When they left the examination room Mako, with Bolin's help, was led to another room for admitted patients by an older, grey haired nurse. As a cautionary measure for the risk of him being contagious as they were still waiting for test results, he had been given a room for himself. The nurse gave him an injection for the fever and another one for nausea and let him lay down on the thin bed before she inserted the IV, telling him to rest. An offer he gratefully accepted. He shifted to his side so that the cord from the IV would not pull and closed his eyes again. Come to think of it, setting aside the actual trip to the hospital, this had probably been the longest he had been awake since he got sick and he was exhausted.

Bolin left to reunite with Korra in the waiting room and gave her a quick, for Bolin at least, recap of what the doctor had told them. When he was finished he shifted on the spot, as if he could not find a comfortable stance, and looked down on his shoes.

"I feel so helpless", he blurted out after a moment's silence. "This is ridiculous, I mean… it hurts just to look at him. I know it must sound stupid to you, but… it's Mako for crying out loud. He is not supposed to…" the emerald eyed teen trailed off when the shorter girl threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. First he stiffened for a second, and then he leaned into her embrace, hugging her back. The desperation and fear clawing at his insides he had held back intensified, and with Korra's arms around him, he broke down. He hulked, sobbed and sniffed and she just stood there, letting him slobber salty tears and snot all over her shoulder until the he felt completely empty inside.

Only when the tears had subdued and the sobbing quieted down to the occasional sniff Korra finally let go.

"Hey, I know you didn't get any sleep last night. You must be exhausted, and I assume you, like me, haven't eaten anything all day. It is almost evening now. Let's find something to eat and then we'll go back to his room and sit there for a while before I take you home so you can sleep. How about it?"

"Yeah, sounds good. Thanks Korra."

Said and done, they hunted down some noodles from the hospital cafeteria, ate in silence and then went back to the room Mako had been allocated for the time being. Once they entered they found him sleeping soundly, not even stirring when they walked up to him. Bolin positioned himself next to his brother on an empty chair and Korra on his other side.

The stillness allowed Korra time to think and reflect on everything that had happened, especially what she had seen in the waiting room. While not everybody had seemed sick in the same way: among others she had noted a young man nursing a badly bruised leg and a pregnant lady who kept cradling her belly, perhaps half of the people she had seen in there seemed to be there for the same reason Mako was. This was of course just an observation; she could not be sure unless she saw each patient's charts, but if she was right. If Republic city were in the beginning of an outbreak of epidemic proportions, and Mako was just among the first. Then it could be safely assumed that the worst was yet to come…

She left the room to find a nurse to confirm her suspicions and it did not take very long to find a suitable target.

At first the nurse she grabbed kept dodging her questions and Korra read a great deal of apprehension in her eyes. While Korra hated to pull the Avatar card on the young woman she eventually ran out of options and had to resort to doing so, if it made her talk…

It most certainly did, the timid young woman in front of her stammered out one apology after the other and explained that they had been asked, for now, not to alarm the papers and let the public know. It was still early and no one were exactly sure how serious the outbreak was, or even if it was one in the first place. In the beginning of the week it had only been a couple of isolated incidents, that's when they had been asked to keep quiet, but people just kept coming in bigger numbers every day and they were not sure they could keep the secrecy up for much longer at this stage.

Korra stopped her then and asked who ordered the hospital staff to keep quiet and the answer almost physically hurt, it felt like she had been kicked in the stomach.

The city council.

Tenzin knew, he'd known all along.

…

When Korra returned she found Mako awake and occupied with listening to Bolin's retelling of the last minute of the match that he missed after being pushed into the drain. He was sitting up on the bed, legs crossed and looking a lot better overall, skin having regained some colour and eyes some of their former alertness. A small smile tugged the corners of his lips upwards slightly as Bolin's reiteration became increasingly more vivid and he added arm gestures to the story to illustrate how he, singlehandedly, held off the Tiger seals attacks.

"And then I dodged the water attack, like this, before, ah you gonna love this one! Before ricocheeting… rickochooting? Ah whatever, the earthbender's own disk back at him, baaam! Knocked him right down!"

"Pffft, yeah, and where were I in all of this? Polishing my nails?" Korra interrupted, making both boys jump and turn to her. "The way I remember it was that I kicked the firebender's ass while you barely stood upright against the other two." She continued, one eyebrow raised and a half smirk growing as she talked, indicating her amusement.

