Posting a bit sooner than I thought I would, but I figured you all would enjoy this chapter.

Also, I'm taking Lin/Tenzin requests again to start working on once this is finished in the next week or so. Send me a message here if you have any!

Warrior Raging

Chapter 8

"I'm at the end of my rope here, Tenzin," Lin said sourly, pacing across his bedroom. "What if they win? What if the Dragon Clan is the one that beats me?"

She had just finished filling him in on the progress of the case, the late afternoon sun thrown through the window and across the floor. The deaths were heavy on her mind, making her feel sullied and furious with herself, and even his calm acceptance of the event was doing little to help when it was usually all she needed. She studied the wooden panels, not looking at him even as his eyes followed her anxious movements.

"Lin."

The surety of her name as he said it brought her around, and he held out his hand to beckon her closer. She came to sit rigidly on the side of the bed next to him and he grasped her fingers in his. "They are not going to beat you," he told her firmly. "They are not going to win anything. Have you slept since yesterday? You look exhausted."

She took a deep breath and shook her head. "There was too much going on. Paperwork with a death like that – well. And with all the rest, speaking with Lang and Master Yol, and trying to track down this Puya's brother…trying to deal with the two attackers we do have. Tenzin, I…"

Tenzin stared at her, as overwhelmed as she was. He had spent several hours in the hospital the night before, released to Pema's care when the healers were sure whatever herbal inhalant the men had drugged him with had done no more than knock him unconscious. He was extraordinarily achy today and was under strict orders to stay in bed until tomorrow – which, unlike Lin, he was willing to do. He wished she would, for her own sake.

"You did it all for me," he whispered, the weight of that still awe-worthy on his shoulders.

She looked at him and away, eyes focused on a random spot on the blanket covering his legs. "Of course I did. They would have killed you if I hadn't, what other option was there?"

He could imagine the fury fueling her hours before, a feeling he had felt on so few occasions and only for people he truly loved. He hadn't had a chance to be afraid for his life, but he knew he had been very close to losing everything if she hadn't acted so quickly to save him. "Thank you for coming to my rescue."

"Don't mention it, Airhead." She put her hand to his cheek, only to withdraw it again a moment later. "I'm not going to lose you, either, you great idiot. Just do me a favor and never scare me like that again, will you?"

He grinned, opening his mouth to respond, when Pema came into the room holding a tray of food. "Here, sweetheart! I made lunch."

Lin stood quickly from the bed, making room for Pema to take her place and set the tray up on the bedside table. Tenzin watched her, but she shook her head and took a step back. "I'm going to have the air patrols include the island in their hourly circuits," she said, snapping into business. "I'll also post officers on the docks and two on the grounds, just in case."

Pema nodded enthusiastically, though Tenzin frowned. "Do you really think that's necessary?"

"Yes," his wife said firmly, handing him a cup of tea, "it is absolutely necessary. Don't argue with Lin, she knows what she's doing." She tuned to Lin then, smiling at her widely. "Thank you so much, Chief, truly, for everything you did last night. I don't want to think about what would have happened if you hadn't been there."

I was there, she thought grimly, because Tenzin was about to come home with me. But she grinned thinly anyway, accepting her praise with a clenched jaw. "You're welcome. I should -"

"Would you like any tea, or perhaps some lunch? There's plenty, the children won't notice if a little more disappears."

Lin shook her head, looking at Pema's happy, innocent face. She could feel Tenzin's eyes on her, and she met his gaze over his wife's shoulder for a brief moment before looking at her again. "No, but I appreciate the offer. I really should get back to work. Please call if you need anything, all right?"

"I'll just walk you out, then."

"No, please, stay with Tenzin." Lin held up a hand to prevent her from rising from the bed and backed toward the door. "I can find my own way out."

She could feel Tenzin watching her until she disappeared around the corner.

xXx

Lin rolled over in bed, staring at the far wall slatted with shadows and attempting to ignore her aching body. She had been trying to sleep for hours, and according to the clock ticking away on her bedside table it was nearing three o'clock in the morning. She knew she would be beyond exhausted if she didn't fall asleep soon, especially after not getting any the night before, but all she could see when she closed her eyes was blood and Tenzin being dragged away from her.

The horror of that was something she was having a difficult time releasing, even though he was quite safe in his own bed just miles away. Perhaps it was the fact that it had happened at all, meaning it could possibly happen again. She couldn't well chain him to the temple, he would be leaving again sometime – and making himself a target once more. If she hadn't found him, if she hadn't saved him from those men…

She took a deep breath and tried to force the thought of it from her mind. The Dragon Clan tortured people for information they wanted. But Tenzin was safe. He was safe and far from them now. The weight of the two lives she had taken was heavy over her shoulders, but at least Tenzin was safe.

A knock on her front door startled her, and her heart leapt into her throat for a moment as she sat up. The knock came again. She swung her feet from the bed, not bothering to slide them into the slippers there, and pulled her robe on. She beckoned for a gauntlet as she passed, attaching it with the blade over her arm on the way to the door. Pausing for a second, she peered out the view.

Tenzin was standing on her stoop, wrapped in a nondescript brown cloak with the hood up and his head down.

Lin pulled the door open immediately, surprised. "What are you doing here?" she asked, too pleased to see him to be angry. She removed the gauntlet again and placed it on the small table in the entryway.

"Tending to an emergency with the President," he said, smiling almost bashfully. He came inside when she backed away to give him admission and closed the door. "I wanted to make sure you were all right. I haven't really had a chance to truly speak with you about – about what happened. Seeing you this afternoon, it wasn't enough. I couldn't stop thinking about you."

