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Lin walked out of the interrogation room in a huff.

"Better luck next time, eh Chief?"

"Guess so, Lieutenant Saikhan," she said while they headed over to her office. "Did anything come of the interrogations of the triad members?"

"Something did actually. Ever since our bust of their gambling racket last there's been openings higher up in the chain of command. They felt that their normal methods for promotion weren't working, so they decided to act on their riskiest plan in the hopes it would pay off big—targeting families such as the Satos, and moving on to their neighbors, and so on. Might have worked if we hadn't caught them."

Lin paused to massage her temples. "So now not only do we have errant triad members targeting the wealthy, we might also have a hierarchy war within the Agni Kai triad? This is not looking good."

"No Chief, it is not. Will we need to involve a task force?"

"There is no need for that yet-the last thing we need to show the triads is that we're scrambling. I will preside over it myself," Lin crisply stated.

"I don't want to overstep my boundaries Chief, so forgive me if I do, but are you sure that's a good idea? As I understand it, you are good friends with Yasuko Sato. You are incredibly fair when it comes to justice, but your connections to the family involved could render you biased."

She turned to yell at him, but realized he was right. Yasuko had been one of her closest friends since day school, and Lin herself was one of Asami's godmothers. Plus, she had almost arrested Pema for helping out. Who knows what else could happen?

"Fine," she growled. "You may take the case. Just so we're clear though, I will not stand by idly."

Saikhan blinked, clearly surprised by the lack of fighting from his chief. "Wow I mean-thank you Chief. Of course, any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated. Who knew hormones could be so calming?"

Lin stopped dead in her tracks. "Who told you?" she asked brusquely.

"What do you mean I-" he stuttered. "Alright, fine. When Suyin came in yesterday with Junior and Huan to tour the metalbending academy, she let it slip. Everyone else knows, but we kept our lips sealed out of respect for you."

She sighed at her office door. Suyin probably thought everyone knew already.

"Well, Lieutenant, you've done well so far. Even though it's 7 in the morning, go home and get some sleep. Also, while on the way down can you tell everyone it's okay to talk about my pregnancy?"

He smiled. "Yes chief. I'll see you later. And again, congratulations."

She opened the door to her office. Usually she kept it very clean; the only items in the room apart from her mahogany furniture were four file cabinets and curtains to keep out heat from the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked Republic City. Right now, however, it was filled with flowers, congratulation cards, toys, baby clothes-and a person sitting in her office chair.

Lin looked around in wonder, her eyes eventually focusing on the other person in the room.

"Aunt Azula?" she said incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

The former Commander of the United Republic Forces walked towards her niece and warmly embraced her. The years had been good to her; she hardly had wrinkles, and save for her grey hair she could be mistaken for a fifty year old.

"It's good to see you too, Lin," she said, laughing. "Toph told me about the pregnancy, wouldn't shut up about it really. Congrats!"

Lin smiled uneasily. "Thanks. Where's Zahira?"

"As far as I know my daughter's trying to follow up on the attacks at the compound. That was before a similar attack took her to a former Fire Nation colony. Out of curiosity how far along are you?"

"I'm almost four months along," Lin said with a smile.

"Really? With your armor on you can hardly tell a thing!"

"Thank goodness for that!" the metalbender laughed.

"I'm sure you must be hungry. Why don't we head back to your home and have breakfast there? I'm sure Katara's whipped something up by now."


Half an hour later, the duo was sitting at the dining table with the rest of the adults happily munching away on eggs and Komodo sausage.

"Have you been craving spicy food?" asked Azula after noticing the gusto with which Lin was eating her food.

"Actually, no. I've been craving egg custard tarts and deep-fried pickled radishes."

"Like mother, like daughter," Toph mused.

"I remember when I was pregnant with my kids all I wanted to eat was sea prune stew. Aang couldn't stand it!" Katara laughed.

"What about you Suyin? What did you crave when you were pregnant with the kids?" Lin asked.

"Same as you and mom, egg custard tarts and deep-fried pickled radishes. I think at this point I'm on a first name basis with the suppliers in Zaofu, especially when I was pregnant with the twins."

"Mommy! Auntie!"

Korra and Opal, Suyin's four year old daughter, ran into the room and straight into Lin's arms.

"Hi sweethearts! Do you want food?"

"Yes, please!"

A small plate of eggs and a glass of juice appeared in front of them thanks to Suyin. The two girls happily ate and then proceeded to run off to the playroom.

"You've taken to motherhood rather well," Katara remarked.

"Have you considered adopting Korra?" Toph asked.

Lin spit out her food. "What?"

"It's not such an unreasonable question," Azula said. "You do seem especially close with her."

"I have considered it, but never seriously!" Lin exclaimed. "I adore Korra, and I want her to be part of the family, but I don't want her to feel like she has to turn her back on her Water Tribe culture either."

"With me around, she won't have that issue," assured Katara. "I already am her water bending master. I'd be more than honored to teach her the ways of her tribe."

Lin nodded. "Thank you Katara. It would mean so much to me if you were able to impart your knowledge."

"Of course. It's the cycle of life, the old teach the young. Korra is our future, she must learn from the past to prepare for the trials of what is to come."

A comfortable silence filled the room.

Lin pushed herself away from the table. "Thank you for making breakfast, Katara, but I have to get going. I need to pick up Asami from the nursery, and then I'm visiting Yasuko."

Anxiety crossed over everyone's features. Saikhan had called the house earlier warning them about triads in their neighborhood; the last thing they needed was a triad getting ahold of Lin.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Suyin said.

"Yasuko has been my best friend since I was a child. I have to go. I'll drop off Asami here so she doesn't have to see the hospital. Besides, it's not like anything is going to happen to me anyways. I'm the Chief of Police, and I live with multiple master benders."

Katara sighed. "If you insist, Lin. But at least try to take a nap first-you've only had five hours of sleep."

"As you wish." With that Lin left for her bedroom, preparing herself for what was to come.