Hi, I know I didn't update last Monday and that's because I got a little sidetracked. I had been waffling about doing this chapter mostly because I needed to figure out how to do it while keeping as true to the series as possible - I wanted Katara to meet the Blue Spirit but still be shocked at seeing Zuko in the Jasmine Dragon like she is in the show. I didn't really have an idea of how to do this until about 9pm last, last Sunday night, soooo I wrote, edited and reviewed this as fast as I could .
I am still writing the end of this part but I should have it completed soon and then I'll know how many chapters it will be. Unfortunately it doesn't feel as polished as the previous parts but I'll be cleaning it up as I go. Hope you enjoy!
Part 3 Blue and the Healer - Chapter 1
The stack of flyers tucked into her satchel had shrunk considerably but not nearly as much as it should have. Aang would understand, she hoped. She had been in the lower ring for only a couple of hours before getting sidetracked. After pasting what felt like the 1000th flyer to she had overheard a man pleading with someone. Curiosity and concern quickly overrode the mundane task at hand and she peered around the corner hoping to catch a glimpse of what was happening.
The voice belonged to a man with short black hair wearing a dark green tunic and brown trousers. He carried a small girl no older than ten, she wore a green dress sewn of the same material as the man's tunic and had shoulder-length hair that matched his. From where she stood, Katara could see that the girl's forearm was tightly wrapped in yellowed bandages. The poor child clutched the man's tunic with her good hand and a steady stream of tears flowed silently from her fern-colored eyes pooling on either side of her face leaving twin patches of dark green where her chin rested on the man's shoulder.
The man was pleading with an older woman with iron-grey hair pulled into a simple bun and whose deep brown robes were embroidered with a symbol used by healers and those who practiced medicine in the Earth Kingdom.
"Please, she needs help. I've tried five other clinics, I know you're all full up but please, she's in pain and I don't know how to help her."
"It's like you said, all of our beds are full. Every healer, nurse, and doctor we have already has their hands full. We can't take on any more patients right now. Come back first thing tomorrow, as early as you can, you'll have better luck then." the woman in the brown robes told him apologetically.
"Please, she just a child, she's been in pain for hours, you can't ask me to leave her like this until morning." the man seemed to be on the verge of tears himself.
The old woman shook her head sadly, "I'm sorry, there isn't anything else I can do."
Katara's heart wrenched, she glanced down at her handful of flyers, and Appa's face stared back at her. Pushing down the guilt that lanced through her chest she tucked the flyers into her satchel and approached the trio.
"Hello, I think I might be able to help." Katara looked shyly between the man and the old woman, "If that's ok?"
"Can you? Please, my daughter, I think she fractured her wrist. It's swollen and she says it hurts." the man's words colored with desperation, rapidly tumbled from his mouth.
The old woman looked at her with suspicion "Please don't give this man false hope, what exactly can one as young as you do?"
"I'm a healer." Katara stated.
The old woman's look of suspicion quickly morphed into one of incredulity.
"I am, I was trained in the Northern Water Tribe." Katara explained.
"Child even if you started training from your cradle you wouldn't know enough to have the right to call yourself a healer. I've seen too many of the injured and sick be swindled, scammed, and taken advantage of in their desperation and I won't let you do the same to this man and his little girl." the older woman scolded.
Katara felt anger begin to bubble up inside her, she wasn't some scam artist trying to trick someone out of their last copper. She was a healer and she had earned that title over weeks and months of long hours of learning and training. After Master Pakku's grueling instruction and drills she would go straight to Yugoda's healing hut for an equal number of hours, by day's end she would collapse in bed and wake to do the punishing regimen all over again. She had fought for and earned every inch of her title of Master. If this woman didn't believe her then she'd just have to show her.
Ignoring the woman she turned to the man, "Can I take a look at her wrist?"
The man hesitated, his viridian gaze flicking between the old woman and her.
Katara sighed, "I'm not looking for any kind of payment, I just want to help." she assured him.
