Beifong Estate: 119 ASC
Lub Dub, Lub Dub. Lub Dub, Lub Dub. One heartbeat, loud from direct contact from a hand to the floor. Another heartbeat, soft, being muffled by a mattress. Lub Dub, Lub Dub. Lub Dub, Lub Dub. All was well in the Beifong home. Lub Dub, Lub Dub. Lub Dub, Lub Dub.LubDubLubDub. Lub Dub Lub Dub.LubDubLubDub. Lub Dub, Lub Dub.
'What the Hell?' A New heartbeat, Toph could feel it. Someone else was there! She quickly got up from the bed, really just a mattress on the floor, to locate and pummel the intruder. A seismic scan told her that... whoever... was right above her? While still in contact with the stone floor? Well, that didn't make any sense. As the grogginess wore off, she began to realize that the weird vibrations were coming from her, but wasn't given any time to dwell on it.
"Bandit?" her husband asked groggily from his side of the bed, "Everything all right?"
"Go back to sleep, Boulder Brains." she said softly, "It's nothing."
"Come back to bed, then." He gently ordered. She yawned and settled under the covers,
"We'll be eating supper at Sugar Queen's today." ...uninvited and unannounced.
"Giving me the night off?"
"Yeah. Well I know how much you hate cooking."
"Yeah, right." he scoffed, "What's wrong?"
"You really wanna know?" She thought of a lie. "Fine. It's that phase of the month and I'm bleeding a little more than usual."
"You're right, it's none of my business." He said with a half disgusted tone.
"Go to sleep, you wuss." She thought about hitting him with a pillow, but decided against it. No, it had nothing to do with him wrapping his arms around her...she hadn't gone that soft.
"Good night, Dead-eyes."
"G'night, Boulder Brains."
Air Temple Island
"Hey Katara, Toph has something wrong with her and want's you to check it out." Her husband abruptly informed the healer as she still hadn't mentioned it by the time everyone finished the last few bites of their meal.
"Subtle." She rolled her eyes, uncharacteristically not feeling even a little proud for mastering the ability.
"Since when does Toph 'Blunt' Beifong care about subtlety?" Sokka asked, eyebrows raised.
"He's right, Bandit. You've been avoiding this all night, something's up."
"What's she avoiding?"
"It's none of your business, Meathead."
"Toph!" Katara scolded in her motherly way, "Come on to the healing room, I'll see what I can do." She dragged Toph along like a child about to be put in a corner. As the blind woman trudged along her sensitive hears picked up on her husband's hushed words. He suspected that something was seriously wrong and she lied to him to keep him from worrying. He was right.
"Alright, so my heart's off."
"Come again?" Katara blinked. This was going to be hard to explain to a sighted person, wasn't it?
"I started feeling it last night. My heart's beating regular, but now in between the normal beats I'm getting faster and softer beats. It's like I just earthbended my way from one side of the Earth Kingdom to the other, but my heart's not pounding as hard as it should."
"Alright, take off your tunic and lay down."
"Not even gonna buy me a drink, Sugar Queen?"
"Just do it, Toph." She insisted tiredly as she bended some water over to them, and put the water directly over her heart, "I'm not feeling anything unusual. Are you still feeling it?"
"Yes." came Toph's frustrated answer. Then she got an idea, "Maybe it's my feet. Like I'm starting to feel an echo or something." But when Katara checked her feet, she didn't find anything wrong with them either.
"Have you had any dizziness, sickness, or anything out of thing out of the ordinary? Something that might make you see double?" The waterbender braced herself for a blind joke that didn't come.
"I've been a little tired lately, but that's probably because I've been running around like a headless turkeychicken."
"Well, stress can do a lot of things to the body. Maybe it's time for a vacation, get away for a little while and rest."
"Just had one a month or so ago." then she thought about it for a second, "But to tell you the truth, Boulder Brains and I didn't get a whole lot of rest on that trip."
"Oh." That actually gave the healer some useful input, "I think I might have an idea." She put her hands over her patient's stomach.