Bolin, clearly not expecting her to be back so soon flushed and stammered out a weak excuse that he didn't say he beat the firebender too, he always gave credit where credit was due. Then he regained some composure and beat back that he was indeed holding his ground just fine against the waterbender and earthbender, something Korra eventually went along with after some continued friendly banter.

After they had established a version of the match that they both agreed on, Korra turned to Mako with a relieved smile.

"It's good to see you up, feeling better?"

"Yeah, don't know what was in those meds, but they did the trick," he nodded and returned the smile.

They kept chatting for a couple of hours and when Mako gradually went more and more quiet and his eyelids started to drop, they convinced him to lay down. Not long after that he was out cold again and Korra turned to Bolin.

"Time to head home? I'll give you a lift," she offered but he shook his head.

"Na, thanks but I think I'll stay here."

"But it's late and you're exhausted," she tried to convince him.

"It's okay I promise. I can sleep in the chair. It wouldn't be the worst place I've slept in, trust me."

"If you're sure…Listen, I don't want to go back to Air Temple Island tonight, can I crash at your place? I'll come back tomorrow morning I promise."

"Sure, you can take my bed," he nodded smiling before pausing for a moment and adding sheepishly. "Eh… might be a bit messy though."

Korra just rolled her eyes at the confession, she hadn't expected anything else, and assured him that it did not matter, she was grateful for the offer as it was. At that Bolin pulled her into a big hug, holding her tight for a moment and thanked her for everything.

Korra left the hospital in higher spirits than she had been since Bolin had shown up on her doorstep, hopefully the worst was over and Mako would well be on the way to recovery soon. Though what she learnt from speaking to the nurses refused to leave her alone. She had to speak to the council in the morning, trying to keep this outbreak under cover was madness, and Tenzin had some tough answering to do.

…

"The city needs to know!" Korra didn't care that she barged in unannounced. She had laid awake well into the first dawning ours of the day thinking, worrying, dreading, and she was in no mood to comply with the dainty etiquette of the ruling establishment.

"Korra, what are you doing here?" It was Tenzin that voiced his confusion, slightly taken aback by the brash intrusion. The others kept quiet for the moment, knowing the Avatar was his responsibility as he was training her.

"We took Mako, a friend of mine," she stopped herself and offered in explanation to the councilmembers that she had not met yet, "to the hospital yesterday and well there I find out that he's not the only one sick. People are flocking to the hospital, more every day and a nurse explained that the reason we had no idea of what was wrong with him, is that you told them to keep quiet. How could you even think that was a good idea? The people need to know what's happening!" She finished furiously and pointed an accusing finger at every council member before letting her gaze linger on Tenzin, silently challenging him to deny it.

"I am sorry Korra, I could not be certain that your friend had the fever that has come to Republic City. We were just discussing that we need to upheave the silence and take action to protect the citizens and inform the public. In the beginning of the week, when the reports first came in, it was a couple of isolated incidents. We could not be sure we had an outbreak on our hands and acted as we thought were the best at the time to avoid panic," Tenzin explained, trying to appease the fuming Avatar, but she was having none of it.

"Then why didn't you tell me? I could have helped you guys, I could have taken Mako to the hospital sooner. I am the Avatar. I deserve to know!" She lashed out and Tenzin sighed.

"Because I knew this is how you would react, we tried to keep it quiet to protect the citizens from panic, I have not even told Pema yet… and in regards to your friend, I did everything I could to help him? As soon as you came to me I tried to help, did I not?" He finished and Korra finally began to calm down. It was true, when Bolin had asked her to come to the arena no one knew what was wrong with Mako and she, from what she could tell at the last match, thought it was just a normal cold. When she had seen Tenzin the next time he had offered his assistance even before she could ask. While she was still angry with him for withholding information, she could see why it had been important to avoid panic.

Though it didn't change the current situation.

"So what's the council planning to do?" She asked, forcing herself to focus on the bigger picture and not her wounded pride and anger.

"It would be an honour to explain our current strategy to deal with the outbreak to the Avatar."

A middle aged man with long chocolate brown hair, dressed in water tribe clothing, stood up and gestured to Korra to come closer before ordering a guard to bring her a chair, "My name is Tarrlok of the Northern Water Tribe and it's an honour to meet you Avatar Korra."