The man studied her for a moment before turning to the little girl, "Jangmi, I'm going to put you down so this healer can take a look at you, ok?"
Jangmi nodded silently into the man's shoulder. He gently peeled the child from where he held her against his chest and set her on the ground lightly as if she were a newly laid otter-penguin egg.
Katara immediately crouched down so she and Jangmi were on the same level.
"Hi Jangmi, your dad says you hurt your wrist and it's causing you a lot of pain. Is that right?" Katara asked the girl in one of those voices she reserved for Aang when he was upset.
Jangmi nodded wiping away at the tears with her unbandaged hand.
Katara ignored the feeling of the old woman's stare burning into her back and continued, "I'm going to unwrap these bandages so I can take a look, is that ok?"
Jangmi gave her another silent nod.
"Ok, I'm going to start unwrapping but I need you to tell me if I'm hurting you, ok?"
Another silent nod.
"I need to hear you say it Jangmi, will you tell me if it hurts?"
"Yes." the single word was small and cracked but brave in a way that caused her father to smile with pride and made Katara more determined to help in whatever way she could.
As gently as possible Katara untucked the end of the yellowed strip of cloth and unwound it from Jangmi's small wrist. The little girl winced once or twice as the strip of cloth unraveled but kept a brave face the whole time. Katara couldn't help but share in her father's pride, his little girl was made of tougher stuff.
Immediately Katara could see that Jangmi's wrist was swollen to almost twice its size and had started to bruise on both sides. Something inside was fractured or broken, she just didn't know what could have caused that kind of bruising.
"Something is definitely wrong here Jangmi, your wrist isn't supposed to be this size is it?" Katara continued in her gentle tone.
Jangmi shook her head sadly.
Katara looked up at Jangmi's father, "What happened?"
The man gave her an expression somewhere between anger and sadness, "We are refugees and not everyone likes that. The parents, they talk and you can't blame the children for listening. Jangmi was playing with some children from the middle ring and I was so happy that she had found new friends that I was ignorant to this. The children, they tried to slam a door on her hand. I thank Dharani that they got her wrist or they could have crippled her."
Katara couldn't help the horrified look on her face, children did this? To another child?
She looked at Jangmi who had a fresh set of tears fall from her eyes, "I am sorry Jangmi, this should have never happened to you, I'm going to do my best to fix it."
The old woman scoffed behind her, Katara having almost forgotten her existence continued to ignore her, "You know what an Earthbender is, right?"
The question earned her another nod from Jangmi.
"Well I'm a waterbender, so I can bend like they do but using water instead. I can use my bending to heal and I'm going to see if I can use it to help you, ok?"
Jangmi's nodded despite her tears. Katara heard the gasp that came from behind her back and couldn't help the small smile of satisfaction that spread across her face. Now the old woman understood what she was dealing with.
"Ok, I'm going to bend some water from my pouch and use it on your wrist. It's going to go all white and glowy and it might tingle a little. It'll feel like when your foot falls asleep." Katara explained, "Are you ready?"
Jangmi gave her another determined nod.
"I need to hear you say it."
Jangmi squared her little shoulders and stood up as straight as she could manage, "I'm ready."
Her voice was cracked and raspy from the crying but her words were fearless, her father beamed above her.
"Alright, here we go.", Katara uncorked her waterskin and pulled an orb of water the size of a moon peach.
Jangmi's fern-colored eyes were wide as they followed the movements of the orb. Katara twisted and molded it into a flat circle that wrapped itself around the girl's wrist and begun to glow.
Katara pressed her bending into the water looking for what was wrong. It didn't take long, it was just like her father had said, her radius was fractured but her ulna had a clean break. The pain had to have been excruciating but Jangmi had only quietly teared the entire time. Much like her and Sokka, Jangmi must have had to grow up much too quickly and learned to put on a brave face. Katara couldn't help but mourn the loss of her own childhood, it was a reminder of how much the war had taken from everyone. She couldn't do much about the war, that was Aang's department, but right now, she could help make this little girl's pain go away and that would be enough.