"Not a chance, Sweetness," Toph smacked her hands away, "I'm not pregnant."
"How do you know?"
"Because I know how to tell one heartbeat from two. Besides, my parents' idiot physicians said I'd never have kids,"
"They did make a lot of mistakes." Katara sighed.
"Yeah, but you backed them up on that one."
"Well then it won't hurt to look, will it Toph?"
"Fine, knock yourself out. But you won't-"
"Find anything? Or anyone?" Katara placed a hand over her mouth as her eyes teared up, "Toph, I think your feet need to have their eyes checked."
"Why?"
"There's a baby in there."
"WHAT?!"
"You never told me about that." Lin interupted her mother's story.
"Yeah," Toph shot back sarcastically, "thought we made that clear."
"That you thought that you couldn't conceive." Lin clarified with a glare.
"Oh, yeah. Well, it really shouldn't surprised me. Those idiots examined me all the time and every year they had something else I wasn't capable of. When I was two, I wouldn't live to see five. When I was five, I wouldn't make it to ten. When I was ten, I'd never be a Master Earthbender. When I was twelve, they finally figured out that I was planning on sticking around. So they decided to advise my parents against marriage because I was too fragile for the 'physical demands' of it. Which wasn't a big loss because I'd never be able to conceive. All of which was for the best because there was no way in hell I'd ever survive childbirth. They 'discovered' a lot of things about me that year."
"And you did them all out of spite." She assumed.
"You bet." Toph grinned.
"Toph, you're gonna have a baby!" The woman was engulfed in a gopherbear hug as the tears fell down the waterbender's face.
"Wow. A kid...gonna have to let that sink in."
"It's wonderful, Toph." Katara broke the hug but took hold of Toph's hands, "You two are going to be great parents. And think, Tenzin will have a little friend to play with."
"Yeah, who woulda thought it? Listen Katara, could you not tell anyone about this I need some time-"
"I understand. It's a big change. But a baby, after all these years." If Katara hadn't gotten so excited, she may have realized that this was the part where Toph should call her a tearbender and punch her on the arm. But she was excited so Toph's hesitance went unnoticed, "I'm so happy for you!" She hugged her again, "You take all the time you need, I'll keep the men and children out of your hair." She gave Toph one last crushing embrace before floating out the door.
"A baby." She put her tunic back on and paced around the room. A baby. Those little things that needed someone every minute of every day. Those tiny, helpless, fragile..."I'm screwed." So, without much deliberation Toph decided that, no, she couldn't do this. She was the World's Greatest Earthbender, the inventor of Metalbending. She was a war hero. But none of that helped her now. She learned to take care of herself, but she never learned to take care of anyone else. 'Run', her mind screamed, 'Just Run'.
Run? Run where? Anywhere she went she'd feel that kid's heartbeat. What was she going to do, go live in the ocean?
...
"I can't find her anywhere."
"Don't worry, Buddy," Sokka gave the man a friendly pat on the back, "Toph's just in one of her moods. She'll show up when she wants to."
"Normally, I'd agree with you, but she's been acting strange." He rubbed his chin, "I think I'm gonna look around one more time before I head home."
"Suit yourself." The Watertribe man shrugged as he headed for the guest room to grab some things then head to the bathhouse. He wasn't worried about Toph, she would come around and until she did he had no intentions of being anywhere near her. All he wanted was a nice, hot bath. He could really use a little 'me time' after dealing with his sister's lovably crazy kids, "Someone let the candles dwindle again." He grumbled as he opened the door to a darkened room. Luckily, he came prepared this time. So after making some light he undressed and lowered himself into the sunken baths to let the warm water sooth his aching musc-
"Toph?!" he shouted in surprise as he saw the earthbender floating in the center of the baths. So many things were wrong with this picture. One, this was the men's bathhouse. Two, she hated swimming, and floating (she'd only learned enough to keep herself from drowning). Three, she was in the baths fully clothed...actually that one he was grateful for. And Four, she didn't even acknowledge him, "Toph, a little privacy?!"
