As soon as Su was sent away, Toph marched into the house to find Lin staring out the window at nothing in particular. She grabbed Lin by the upper arm and spun her around.
"What were you thinking?" Toph asked angrily. "We could have handled this ourselves. You had to play cop and arrest her".
"She was driving for the triad. How was I supposed to know she was in the driving seat?" Lin shot back. "What was I supposed to do mom?".
"You know what Lin? Let's say we arrest Su. What will that accomplish? A criminal record for her and a gold star for you?" Toph spat.
Lin's voice trembled. "This isn't about… It will teach her responsibility, accountability, it will teach her not to hurt innocent people just because she can". Lin shouted.
"I am not throwing my daughter in prison. End of discussion". Toph shouted at Lin. "Nobody got hurt Lin. Let it go. She's your sister".
Lin subconsciously touched her injured face. "What if somebody had gotten hurt?". She asked quietly. "Would you still have torn up the arrest report? You are the chief of Police. You can't make exceptions for certain people".
"I will always make exceptions for my family. For my daughter". Toph growled. "If you are so set on this, go ahead, arrest me. You saw me tear up the arrest report. That's abuse of power. I'll even confess".
Lin stared.
"What's that?" Toph leaned in with one hand behind her ear. "No? That's what I thought".
Toph felt Lin's breathing becoming enraged. She glared at Toph for one full minute. Then when she spoke, her voice was devoid of anger and pain. It was plain and official.
"Fine!". She said. "You win!".
With that she turned on her heels and left the living room.
Toph waited for the slamming of the door to Lin's room that never came.
She walked up to the door. It was locked. Lin was inside. Toph raised a fist and banged on the wooden door. "Lin! Open this door right now. I'm not done with you. Being a cop is not about being lawfully good all the time. You need to learn that lesson".
Lin did not reply. Toph sighed. "We'll talk in the morning". She said after a while.
Toph woke up to an empty house next morning. Breakfast was on the table for her. Lin had already left.
Toph marched into the headquarters, and 'saw' Lin, sitting at her desk, buried under a pile of paperwork, head bowed, and busy scribbling.
Before walking into the office, Toph cleared her throat. All heads at the station shot up, and they stood up to salute her, including Lin.
"Beifong, my office. Now!". Toph said clearly, as she entered the office.
Lin silently obeyed and followed her in.
"Sit!" Toph ordered.
Lin did as she was told. Toph closed the door and locked it from inside. She went to stand behind her desk, directing her blind gaze at Lin.
"Are we on agreement that we took the best course of action?" Toph asked. "Do you still think we should have arrested your sister?".
Lin did not reply.
"Lin?" Toph prompted.
"It's your force, and your daughter". Lin said evenly. "I'm a mere officer, just doing my job chief".
Toph let out an angry breath. She went to stand next to Lin and bent down, placing her left hand on the backrest of Lin's chair and her right hand on the arm rest.
"Su is my daughter. AND your sister". She hissed. "She's a stupid teenager. Not a criminal. I need you to understand that whatever happens, family comes first".
Lin didn't reply. She continued to stare at the wall behind chief's desk. Toph's face was inches away from Lin's head and she could smell ethanol on Lin.
"Have you been drinking? Did you report to work drunk?". She asked angrily.
Lin still did not answer. So Toph placed her index and middle fingers on Lin's left cheek and her thumb on the right cheek and turned Lin's head to face her.
"I am asking you a question-". Toph abruptly stopped. Her thumb graced the thick plaster on Lin's face, anger had disappeared from her features, and a look of surprise had taken over. She traced her thumb along the plaster, measuring the size of the dressing. Toph let out a small gasp, as her thumb stopped right under Lin's eye.
"What happened?" She whispered.
"Nothing". Lin said as she leaned away from Toph's hand. She stood up. "If there's nothing else, I've got some paperwork to attend to".
"Lin, honey, what happened?" Toph asked, grabbing Lin by the upper arm in a much gentler way than the day before".
Hearing the genuine concern, Lin almost gave in. She bit her bottom lip hard to keep her face straight, and the tears from falling.
"Accident on duty". She said evenly.
"When? Did you see a healer? Why didn't you tell me? I do not remember anyone reporting an injury". Toph asked as she gingerly touched the dressing on Lin's face again. "Is your eye ok?. This feels serious".
Lin took in a breath as the pressure of Toph's thin fingers left a stinging on the infected wound.
"Under the circumstances, it wouldn't have been advisable to report the injury". Lin said, turning a cold shoulder to Toph, and freeing her arm from Toph's grip.
She walked up to the door, saluted her, and left the office.
Toph stared at the door Lin had shut in her wake, realization slowly dawning on her.
She picked up the telephone and dialed air temple island.
"This is Chief Beifong". She told the acolyte who answered the phone on the other end of the line. "I need to talk to Katara please!".
