Chapter 38

Katara stood behind Mai feeling utterly helpless. She'd done all she could. Now all they could do was wait and hope.

Across the room she could see Aang, Toph, and Zuko standing quietly, watching in concern. The scene seemed like an eerie replay of the day before as they all stood around in nearly the same places.

But they all knew this waiting was different. By the time Mai had been brought upstairs, the big scare had been over.

This time fear hung heavy in the air.

Katara patted Mai on the shoulder and walked to the door, taking Aang's hand as she went past him to pull him with her into the hallway.

"How is he?" Aang asked.

"It's not good," she replied with a heavy sigh. "I just wish there was more I could do."

"I know," Aang said, putting an arm around her shoulders as she leaned against him for comfort.

In the room, Toph and Zuko stood, hand in hand, and watched as Mai carefully adjusted the coverlet across Jet's shoulders. Her hand shook a little.

"I hate this," Zuko said grimly. "I hate not being able to do something. I had no idea anything so serious was going on with him," he continued quietly.

"What could you have done if you'd known, Sparky?" Toph asked reasonably. "You got him back here as quickly as you could."

Zuko just shrugged. "I'm going to see what Katara has to say," he stated. Then giving his wife a kiss, he stepped into the hallway.

However, he hadn't even had the chance to speak to Katara when steps on the stairwell signaled the approach of Sokka and Suki. "We came as fast as we could," Sokka began, then paused as he took in the serious faces of the crew. "What's going on?" he asked.

Quietly Zuko filled him in on the events of the day.

"So, just heal him Katara," Sokka stated. "You heal bleeding all the time."

"It's not that easy, Sokka," Katara responded. "The skull is like a barrier—I can't feel through it like I can normal flesh. I can tell there's bleeding going on, but I can't see it well enough to really work on it."

Sokka just looked at her in typical doubting brother fashion, and she continued defensively, "Blood bending is a lot like trying to bend muddy water. There's only so much coaxing and encouraging I can do unless I can really see what I'm doing. That's the reason I use pure water when I heal. It helps me see the details."

Then Katara sighed and leaned back against Aang before adding, "Trying to see through the skull is very hard. I can get only a little sense of what's beneath it. It's like trying to bend water that's underground." As she spoke, she remembered the first time she'd tried to bend water she couldn't see. That had been for Jet too—only under much less positive circumstances.

Apparently satisfied with her answer, Sokka turned to Aang. "Okay, then, Aang—you do it. Avatar state, yip, yip," he said, but though his words were light, his face was serious.

Aang knew Sokka didn't mean to be flippant. Mr. Problem Solver was just attacking the problem head-on in typical Sokka fashion. Sometimes that approach generated useful ideas, so Aang answered patiently.

"The avatar state does not mean I am all powerful," Aang began. "I have access to the knowledge and abilities of all the previous avatars, but unless it involves straight bending of the elements, for me to use that knowledge I still have to understand what I'm trying to accomplish."

The others looked at him expectantly. "Katara will tell you. I spend hours each day in meditation, trying to learn everything I can about being avatar from the previous avatars. Unfortunately, none of them ever seemed to have much time for advanced medicine or art or music or literature," he sighed.

"Most of my work is in mediating disputes between the nations or judging difficult cases or trying to make new treaties between cities and regions," he continued. "I spend all of the time I can learning from my past lives--learning history and laws and customs so I can make better decisions."

Aang passed a weary hand over his brow. He felt Katara put a comforting arm around him. After all, she knew the kinds of things he was asked to do—things that were just beyond his abilities.

Stop a plague, keep a typhoon from flooding a region, make it rain on drought-stricken crops.

Keep a sick loved one from dying.

Sometimes he could help, but sometimes what he was asked to do was just beyond him. Even when the job dealt strictly with the elements, sometimes it was beyond him. After all, Avatar Roku had been killed trying to combat the elements.

And the human body was a mysterious and difficult mix of all the elements. Maybe if he had a lifetime, he could learn to separate the elements that made flesh, blood, bone, and nerve. Then maybe he could heal catastrophic injuries or cure disease. Maybe he could stop the people he cared about from dying.

Maybe in the next lifetime, he thought with a resigned sigh.

