Beta-read by Scribbles I.
Happy New Years you guys. Sorry about length of wait. Will do better next time!
Healed and Hunted
Hospital Visit
Chapter Eighteen
Harris Methodist Hospital
Suki
"No, Katara, he's going to be alright. It was only his arm and back. Really he's more grazed than pierced. He's really fine. Sokka's instructed me to tell you that you are to stay in school, and you can see him when you come this weekend." She had a finger in one ear, the phone on the other.
Kat's answer was shrill and unintelligible.
"Kat, calm down. I can't understand what you're saying." Suki took a breath to relax. It was worse off than she was letting on, but she couldn't have the three of them facing jail time for running away. Things just wouldn't allow for it right now.
Kat tried slowing her statement down, but was still muttering for all Suki could hear. The phone was passed to someone else.
"Kat wants to know what happened," Aang said. From the way his voice sounded, Suki could imagine him leaning away from Kat.
Suki sighed, "There were idiots outside. Idiots with illegal weapons. They tried to shoot one of our clients, but Sokka was in the way. He's going to be just fine."
"It's only two days, Kat, we can wait. You don't want to give them any more trouble, do you?" Aang said. Suki laughed to herself.
"Good. I'll pick you guys up, alright?"
Aang answered cheerfully, "Alright. We'll sneak Sokka some real food when we get there."
She could hear Kat in the background, but the conversation ended there. Suki walked back inside the hospital and went up to the fourth floor. Inside her husband's room, Kyoshi was sleeping next to her father, eyes still red from crying. Her hair was a mess, but Suki thought she looked better than before. It had been days, it seemed, since the girl had slept.
Suki gently pulled her daughter's hair back into a ponytail and tied it with the band on her wrist. The girl moved closer to her sleeping father.
Sokka tried to whisper, eyes still closed. It didn't make it past the the tubes in his throat. But she understood.
Suki nodded, "They'll be coming when they get here. Promised to bring you real food."
Sokka choked a laugh.
She could barely stand the sight of the plastic tubes weaving in and out of his body. One breathed for him while his lungs repaired while another made sure his blood was still circulating. It had been far worse than she had told their family.
She had almost lost Sokka.
When she was sure her husband and child were both completely asleep, she finally allowed herself to cry. She tried to keep herself quiet, but everything came out at once. Her frustration at what had happened, that nothing had been done, that the love of her life had been so close to dying. Part of her wished Kat would still try and get here soon.
It was hard to deal with it all on her own.
Coffee Room
Kat
Aang and Toph had gone to bed hours ago. She was still blankly staring ahead, unsure of what to make of this. She was going to fix Sokka. She had to. She couldn't just leave him in some hospital. Her mind kept coming back to the fact that she was stuck in this place while he was somewhere else.
"Kat, hey, they said your brother's going to be fine." Lee pulled her over onto another couch, next to him. She was grateful that he was warm.
"Suki was lying. I'm sure he will be fine. But she was lying about him being alright," she said calmly. Saying it out loud was difficult.
Lee rubbed her hair, being more gentle than he had a right to be. "I'm sure she doesn't want you to worry."
Kat closed her eyes and carefully placed her head on his shoulder. She didn't know where they stood, or if it was inappropriate to be leaning on him, but neither did she care. The worst he could do was pull away. But he wouldn't.
She appreciated the effort he made to distract her.
"It's hard for me to picture you in any kind of organized crime."
The Parking Lot
Lee
The physical barrier between them was mostly gone now. He was allowed to hold her hands, to hug her occasionally. But he hadn't tried to kiss her again, especially in light of the situation with her brother. She would have let him, he knew, if he pushed. But it would have felt like cheating. He wanted to do things right.
"I'll see you soon, Kat," he said and handed her the bag she seemed to constantly leave on the floor. He didn't know what was in it, but it was always heavy. It only ever looked like clothes.
She took the straps in one hand and threw it over her shoulder. He could see how uncomfortable she felt with it, like she never carried it.
"Lee... Thanks. For everything." Kat looked out the window briefly. Lee couldn't spot her siblings in the exodus of people. He wondered what she was checking for.
"Anytime. Call me some time this weekend?" he said casually, stretching backwards and allowing her out of the seat.
