Birds chirping. The bleat of Prim's goat, Lady. Dishes clattering in the kitchen.

Morning.

Katniss opened her eyes to discover she was not in her bed as she had expected, but on the couch in her living room. There was a soft pillow under her head, a quilt pulled up to her chin. She squinted against the glare of the sun shining through the windows. Then she made the mistake of raising her head a fraction.

Immediate pain and dizziness, along with a flood of memories from the night before. She groaned and laid her head back down, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Katniss? Mom! Katniss is awake! Katniss, just stay still, okay? You're going to be fine."

Katniss peeked out from behind her eyelids to see Prim sitting up in a chair next to the couch.

"What happened?" she muttered.

"You were attacked coming home last night. But you're safe now."

"No, I mean how did I get here?"

Before Prim could answer, their mother was there hovering over Katniss.

"How do you feel?" she asked anxiously as she pried open Katniss' eyelids to check her pupils.

"Ugh, Mom…stop," Katniss said and turned her head away. "I feel like crap, okay? My head is killing me."

Her mother relented and sat down on the couch next to her.

"That's to be expected," she said. "Your head got a pretty nasty blow. I'll give you something for the pain in a minute."

Katniss felt her mother's hands run anxiously across her forehead and down her arms. Usually she did her best to shun any affection from her mother, but right now she had zero energy to fight it, so instead she just let herself enjoy it.

"Do you remember what happened, honey?" her mother asked gently.

"Most of it, I think," Katniss answered. "I was walking home from Sae's, I decided to cross the Meadow…"

Terrifying images from the night before flashed before her eyes, and Katniss decided she couldn't handle it. Not yet.

"How did I get here?" she asked again, changing the subject.

"Peeta Mellark," Prim answered.

Katniss just stared at her sister, not understanding.

"He brought you here," Prim continued. "Carried you all the way from the Meadow."

"I don't…Peeta Mellark?" Katniss still didn't understand.

"He saved you, Katniss," Prim said softly, and suddenly Katniss thought of two loaves of slightly burnt bread.

"Tell me," she whispered.

"There's not much to tell. It was almost midnight last night, and I was starting to get nervous because you weren't home yet. Then all of a sudden someone was banging on the door, and when I opened it he was standing there holding you. You were completely out of it."

"He told us you were hurt," their mother continued the story. "He said he found two guys from town attacking you in the Meadow and he fought them off and brought you here."

"He brought your bag, too," Prim added.

Katniss couldn't believe it.

"What was Peeta Mellark doing in the Meadow in the middle of the night?"

Neither of them could answer her.

"I didn't think to ask, Katniss. My priorities right then were on finding out how badly you were hurt."

"He didn't stay very long," Prim said. "Just long enough to make sure you were going to be okay, then he took off."

"I wish he had stayed," said their mother. "I never even got a chance to thank him, and he had a few bumps and bruises that I should have had a look at."

Katniss tried to comprehend what they were telling her, but her head was pounding. She couldn't think about Peeta Mellark right now.

"What about the guys who attacked me?" she asked.

Prim and her mother exchanged a look.

"Peeta said he left them in the Meadow," Prim said. "He also said if you decided you wanted to tell the Peacekeepers about what happened, he would be happy to testify to what he saw."

Katniss closed her eyes. She couldn't deal with that right now, either. She couldn't deal with anything. She just wanted to go back to sleep and forget everything that had happened. Despite her greatest efforts, she felt tears welling in her eyes. Her mother saw and gathered her into her arms.

"Poor baby," she crooned. "You're okay. You're safe now. Everything's going to be okay."

Katniss could hear Prim sniffling beside them, and she knew she needed to pull herself together for her little sister's sake. Be strong.

Gently she disentangled herself from her mother and asked, "So, how hurt am I?"

"Mainly just scratches and bruises," her mother answered. "And you have a twisted ankle, but I'm mostly concerned about that bump on the back of your head—I'm fairly certain you have a concussion. You're pretty responsive now, though, so I think it must be mild. Still, you'll need to take things really easy for the next few days."

"But school…and I need to work…"

"Out of the question," her mother said firmly and for once Katniss didn't argue.

"Can I take a bath?" she asked meekly. She felt an urgent need to scour her skin—to wash away all traces of the night before.

"I've already got water heating on the stove, "Prim answered. "Why don't you go on back to the bathroom and I'll bring it to you?"

Katniss sat up fully for the first time as Prim headed for the kitchen. She had to fight off a wave of dizziness before she realized that under the quilt she was still wearing her work uniform, which was gaping open from her waist up. She quickly covered herself.

"Peeta saw me like this?"

"Oh, sweetie…it's okay. He covered you up with his coat before he brought you here. I'm sure that was the last thing on his mind."

Katniss hung her head, so embarrassed and ashamed she almost couldn't bear it.

"Come on," her mother said gently. "Let me help you."

Leaning on her mother, Katniss slowly made her way back to their bathroom, which was really just a curtained off corner of their only bedroom. Prim brought back the hot water, and her mother brought her a steaming cup of tea that she promised would help Katniss' headache, then they left her alone to bathe.

