"She isn't here," Sokka confirms, a statement that still fills him with a lot of conflicting feelings. "Which is good. I don't want her to be." And yet there's an unspoken but at the end of that statement that would elaborate on how much Sokka misses her, and how much he hates that he can't be back in their world, protecting her. How nice it would be if she were here, if he ignored all the reasons he absolutely cannot let them take her. This very situation would be a lot easier, because Katara would do all the right things in this scenario, like offer to fetch Papyrus another blanket or get him some water, and Sokka could focus entirely on his questions until Katara got fed up and chased him from the room. That's the kind of balance that Team Avatar provides each other; it's the kind of balance that Sokka doesn't have being stranded here by himself.

But he's glad for it. He is. No one else should be here with him, no matter how strange it is to sleep in a bedroom by himself, or how weird it is to hold his tongue whenever the locals refer to his family.

"She'd probably tell me you need to rest." It isn't that she wouldn't see Sokka's logic; she would. But she's the healer — and she's better at placing sympathy above being pragmatic.