Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games or The Vow
* I am so sorry that I haven't updated in forever! Ever since school started it's been hard keeping up with everything. But hey, if this chapter isn't as long as, or good as the others I'm really sorry! But I thought that I should update so you guys wouldn't think I gave up on the story! Well, I hope you like at and thank you soo much to everyone who followed and reviewed! It means more to me than you could ever know. *
Peeta's POV
It had officially been a month since Katniss had been taken into the healer, and to my dismay, Katniss had still not woken up. Vera had thought that she would wake up within a couple days, but sadly it has been a month and she has not shown any signs that she is going to wake up soon.
"I'm really sorry that this happened, Peeta." Fennel says sadly. I jump a little because I had not realized that she had been there. She chuckles. "And sorry I didn't properly announce my presence." She adds. I smile.
"It's alright. And it wasn't your fault, you have nothing to be sorry about." I tell her honestly. The people of District 12 had been very sympathetic when they found out about the situation. Some even offered gifts but I could never accept them. A few even claimed that they would hunt down the exact delivery truck that had caused her injury. But it wasn't their fault, nor was it Katniss' fault. I suppose it was merely the fault of bad timing.
"You know, I don't think you've moved from your spot on that chair since you came back from checking on Haymitch. I think you should go freshen up, get some exercise. I'll stay here and watch after her for you. I promise." Fennel said as she walked up to me so she could take my place in the chair beside Katniss' bed. But I hesitated. Wondering what could happen during my absence.
"But-" I began but she cuts me off.
"Peeta, have nothing to worry about. Her condition hasn't changed much in the past month. I don't think it'll change. And I'll inform you when you return if anything does change. But for now go on. I watched her last time too, remember?" She says. I nod and kiss Katniss' forehead before I leave. I know if I look back I'll change my mind, so I don't until I reach my house.
It hasn't changed since I last left when I found out she was in the care of the healers. I quickly took a shower and changed before I made my way to Haymitch's house.
As I walked, my pace slowed as I began to think more of her predicament. They said they were almost certain that she would wake up in less than a month. But there she is. Still as a rock aside from her breathing. I couldn't understand why she wouldn't wake up. But it's not her fault. And Vera had explained to me all she knew about Katniss' obvious injuries, but she said there was no way to know how her brain was taking in everything. I sighed, hoping it wouldn't take long from now until she woke up.
I entered Haymitch's house and went in search of him.
I found him sleeping in his living room on the couch. I approached him cautiously and shook him awake.
He groaned and looked at me. "What do you want, boy? Can't you see I'm trying to sleep." He says bitterly, but I ignore it.
"Calm yourself. I just came to check up on you before I went back to the healers." I tell him and his expression immediately softens.
"She's still out?" He says more as a statement than a question, and I nod. "Didn't they say she'd be awake in a month? How long's it been?" He asks.
"A month. But they weren't sure themselves when they said that." I try to explain but he just huffs.
"Never thought I'd say this but I'm starting to miss the little brat. And I'm worried about how bad these little injuries were." He says.
"Me too. But we just have to hope for the best, right?" I say. He looks me in the eye for a long time before nodding. "Well I guess I'll check up on you next week. I'll see you then Haymitch." I say and leave.
I continue my walk back to the healers office and decide that I will visit Haymitch once a week.
When I get there, Fennel is watching Katniss intently. Studying her condition when I say hi.
She looks at me and smiles. "Glad to see you're back, and nothings changed." She informs me as she gets up from the chair and makes her way out of the room.
"Thank you for watching her. And I think I'll need you to watch her once a week now. So I can check on Haymitch?" I ask and she nods.
"That's good. Just tell Vera when you need me." She says. And with that, she exits the room leaving me and Katniss as usual. I turn to her and lace my fingers in her hand.
"I'm sorry if my leaving bothered you. And I hope you won't mind me visiting Haymitch once a week now. I just want to make sure he's okay. I know he's worried about you too. I can see it in his eyes. Believe it or not he even admitted to missing you today. That's a once in a lifetime thing there, Katniss. Could you please come back to us?" I say.
I look for any sign of response but as usual, there is none. But the sight of her rising and falling chest is enough for me. She's alive and breathing. That's the least I could ask for. I kiss the back of her hand and settle for the rest of the day.
