Disclaimer: THG and all of its characters isn't mine.
Angel of Death
He woke up hearing the same beeping noise with a rhythm. He sat up from the bed and held his head in his hands. His mind was a bit wobbly. A shrill voice with a thick Elizabethan accent suddenly spoke up. Her voice made him wake up from his sleepy haze.
He looked at his left and found her standing there, just in arm's reach. She was dressed in a spring green dress with matching boots and laces that ended just above her knees.
"Hello there, sleeping beauty," she tilted her head and smiled, showing her perfectly white teeth.
He groaned, "Who the hell are you?" His face scrunched up at the sight of her. She looked like a clown with that pink wig and bright make – up.
She clicked her tongue in disgust, "Language, Haymitch!"
He narrowed his eyes at her and creased his eyebrows. His voice dropped down and sounded like he was threatening her, "How did you know my name?"
She chuckled and commented, "Oh aren't you a curious one." She rounded his bed and picked up a clipboard. She was reading it calmly when someone barged in the room.
Katniss pushed the door open and Peeta was following her. Her eyes frantically found him and she came to his side right away but she looked past him. "Haymitch," she whispered with worry in her eyes.
"Sweetheart, I'm fine." He rolled his eyes. There was no need to worry but the girl didn't calm down.
"What happened to him?" Peeta asked the nurse who showed them his room.
Why is there a nurse in -, he was asking himself then it dawned on him the he was in a hospital and he wasn't on his bed. He was sitting on a hospital bed. His eyes wildly scanned the room and saw the dextrose and machines that made the beeping sounds and lines.
"Alcohol poisoning," the nurse answered. "He's still in coma and we can't tell when he will wake up." They all looked at the man on the bed when the nurse said that.
He backed away from the bed when he saw himself lying still on the bed with a pale face and chopped lips.
Peeta let out a shaky breathe and came towards Katniss whose fists were tightened and shaking. "I told him to cut down his liquor but he didn't listen," she said angrily and her jaw clenched tight.
The boy put his hands on her arms and rubbed it. "He'll be fine," he said but they all knew that he wasn't sure about that.
She turned to him with her eyes tearing up, "What if he doesn't?" She bit her lower lip. She didn't want to cry. She couldn't give in and cry. She had lost too much, her father, Prim and her mother who was working away after her sister's death. She couldn't lose him too. She only had Peeta and him.
He didn't answer her. He just hugged her until they feel asleep with her half sitting on his lap.
Haymitch stood there quietly, watching the kids until they fell asleep. There was an eerie silence until he heard, "You have sweet caring children, you know." He turned to face the woman sitting on the chair on the far end of the room.
She didn't look at him though. She was just staring at the night sky.
"You're ghost too," he tried to make sense of the situation.
She smiled. Her blue eyes sparkled in the dim part of the room. "Close, but not quite right," she offered.
"Well what are you, sweetheart?" he stood in front of her and he didn't know if he was just cold or he just he felt the chill in his body when he came near her.
This time, she looked at him, right through his grey eyes to reach his soul. She stood up slowly and gave him a deadly grin, "Well, I'm the Angel of Death, sweetheart." She expected him to back away, get shocked or fear her but he surprised her instead.
He just sassily asked her, "So, do all angels wear ridiculous outfits and wigs?" He even plucked out the flower in her wig and played with it as he sat on the chair opposite of hers. "Didn't see that one coming, did you?" he laughed though she stayed impassive.
She could believe the nerve of this man but she had to compose herself. "You know, you could die any moment at the snap of my fingers," she replied back.
"Then why don't you do it," he challenged. He must be crazy to say that but he didn't care anymore. He didn't have anyone left. He lost his family. He lost his girl. The kids had each other. There really was no one left.
"That isn't true, Haymitch" she told him coldly as if she knew what he was thinking. She leaned in with her perfectly long legs crossed with each other, "We both know that deep inside that stone cold heart of yours, you care about these children. And more than you should actually. I mean, they're not really yours. You're just their retired Commanding Officer."