"Toph!". Katara said cheerfully, as she came to the radio room and picked up the receiver from the acolyte. "About time we hear from you!".
"Katara!". Toph said quietly. Katara immediately knew something was wrong. Toph did not sound like her usual self. She sounded more like the twelve-year-old girl who wanted to know if she could have some more water while they were crossing the desert during the time of war.
"Toph what's wrong?". She asked. "Is everything OK?".
"I need you to come down to the HQ". Toph told her. "Bring your healing kit along".
Katara frowned at this odd request. "What's going on?". She asked. "Are you hurt?".
"It's Lin". Toph replied with a heavy sigh. "I don't think I can get her to visit any healer. Please come down. I'll tell you everything when you do".
"I'm on my way". Katara said wasting no more time. "Try and get Lin to a private space, I will be there in 30 minutes".
Toph paced her office restlessly for another twenty minutes. Her youngest had ended up robbing stores with triads and her eldest would not come to her for help, not even after getting brutally wounded right across her face. She had truly failed as a mother. It stung, and Toph felt dizzy. She finally plucked up the courage to walk out of the door and stood in front of Lin's desk.
Lin, still busy scribbling on a report, did not look up.
"Beifong, follow me!". Toph said quietly and started walking away towards the private break room reserved for the Chief. Lin pretended she didn't hear her mother.
Toph turned on her heels. "Now!" She barked, making few heads turn her way. "uh oh! Momma's mad!". Saikan muttered jokingly under his breath as Lin sighed and stood up.
Toph stopped as she passed her secretary's desk, waiting for Lin to catch up. "If anyone asks for me, send them to my private break room". She said to Yun quietly. Her secretary nodded.
"Chief, I got a lot of paperwork to finish". Lin said walking up to where Toph stood talking to Yun. "If it's nothing work related, I'd like to get back to work".
"My break room. Now Lin. That's a direct order". Toph said pointing her index finger towards the said room.
Lin marched into the room furiously. Toph followed in and closed the door. With one swift motion of her hand, the metal blinds on the windows came down effectively cutting them off from any disturbance.
"What is this about?" Lin shouted angrily, turning on her heels to look at Toph. "What have I done to aggravate you now? Is it the fact that I exist?".
Toph walked up to Lin, and silently dragged her to the sofa, ignoring her protests. She made Lin sit, pushing her on to the sofa, and knelt in front of Lin.
"Stay still". Toph said quietly as Lin tried to stand up. "Let me 'see'". She said as she very carefully and gently tugged at the plaster that held the gauze onto Lin's skin.
Lin let out an involuntarily yelp as the moving gauze gave her a stinging so bad that she felt like throwing up. "Don't touch it". She hissed.
Toph immediately stopped. "How deep is it?" She asked as her fingertips on Lin's injured face trembled. "Are you sure your eye is alright?".
"What does it matter?". Lin hissed again, trying to edge away from Toph's grip. "Please let me get back to my job".
Toph didn't get to reply. Yun called from outside, and announced Katara's arrival. Toph, still kneeling in front of Lin, her right hand tightly gripping Lin's left wrist, and her left hand hoovering just close to Lin's wounded face, turned her head towards the door. "Send her in".
"Oh! for crying out loud!" Lin said exasperatedly. She tried to stand up again, pushing Toph aside, but Toph would not budge. "I told you to stay still, Beifong!". She snapped, accidently poking her finger on the plaster on Lin's face.
Katara came hurriedly in, closing the door behind her, carrying a suitcase, just in time to see Lin double over with yet another cry of pain, covering the wounded side of her face with her right palm.
Toph hastily stood up, holding Lin's head in both her palms. "Honey I'm sorry, I'm sorry". She muttered as Katara sat on the sofa next to Lin, looking worried.
Toph kneeled again, grabbing Lin's wrists in her hands and effectively bringing them down onto Lin's lap. "Let Katara take a look".
Katara took one look at Lin's face and let out an audible gasp, which made Toph direct her blind gaze at Katara. "How bad is it?". She asked.
Katara did not answer. She held the plethora of questions popping up in her head for the moment and stood up. "Toph, switch". She said walking to stand in front of Lin. "Lin, I need you to lie down on the sofa".
Toph stood up as well. She moved to sit on the sofa, making room for Katara. Lin drew in a steadying breath and finally looked up. "I'm fine". She huffed. "I'm sorry the Chief made you come all this way for nothing". She said throwing a dirty look at Toph.
Katara said nothing as she opened her suitcase and arranged the healing kit on the table next to the sofa. Then she turned to Lin. "I'm not gonna ask how you got that nasty cut. But it's heavily infected. I can see you are developing a fever. The wound is dangerously close to your eye, and your brain. So, I'm gonna heal you whether you like it or not. If you protest, I will use blood bending to temporarily paralyze you. Do you hear me, Lin Beifong?".