The next week, I inform Vera that I would be heading out to visit Haymitch. Fennel comes as soon as Vera leaves.
"I see you're going out again? Vera told me to tell you that Katniss is doing excellent and you have nothing to worry about while you're gone." She tells me and I give her a smile.
"Thank you in advance for accepting to do this. I just think Haymitch would benefit from me visiting him. I've been kind of ignoring him since Katniss has been in your care. I completely trust you guys with her, but I guess I'm just too worried or excited to be here if she wakes up." I tell her and she smiles.
"It's natural for someone to be like that when someone they love is hurt, and I know for sure Katniss would have the same reaction if you were in her place. I can even say she'd be worse to deal with. She's a stubborn one, but only because she cares. And you don't have to worry about her waking up when you're gone. You'll only ever leave for one day each week, and even then you won't be gone for more than 4 hours. So go ahead. I'll see you later. " Fennel says, and I say goodbye.
I make my way to my house for a quick shower and clothes change before I go to visit Haymitch.
Like last time, I find him in the same position. Knocked out on his couch. I decide to leave him be and bake some bread for when he wakes up. I go to my house for supplies and return to his to start making my bread. Maybe I'll make him some stew while I'm at it.
Haymitch wakes up almost as soon as I'm done making him his dinner, he'd been asleep the entire time.
"What are you doing here, boy?" He asks as I set the table and clean it of anything he had on it.
"I made you dinner. So eat." I tell him and he does as told. I serve us and take a seat myself.
"So how's Katniss? Any improvement?" He asks and I finish what I was chewing before I respond.
"There's no need for improvement. She's perfectly fine, we're just waiting for her to wake up." I tell him and watch as he takes in the information.
"She's gonna wake up soon. I know it. We just need to wait until the day her stubborn ass decides to wake up." He says and laughs but I shoot him a serious look and he stops.
"This isn't her fault. And we both know that this is no laughing matter. For all we know, she's in serious pain or worse and we can't help her because she's asleep. For all we know, she's trapped into that sleep and she's trying to wake up. But she can't.." I say in her defense, but my voice cracks in my last sentence. I place my spoon down because I'm deforming it with my hard grip on it and place my head down on the table.
I hear Haymitch sigh. "I'm just trying to lighten you up, you've been so stressed since the accident. But you of all people know that this is no one's fault. And no matter what's going on in her brain as she is now, she will fight her way through it and come back to us. Come back to you." He says and then I think he goes back to eating because every now and then I hear the clink of a spoon against a bowl.
I finally raise my head when I'm certain I've calmed myself. And I see Haymitch staring at me. So I compose myself.
"I know. But I'm just so worried about her. And after what you told me, it just caused me to worry even more. About what might happen when she wakes up." I tell him.
"She'll be fine. Now why don't we play a game of cards or something before you go back to our little princess." Is all he says. And we do just as he suggests before I leave. He's very good at each and every game with coming up with a good strategy. I even joked of him cheating because he used to be a mentor. My particular favorite part though was when he had drank a bit and got confused so he threw a fit. I was particularly content when I returned to Katniss and proceeded to tell her about my day.
The following week I did the same as the last, said my goodbye to Katniss and left to freshen up and visit Haymitch. Playing cards with him was my new favorite thing to do with him. Watching him try to play after he drank was always the highlight of the visits though. He always got frustrated by the way I could outsmart him easily.
Fennel even stayed to hear me tell Katniss about my time with Haymitch and she was proud that she forced me into going out two weeks earlier.
"I told you it was a good idea." She told me and I just smiled.
"Yeah, you should try hanging out with him sometime. He's annoying but quite fun to be around." I told her, but she just wrinkled her nose and said 'no thank you'.
Fennel was already waiting when I woke up the third week.
"Ready to go? I've been waiting for half an hour and my legs are tired. And that chair looks pretty comfortable." She says when I wake up. I stretch and get up for her to take my seat.
"Whew. Thank you. Good morning and goodbye. I'll see you later and will be ready for story time later." She says with a laugh and I smile.
"I'll see you later, Fennel." I say and leave. I think Haymitch enjoys my visits. And Fennel obviously enjoys hearing me tell of my visits when I tell them to Katniss.