She laughed. "If they don't arrest me, sure."
"Arrest you?" Lee raised his eyebrow. "For what?"
Kat moved ahead of him, walking slowly. She turned around and began to walk backwards, smiling. "Oh, lots of things. Doctors don't like believing in miracles."
"Miracles?" he asked. They were half way out of the bus, and the driver was looking at them, trying to hurry them along with a scowl. Lee was half-tempted to slow even further.
"People don't just get better. Of course, men with magic sisters might. Men whose magic sisters don't have their government issued I-licenses."
Then he understood. "You can...heal."
"I am very special." She grinned, but her smile disappeared instantly. She started falling backwards, and Lee fell after her, trying to catch her.
She landed on her back and he managed to fall on half of her. His arm was stuck, so he lightly pushed her off of him, and she rolled onto her stomach. They were both coughing and laughing so insanely the bus driver even cracked a smile.
"Ow," Kat said once the laughing died down. He watched her eyes grow darker as she remembered what was waiting for her outside the bus. He wanted her to smile again.
Lee tapped her nose. "You are indeed, special. But I think we should get off the bus because your siblings are giving me very evil stares."
"Right, of course." She let him help her to her feet.
He pulled her close and laughed at the way she nervously giggled. He put an arm around her and then turned her around. They stepped off of the bus together, and she said goodbye.
"Let me know how your brother is, okay?" He rubbed her hair and she nodded, running off to who he assumed was her sister. She embraced the woman tightly and he saw very frantic hand motions.
An awful thought entered the back of his brain, as he sat watching her with a smile on his face. He missed her a little. Something frightening seemed to plant itself into his mind just then.
But it was dismissed as ridiculous instantly.
Harris Methodist Hospital
Aang
"I don't want to go in," Toph said, "You know I don't like hospitals."
Aang nodded. "I know. We'll be sitting outside. Don't worry. No doctors for you."
"You'll tell Sokka I said hello?" his fiancee asked the air.
Kat smiled. "Yep. I'm sure he'll be out to see you soon."
The bald man looked around at the people near the hospital. Some had eyes red from crying, and others were smiling with good news. Two were out for a smoke break. Toph sniffed, as if she had just been thinking the same thing.
"Gross," she whispered, more to herself than Aang. He laughed at her.
His hand lifted just a tad and the winds responded energetically. The cigarettes flew and landed on the ground, leaving two very confused smokers. They looked in the direction the wind had came from, and Aang quickly turned his attention to his fiancee.
"Thanks," Toph said.
She laid on his chest and he put his arms around her. They stayed like that for a few moments. No one paid them much mind. Aang was grateful no one was staring. In his own time, his tattoos had marked him separate from the rest of the world. But now, after his people had been forgotten and tattoos made cultural practice, no one cared. He was just another person.
"What if she gets in trouble?" she whispered from beneath him.
He kissed the top of her head. "Then we run like hell."
"As usual," she sighed.
"What fun would life be otherwise?" he asked.
Toph shook her head and laughed.
"Toph, if you don't want your parents to come, then we won't invite them." Aang looked elsewhere while saying it. He wanted to add that it didn't matter to him if anyone showed up, as long as she was there. But he didn't.
"Why did you want to invite them at all?" she wondered.
"Where I'm from, Toph, you ask the father first. Seeing as your family thinks I kidnapped you, I didn't get the chance to do that. I guess it was my way of compensating for that."
She snorted. "We're a little past eighteenth century England."
"Indeed we are, you rebel Americans." Aang rolled his eyes.
The American Revolution was an amusing thing he had missed. Of course, he would have been an old man at the time. Even if he had stayed behind in time, he might have missed it. But instead, he was here, alive and well, and able to read about it. That and so many other things. His favorite thing, though, about being over four hundred years old was the blind woman in his arms.
"Thank you," Toph said with a relieved sigh. He kissed her head again, grateful that the tension of their wedding was removed. He hadn't thought of it as much of an issue, but he didn't like arguing with her. At least, not seriously. They argued all the time, for fun.
"You and me, yes?" he asked, taking in the reality of that statement. It would be them, forever and ever.
"Sounds like a plan," she agreed.
That was about when the yelling started.