Chapter Eleven

Jet looked at the young woman in confusion. Then he could have kicked himself. This was Lady Mai. Zuko said she was with Aang and Katara. Of course she's wondering where her brother is.

"Lady Mai, your brother is still safe in Ba Sing Se. I never got that far," he began, then gestured toward the seats pulled up by the big central firepit. Mai gave him an appraising look, which, to his surprise, made him a little nervous.

They each took a seat and he hesitantly began to tell her about Bo's obsession with catgator. To his relief, instead of being angry, within a few minutes she was actually laughing with him and he began to relax.

In his dreams she'd always looked at him in challenge, but now her eyes sparkled in amusement. Out of the corner of his eye he studied her in fascination. She wasn't dressed very fancy, but something about her still shouted aristocrat. Maybe it was the way she sat, her posture just so. Maybe it was the way her hair was arranged. All he knew was that he felt like he was underdressed somehow.

He tried to remember everything he'd heard in Omashu about Lady Mai-- the powerful daughter of the former governor, then powerful Fire Nation representative in her own right. City gossip had little to say about her. She kept a pretty low profile, doing the rounds of official gatherings.

A few rumors had surfaced about her when she'd first came, though. They'd said she'd sold out her family to help Princess Azula and had helped take Ba Sing Se from the inside.

But those rumors had died down when Fire Lord Iroh himself had installed her into her post. He was the hero who had retaken Ba Sing Se with their beloved King Bumi and the Order of the White Lotus. If Mai was good enough for him, she was good enough for everybody, it seemed.

Jet had never cared one way or the other. Once the war was over, he'd been jaded enough by what he'd seen from all sides that in many ways he'd ceased to care about anyone or anything—either to love it or hate it.

His philosophy had become wait and see. Take no action until you know what action to take. Many an enemy had become a friend and many a friend had turned out to be an enemy over the years. It paid to be patient and wait to see what people were really like before falling in or falling out with them.

But something about this girl challenged his patience. He found himself wanting to make a judgment about her, to see her in a positive light.

Then she stood up and said, "Well, where are the treegeckos? Let's saddle up and head out to Ba Sing Se."

"Are you crazy?" he asked in disbelief, looking up at her. "We're not traveling this swamp without a guide. You saw what happened to Zuko and Toph."

"The swamp had a reason to divert them. It doesn't have any reason to talk to us," she reasoned. "I don't think Aang and Katara need to leave here until Zuko is much better. In the meantime, we can go get Tom-Tom and meet them back here for the journey home."

Without another word, Mai headed over to where Aang and Katara were setting up camp and began pulling her belongings out of the pile.

Jet followed her, amazed at her hard-headedness. "You are insane," he blurted, perhaps unwisely.

She turned and gave him a cool look. "If you are afraid," she began, "you don't have to go with me."

"Yeah, right," Jet replied sharply. "Like I'm going to let an unarmed woman head off into dangerous territory on her own."

A little smile flickered across her face, and she asked, "So this means you're coming?"

Jet called to Aang in frustration only to have Katara shush him. "Keep it down, remember?" she said sternly.

Jet nodded, then walked over to Aang, hoping to gain an ally. To his dismay, Aang replied, "It might be a good idea for you and Mai to get Tom-Tom—that is, if she still wants him to come. Or you both could just head back home."

Mai thought about it for a moment. As much as she didn't want to back down in front of the mercenary Jet, maybe it wasn't entirely a good idea to bring Tom-Tom to Omashu right now. The general excitement had turned to something closer to general chaos. Who knew what Bumi would do the next time he had a major announcement to make?

"Maybe you're right, Aang," she relented, aware that Jet had bristled a little beside her. "I think we'll stay here with you guys for a couple of days. Then if Zuko isn't ready to travel, we'll head back to Omashu to let Sokka and Suki know we're all okay."

"We?" Jet asked suspiciously.

"Certainly," Mai responded evenly as she turned and gave the handsome young mercenary another long look. "My major domo hired you to deliver my brother to Omashu. Until he arrives, or I decide otherwise, you are in my employ, are you not?"

If he hadn't heard the little undercurrent of laughter in her voice, Jet would have been sorely tempted to throw Miss Mai's money right back in her face. Unfortunately, he'd left the bag of gold pieces back in Omashu—no point in risking that kind of money on the trail.

Plus, he realized that she was trying to get a rise out of him—pushing him a little to see how he'd respond. So, he decided to take the high road and gave her a deep bow of obeisance. "As you wish, my lady," he replied smoothly.

"However, if you plan to stay for a day or so," Jet continued, including Aang and Katara in his offer, "we better get you guys some shelter. It tends to rain at night. Plus, a door keeps the swamp creatures at bay."

"Creatures?" Mai asked, a hint of concern in her voice. Jet was glad to see that something had gotten to the imperturbable diplomat.

"Yeah," he began, "wolfbats, swampsquitos, centimanders, who knows what else is out there in the dark. You guys can stay in my hut. It's the only guest quarters in the village."

He magnanimously led the way to the small hut he'd been assigned, gathering his few belongings and shoving his cot to the side. Three more cots were found stored in the rafters, and soon bedrolls were laid out for the night.

They walked back to the central firepit for the evening meal, Katara taking a bowl of some kind of stew to Toph. When she got back to the other three, Aang asked how Zuko was doing.

Katara just sighed. "I'm really worried, Aang. He's in so much pain. I can tell it's taking a toll on Toph, but she wouldn't let me stay." She took the bowl Aang prepared for her and picked at her food a little.

"If he's not better soon," Aang said gently, "I'll go back to Omashu and to Ba Sing Se to see if any of their healers have any suggestions." Then Aang put his arm around her and she leaned against his shoulder. Then the young airbender gave her a gentle kiss.