Katara started on the easy part, closing up the fracture that ran along the radius, the harder part would be the ulna. She pictured the break in her mind's eye and willed the bone to knit itself together watching as the gap narrowed and eventually closed. Opening her eyes Katara focused on bringing down the swelling and erasing the bruising around her wrist.
Katara unwound the water from Jangmi's wrist in a thin stream and bent then bent into a nearby gutter. Gently she took the girl's arm in her hands.
"Make a fist … Ok open up your hand … Now move only your hand up and down." she observed closely as Jangmi followed her directions.
"How does it feel?" Katara asked her.
"Better." Jangmi gave her a small smile.
"Thank you." Jangmi's father said softy, he hoisted Jangmi up into his arms and gave her an enormous sloth-bear hug.
Looking over his daughter's shoulder the man looked at her, "I mean it thank you, how can I repay you. Please any amount, tell me and I will do what I can to make it yours."
Katara held up her hands shaking her head as she stood, "Oh no, as I said, I don't want any payment, I just wanted to help."
"There must be something." the man pressed.
Katara's thoughts quickly went back to her satchel.
"There is one thing." Katara continued to ignore the old woman's glare while she dug through the leather bag and pinched a small bunch of flyers from her stack.
She held them out to the man, "My friend the Ava- I mean my friend Aang lost his sky bison Appa, on our way to Ba Sing Se. We were told that Appa was spotted somewhere here in the city but we haven't found him. If you can keep an eye out and maybe pass these out on your way home?"
"That's all?" the man asked surprised.
Katara nodded.
"Of course, it's the least I could do." the man reached into his pocket and produced a slip of paper, "Here, take this, it's not much, just a coupon. They say the service is terrible but the tea is the best you can find in any of the rings."
Katara took the small square of parchment, the coupon was for a free cup of tea at Pao's Family Tea house and read 'Meet our new brewmaster!'
"Thank you." Katara replied awkwardly, tucking the coupon into her bag alongside the travel pass Joo-Dee had provided her.
"No, thank you." the man bowed to her and then turned to his daughter, "Come on Jangmi, let's get you home."
Jangmi smiled and waved to Katara as the two left, Katara waved back as a smile to match Jangmi's broke out on her face. A smile that immediately fell flat when the old woman cleared her throat behind her. Katara turned to face her expecting to argue but was taken aback when she found the robed woman bowing to her.
"I must apologize, miss?"
"Kat-, my name is Kanna" Katara cut herself off, with the ever-present Dai-Li she wasn't sure if giving her real name would be the best idea.
The old woman looked at her curiously.
"And yours?"
"I am Hisa, I work at this clinic." Hisa gestured to the run-down building behind her, "I am sorry that I mistrusted you. You see, many of the clinics in the lower ring are beyond capacity, and too often those we cannot help are taken advantage of or eventually end up here worse off than they started."
Despite her irritation, Katara somewhat understood. The situation in the lower ring was dire. To many people and not enough to go around was leaving many vulnerable and had begun breeding resentment of the refugees among the citizens of Ba Sing Se. It wouldn't be much but maybe she could help?
"I know a couple of hours won't make much of a difference, but maybe I could help for the day?" Katara asked.
Hisa's had kept such a stern look that Katara didn't think her could light up like a child's on spring solstice, but the old woman looked like she had woken to the gift she had been begging for all year.
"Dharani bless us, of course, my child. Even if you gifted us a single hour, it would be a light in the dark. The staff here is run ragged, we could use all the help we can get." Hisa smiled guiding her into the building, "Tell me dear, what will you need?"
Katara grinned, "Water, a lot of it."
