Who am I without you?

How Far is Too Far?

Months had passed since the day that Kya had last caused trouble for Lin and her officers. Toph was made aware of the situation that day and decided to go to Aang and Katara directly about the problems with their daughter. Apparently something came of that because the city was relatively quiet other than a few muggings or the occasional gang activity.

Although much of her work was in the field, Lin had mountains of paperwork that she would do for her mother. Apparently she was assigned the job for training purposes. She loathed being stuck in the station, she always craved the more dangerous work out in the field.

A knock on the office door woke her from her thoughts. "Yes? Come in."

One of the rookies stuck at the front desk peeked his head in nervously. "Ma'am...there's someone here to see you. He says he brought you lunch."

Lin pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers. "Fine. Send him in." She waved the other hand to dismiss the boy who moments later was replaced with the familiar face of Tenzin.

"Hello Lin. I brought you some noodles, Toph told me you were stuck in the office today." The young air bender set the bag of food on her desk and sat in a chair across from her opening his own food.

Ever since the two of them started seeing each other, he would come by the station when Lin would be trapped there and bring her lunch. She spent a lot of time on air temple island with his family and they had welcomed her with open arms. Even her and Kya had become close and and would spend time together whenever Lin wasn't swamped at work.

"When did you see my mother?" She said, ignoring the bag in front of her and returning to looking over the packet of paper she had been working on.

Tenzin slurped down a large clump of noodles. "She's on air temple island with my father. Didn't you know?"

"Know what?" She glanced up at him quizzically. Her mother told her nothing specific when she left this morning, just that she had a full day.

He paused for a moment, setting his empty take out container on the floor next to his chair. "Um...Kya's leaving? Didn't she tell you? Everyone is doing their rounds of goodbyes today before she leaves tomorrow."

"WHAT? WHERE IS SHE GOING!" Lin had shot up from her seat and slammed a fist onto her desk, the metal denting slightly from the force. Why didn't anyone say anything to her? Why didn't Kya say anything?

"I assumed she would have told you. Aren't you two pretty close?" He said. His face showed genuine concern for the way that Lin had reacted.

She took a moment to regain her composure. She didn't want her boyfriend trying anything strange like comforting her over this. How could Kya blatantly not even mention leaving the city? She had seen her not even a week ago when she was on the island for dinner with Tenzin's family. Lin thought that her and Kya HAD been pretty close finally. They spent a lot of time together over the summer. So what changed?

"Lin?" Tenzin finally broke the awkward silence that had apparently taken over the room. "Is everything okay?"

She let out a sigh and slumped back into her seat. "I have a lot of paperwork to finish, I'll see you tomorrow if you don't mind leaving, please."

Tenzin still looked confused but nodded. "Of course, I'll come by and check on you tonight." He grabbed his lunch garbage and threw it into the bin by the desk. "Have a good rest of your shift." He said with a smile as he left.

Lin rolled her eyes as he walked out. She knew that she should appreciate the gesture, but she wasn't holding her breath. Tenzin never actually showed up to her house at night. Mostly because he knew better than to keep her up when she had been at work all day.