I go home and take my usual shower and change my clothing before I go to Haymitch's. I'm surprised when I find him awake drinking his liquor.
"Why are you up so early?" I joke and he chuckles.
"Thought I'd help you prepare the meal for once." He tells at me and I jokingly act astonished.
"You mean you're actually going to help me cook. Not just stand around and comment on everything?" I ask, because he had once before tried to 'help' cook but all he did was talk and ask about almost everything. Not that I minded.
"Shut up before I change my mind and go back to sleep." He warns and I laugh and begin to tell him about the ingredients so he can properly help.
He was quick to learn, and that was good. I half expected him to give up and go back to his liquor. Well, he did still drink, but he continued helping until the meal was all set.
"Looks like you did a pretty good job here, Haymitch." I said and he smirked.
"Yeah, let's just eat. I need to show you the proper way to win in a card game next." He said and began to eat.
"Whatever you say. But I beat you a couple times last week. And don't say you don't remember because you threw a liquor bottle at me." I tell him with a laugh.
"The only reason you beat me was because I was drunk. But when I'm not, I can beat you every single time."He tells me. And I have to admit, he wasn't on the sober side when I beat him. But at least I did.
After we finished eating, I washed and put away the dishes before I went to the living room with Haymitch to continue our game of cards.
When Haymitch and I had played multiple games and he was too drunk to continue, I helped him get to bed before I left.
"See you next week, Haymitch. You better be ready to lose too. I think I'm starting to get good at this." I told him before I left but he laughed.
"I'd love to see you try. Again." He added before I finally left.
I walked happily back to the hospital, ready to tell Katniss and Fennel too about how it was with Haymitch. I bet even Fennel will be surprised to hear that Haymitch actually helped cook the meal and it didn't even taste bad.
When I got there, I thought something was off. Vera was usually waiting for me, but then I thought that there could be a new person in need of care and brushed it off.
But as I neared Katniss' room, I could hear someone crying, sobbing. And it didn't take me long to figure out who it was. I could recognize her cries from when she had nightmares. But only these cries were different.
She wasn't crying from nightmares, something else was making her cry and I would soon find out why. I don't know whether to be overjoyed or worried because I'm happy that she's awake but I don't like that she's crying.
I get to her room quickly and see Vera, Fennel, and a couple others surrounding her bed. I couldn't see her behind them, but I knew she was there by her cries.
Katniss hadn't sobbed like that in a long time and I needed to know why, I tried to call Fennel's name but she wouldn't answer. I didn't even try with Vera because if Fennel, just an assistant healer didn't answer, than certainly the head healer wouldn't answer.
"Katniss?" I called but she didn't answer, I still couldn't see her. So she probably can't see me either.
"Katniss!" I called louder but then Vera whispered something to Fennel and Fennel turned my way and started walking towards me, I took the opportunity to try and catch a glance at Katniss. And I saw her. But her face was red and she was holding her head in pain, she wouldn't let anyone touch her. But then Fennel got in front of me.
"What's wrong? What happened?" I asked her. Katniss was perfectly fine and still asleep when I left.
"She woke up. I tried to talk to her but when she saw me she looked confused. Then she tried to get up, but she started crying and holding her head. It wasn't long ago. But she won't stop crying and she won't let us give her anything to help with the pain. If any of us even tries to touch her, she either hits back or kicks. She sure is a fighter." Fennel tells me.
"But why? She knows you all, Katniss would only resist treatment from people she doesn't know or trust." I tell her and then it hits me.
"Fennel?" I ask and she nods.
"Is it possible that she doesn't.. doesn't remember you?" I ask. Fennel looks confused at first, but as the realization of my question sit in, her face turns pale and she goes back to Vera.
I watch Fennel say something as Vera's eyes widen and she says something to the others. They all pull away to watch her and Katniss stops trying to attack them and instead just rocks back in forth with her head in her hands.
Finally I watch as Vera carefully walks up to Katniss and before she realizes Vera is there, Vera injects something into her neck. And I watch as Katniss slowly stops moving and she falls back onto the bed, once again asleep.
I know it's been forever! But now that I'm on break from school, I thought it would be a good idea to catch up on my writing. If you have any questions, be sure to PM me! Hope you liked this chapter and reviews are always welcomed! Byeee!
Xoxo,
Daisy