The Painted Lady and the Blue Spirit

The Family Reunion

As much as it pains her, Katara returns to the Southern Water Tribe, where her brother is ruling alongside her father as chief.

When the ship pulls into the docks there is a group of people crowding around, cheering as Katara steps off of the boat.

"She's back!" they cheer, "She's back!"

Katara smiles and takes the people's hands as she passes, smiling, yet inside she is still heartbroken.

"Katara!" her brother calls, pushing through the crowd. Katara races into her brothers arms and hugs him tightly.

"Sokka," she breathes, holding her brother tightly, "I've missed you."

"Where have you been?" Sokka asks, taking a step back, "Come, father is waiting."

Katara follows her brother, the water tribe has changed so much since she'd been there last. The tribe is thriving with new huts being built and a watchtower standing proudly, looking over the ocean.

"Let me guess," Katara laughs, gesturing to the tower, "your idea?"

"It's an improvement on the old one," Sokka says, smiling proudly, puffing his chest like a proud peacock-ape, "Of course it would have gone better if you were here to help. You've hardly come home since the war... hmm..."

"What?" Katara asks as her brother pauses and regards her with curiosity.

"You look different from the last time I saw you," Sokka says. 

"Different?" Katara laughs, blushing and pulling her coat tighter around herself, "What does that mean?"

"Nothing bad," Sokka smiles, putting his arms around his sister's shoulders and escorting her into the tribe, "You look good, like you're glowing. Honestly Kat, I hardly recognise you."

Katara pushes her brother playfully and is thankful that she added another layer to hide the small swelling of her stomach.

"You're one to talk," Katara laughs, looking her brother up and down, "You've gotten taller, a lot more muscle too."

Sokka is taller, his facial hair has grown in and he is keeping it trimmed as a goatee. His hair is also longer, tied back the ends reach the base of his neck. His muscles are a lot more defined too, even from underneath his many layers Katara could see that.

"Kat, you haven't been home in years," Sokka says, "not that I'm not happy you're back, spirts, I've missed you, but where have you been?"

"I've been preoccupied," Katara says, keeping her eyes away from Sokka, afraid he will be able to see what she's hiding beneath her layers, "Aang had other things in mind."

"But you left him, didn't you?" Sokka asks, Katara nods her head, "I don't love him," Katara sighs, "I don't know if I ever did, not as he wanted me to."

"Last I heard you were in the Fire Nation," Sokka says, "Were you there for Zuko's wedding?"

A lump forms in Katara's throat, she knew that Zuko would marry Mai, but it still hurts to be reminded that Zuko will never be her's. Katara keeps those golden eyes in the front of her mind, she can see them as clear as she can see what's in front of her. Those golden eyes that burn through her soul. She secretly hopes her child will have those eyes, her dream would be to have a son, a son who is everything like his father.

Katara shakes her head to shake her out of her own thoughts, she follows her brother to the tribal council hut.

"Katara!" Hakoda gapes, standing from his seat, he races over to his daughter and embraces her tightly. The feeling of her father's arms around her makes her feel better, it makes her feel as if everything is ok, even though it's not.

Katara wants to fall apart, she wants to scream, to cry. But they aren't the only people in the room, her father is in the middle of a meeting.

"I'm sorry to barge in," she says, her cheeks flushing, as she looks to her father's councilmen.

"Don't be," Hakoda says, he waves a dismissive hand and the other councilmen stand and leave, "I'll always have time for my little girl."

"Dad!" Katara gapes, looking back to her father with flushed cheeks.

"I can't help it!" he beams, wrapping his arms around his daughter again, "I've missed my Kitty-Kat too much!"

Sokka laughs as Katara is lifted into her father's arms and spun around, Katara looks to her brother for help but he just laughs as Katara is spun around again, then Hakoda steps back and looks Katara up and down.

"How long are you intending on staying this time?" he asks with a smile, "There's no avatar to take my baby away this time, are you going to stay?"

"I was thinking of moving back, indefinitely," Katara says, shoving her hands into her pockets to protect them from the cold, "I was thinking of helping out at the hospital, getting my own place, settling down, you know, that kind of thing."

"That's amazing!" Sokka beams, hugging Katara, Katara sighs and then pushes her brother off of her as she laughs.

Hakoda looks suspicious, he looks to Sokka and then clears his throat.

"Sokka, can I speak with Katara, alone?" Sokka looks nervously at his sister and then back to his father.

"Sure," he breathes, as he passes Katara, he squeezes his sister's shoulder, "it's good to have you back."

"Am I in trouble?" Katara asks as the door closes behind her brother.

"You look, good sweetheart," her father compliments, "you have a certain glow about you."

"Uh, thanks?" Katara says.

"Matter of fact, I've seen that glow twice before," he breathes, walking past Katara to grab a drink from the pitcher on the table, "it was on your mother, she looked like moonlight was glowing under her skin, it was when she was pregnant with you and Sokka." Katara's heart races as her father looks back to her, "Is it Aang's?" he asks, confirming what Katara expected, he knows she's pregnant.

"No," Katara says, too quickly, "No."

"Who's?"

"It doesn't matter," Katara says, cutting her father off from arguing, "the father is not around, he doesn't even know about the pregnancy and I'd like it if you don't share this information, with anyone."

"Katara," Hakoda breathes, walking back to his daughter, "Talk to me."

"There isn't anything to talk about," Katara insists, walking away from her father.

"Kat," her father says, making Katara stop by the door, her back tenses expecting an argument, instead she hears her father sigh and then say, "welcome home."

"Thank you," Katara responds, not daring to turn around, fearing her father would see the tears brimming in her eyes.

Katara moves into her own home, as far away from the tribe as she can, but close enough in case of an emergency. She works at the healing tents for as long as she can before her stomach starts to show from underneath her many layers.

Her father brings her all the things she needs, food and arranges for midwives and a doctor to help, discreetly, her as she prepares for her child.

Sokka is concerned for his sister, after only a month an a half, she disappeared into her own home, barely leaving. When Sokka confronted his father about it Hakoda was vague, never giving him a straight answer.

So, six months after Katara returned home, Sokka tracks Katara down, as he approaches her house, he hears her screaming from the inside.
Sokka's heart leaps into his throat, before he can even think, he is running through the snow, he kicks the front door in and charges into the house.

Sokka races into Katara's bedroom, only to hear another scream, this one, however, is coming from a small baby, swaddled in his sister's arms.

"What in Spirits is going on here?!"