Katniss undressed slowly, every muscle in her body aching. She was relieved to find that Devin had only managed to cut one side of her panties and that otherwise they were intact. She hadn't been sure she could rely on her foggy memory, but it seemed Peeta really had come to her rescue before anything even worse could happen.

Peeta.

No, she couldn't think about that yet.

Instead she made an inventory of her injuries. Twisted ankle. She couldn't remember when that had happened—maybe when she had kicked Ryland off. Scraped knees and elbows. She couldn't see it, but her back felt scratched up, too. Her fingernails were dirty and broken, one torn almost completely off. That hurt pretty badly. Both of her wrists were badly bruised. Finally, she looked into the small mirror hanging on the wall to examine her face. One cheek was bright red from where Devin had twice slapped her, and the eye on that side was starting to blacken. A split lip and a large scrape on her forehead.

What a sight she was.

Looking away in disgust, she stepped into the large washtub and proceeded to scrub herself down. Twenty minutes later and an entire bar of soap later, she still didn't feel completely clean.

She felt dirty. Violated.

Here in relative privacy she finally let go, letting the tears flow freely. How could she have been so stupid? She never should have crossed the Meadow. She should have been paying closer attention to her surroundings. She should have run the second she saw them. She should have at least stood her ground after cutting Devin—maybe if she hadn't run they wouldn't have gone after her as hard as they had. And she had had a knife—maybe if she hadn't been such a coward she could have fought them off herself instead of having to be rescued like a stupid damsel in fucking distress.

This kind of thing was not supposed to happen. Not to her. Not to the girl who had been the head of her family since she was twelve. Who hunted and killed animals without a hint of remorse or pity. Who needed no one else to take care of her—she had always been able to take care of herself and her family all on her own. She was strong. Or at least she had thought she was. But somehow all of that felt like it had been taken away.

Katniss sat there until the water had gone cold and Prim came with a towel to coax her out.

000000000

Katniss spent the next three days in bed, hiding away from the world. She sent Prim to school and Sae's with the message that she was sick with the flu. She begged her mother to give her sleep syrup to help her escape her own thoughts, but Mrs. Everdeen refused. It wasn't safe, not with a concussion, so Katniss did her best to stay unconscious on her own.

Gale stopped by on Saturday, but she refused to see him, giving the excuse that she was still contagious. He left a bouquet of wildflowers behind.

Katniss couldn't stay asleep all the time, and when she was awake she couldn't help going over what had happened again and again. Mostly her thoughts centered on Peeta. She had so many questions. Why had he been there? Why had he intervened? He could have been seriously hurt. Had he told anybody what had happened? Her mother said he had been injured…was he okay?

He had left his jacket behind, and it hung on the chair in the kitchen, taunting her. She found herself in the middle of the night on Friday, holding it in her lap as she sat on the couch, thinking about the boy with the bread. This wasn't the first time he had saved her. When they were both eleven, he had given her two loaves of bread, saving her and her family from starvation. He had taken a beating to do this, despite the fact that he hadn't even known her.

It seemed she was always getting him hurt, and they had never even spoken.

Slowly she lifted the jacket to her face and inhaled. Cinnamon and flour and sugar. She smiled.

When she realized what she was doing, she threw the jacket down in embarrassment and went back to bed.

000000000

Katniss knew she had to return to her life, had to face people again. If she missed any more school, the Peacekeepers would come looking for her, and her family couldn't afford for her to miss any more work, either. She decided she would force herself out of the house on Monday.

Unfortunately, there was one thing she needed to do before she returned to school—she needed to see Peeta, to thank him. So on Sunday afternoon she got herself dressed in her usual pants and shirt, put on her boots and her father's old hunting jacket, braided her hair, gathered her courage, and headed out to the bakery in town. She made sure she left early so she would be able to get back before it turned dark.

When she got there she hesitated—should she go to the back like she usually did when she came there to trade? Or would it be more appropriate to go in the front for something like this?

Finally she decided to go around back as usual—there was much less chance of meeting the witch that way. Katniss really didn't think she could take an encounter like that right now—not in her current fragile state.

She climbed the steps and peeked through the screen door into the kitchen, and was relieved to see Mr. Mellark working there alone. It had been too much to hope for it just to be Peeta, but this was the next best thing. She knocked quietly on the frame of the door. The baker turned around at the sound and smiled broadly when he saw who it was.

"Katniss! How are you? Got any squirrels for me today?"

He walked over and opened the door, and froze when he saw her face.

"Hey, what happened to you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Katniss said, trying for a casual tone. "I'm just a klutz…tripped and ran into a tree. Can you believe it?"

She had rehearsed this story a few times in her head, and she thought she made it sound pretty good, but she wasn't sure the baker bought it. He didn't force the issue, though.

"Well, you need to be more careful," he said. "Can't go around messing up that pretty face of yours like that. Now, how about those squirrels?" He eyed her bag eagerly.

"Sorry, Mr. Mellark. I don't have any squirrels today. I was um…I was actually wondering if Peeta was here?"

The baker's smile grew even wider.

"Sure, he's just upstairs. Want to come in while I go get him?"

Katniss hesitated.

"No sir, thank you. I'll just wait out here if that's okay."

