The next morning Ivy wakes me up from a nightmare. She looks concerned but I instantly feel better knowing it was all a dream. She kisses me and I kiss her back. She looks at me questioning my nightmare.

"You don't want to know" is all I can muster to say. I lean into kiss her and I want to make love to her again. I roll over her, pinning her below me. I sit up and I see Haymitch from my window. He's leaving his house and heading towards mine.

"Shit! Ivy quick, get dressed and run downstairs. Pretend you were sleeping with everyone downstairs." Ivy looks out the window and sees Haymitch coming towards my house. She gets up and puts her clothes on in record time. She's out of my room in only a few seconds. I sit up, put my prosthetic on, run to the bathroom and clean myself up as best as I can. I splash water on my face making sure I wash off any traces of Ivy. I clean my groin, and throw on a fresh pair of underwear. I put on my pajama pants and t-shirt then race downstairs. Just as I'm coming down my kitchen stairs, Haymitch opens up my back door. Ivy must have locked the front door. Good thinking on her part. I look surprised to see him.

"Good morning. You're up early" I say surprised.

"You're not." As he suspiciously looks me up and down. I look at the clock and he's right it's nine in the morning. I'm usually up a lot earlier baking.

"I guess I was able to sleep in. I had company over last night." I point towards the living room. Haymitch looks surprised and he peeks into the living room. I look after him and the gang is passed out on my sofas. Ivy is even cuddling with Delly, you'd think she was there all night. I smile.

"I guess I should have known you weren't going to be a hermit like me and sunshine."

I laugh. "I guess not."

Haymitch puts his hand on my shoulder "I'm glad you have this and that you can do this, return to some normalcy. When I won, two weeks after I returned, half the people I cared about were taken from me."

I shudder and suddenly feel freezing cold. I stare into the living room and look at my friends, I look at Ivy and I feel terrified.

"But you're ok." He pets me on my shoulder. I feel some relief because if I'm deceiving Haymitch, I must be doing a good job.

I change the subject because I don't want to think about it. "Sorry Haymitch, I don't have any fresh bread yet but I do have some stuff from yesterday." I make him a cup of coffee and cut up some muffins. I pour myself a cup of coffee to make him think I need it.

"Who are your friends?" he asks.

"My best friends. Nathan and Silas wrestle with me. Delly and I grew up together, she was my next door neighbor. She's the closest thing I have to a sister. The redhead is Ivy and you must know Madge, the mayor's daughter."

He nods. " I know Madge. I've seen the redhead before. Pretty girl." He eyes me curiously. I look at him without blinking. "Did you know she is a prostitute?"

I flush in anger but keep calm and force myself to be rational "She used to be a prostitute. Her father forced her."

"I knew that. Her father offered her to me once" I look horrified at him. " I knocked him out. That bastard is quite possibly worse than Snow. If your friend managed to get away from under his control bravo to her. Normally I would tell you to keep your distance from any district trouble like that but if ever you want to help her out, I'll back you one hundred percent."

I nod. "Thank you."

"Good morning." I'm startled to see Ivy staring in on us. Haymitch looks up to meet her eyes. Ivy boldly stares back at him with her usual demeanor, she clearly overheard but is not about to show a single trace of emotional response. Ivy has only broken down over those days in my arms, with everyone else, her surviving those days is like a badge of honor. It's strange to see Haymitch share space with Ivy. I never thought that would happen. I smile to myself because I never realized that if anyone can hold their own with Haymitch, Ivy would be it. She walks across the kitchen and purposefully sits across from Haymitch not trailing her eyes away from his, like everyone else in this town does. "Thank you for helping bring Peeta back to us." Haymitch nods.

With that he takes a big swig of his coffee. Then I hear everyone moving around in the living room and the rest of the gang walks in. Haymitch looks up to see all of them and he looks uncharacteristically nervous. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his flask. I realize that this is probably as sober as they have ever seen him.

"Hi Mr. Haymitch" Delly chirps in her usual peppy nature. I smile when I see Haymitch jump at her voice. Silas walks towards the chair next to Haymitch and sits next to him. He pulls out his flask to take a swig from it. Haymitch looks disapprovingly at him.

"Isn't it a little too early for you to be drinking?" He says.

"What about you?" Silas retorts.

"I said it's a too early for YOU, not me." Haymitch responds as he stares at the flask Silas holds. Suddenly, I tense up and look at Nathan. Silas stole that flask from Haymitch's house when we broke into his house all those years ago. "I had a flask just like that."

Silas tenses but recovers quickly "No kidding, I bought it at the hob."

Haymitch nods wondering, and I can only imagine that he's probably thinking he dropped it there long ago. Silas, Nathan and I start to laugh out loud. He looks at us and stands up "thanks for the muffins boy. You all be good. If you are going to be around Peeta it's important that you do nothing that can get him unnecessary attention." They all nod. He's about to walk out when Ivy stops him on his track.

"Thank you for not taking up my father's offer." Says Ivy. Haymitch stops and turns his head with wide eyes to look at her.

"I would never."

Ivy nods at him and he turns around, closing the door behind him.

Then the usual easy banter continues among my friends. I get that disconnected sensation again, like I'm on the outside looking in. I'm assessing the scene in every way possible making sure that it's not suspicious. Assessing every word that comes out of their mouths and I carefully study everything that comes out of my mouth. No need to pull the ears out of the kitchen at the moment. We are just a handful of District 12 adolescents hanging out; no one would even think there is a Victor among us.