The View from the Other Side

Jypzrose

Summary-After Katniss' mother dies, she and Prim are sent to town to live with their only surviving relative, their Aunt Juniper. The move is difficult for Katniss, but she tries to put on a brave face for Prim. The only good thing she sees is that the apothecary is next door to the bakery where Peeta Mellark works. When they were 11, he saved her family and she's harbored a crush on him ever since. Now, the more she gets to know him, the more she realizes that she might be able to save him.

Disclaimer-I don't own the Hunger Games.

Prologue

Six months before the start of our story…

"Mrs. Everdeen," The doctor sighed heavily as he held up the x-ray. Ginger Everdeen tried not to think how much money that x-ray had cost or where she had gotten the money to pay for it. She knew what the doctor was going to say. She'd seen it enough in her years as a healer, she knew the symptoms, and she'd treated them. But, she'd needed the confirmation for herself, so she could plan. For her girls.

Ginger had failed them once, after her husband-their father-had been killed in a mining accident. She wouldn't fail them again. So, she listened as he talked, confirming her diagnosis and talking about options and treatments. All of which were impossible. There was no medicine in District Twelve that could cure her. She wasn't even sure there was any in the Capital of Panem. So, there were no options for her.

"How long?" She gasped, her voice thick with her inner turmoil.

The doctor sighed again and leveled his dark eyes to her blue ones.

"No longer than six months, I'd say. Without treatment your quality of life will deteriorate much quicker than that."

"I live in the Seam. I don't have high expectation for my quality of life." Ginger told him dryly. He sighed yet again at that, folding his hands in front of him.

"I'm sorry," he said and she didn't doubt he was. But his sympathy wouldn't help her now. She needed to go.

"Thank you." She said, standing to leave. She was already going over what she needed to do. She could take care of her own pain and nausea. She would have Katniss harvest the herbs she needed and Prim could help her preserve them.

She left the doctors without another word and walked from his office to the town square. She passed the Justice building, where the long forgotten whipping post still sat. It hadn't been used in years. Not since before the rebellion that had freed Panem from tyranny. Unfortunately, rebuilding a government took time and while the people of District twelve were free and had no fear, they still weren't much better off than they had been.

She stayed lost in thought until she came to the apothecary, which was not far from the bakery. Ginger stood outside the building, her heart pounding in her chest. Memories assault her, some good, most not. This was the place she grew up, where she had learned her livelihood and met the man that would become her husband. The place where her old life had ended.

Now this was the place that would be her daughters' future.

She wasn't sure how long she stood there, her arms wrapped around her thin frame, her mind wandering. She was jolted back to reality when the door swung open.

"Ginger?" The woman standing in front of her, wearing pants and a soft cotton shirt, looked at her with clear green eyes.

"Hello, Juni." Ginger offered her sister after a tremulous smile.

"Wh…what…" she was obviously struggling with her words, her light brown brows pulled together in confusion. Juniper Johnson shook her dirty blond head and straightened her shoulders. She pushed the shock away and leveled her gaze at the younger woman. "What are you doing here?"

There was no malice in the question, just genuine curiosity. They had only spoken a handful of times since Ginger had run away with the miner, the last time being at their fathers funeral the year before. Juniper had been shocked at how fragile her sister had seemed then. But, as her pale green eyes took in the thin frame wrapped in a threadbare blue sweater and a faded blue dress, that was nothing compared to now.

"I need…" Ginger paused and collected a shaky breath. "I need your help."

Juniper stared at her a long moment, dread seizing her heart the longer she looked. Ginger merely waited; her own cloudy blue eyes never wavered.

"All right then." Juniper said with a sharp nod. "Come in. I'll make us some tea." Juniper reached out an arm and ushered her sister into the apothecary shop, flipping the closed sign as it shut. "Go on up. You know the way."

Ginger walked through the shop, breathing in the scent of medicine and herbs, the smells of home. She hadn't allowed herself to miss it, to miss this. She'd made her choice and had never regretted it. Even after Samuel died she would never have changed loving him.

