Just a little something I made for the Hurt-Comfort Bingo. The prompt was Pneumonia.
Hope you guys can enjoy this, reviews are more than welcome!
Disclaimer: The Hunger Games Saga belongs to Suzanne Collins.
May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favour
Katniss had always hated to see her mother and sister tend the sick and wounded. However, this time she didn't really have a choice. She was already trapped in the hospital, and the woman was on the bed right next to hers. Prim was her nurse, treating the unknown woman with all the care and love she would have given to her own mother.
"You don't have to keep staring, you know, Catnip." Gale chuckled at the other side.
She looked at her best friend with sarcasm filling her eyes.
"It's not like I have other options."
"Just keep talking to me and try to pretend there is no one on your other side."
He had barely finished his line when the woman started to make the most horrible of sounds, as if she was trying desperately to put some oxygen into her lungs, but the substance just didn't want to cooperate.
"What's wrong with her?" Katniss asked, trying desperately to fixate her eyes on Gale's grey ones.
"She has pneumonia." It was Prim, however, who answered, as she finished with the woman and came over to her sister's bed. "She has a bad infection on her lungs, is under a lot of pain and it's a great effort for her to breathe properly."
"How can you deal with that so coolly?" Katniss couldn't help but ask.
Prim just shrugged.
"I guess I'm more preoccupied with her healing process. I'm not really considering how she looks now. I watch her and what I see is what I should do to make her feel better, how to make her healthy again."
The horrible sounds ceased a bit, as one of the other nurses injected a clear substance on the woman's arm.
"That should keep her stable for a little longer."
"Shouldn't she be in quarantine or something?" Gale asked.
"Our quarantine location is overcrowded. We can't fit anyone else inside, so it was decided she would be placed somewhere with less occupation."
"The psychiatric wing." Katniss mumbled unwillingly. "Isn't it dangerous? I mean, isn't she too close?"
Prim stared at her older sister with boredom. Katniss couldn't remember ever seeing such a look on the girl's pretty eyes.
"You're strong, Katniss. The odds of you catching a hospital infection is rather low, don't worry about it."
Prim's voice was reassuring, but so was Effie Trinket's excessively sweet tone: May the odds be ever in your favour.
"Katniss? Are you alright?"
Gale's voice took her from the ironic memory. Why did Prim choose "odd" instead of "chance" or some other word? Katniss decided not to think too much about it. Her little sister probably didn't even notice she used that word.
"Yes. Sorry."
Gale just raised an eyebrow at her, but Katniss just shook her head, dismissing his concern. Prim was right. She was strong. But it was only her body that held such strength. Inside, she was like a bird with a broken wing. The more she struggled for her freedom, the more hurt she became.
"You're right, Prim, I shouldn't be worrying about someone else's pneumonia. I'm sorry."
Prim just nodded and smiled, while Gale didn't buy one word. However, there was nothing he could do now to help her. She was far beyond his reach.