"Peeta, Peeta!" I hear in the distance. The voice makes my stomach knot and fills me with longing. She is alive! I could only assume before but now i know for sure and she's looking for me!

Mockingjays begin to mimic the voice. I hear her sigh and the pebbles underneath her feet rattle downstream as she turns. Now I can see her and its growing closer and closer. No amount of dirt could ever make that face any less beautiful. Her eyes are filled with sorrow and exhustion as she continues on her route towards me. I close my eyes so I become part of the bank.

"You here to finish me off, sweetheard?"

The sorrow in her eyes is quickly replaced with excitement as she whips from side to side searching for the source.

"Peeta?" She whispers "Where are you?"

I open my eyes to see that she continues to creep along the bank.

"Peeta?" She almost begs.

"Well dont step on me!" I say teasingly as her foot is just centimetres from connecting with my body.

Katniss jumps back and i quickly close my eyes once again disapearing into th bank.

"Peeta?"

I open my eyes now and beam up at the sight of this face. The face thaat has featured in all my dreams recently, a face of true beauty.

Shock, disbelief and joy are just some of the emotions that are crossing Katniss' face now.

"Close your eyes again" She orders.

And when i do she gasps and I can feel her kneeling beside me.

"I guess all those hours of decorating cakes paid off."

I let a smile appear on my lips. How happy, how complete I feel right now.

"Yes, frosting, the final defence of the dying." Because no matter what i tell myself, no matter what Katniss tells me I am dying its almost inevitable.

"You're not going to die" She tells me, its almost an order. If only it was one I could follow.

"Says who?"

"Says me, we're on the same team now, you know."

I open my eyes and gaze into those beautiful grey ones and do not advert my gaze as I did in school when they meet mine.

"So I heard nice you to find whats left of me."

Katniss pulls out a bottle of water she's somehow aquired throughout the games and holds it to my lips. I relluctantly take small sips of the water.

"Did Cato cut you?" Theres a concerned edge to her voice.

"Left leg, up high." Is all I reply with.

Guilt. Thats what I see in her eyes now. I want to comfort her, to tell her my true feelings, how none of this her fault. But Im still not sure how she feels about me and that would also mean revealing the truth to the audience and possibly loosing sponsors; Not that I've recieved anything yet. But I cant risk loosing sponsors, not for her, they could mean the difference between life and death for Katniss at some point because when I'm gone no one can help her.

"Lets get you in the stream, wash you off so I can see what kind of wounds you've got"

"Lean down a minute first," Well if i only have a short amount of time left, I want to get a kiss from Katniss. So I teasingly say- not getting my hopes up too high "Remember we're madly in love so its alright to kiss me anytime you feel like it."

Katniss pulls her head back and begins to laugh. This laugh-the laugh i love to hear but am rarely treated with- trills through the forest.

Katniss begins to pull me from the bank but with all the mud I plastered myself with it has acted like cement, and I find myself glued to the ground. She begins to pull harder and I try to help by attempting to stand, but the minute I put pressure on my leg it screams in protest and the pain is almost unbearable. Sounds of pain escape my lips no matter how hard I try to keep them locked up. And with each sound causes Katniss to wince. We're about half a metre from the stream when unauthorised tears begin to creep down my face and Katniss looks concerned. This is why I should of told her to leave me the second I was found, not given in to my weaker side that wanted to call out for her! I should of kept my mouth shut! But now she's found me I know I dont have the strength to tell her to leave and know that no matter how much I beg her she would'nt leave me anyway.

"Look Peeta, I'm going to roll you into the stream, its very shallow here, okay?"

"Excellent" I say trying to sound possitive.

"On three. One, two...three!"

She begins to roll me towards the stream and it does seem slightly less painful, but I still cant stop my cries of pain, though my teeth are gritted so hard it hurts.

After one full roll she stops and says "Change of plans, Im not going to roll you all the way in"

"No more rolling?"

"Thats all done" Good because I dont know how much more pain I can withstand before I black out. "Lets get you cleaned up. Kepp an eye on the woods for me, okay?"

So I just sit there while Katniss washes all the mud off me with the water from the stream, this takes at least half an hour. Then starts by taking or rather tearing my top off as it's glued to my chest with blood and mud. She shouldnt be doing this for me, I would do anything right now to switch positions. Its suppose to be prince charming coming to rescue the princess, not the other way around!