…
Hisa was efficient, in about thirty minutes Katara was set up in a room where two barrels of water were being hauled in. She quickly understood the extent of Katara's healing ability and went over the clinic's case list with her deciding which patients would benefit the most from her care. They decided she would work on anyone with severe wounds or broken bones since they took the longest to heal and put the most strain on the clinic's meager supplies. Hisa also decided that in return for the gift of Katara's healing ability, she would gift her as much knowledge as she could impart by sundown.
"I will bring the first patient in but my child," Hisa looked at her with concern, "bending takes energy. I understand that we want to help as many as we can but when you begin to tire you must stop and let us know."
Katara was reminded of that night in the desert, if she pushed too far this time she would be on her own, there was no firebender to pull her back from the brink this time around. The thought that he would probably chastise her for what she was about to do and then demand where Aang was immediately after made her smirk.
She nodded at Hisa, "I will."
"Ok Kanna, your first patient, Kai, male, he has a large laceration between his thumb and forefinger, we believe that he has severed one of his thenar muscles." Hisa rolled open a detailed anatomy scroll and pointed it out, " There are three and they are responsible for the movement of the thumb. If left to heal on its own, there's no guarantee that he would regain full use of it."
Katara nodded at the first trickle of the deluge of information she was in for and wished she could take notes.
"One of the nurses will have him in, in a few moments. I'll get the next patient ready in the meantime."
Hisa abandoned the doorway and within a few moments, a man about her father's age with a heavily bandaged hand was brought in. He eyed her suspiciously taking in the blue of her tunic, her dark skin, and black-brown hair. He took a seat on the stool in front of her and eyed the two barrels that flanked her.
"You're not from around here, are you?" Kai immediately asked her.
"No," Katara reached for his hand and begun unwinding the bandages, "I'm from the water tribes."
"Are you a refugee?" he asked.
"No, not exactly. I'm here with a friend looking for someone." she replied guiding the soiled linen into a basket at their feet.
"Then you'll be leaving?"
"Yes." she replied finally revealing the nasty cut.
"Good, we're full up and tired of outsiders." the man groused.
Katara's felt her skin grow hot with anger, she took the man's hand with more force than necessary making him hiss.
"OUCH, watch it."
"It's deep, you almost lost your thumb," Katara stated in a bored tone, ignoring the man's outburst, "and according to the head nurse if this were left to heal on its own, the muscle you severed won't repair itself properly meaning you'll lose the use of your thumb."
The barrels on either side of her began to groan as the water inside froze and crackled. She looked up from Kai's hand and fixed him with a burning blue gaze.
"I guess you're lucky that this outsider is willing to fix it for you."
The man stunned at the display of her bending could only nod. Katara streamed a bit of the icy water to her hands and pressed it to the man's injury making him tremble. His stunned expression turned to one of awe as the water began to glow and the cut started to knit itself together. Within a few minutes she had finished, aside from a line a hair's breadth wide, his hand looked as if nothing had happened. The man inspected the skin, opening and closing his fingers not entirely sure if what he had experienced was real.
"You're done, you can check out with Hisa's assistant and leave." she told him curtly.
Kai flushed red and quickly stood, bowing to her, "T-thank you."
"Sir?" she called to him as he reached the doorway, the man turned to look back at her and found her staring dead ahead at the empty seat in front of her.
"These outsiders are a lot like me, they had everything taken from them by the war. The Fire Nation killed my mother, my father left for war when I was a child and almost nothing remains of my people. My brother and I have lost so much." she turned to look at him, "But these refugees? They have lost so much more than I have and still, they live, work, contribute and carry on."
Katara stood and continued to speak while streaming the soiled water into an empty container, "I chose to show you compassion today, I hope you will show them the same."
She sat down and turned her gaze back to the empty seat in front of her, "Hisa's assistant is waiting, you should go."
Kai bowed at her again and hurried out the door, leaving Katara to sit alone in the silence, waiting for the next in a long line of patients.
I'll do my best to have chapter two should be up Monday!, Leave me a review and let me know what you think!