A servant came up the stairs and announced, "A party of guests has arrived from the city."

"The guys are here," Zuko said in realization. "I better go down and tell them what's going on," he added, then headed downstairs.

Just then a call from inside Mai's room sent the group hurrying through the doorway, Katara leading the way.

"Hey," came a voice from the bed. It was weak, but it was Jet's. Against the odds, he was awake.

Mai looked up at her, carefully guarded hope in her eyes.

Katara swirled her waters around him, her eyes closed in concentration. She simply had to be able to see what was going on inside that thick skull of his.

With relief, she could tell that the bleeding seemed to have stopped and the pressure was beginning to go down in his head. Maybe something she did had helped, maybe his body had just sealed the wound on its own.

Her previous examinations had uncovered signs that this wasn't the first time he'd had this kind of bleed. But as far as she could tell, he'd never had one this bad before. It seemed to her that he'd gotten lucky again.

She looked down at him and permitted herself to smile. "I don't know how you managed to do it, but you're actually getting better," she said.

Around the room came exclamations of relief. "But you do not leave this spot until I say you can," Katara added firmly. "You stay put until I know you're out of danger."

"But the guys are coming for dinner," Jet said weakly and actually tried to get up.

"The guys are already here and will come up to see you shortly," Katara stated as she put a firm hand on his shoulder to keep him in place. "You, however, are not moving until I say so."

Once she had Mai's assurance that she would not let Jet budge an inch until permitted, Katara sent the rest of the crew downstairs, but stopped a few minutes outside in the hallway to talk with Aang. She paused to allow a pair of serving girls to pass, then looked up at her husband, her blue eyes dark with concern.

"You know that if that bleeding hadn't stopped, Jet would be in serious trouble," she began.

Aang nodded. "I think you must have helped him somehow," he said reassuringly.

Katara just shook her head. "Maybe I helped disburse the blood that had already collected," she said, "but the bleeding stopped on its own. I never could tell where it was coming from to heal it."

"But he's on the mend now," Aang continued, ever the optimist. "You said he was getting better."

"He's on the mend for now," Katara returned, stressing the idea of 'for now.' "But he absolutely can't take another blow to the head like that. If that bleed opens up again and doesn't stop on its own, he could die."

"Okay, so he has to take it easy for a while," Aang agreed.

Katara looked at him squarely. "He's has to face a master earthbender in a matter of days," she observed. "How is he supposed to take it easy?"

Aang looked down in thought. "I'll have a word with Bumi," he offered, looking back at her again. "Surely the contest can be rescheduled."

"I hope so," Katara said as they headed downstairs to say hi to Longshot, Smellerbee, The Duke, and Pipsqueak. "Otherwise, Jet will be risking his life for this."

Downstairs, Zuko had already begun the process of shifting the dinner gathering from Mai's apartments to his and Toph's.

"But before we head over, Jet will definitely want to see you guys for a minute," he announced as Katara and Aang walked into the sitting room.

"But only for a minute," Katara instructed firmly. "And he can't get up—no matter what he says."

They visited for a few moments, Jet insisting that they come back the next night for dinner at his place. "I swear I'll be up and around no problem by then," he declared firmly.

"Sounds good to me," The Duke said.

"I have a friend visiting for a while," Smellerbee began.

"Bring 'em along," Jet replied expansively. "The more the merrier."

Smellerbee grinned gratefully and the guys made their way downstairs and over to Zuko and Toph's place. Katara stayed a few moments, then made her way back over to Mai's apartments. "I need to be around just in case," she explained. Jet's devil-may-care attitude had worried her a bit. She was a little concerned that he still wasn't 100 percent himself.

The visit went well, and it was well after dark when Aang returned to Mai's place to check in with Katara and Mai. The household was quiet and still as a servant escorted him up the darkened stairs to the bedroom.

After a quiet knock, Katara opened the door. Aang looked across the dark room to see Jet stretched out across Mai's bed, apparently sound asleep. Mai sat in a chair by his side, holding his hand in hers. He noticed that she frequently caressed the wide band of his meteor ring with her fingertip.

"How's he doing?" he asked Katara quietly.

She stepped with him out into the hallway before answering. "Sleeping normally, I'd say," she began. "The pressure has really gone down fast. Once the bleeding stopped, it disbursed well. I don't think there's going to be any lasting damage from this episode."