The casual intimacy of their contact caused Jet and Mai to shift a little uncomfortably. Simultaneously, they each put down their empty food bowls and walked away from the fire a few steps before they even realized that the other had also walked away.

Jet looked over at the willowy, headstrong girl he'd dreamed of. "They looked like they needed a little space, I thought," he explained.

"I thought so too," Mai replied, looking back at the fire where Aang was stroking Katara's back. Then she looked away again into the forest around them. "So do you come here often?" she asked with a little grin.

Jet found himself laughing. "No," he replied firmly. "Well, I've been through here several times in the past, but no more. I'll be glad if I never set foot in this swamp again after this week."

Mai looked around, then found a semi-clean fallen tree trunk to sit on. "I don't know," she said, casting a casual glance around her, "it doesn't seem too bad to me. A little wet sometimes."

"A little wet, a little creepy, a little hazardous to your health," Jet replied. "Speaking of creepy, there's a centimander about a foot away from you, crawling toward your hand."

Jet was deeply gratified to see Mai leap at least four feet away from her seat. But after her initial jump, she turned and began searching for the creature. Soon, she was crouching down before the log, watching a little brownish tan centimander make its many footed way down the log and into a hollow spot on the end.

"I don't know," she said, looking up at Jet. "I think he's kind of cute."

Around them, the shadows were growing longer as the sun began to set. Jet wondered if Mai would still think it was cute if it were crawling across her neck in the middle of the night. He shook his head a little in disbelief as the two walked back toward the light of the fire.

Back in the healer's hut, Toph was not concerned about the animal life or the encroaching darkness. Her earthbending eyes, her heart, and her mind were focused on her husband. For the most part, Zuko was still delirious with the toxins in his system. The pain was clearly overwhelming. She'd never seen him in so much misery and confusion.

Once in a while, he'd regain some idea of where he was and that she was with him. During those few brief moments, she'd sit close to him and speak to him very quietly. She'd reassure and reassure that she was there and that she would not leave him. He'd beg her to turn off the lights, even though she'd drawn the curtains as firmly as she could.

She'd give him a sip of water, but the act of swallowing was clearly very painful. His voice was raspy and his skin was clammy with little beads of sweat. She'd tried to bathe his forehead very gently, but even that light touch had seemed to hurt him terribly, so she contented herself with just being with him.

She wished she could do more for him, especially in those moments when he was not aware of his surroundings and called out for her, for his mother, for his uncle. Sometimes he seemed to be reliving past events and spoke to people as if they were in the room with them. But always, ever present was the pain.

She could watch it crest and fall by his heartbeat and breathing. At first he held out against it, but after a while lost the strength to fight anymore. She'd see his heartrate begin to rise and hear his breathing began to grow rapid and shallow and she knew another wracking bout of agony was upon him.

Tears would squeeze out between his tightly shut eyelids and would flow freely down her cheeks as well. His breath would come in shallow rasping groans, then when it peaked out, he would sometimes pass into merciful unconsciousness, and sometimes ride it out to the end, his groans constricting into soft cries, heartbreaking to hear. Eventually, it would ease again to a more bearable level, but was never entirely gone.

More than anything, she wanted to hold him through it, to bear it with him, but right then even her touch was another form of torture.

So she did what she could. She stood between him and the world. She kept everyone at bay. He would not want anyone to see him like this—truthfully, not even her. But that's where she drew the line.

She would not leave his side. Not for a moment. During those rare intervals when he knew she was with him, it brought him the comfort and reassurance he needed to get through this. So as night fell, she pulled her cot close to his and lay down, resting but never sleeping, always listening, always watching. And when he finally fell into an exhausted, restless sleep, she lay there beside him, ever alert for any change, her fingers just brushing the ends of his hair.

Outside, Jet made a quick walk around the village before turning in. The swamp made him nervous. Night in the swamp made him very nervous. So, he walked the perimeter before turning in, his hand always on his sword hilt, always at the ready.

At last he walked up the steps of the guest hut, pausing to pick a stray centimander from the door and replace it on the ground. He'd have liked to place it on Mai's bed, but didn't want the thing to come wandering over him in the night instead. He had to agree, they were kind of cute, but at the same time, their little feet were sticky and clammy. He rubbed the back of his neck to deaden the sense memory of his most recent encounter.

He opened the door of the hut to see that Aang and Katara had pushed their cots close to each other on the far side, making a little room to walk between cots. Mai had centered her cot equidistant between theirs and his. He just had room to sit down and pull off his boots. It was very quiet and he could hear regular breathing from Aang and Katara. He assumed they were asleep. Quietly, he unbuckled his sword belt and placed it beneath the cot in easy reach.

"Did you find anything out there?" Mai's voice asked softly in the dark.

"Just a centimander trying to get in," he replied as he lay back on the cot, causing it to creak beneath him.

"What are all those eyes glowing in the dark?" she asked, her voice equal parts curiosity and nervousness.

"Some are probably wolfbats, the others I don't know," Jet replied. "But we're safe in here, I think."

"You think?" she asked and he could hear a little laughter in her voice.

"Don't worry, Lady Mai," he said with a laugh of his own. "I'm armed." To reinforce the point, he pulled his dagger out of its sheath with a little silvery ring of metal.

"Don't worry, Jet," she said, rolling over on her side away from him and giving a yawn. "So am I."

He heard a muffled click of some kind, but she didn't say any more. Finally, her breathing settled down to a peaceful evenness, and Jet lay there on his back, his hands behind his head. At last, he too drifted into sleep.

But to sleep is to dream. And their dreams were interesting indeed.