, as if somehow that could take away some of the hurt.

"Is there anything you can do?" Aang questioned Katara but she was staring hopelessly into her lap.

"I don't know. I'm going to try but I'm not sure if anything will help, weak hearts aren't like injuries and I don't know if they can be healed." She admitted, if Sokka didn't feel like his world was falling apart before he did now, and he couldn't even imagine how Azula felt.

"Does Mika know?" Aang asked and Katara shook her head

"Azula's going to tell her," she said before she stood up, announcing that she needed to get some air. Aang decided to follow his wife, closing the door behind him and leaving his brother-in-law and Azula alone in the living room.

The two sat in silence for a minute, the only sound being Azula's sniffles as she cried.

"You know if you want me to, I'll do it." Sokka finally whispered to her but she responded by pulling away, not entirely out of his arms but just enough to wipe away a tear and look him in the eye.

"No" she sniffled, "No I'm going to do it" she said, determination evident in her tear laced voice. Sokka nodded then gently used his thumb to wipe a tear away from her face, and he could've sworn he saw a ghost of a smile before she leaned back into him and they just sat there, avoiding reality for just a little while.