I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. I wish I did.

It hurt. It hurt so much. His body was on fire, flames roaring through his body with every laboured breath he took. Pain was all he was aware of anymore. Every breath was slowly, agonizingly ripping him apart. He wanted it to end. He just wanted something, anything, to make it end.

-.-.-

Katara had quickly snapped out of the initial shock of seeing Jet collapse. She was Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, she wasn't so easily shaken by things like this. She wasn't helpless, she was a Healer, if she had brought Aang back from death, she could do this. But she had to work fast.

Uncorking her water skin and bending the content out of it, she knelt down next to Jet, placing her hands firmly on his chest. She bit her lip, feeling just how broken Jet's body was. Clearly the injuries he'd sustained in Ba Sing Se, while not fatal, had been very serious. His lungs in particular were worrying her, there was a rather large amount of scar tissue on his left lung in particular. It looked like Jet had sustained a rather nasty pulmonary laceration, probably caused by a broken rib puncturing his lung. It was no wonder he was having trouble bleeding and had just started coughing up blood; the laceration had obviously not been treated. To make matters worse, it seemed that Jet's lungs had been even further weakened by some sort of chest infection, possibly even pneumonia, and judging from the heat of his face when Katara put a hand on his forehead, it was very possible another infection was taking hold.

Katara could feel Jet's body trembling beneath her fingers, and knew she had to work fast. She quickly began to bend the water along Jet's chi paths, still amazed that his body could be so damaged and still stand. She breathed a sigh of relief as Jet's laboured breathing started to even out, his chest slowly rising and falling. She'd got him stable for the time being but she knew it wasn't over yet. Jet's body had been so damaged in Ba Sing Se that a small part of Katara was wondering if it would ever heal fully.

But she couldn't focus on that right now. Right now, all that mattered was keeping Jet's breathing stable. Keeping him alive.

Smellerbee crouched down next to Katara, quietly asking if she needed anything. Katara managed to give the younger girl a reassuring smile as she shook her head.

'Thank you,' she said, 'but it's fine. Just comfort Jet.'

Smellerbee didn't need telling twice. She knelt opposite Katara and took Jet's limp hand in her own, whispering quietly to him.

'It's alright, Jet,' she soothed. 'You're going to be fine.'

She looked close to tears as Longshot knelt next to her and started gently stroking Jet's hair. Watching this, Aang almost felt as if he were intruding on some private scene and stepped away, going to join Zuko who had been hanging back from the start and had completely backed off almost as soon as he'd seen Jet.

Zuko was sitting beneath a tree, watching the scene from a distance. As Aang approached he shifted sideways so that Aang could sit down.

'How's he doing?' Zuko asked.

'Katara's healing him,' Aang said, 'so he'll be fine. Katara's good at these things.'

'I know,' Zuko nodded. 'She saved my life when I fought Azula.'

Aang nodded slowly. He looked back at Katara and Jet for a few moments before a thought struck him.

'Zuko?'

'Yeah?'

'Why did you come over here?'

Zuko looked a little awkward as he considered how to answer.

'Me and Jet don't really have the best history together,' he said.

'What do you mean?' Aang asked, brow furrowing. 'When did you two meet?'

'On the boat ride to Ba Sing Se,' Zuko sighed. 'We got on alright at first, I helped him steal some food - don't look at me like that, we were desperate. Anyway, I didn't see him again after that but one day he just burst into Uncle's tea shop and started raving about how we were firebenders.'

Realization started to gleam in Aang's eyes. He knew all about Jet's hatred for the Fire Nation and how far he was willing to take it.

'He started swinging his Shuang Gou around and trying to make us firebend,' Zuko continued, 'so I grabbed some swords and we ended up having a big fight. In the end, he was dragged away by the Dai Li.'

Aang's eyes widened in horror.

'And then the Dai Li brainwashed him,' he finished Zuko's story.

'Exactly. So I really don't think he'd be that happy to see me again.'

Aang's gaze returned to Katara frantically trying to breathe life into Jet's almost lifeless body, clearing his throat to rid it of the lump that was starting to form.

'No. I don't think he will.'