Lin didn't meet Katara's eyes. She took in shallow and rapid breaths as blood rushed to her face. "That's illegal!". She muttered. "You wrote the Law".
"I already broke the Law for Su. I will do it again for you without batting a single eyelash". Toph said. "You can be angry at me all you want, but you are going to see a healer. And Katara is the best there is".
Lin said nothing. She kept her head bowed, avoiding eye contact with Katara.
"Remove your armor and lie down". Katara said, covering her palm with gloving water. "I'm gonna remove the dressing now. It might hurt".
Toph stood up from her seat to make room for Lin to lie down. Lin reluctantly obeyed. The moment Katara started to tug on the sticky gauze that covered her face, Lin could not stop the cry of pain that escaped her lips.
Katara stopped moving the gauze. "It's deeper than I thought". She mumbled, feeling the wound gingerly over the gauze.
"Wait". Toph said as she removed her armor and rolled up the sleeves of her shirt. She got a cushion from the chair nearby and went to Lin. She pushed Lin to a sitting position and sat on the seat Lin was resting her head a moment ago. Placing the cushion on her lap, Toph made Lin lie down again. Making Lin's face rest on Toph's chest, she snaked her right hand under Lin's torso, grabbing her right wrist, and successfully restricting any movement of Lin's hands.
"What the-" Lin said annoyed, trying to get up. "What are you doing?".
But Toph held on tight. Her left hand gingerly, yet firmly clasped Lin's forehead and she nodded to Katara, as she muttered in Lin's ear. "Shh... It'll be over soon".
"I'm not four". Lin yelled. "Let go of me".
Katara started to remove the gauze again, and Lin let go of all protesting against Toph's hold and cried out loud, her left hand clutching Toph's left forearm painfully tight. The infected wound started to sting. Tears streamed down her cheeks as the stinging grew. Toph's chin came to rest on Lin's forehead, and she started to hum 'leaves from the wine'.
The gauze came off finally, and Katara gasped, seeing the wound. Without uttering a single word, she covered the entire wound in glowing water, and Lin slowly stopped crying onto Toph's shirt. She gave in to the soothing sensation and closed her eyes, hiding her face in Toph's embrace.
Katara worked on the wound for a while. Lin slowly let go of her iron grip on Toph's forearm as the pain from the wound subsided.
"It's a good thing that the most infected part of the wounds is around her jaw line". Katara went on as she worked. "If you hadn't called me today, the infection might have reached the eye. She could have lost sight".
"But you can heal her? Right?". Toph asked as she ran her fingers thru Lin's hair soothingly.
"Yes". Katara sighed. "But the tissue damage is irreversible. I'm sorry Lin, honey, it's gonna scar. Why did not you call me any sooner?".
Toph felt Lin shake in her arms at these words. She hugged the girl a little tighter. "Do whatever you can to minimize the damage. This is all my fault".
Lin abruptly sat up, pushing Toph and Katara aside. "No! It's not". She snapped. "It's Su's fault, it's Su's!".
She tried to stand up, but Katara grabbed her by the upper arm. "Lin, honey I don't know what happened, but I'm not done yet. Lie down, let me heal the wound. It's almost over".
"That'll do". Lin said stubbornly. Shrugging off Katara's hand she stood up. Lin wiped off the dampness on her face with the back of her palm and bent the armor back into place.
"Patch it up please aunt Katara". She said walking to the first aid cabinet and getting out a fresh bundle of gauze and plasters.
Toph got to her feet as well. As Katara watched, she walked up to Lin, got the first aid kit from her hands, and passed it to Katara. Then she turned around and drew Lin into a hug. "I'm sorry honey". She mumbled in Lin's ear. Lin blinked rapidly to keep the tear from falling.
"Katara, patch her up". Toph said parting from Lin and turning towards Katara. She led Lin on to the sofa and made her sit. As Katara sat on Lin's right side covering the wound with gloving water again, Toph sat next to Lin and hid her own face in her palms. Katara saw how Lin's jaw trembled as she watched Toph's shoulders slightly shake. She silently concluded the healing session and applied a plaster covering the area.
"Promise me, Lin". She said, securing the last piece of plaster under Lin's right eye. "You will come to the next healing session. "This is not a joke. I'm trying my best to keep the infection out of your eye. It may take three more healing sessions at the least to completely heal the wound".
"We'll be there". Toph said, finally lowering her palms and quickly sweeping away few tears.
Katara looked from Toph to Lin. "Honey, I need to hear you say it. Promise me. Promise me you let your mom take you to me".
Lin stood up. She fixed her gaze on Toph for a moment, before turning to Katara and nodding. With that, Lin walked towards the door, turned, saluted Toph, and left the room. Katara waited until she heard the metal lock clicked into place before she sat down next to Toph.
"What on earth happened?". She asked, throwing an arm around Toph and running her hand up and down Toph's upper arm soothingly.