Unbidden, tears welled in her eyes as she stared up at him. Exhaustion was creeping in and making it very difficult to control herself, though if she were honest, she had been overwhelmed to her breaking point since seeing him forcefully taken from her. All of this was quickly becoming too much. Tenzin opened his arms without question, drawing her to his chest to hold her tightly.

"You're supposed to be in bed," she mumbled against him, turning her face to hide against the fabric of his robes, trying to push away the memory of blood covering her hands and how close he had come to leaving her. "You shouldn't be up yet."

"Then I should go get back into bed, shouldn't I?"

He pulled away slightly, enough to take her face into his hands, and rubbed his thumbs across her cheeks to brush her tears from her skin. This show of tenderness merely caused her to cry harder, and she clenched her fists against him in frustration and stale panic. "You saved my life, Lin," he whispered, leaning forward to kiss her forehead and then her nose. "Again, I should add," he said with a small smile as he closed the distance between them to press his lips to hers.

She kissed him back fiercely, her emotions running high until they spilled over completely. She could feel his hands pushing aside her dressing gown and moving gently down to her hips, urging her closer, and she complied without resistance, needing to feel him against her, warm and alive and there. His lips moved slowly away, over her cheek to her jaw, stopping at her ear. He kissed the soft skin under her earlobe before murmuring, "I want to make love to you, Lin."

It was so soft, the affectionate words brushing over her ear with his breath. She cupped his face, tugging him back around to bring their mouths together again before he could notice the way her body was trembling. He already had, though, she knew, but he wouldn't say so.

"Tenzin," she said lowly, lips still against his, "you're still healing."

"You are, as well."

She clutched at him, pulling him even closer and wrapping her arms up around his back. He could feel her fear for him through her touch and he tightened his hold, breaking the kiss to embrace her fully. She fell against him, fitting into his arms so perfectly and nestling her head under his chin.

"I don't want you to leave my sight again," she said with a hitching laugh, "as if that could ever happen. Spirits, Tenzin, I haven't been so scared in such a long time. I'd have died if -"

"Hush," he soothed, kissing the top of her head. "You made quite certain nothing bad happened to me. Thank you for that, truly."

She just exhaled the breath from her lungs, squeezing her eyes closed as she listened to his heart beating solidly under her ear, calling to her as steadfastly as his words and finally driving her fears away. "I think I could sleep now, if you stayed."

"So could I."

xXx

The ringing phone dragged Lin forcefully from her slumber only three hours later just before sunrise. Tenzin's arms tightened around her even as she reluctantly turned to bring her head away from his chest, reaching blindly for the receiver. He grumbled in his sleep, rolling with her to keep her close.

"Beifong," she mumbled, fighting back a yawn.

"Chief!" Della's excited voice met her ear, igniting her brain to fire a bit faster to keep up with her. "The men!" she continued, "those men who tried to abduct Master Tenzin! You should get down here right away, they're willing to speak with you!"

Lin thanked her and quickly hung up the phone, her stomach starting to feel tight with all-too familiar apprehension. "Tenzin," she said, pushing his arm away from her midriff. "I need to go, wake up."

"Not yet," he slurred, not wanting to move as he kept sleeping behind her, nuzzling his head against the warm skin of her shoulder and lazily planting a kiss there. "Don't leave. Stay here with me."

"Wake up." She couldn't help the little grin that tugged at her lips, though, as he slowly came to, opening his eyes when she turned over again in his arms to face him. She reached out to run her fingers over his bearded jaw, appreciating his nearness and forcing herself to ignore her welling sadness at the quickly approaching end to their time together. "I have to leave," she told him softly once he was awake enough to understand. "The case is progressing at the station, they need me down there."

He covered her hand, still on his cheek, and scooted clumsily forward to kiss her, both relishing the simple fact that they could. His tongue brushed almost hesitantly across her lower lip and she melted against him, her arm wrapping over his shoulder, holding him to her tightly. He pulled away after only another moment.

"Be safe, Lin, please."

"You do the same." Her smile turned somewhat cheerless and she brought her hand back to cup his face. "I wish you could stay here, so I would know exactly where you are."

"And so I would be here when you returned?"

She kissed him softly, lingering a bit longer than she had the first time. "That, too. Take your glider home, don't walk, okay? I'll probably be at work for a while, I can call when things calm down."

"Lin," he murmured, his eyes holding hers and not looking anywhere else. "I don't want you to leave. Everything feels different now, different than it was only a week ago. I'm suddenly so afraid of losing this – I'm afraid that when we part, I won't see you again."

His fear was real, and she could feel his heart beating with her senses where her body was still touching his. Her eyebrows narrowed in concern, her fingers curling against his face. "What do you mean?"

"What you're walking into, at the station this morning," he tried to expand, finally breaking her gaze and turning his eyes down to her collarbone instead. "You're surrounded by death lately, everywhere you go – and my own would have come just two nights ago if you hadn't been there. What if -" He paused to take a breath, and Lin ran her thumb over his cheek. "What if they've decided to take you, instead?" he asked softly, the question falling into the small space between them. "What if they try to kill you next time? Their threat was so clear against you. I don't know if I could handle losing you, just the thought terrifies me."

"You told me yesterday that the Dragon Clan wouldn't beat me, Tenzin," she reminded him with a little smile, but it vanished rather quickly when she saw just how distraught he was.

"I do still believe that. I just…I don't want anything to happen to you."

Lin nodded once in understanding and she shifted herself to wrap her arms around him, gently throwing her top leg over his. He pressed his face to her chest near her neck, falling into the embrace without resistance. "We're on the same page, then," she whispered. "Neither of us can bear to lose the other. What kind of mess have we gotten ourselves into here?"

He shook his head against her, pulling back enough to see her face so close to his. "It's not a mess," he said. "It is simply two people finding one another again."

"And realizing exactly what that means," she murmured in agreement, pressing her lips to his temple.