"Sure, just shut the door behind you." She waved him off. His mouth dropped.
"Toph, you're in the men's bathhouse."
"Yeah, I know." Wait a second, that reply wasn't the least bit mean or sarcastic. She sounded detached, and really sad. Maybe he was wrong about her. This seemed serious.
"What's the matter, Toph?"
"Just leave me alone, Sokka."
"Okay, I leave you alone." He slowly waded through the stomach deep waters, "Just as soon as you tell me what's wrong." He said quickly, scooping her up in his arms, "Tell me or I'll dunk ya." He threatened.
"Put me down!"
"Wrong answer!" He lowered her into the water, she came up sputtering and cussing and squirming, but he held a firm grip, "Tell me!"
"Leave me alone!" She roared, a colorful word was cut off as she went under again.
"Tell me!" This time she decked him, lucky for him she couldn't get enough swing to do any damage. He went to put her under again,
"I'm pregnant!" Splash! Sokka had dropped her in surprise.
"Sorry, Toph!" He ducked under the water and helped her to her feet, not an easy task as she was a little disoriented, "You're...you're...this is great!" He pulled her into a gopherbear hug, "I saw this great Earthkingdom style crib the other day and I thought to myself, 'Self, if Toph had a baby, we'd go straight in there and buy that for her'. Now you're having one, and that crib is coming to ya courtesy of Uncle Sokka." He rambled on in the same motherly tone Katara had used.
"Humph."
"Hey, wait a second. What are you doing here? You should be with your husband celebrating this little miracle here." He patted her stomach for good measure. Only to be shoved into the water.
"What's wrong with you people?! This isn't good news!"
"Huh?" He splashed around until he regained his footing, "But Toph, weren't you two trying for a baby?"
"A few years ago." She sighed, "But to tell you the truth... I was relieved when Katara said I couldn't have kids. I mean, look at me! I'm a cop, it's my dream job because I get paid to fight, yell and boss people around. Does any of that scream 'mother material' to you?" She looked down sadly, "Sugar Queen is 'mother'. She sings lullabies and kisses boo boos. I don't even know any lullabies, and if the kid scrapes his knee I'll probably tell him to suck it up. I'm going to be the worst mother ever."
"Toph, you're really freaking out, I get it. But you're selling yourself short." He tried to reason with her.
"I am not! I don't know how to be like Katara, and I don't wanna be like my mother."
"Listen to me." He grabbed her shoulders, "You're Toph, the toughest person I know, you don't give up."
"I don't need to be tough." tears started pouring down her cheeks, "I need to be s-soft and pat-patient and everything else I'm, I'm not."
"Hey, it'll be okay." He wiped the tears off her face, "Don't measure yourself against Katara and Aang, they're abnormal. When I found out I was going to be a father, I panicked, just like you. I didn't know the first thing about being a daddy. And Zuko, he threw up he was so nervous, look what kind of father he had. But we're both doing alright. Just take it one day at a time and you'll be surprised how quickly you learn from the little bugger. Besides," he scratched his chin, "your kid lucked out, he's got a whole lot of experienced aunts and uncles to run to when his overbearing mother decides to act like a fur-less badgermole. Ouch!" He rubbed his arm, but smiled like a fool. A sucker punch to the arm was the sure sign of a good talk.
"You're stupid, Meathead." She practically tackled him and locked him in a crushing hug. It was at this particular time he remembered that he was, in fact, naked.
"Uh, Toph?" Didn't she even notice?
"What?" She sniffed. Apparently she didn't, or she just needed a hug too much to care.
"...I won't tell anyone that you were crying..." That's it, he was officially a chickenhog.
"Yeah, I didn't even realize that Snoozles was naked until I let him go. About an hour later." A laugh graced her hears, but it was the kind of laugh that had a tear or two in it as well.
"Never told Dad about that, did you?"