"This episode?" Aang half asked.

"Aang, if he fights this super bender in a couple of days, we're only asking for a repeat of this," Katara stated firmly. "There's no way he can get through something as rough as an earthbending match without some jarring or impact bad enough to start him bleeding again. Plus, there are at least two other places that are just as vulnerable to injury—they might have also been bleeding this time as well."

Katara looked over at Jet with a mixture of frustration and worry. "He's just had too many blows to the head over the years. Those old injuries have healed and been re-injured too many times." She looked at Aang and spoke quietly but seriously as she said, "Maybe those places will eventually heal up completely. But I am afraid that this won't be the case. Aang, one of these days, a hard blow to the head will probably kill him."

Aang looked at her solemnly. "Is there anything you can do to help those places heal up better?" he asked.

"Like I told Sokka, unless I can really see it with waterbending, I can't do very much detail work," she sighed. Then she wiped her face with her hands. "I don't want to tell Mai," she whispered.

"Then don't," he said. "I'll talk to Jet tomorrow myself. Plus, I'll go see Bumi. He's got to let us put this off—at least until Jet is well enough to compete."

The next day, however, he found Jet to be the most vocal opposition to the reschedule. They sat in the courtyard on the spectator stands of the bending practice ground watching Zuko and Sokka spar. "I will be fine," Jet repeated firmly. "I feel great and I'll be really, really careful."

"How can you say that?" Aang asked incredulously. "Do you have any idea what kind of earthbender you're going to be facing?"

"Sure," Jet declared easily. "I've seen General Ji-Fu in exhibition before. He generally participates in the big New Year's festivities every year. He's pretty good."

"He's probably the best earthbender in this part of the entire earth kingdom," Aang retorted.

"Yeah, but I've been fighting Toph and she's the best earthbender the world has ever seen," Jet replied merrily. "I've got no worries about this guy."

Aang just shook his head and decided to address Bumi next.

Bumi, however, felt much the same way. "Aang, you worry too much," the old king said, offering him a snack from the appetizer tray a servant had brought up. Aang looked at the tray to see the same squishy looking pieces of slime Hu had offered him in the swamp. He politely declined.

"Are you sure?" Bumi asked, popping one of the bigger ones into his mouth. "Hu sent these along fresh. They're really yummy."

Aang shook his head again and pressed Bumi for a reschedule, but Bumi refused adamantly. "No, Aang, the date is set. Besides, if your young man can hear the earth, he's destined to win," Bumi explained patiently.

"Winning is not what I'm concerned about," Aang replied. "If Jet takes a hard knock on the head right now, he could die. That could happen whether he wins or loses."

"Have faith in destiny," Bumi answered. "I do." And with a huge grin, he tossed another piece of slime into his mouth.

Between Jet's total lack of concern and Bumi's serene confidence in the power of destiny, Aang felt completely frustrated. Maybe Mai would be able to get through to Jet, he decided.

However, Mai was approached by someone else first.

Jet had left her place that morning in good spirits after assuring her that he felt completely fine. "I'm just going to go watch Sokka and Zuko fight, then I need to be sure everything is ready for the guys to come over. Do you want to come help me plan for tonight? I've never hosted a dinner before," he admitted with a grin.

"Of course I will," she replied, and since the house staff was around, she gave him his goodbye kiss on the cheek. "Just don't get drawn into the match yourself," she added firmly. "You know what Katara said about taking it easy."

Once he was safely seated on the benches with Aang, Mai headed out of the diplomatic compound for a meeting with King Bumi's advisors. Katara had also warned her to take it easy as well, but she had one piece of official business she wanted to get cleared up quickly.

Experience had taught her that the best way to get the advisors to address an issue was to meet them personally. The crazy old men never moved fast on anything without a little good-natured pressure from her. Sometimes she thought they just liked to have her come visit them.

At any rate, a short meeting with the old gentlemen accomplished her goals, and she walked back across the broad courtyard that lay between the palace and the diplomatic compound.

However, her morning's efforts had tired her more than she realized and she stopped to rest for a moment at the huge fountain. The sun shone down brightly around her and when the wind was still, it was fairly warm. The sound of falling water behind her was very soothing.