-.-.-

Slowly, wearily, he opened his eyes and stared at the unfocused ceiling. A strong sense of deja-vu hit him as he felt his heart thumping against his ribcage, his foggy brain working in vain to piece together the fragments of his memory to work out what on earth had happened to him.

He remembered pain and blackness. He remembered voices talking to him but he had no idea what any of them had said. There was one voice he couldn't place, it was so familiar but the owner's name and face escaped him. It wasn't Smellerbee or Longshot or any of his Freedom Fighters. It was someone important to him.

He was hot and dizzy and confused and everything hurt. He groaned and tried to sit up but found a pair of hands on his chest stopping him. He gazed blearily at the short, blonde girl who was currently pushing him back down onto the bed.

'Stay still,' she said softly, her voice breaking a little as she spoke. 'Just stay still, Jet. You're very sick. Katara said you need to rest.'

Katara. Katara... Why did that name sound so familiar to him? Katara...

'Katara!' something clicked inside Jet's muddled brain, Katara's face swimming to the front of his mind.

This time Smellerbee wasn't ready for it when Jet shot up, his head spinning, and scrambled out of bed. For a man with a wrecked body and a feverish mind, Jet could move very quickly when he wanted to, he made it almost halfway across his small little room before Smellerbee managed to grab him forcefully by the wrist.

'Jet, get back into bed!' she ordered, tugging the much taller man backwards with all her might.

Jet didn't have the muscles he once had, nor the strength, and his sudden exertion had caused him to feel very light headed all of a sudden. Smellerbee, meanwhile, was as strong as she'd ever been so it was very easy for her to overpower him and drag him back to his bed where she once against forced him to lie down on the mattress, keeping her hands on his chest this time, ready to spring into action in case he tried anything.

'Stay,' she said firmly.

'But-'

'Stay.'

Jet could already feel his fever overtaking him again, he didn't have time to "stay" - he needed to find Katara, needed to speak to her... needed to see her. See her face, her eyes, her hair, everything. Smellerbee's hands were still on his chest, there was no way she was letting him leave his bed and he knew it. But he just... He just...

Everything was getting blurry again, his thoughts weren't making sense anymore, it was like hearing someone's voice but having no idea what they were saying.

'Don't fight it, Jet,' he heard Smellerbee's voice. 'Sleep.'

So, for once, Jet did as he was told, he closed his eyes and let sleep take him again. At least when he was asleep he could see her face.

-.-.-

Smellerbee let out a sigh as Jet was dragged into the land of dreams again. She ran a hand through her hair as she watched him sleep, listening to his laboured breathing and wishing she could do something, anything, to make the horrible noise stop. But if it did stop, that would be even worse. She knew that first hand.

The first time Jet had stopped breathing she'd just about had a heart attack. The Duke had run for help while she tried desperately to get him to start breathing. He'd lost consciousness before The Duke returned with Longshot and Pipsqueak in tow and, for a while, they'd all really thought he was going to die. Thankfully, his breathing started up again and everything was fine, but the incident had shaken everyone up for a long time - The Duke had even. started crying. When Jet had regained consciousness, The Duke was the first one to visit him in his room, bringing him some jelly candy as a get well present.

The sound of the door opening broke Smellerbee out of her thoughts and she turned to see Katara standing in the doorway with an armful of assorted herbs and a bowl.

'How is he?'

'He woke up just now. There was a bit of an... incident. But everything's fine now, he's sleeping again.'

'That's good. I brought these,' she gestured at the herbs. 'They'll help make him more comfortable. His fever's still pretty high, right?'

Smellerbee nodded while Katara proceeded to sort through the herbs until she found the ones she was looking for and set them down on the floor in the bowl. She broke the plants apart and bended some water from her water skin into the bowl. She made a kind of paste out of the herbs which she then handed to Smellerbee with instructions to smear some of it on Jet's cheeks, forehead, and nose.

'What now?' asked Smellerbee once her task was completed.

'Now we wait.'

I'm so sorry that I've taken so long to update this fanfic. I really hope the next chapter doesn't take this long but, knowing me, I can't make any promises. I also hope that my writing will improve from here because I honestly didn't have any idea how to get the story to this point but now I know where I'm going with it.

Again, I'm really sorry for the delay.

Also, yay for researching pulmonary injuries! That was very interesting (although quite time consuming)