"You nuts? 'Hey sweetie, I was nervous about motherhood so I cuddled with my naked best friend in a bath for an hour or so'. No, that part I left out. He didn't even ask where I'd been or why I was dripping wet, he leaned out the window and yelled, 'I'm going to be a father! Woohoo!'." She shook her head, "I'm so glad that one of us was excited because frankly kid, you scared the hell outta me. But it all ended okay. Turns out I got the best kid in the world."
"Thank you." Lin was becoming afraid of where this was going, "Can I go now?"
"Uh-uh. First, what did we learn?" Toph sang.
"Don't run from your mistakes?" She knew that wasn't right, but she really didn't want to carry on this conversation.
"No, dunderhead. What's the matter with you? You were an accident, not a mistake."
"There's a difference?"
"You can accidentally do something great. The moral of the story is that you never know what'll be the best thing to happen in your life. I never wanted a kid, but when I finally got you that all changed. Same with you, I guess."
"What are you trying to say?"
"I'm not trying to say anything. What I'm saying is that we both know that boy isn't going to an orphanage. So you can quit acting like he is."
"You gonna take him in?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, refusing to let her mother volunteer her for this.
"Me? No. Thought about it, but I'm too old to raise another kid. Nice try, Lin, but you're not getting outta it that easy. Besides, you need him more."
"I-"
"You bonded with the boy. He trusts you, you care about him. It's a done deal." And so the battle begins. Advance.
"He's just some street kid." Attack.
"And you don't want to let him out of your sight." Counter-attack.
"He's too cheerful and goofy." Block.
"Kinda reminds you of Twinkle toes and Meathead." Side swipe.
"He's not safe with me." Dodge, "All it would take is one criminal with a grudge."
"He's not safe on the streets either, you know that. At best he'll be recruited into a Triad, where he'll get himself killed fighting other Triads." Low-blow.
"He'll stay in a orphanage if his brother does." Leg sweep.
"Lin, I raised you to face the facts. Not to fool yourself." Knee to stomach. "Those boys escaped the orphanage together and they'll do it again. Like it or not, their best shot is with you." Headlock.
"That's another thing, I can't take care of one kid, let alone two." Tap out. Battle over. Winner and still Champion: Toph Beifong.
"So when you find the other one you can hire yourself some help." Toph said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "It's not like you can't afford it."
"I just can't do it, Mom."
"You're too harsh, too commanding, too impatient."
"Yes."
"So am I."
"But you have a good since of humor."
"But unlike me, you're not the slightest bit selfish. So we're even. Look Lin, I'll level with you. I'm worried that you'll be alone when I'm gone." She pointed at Lin before she could get another word out, "And don't start in with the 'oh you have plenty of years ahead of you' speech, I'm sick of it. I'm not Kyoshi."
"You'll be too stubborn to admit that your dead." She couldn't resist.
"Haha. I'll die, kid, just like everyone else. But when I think back you know what I remember? You're first step, ten-months-old in the Jasmine Dragon, you wanted to pull Iroh's beard again. Your first kiss, five-years-old, Tenzin pecked you on the lips and got decked for his trouble. The day you vandalized the gaang's statues in City Hall, ten-years-old, you wanted to show me that you were better than my officers so you broke in, changed the nameplates, and evaded arrest for an hour. What are you going to remember?"
"You. And dad."
"When your dad was murdered? When you got those scars? When you got married? When your husband was killed in action? When you and Tenzin started dating just to get the family off your back...don't think we didn't know about the scam, kid. How about when the two of you actually fell in love? When he broke it off?"
"Shut up!" She clenched her fists. This time her mother had gone too far. "My life hasn't been all bad. I have plenty of good memories!"
"But no one to share them with. Listen, when you get to be my age you're gonna want someone to share the good memories and distract from the bad ones. That's what kids are for, they're obligated to sit through every single pointless, exaggerated, dumb story you can still remember." She stood up and gave her last bit of wisdom, "It's your decision, but one way or another, you'll have to live with it for the rest of your life so you better think really hard about what you're gonna do next."