Suddenly, her instincts warned her she was not alone just as she heard a sound behind her.

"Mai," came a smooth, cultured voice she recognized at once, "fancy meeting you here."

"General," she replied evenly as General Ji-Fu strode around the fountain toward her, his face friendly as always.

"I hear you've had a number of adventures of late," he said innocently, taking a seat next to her.

"No more than usual," she replied as she stood to take her leave of him.

"No, no," he said firmly, patting the seat with a smile, "stay a moment. We need to talk."

Mai sat down, a little further from him than she'd been. She did not like Ji-Fu, she did not trust Ji-Fu, but she knew better than to walk away. Ji-Fu was the kind of person who liked to tell his enemies exactly what he was planning to do, then proceed to do it, despite their best efforts to stop him. Forewarned was forearmed in her book.

"I believe you've made a very good friend of late," Ji-Fu began pleasantly. "From what I've heard, he seems like a nice young man. He's got a bit of a past, perhaps, but we all have our secrets, don't we?" He gave her a little conspiratorial look that turned her stomach.

"However, I'm not convinced that he's the right kind of person to be king of Omashu," Ji-Fu continued smoothly. "And as you know, the advisors and the trade council have been very firm in their requests that I make myself available for consideration."

"Where are you going with all this, Ji-Fu?" Mai asked bluntly, already tired of dealing with the man.

"Just here," Ji-Fu's voice took on a harder edge. "This Jet does not have what it takes to be king. He's not the bender he needs to be. He does not have the experience he needs. He does not have the background he needs. It would be better for him to realize this now and walk away than risk hurting himself in open duel against me."

"What makes you think he'd hurt himself?" she asked evenly. "This is a duel, not combat to the death."

"I know that he was brought into your residence unconscious late yesterday afternoon. I know that the avatar's wife stayed the night there as well," Ji-Fu stated, false concern coloring his tones.

Mai just looked at him in disbelief as she realized that someone in her household was passing information to Ji-Fu—or to someone who reported to him. The man had spies everywhere. It made her sick to know he had a contact inside her own house.

"I am very concerned that this match might be too much for him in his current state of health," Ji-Fu continued, his voice solemn. "I believe he's been told to take care of himself. It would be a shame if something tragic happened to him because he was foolhardy enough to face me when he should just walk away."

"Is this a threat?" Mai asked, a little cold edge to her voice.

"No, my dear Mai," Ji-Fu said with a laugh as he rose to go. "It's just an observation." Then he gave her a very polite bow and walked off in the direction of the palace.

She watched as Ji-Fu headed back toward the palace, his step confident.

Once she'd calmed down, she headed straight to confront Katara. She found her in the gardens of the courtyard, watching little Bumi climb on a very relaxed Appa. "Tell me, Katara," she began without preamble.

"Tell you what?" Katara asked as Mai sat on the bench next to her.

"About Jet. How bad was it really?" she asked. "He says he's fine. Is he?"

Katara looked away to watch Bumi climb over one of Appa's huge feet, rolling off onto the ground on the other side with a laugh. Then she faced Mai directly. "Jet does not need to take another blow to the head right now. It's a wonder the bleed he had last night sealed itself and responded so well to the healing I was able to do. Another one right now might not do that."

Mai sat quietly for a moment as she considered Katara's words, then said, "So basically, if he's not careful, it could happen again."

"Yes," Katara agreed sadly. "And the next time could very possibly kill him."

Bumi giggled and climbed back across Appa, who gave a little grunting sigh of contentment. Across the courtyard, the fountain bubbled quietly. The sun was bright overhead, sending little rays of warmth through the trees.

But then a chilly wind began to blow against them, sending a few brightly colored fall leaves tumbling to the ground. The breeze was cool enough to send a chill across Mai's skin and she shivered as a golden leaf fell into her lap.

She looked up at the bright blue sky, blinking back the sudden tears that sprang to her eyes.

She understood what Ji-Fu had been trying to tell her. If Jet fought him, he could die.

It wasn't worth it, she decided. The entire city of Omashu wasn't worth Jet's life.

Mai knew what he'd say, but decided it didn't matter. If he truly loved her, he wouldn't do it. He'd just have to walk away.