Ginger walked to the staircase that was nearly hidden behind a partition to the left of the service counter. She took the fourteen steps up, avoiding the creaky one out of ingrained habit to the door at the top. She opened it then crossed the threshold to her past.

She paused just inside; taking in just how little had changed in her time away. That felt odd to Ginger. Shouldn't it have changed? She surely had in the twenty years she'd been gone.

"Go on and sit at the table. I'll start the tea." Juniper moved around her, the tail of her braid swinging across her back.

Ginger almost smiled. Juniper reminded her so much of her Katniss then. The braid, the pants she wore, the simple pullover shirt that hinted at the figure underneath. Juniper had never been one for frilly things, or nonsense as she called it. Katniss looked so much like her father, but her disposition was much like Juniper's.

Ginger didn't move to the table right. Instead, she walked to the fireplace, her fingers trailing lovingly over her mama's music box that still sat on the mantle. It was a simple wood box that once wound, played a tinny waltz. Ginger remembered begging her mama to play it when she was little. How she'd laugh when her dad would let her stand on his feet and would twirl her around the room to the music.

Juniper would sit next to their mother on the couch, their family herb book on her lap, smiling at their antics. Their little brother Sage would be playing nearby on the floor. There had been such happiness in this house, in their lives.

Until Sage caught pneumonia and died. Their mother had withdrawn, not like Ginger had, but she didn't smile easily after that. And her father had changed as well. He became cold and distant. A shell of the man he used to be.

It was that man that had forbade Ginger from marrying Samuel, the miner that had brought joy back to her life. It was that man that disowned her when she'd married him.

Now he and mama were both gone and Ginger could finally come home.

"So, Ginger. What do you need to talk to me about?" Juniper carried the same china tea set of their grandmother's that they always used. It was white with delicate yellow daisies. She set the tray on the table and then poured the rich brew into the cups. Ginger smelled lemon and mint and she smiled. It was her favorite. There were tea cookies as well. No doubt bought from Mellark's bakery.

Ginger closed her eyes at the thought of the bakery. She knew of Katniss' fascination with the youngest Mellark boy. Maybe that would make what she was about to do easier on her oldest daughter. And if Katniss was all right with it, Prim would follow suit.

"Ginger?" Juniper narrowed her eyes, concern evident on her face.

"I'm dying." Ginger blurted out, the reality crashing down on her as she heard herself say the words. The stricken look on Juniper's face is what broke her. She felt herself falling, tears clogging her nose and blurring her vision. She kept waiting to hit the floor, but the hard landing never came.

Ginger didn't realize until she felt her head pressed against a soft shoulder and the couch under her that Juniper had caught her. She didn't know how long she cried. By the time she was done, she felt hollow and more tired than she could ever remember being.

"I'm sorry, Ginger." Juniper broke the silence that had fallen between them as Ginger calmed. She pulled back and helped her sister wipe her face, gently tucking a stray blond hair behind her ear. "This family has had more than its share of heartache."

They'd lost their brother, their parents and now that it had seemed that Juniper was finally going to get her sister back, she was going to lose her too.

"What do you need? Medicine? Money?"

"No. I'll manager. What I need," Ginger sniffed and brought her watery gaze to the sturdier one of her sister. "I need you to take in my girls."

A/n-hrm. Another story. Well, this is basically a tease of the story that I'm going to be writing next. This little bit has been bouncing around in my head for a couple of weeks so I decided to write it down and see if the interest is there. So, this is kind of a downer, but it will get better. Katniss will know how she feels about Peeta, Peeta will still be charming but underneath angry. There will be Gadge. They will get together quicker than Peeta and Katniss. But they will not have a smooth path either. Anyway. Hope you enjoy. Review, review, review. :D Jypz/Lisa

A/n 2-I kept the nature of Mrs. Everdeen's illness ambiguous for a reason. It speaks cancer to me, because I lost both my parent's to cancer. However, I want the reader to make their own assumptions. It could be black lung, cancer, tuberculosis or whatever. And I didn't want to her to commit suicide.