Katniss gasps when she sees the burn that runs across the length of my chest and my four trackerjacker stings. She then starts to clean the wounds and my face, then pulls the stingers out, I once again find my teeeth gritted but when she applies some strange chewwed up leaves they bring instant relief and I let out a slightly exasperated sigh. Next she applies some cream to my burn soothing it a little, then searches through a first aid kit and comes up with some pills I'm ordered to swallow.

I wonder where Katnisss learnt all this tuff but then I remember that her mother is a healer, so Katniss must of picked up a few tricks along the way.

"You must be hungry"

"Not really, its funny, I have'nt been hungry for days" And I refuse all food she offers.

"Peeta, we need to get some food into you"

"It'll just come right back up"

Eventually I accept some dried fruit, in an attempt to make her happy.

"Thanks, im much better, really. Can I sleep now Katniss?"

"Soon" She promises me " I need to look at your leg first"

She catiously removes my trousers and when she sees my leg her face fills with worry and obtains a distant expression.

"Pretty awful, huh?"

"So-so" She shrugs "You should see some of the people they bring my mother from the mines."

This does comfort me to and extent, but then I realise she would never reveal how bad it truly is to me.

"First things to clean it well"

Katniss makes me sit on a plastic sheet as she pours water over the wound.

"Why dont we give it some air and then..."She trails off. Katniss seem so clueless so I say the first thing I can think of.

"And then you'll patch it up?"

"Thats right" She aanswers, acting as if she knew that the whole time."In the mean time you eat these" She hands me some more dried fruit that I obediantly chew, althought they taste like cardboard; but you cant complain about food in the arena, especially as there is a lack of it.

Whilst I eat Katniss goes back to the stream to wash my clothes then returns the first aid kit. There doesnt seem to be anything of use to her now, because when she's finished she says

"We're going to need to experiment some."

First she presses those strange leaves onto my wound which draw out the pus and all the colour in her face. Im sat here thinking, wishing that I could take her place or at least do something to make it easier on her because she seems very uncomfortable, so I try to distract her.

"Katniss" I say. Her eyes meet mine. I could spend hours just gazing into those grey eyes, just trying to get over their beauty but instead I mouth the words "How about that kiss?"

It works because again she starts to laugh.

"Something wrong?" I ask

"I...I'm no good at this. Im not my mother, I've no idea what I'm doing and I hate pus! Euh!" She washes off the leaves and then presses on some more on drawing out a whole new round of pus.

"Euuuh!" She moans again.

"How do you hunt?" I ask curiously, because surely all the blood and dead animals is no better than this?

"Trust me, killings is much easier than this, although for all I know I am killing you!"

Im glad to hear a joking tone in her voice because in the arena, your not aloud to have fun or be happy only bloodthirsty. So I reply with "Can you speed it up a little?"

"No, shut up and eat your pears."

After another round of leaves you can see the wound clearly and see just how deep the cut is. Cato managed to cut all the way down to the bone. Thats bound to get infected and then...

"What next Dr Everdeen?"

"Maybe I'll put some burn oinment on it. I think it helps with infection anyway and then I'll wrap it up?"

She'll deny it if you ever tell her, but she really is good with this whole doctor thing because i do feel better once she's done. Thats on of the things I love about Katniss. Her determination. She'll jump into any circumstance and try her best and wont give up until it goes her way.

She hands me a small backpack,

"Here cover yourself with this while I wash you shorts."

"Oh, I dont care if you see me"

Katniss' cheeks turn scarlett,

"You're just like the rest of my family, I care, alright?"

She turns to face the stream whilst I take off my undershorts.

"You know you're kind of squeamish for such a lefal person" I say, then I remember that night on the train when I offered to give Haymitch the shower, " I wish I let you give Haymitch that shower after all"

"Whats he sent you so far?"

"Not a thing" Then it hits me, "Why did you get something?"

"Burn medicene and some bread" She say shyly.

At least he's helping me keep her alive, but at my expense? Well I guess up until now only one of us could win.

" I always knew you where his favourite"

"Please, he cant even stand to be in the same room as me"

"Because you're just alike" I mutter, she ignores me though and tells me I can go to sleep.