"Suit yourself. I'll send him out in a minute."

Katniss nodded her thanks and turned to walk back down the steps. She wandered back over by the same apple tree she had collapsed under that day so many years ago. She reached out to touch the trunk and the memories came rushing back.

A cold, wet, miserable day. The ache of an empty belly. The warm lights of the bakery, a harsh voice. Then Peeta, his face red and swollen on one side where his mother had hit him. The two loaves of bread that had almost burned her when she held them so close. The feeling of hope.

"Katniss?"

She turned to see Peeta coming out the door and hurrying over to her. She was shocked to see that he had a black eye to rival her own.

"Hey," he said. "How are you?"

"I'm okay," she said. "Looks worse than it is. How about you?"

"Looks worse than it is," he echoed her words and smiled. "I'm really glad you came—I've been worried. Prim said you were doing fine but it's nice to see you out and about again."

Katniss was having trouble meeting his eye—she couldn't help remembering the state of undress he had found her in.

"I had to come to say thank you," she said. "My Mom and Prim told me what you did. If you hadn't been there…"

"Katniss, you really don't have to…"

"No, please," she interrupted, determined. "If you hadn't been there, who knows what could have happened. So thank you."

Peeta shuffled his feet awkwardly before finally simply saying, "You're welcome."

Katniss nodded, relieved to have said what she came there to say.

"Why were you there?" she couldn't resist asking.

"Me? Oh, I just…I'd been having trouble sleeping. I was out walking when I heard you call for help."

"You went walking in the Seam in the middle of the night?" Katniss asked, doubtfully.

"Yeah, well, I guess I wasn't paying that much attention to where I was going," he answered.

"That's not safe, you know," she chided him.

"Yeah, I think I've figured that out, now," he smiled.

Katniss rolled her eyes. "Oh, I almost forgot. I brought your jacket back," she said and pulled it from her bag. "I hope you didn't get in trouble for not having it."

"Thanks," he said. "Don't worry, nobody noticed."

But Katniss was distracted—when he reached for the coat, she saw that his knuckles were bruised.

"Your hands!" she gasped, grabbing his hand to look closer.

"What? Oh, that," he said, glancing down unconcerned.

"Did this happen when…?"

"Yeah," Peeta met her eyes.

"And your eye," she whispered. "Oh, Peeta, I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry, Katniss," he said kindly. "It looks a lot worse than it feels, like you said. Besides, it was totally worth it. And you should see the other guys."

Katniss suddenly realized she was still holding Peeta's hand. She dropped it quickly and took a small step back, her face hot.

"What did you tell your parents?" she asked.

"Nothing—just that I'd fallen off my bike."

"I told your Dad I fell into a tree."

Peeta laughed. "We're a clumsy pair, I guess." Then suddenly he grew serious.

"Are you going to report them?"

"No, of course not," she said shortly.

"Why not? Those guys can't get away with this, Katniss."

She shook her head.

"You've got to be kidding. The word of one girl from the Seam against the word of two merchant's sons? No way."

"But I'm from town," he insisted. "If I told them what happened…"

"And what would that get you, Peeta?" she interrupted. "You'd become a pariah among your friends, siding with the Seam girl against your fellow townies."

"I don't care about that."

Katniss snorted.

"Spoken like a guy who's never been a pariah. Forget it, Peeta."

He sighed. "I figured you say that. But if it's any consolation, I don't think you need to worry about Devin and Ryland coming after you or anything."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Peeta said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Let's just say my brothers and I paid them a little visit yesterday and made them understand what would happen if they came near you again. They seemed to get the point."

Katniss just stared.

"You did what? Why did you do that?""

Peeta shrugged.

"I knew you wouldn't go to the Peacekeepers about it, and somebody had to do something."

Katniss closed her eyes. Why did this boy keep stepping into her life this way?

"I wish you hadn't done that," she said. "Now they're just as like to come after you instead."

"They can try," Peeta said with a hard glint in his blue eyes. "Honestly, I'd love to go another round with them."

Katniss decided she needed to change the subject.

"So does that mean your brothers know what happened? Who else knows?"

"No one," Peeta hastened to assure her. "I didn't tell anybody, not even my brothers. I just told them some guys had been harassing a friend of mine and they agreed to back me up."

Katniss eyed him carefully and decided he was telling the truth.

"Your brothers must be good men, to do that without even knowing the details."

"They are," Peeta said simply. Then, "Look, do you want to come in? I could get you something to drink…"

"No, thank you," she said. She had already stayed much longer than she had intended to. "I need to get back home. I just wanted to say thank you. I'll never be able to repay you for everything you've done."

She hoped he understood that she wasn't just talking about saving her from Devin and Ryland.

"You don't need to repay me for anything," he said.

Katniss just shrugged and turned to go. "Bye, Peeta."

She was almost around the corner of the bakery when he called out after her.

"Katniss?"

She turned around.

"What?"

"If you really want to repay me I know a way."

"How?"

"We could be friends, maybe."

She just smiled at him sadly.

"I thought you knew, Peeta," she said. "Seam and Town can't be friends."

She turned and walked away without waiting for his reaction.