It brought him pain when she talked about that. He didn't want to remember the war and his tour in Afghanistan with the kids. They were too young when they signed up but he knew that they didn't have a choice, just like him when he was sixteen. Only the three of them survived the twelfth platoon. The three of them received a purple heart from President Snow but that didn't mean anything when they found out that they lost their loved ones in the 9/11 bombing.
He lost his family and his girl, a long time ago and he felt like that again when he saw the kids mourn for their loved ones especially for Prim. The sweet, gentle and kind Prim who happened to attend a first aid seminar in the Twin Towers at that unfaithful day.
He was lost in his memories that he didn't see her walking in front of him. "You are capable of loving again, you know." She whispered and smiled sadly when she pointed at the two broken people across the room, "Just like them."
The kids were just as broken as him. It was remarkable that they found love in the middle of the war though at first they were just determined to save each other's lives. They were both damaged beyond repair but they proved the others wrong by healing each other from within. Peeta lost his leg. Katniss couldn't hear anything in her left ear. They all had scars in their bodies and uneven patches of skin. They all have nightmares every night. But the two managed to slowly move on and live while he, he just moved on from one bottle to the next.
"Someday you'll find her," he was a bt startled when she spoke again. He looked at her quizzically, "Her?" he asked.
"You're second chance," her voice grew softer and her eyes twinkled. She walking out of the door but he called her.
"Hey! Where are you going?" he stood up quickly. She can't leave him alone. She was the only one who could see him and talk to him. He wasn't good at socializing but he seemed to like talking to her.
"My presence here is not needed anymore," she answered as if it was obvious.
"I'm dying," he stated.
"If you were, you'd be coming with me," she countered. "You're waking up. " She pointed to the heart monitor with his vitals. "I wasn't sent here to kill you. I was sent, to give you a choice. You were giving up but from the moment you saw them, you were fighting again for your life."
She turned around but he needed to ask out of curiosity, "Sweetheart, you only have one question left unanswered."
"How did I know you name?" she asked if that was it.
"I saw you looking at my record and that was a stupid question. The question is, do all angels wear –"
She waved him off and chuckled, "Oh Haymitch," she mused. She never had a client like him before, "We don't have a reflection. We don't know what we look like. You're the one who decides what we would look like. For all I know, you could've seen this face before and you just want to see it again before you die." She disappeared after that, leaving him with his lips parted.
-.
He stirred and felt his muscles sore. He was back on the bed again and he couldn't move his limbs. He saw the children still wrapped around each other. He groaned when he tried to sit up. His eyelids were heavy when he tried to blink and see the nurse at his side.
He saw the pair of blue eyes and blonde hair pushing him back down and adjusted his white linen blanket. "Hello there, sleeping beauty," her voice was soft and gentle. He felt like he saw her before but he couldn't point it out.
"Who the hell –" he cursed when he felt the pain all over his body, "are you?" he was panting when he finished his question.
She clicked her tongue and reprimanded him, "Language, Haymitch." But she softened when she saw him in pain. She wouldn't tolerate foul words but she will tell him that when he wasn't in agony. "I'm taking care of you now," she informed him. "I was the one in charge of you before you went into coma last week and for the whole week, actually. Also, Katniss and Peeta hired me to be your personal nurse when you get home."
He wanted to protest that he didn't need any nurse but his throat was so dry.
She sensed what he needed so she quickly got him a glass of water with straw. While he was sipping, she introduced herself, "I'm Euphemia Trinket but please call me Effie instead."
He was going to say that he didn't need her but from the way she smiled with those pearly white teeth of hers, he felt something warm in his chest that suddenly surround his body. He didn't know what made him say, "'M Haymitch." He was going to shake her hand but he hit the glass of water in her hand instead. He cursed. "Sorry."
Her eyebrows rose, "Well Haymitch, I couldn't tolerate your foul words when you're in my company. You've got to have some manners at least."
He felt the vibration of his chuckles in his chest. "Loosen your corset, sweetheart." He teased and the warm feeling in his chest grew stronger as he looked at her face.
He didn't realize that she was the face of his angel... and the second chance that the angel said.
-.
Uhh... I just thought of her as his Angel of Death and then it somehow got complicated and turned out like this! I hope you loved it! Please leave a review! :D
.Elle.