'Effie and Haymitch's marriage doesn't really differ from any other seven years long marriage. They got together young and stayed together through both worse and better, and now they're slowly drifting apart. And like all married people, they have their secrets, and it turns out they might not know each other as well as they thought - at all. | Hayffie Mr. & Mrs. Smith AU'

Disclaimer: All characters except for the original ones belong to Suzanne Collins. Unfortunately.


Chapter IV.

i.

There weren't many skyscrapers in Richmond - there were high-rise buildings, but it was no New York. The scraps of memories Haymitch had from his childhood in a small town with a good view of the state's capital's downtown, the city had only become so modern-looking in the past few years. There were parts of Richmond he had, for whatever reasons, never been to, and the new shopping area was one of them, the very same area where the new hotel from Herrera's complex was being opened, right in front of the skyscraper which's stairs he was just taking with Chaff and Beetee, who was in a way worse physical condition than his two companions and was panting hard while clutching his technical equipments to his chest, following him closely.

They got to the very top of the building where you couldn't get by elevator, to the door that led to the rooftop. Haymitch pulled out a knife and quickly forced the lock open, and held the door for Beetee and Chaff to go first, then shut it behind himself as he ran out into the cold autumn night air.

"Fucking stairs," moaned Chaff and fell on his knees ponderously. Beetee, totally out of breath, was still struggling to catch it as he took place in front of him and started putting together the pieces of his mysterious device, his own invention.

"Is it gonna work?" asked Haymitch and adjusted the beanie on his head. He checked the time and then crouched next to Chaff, nodding towards the weird combination of tablet screens, wires and aerials on the ground in front of them.

Beetee pushed the glasses up on his nose and wiped his forehead. "It should," he answered breathlessly. "It worked in ten cases."

"Ten?"

"Out of twenty." He smiled, but his face was concentrated. "So, it's fifty-fifty. Now move, you're blocking the waves."

Haymitch rolled his eyes but did move a bit, lied down on his stomach and brought out his field-glasses. He scanned the scene down in front of him. He had never heard of this Bernath Herrera, but there were enough people down in the street to make it seem like he was an interesting personality. The hotel looked quite nice from the outside - it wasn't the tallest building he had ever seen, but it gave off a majestic vibe, made out of white bricks, with exotic flowers framing the windows and golden details, including the huge Herrera and the five stars above the main entrance. There were people in tuxes and in long evening gowns, and despite his life-long distaste towards so obviously rich, obviously posh people, he had to admit that it looked pretty.

However, the owner was apparently quite a pain in the ass for some people. As for him, Haymitch checked the time again. The main event starts at seven, so he had about twenty minutes to arrive. Maybe they should have given themselves a bigger window in case the original plan fails, but he trusted Beetee. Johanna nicknamed him Volts and often claimed he was nuts, but it always shut her up when he came up with some last resort idea that would save everyone's asses. There was some half-cooked stuff like this thing he finally managed to compose - it was supposed to catch the waves of CAPITOL's agents' chips they all had on them that served as trackers. That way, they would be able to locate them. Or something like that, beacause as usual, nobody except him knew exactly what he was doing.

"I've got it!"

"Yeah?" Haymitch got up and walked to the other two men with genuine curiosity.

"Yes, it's working, look-" Beetee held up his laptop that was showing a tangle of colorful lines, like on the devices in hospital that monitor your heartbeat. Haymitch wasn't any wiser from looking at it, but he proudly patted his friend's arm, anyway.

Chaff beamed at him, too. "Awesome! Now, where are those assholes?"

Beetee placed the laptop back on his lap, frowned and typed something. "I'm working on it. They're somewhere around here, wait... the coordinates..." he was typing frantically while scrolling on his tablet that was showing the 3D map of the city. Suddenly, he stopped and his face darkened. "Well, this is... unpleasant."

"What?" Haymitch looked at the tablet and his own high spirits fell. He shot a look towards the neighboring skyscraper, a department store named Kendals. The name made in big fluorescent letters was proudly shining from the rooftop. "No way."

"Are they fucking taping us?" Chaff loured. "How come they knew-"

"Maybe they didn't." Beetee shrugged. "Maybe this is just a big, messed up coincidence. We can be glad we didn't all meet up here."

Haymitch looked through his field-glasses again. They may have been inside the building, but he felt better checking the rooftop first - and could congratulate himself for it. His nightvision caught a movement - he was sure it was them. They were walking out of the coop on top of the building.

"I see them," he muttered, and the rustle by his side let him know Chaff was taking out weapons. "Where's Herrera?"

"At the airport," was Beetee's reply. "Quickly, just finish this."

"Fine." Haymitch went down on one knee and took the machine gun Chaff was handing him. He looked through the gunsight, also equipped with night vision. It took him a while to actually see anything, though - the people were dressed in black and hidden behind one of the tall letters. You wouldn't see them from the ground and it was difficult to see them from the place Haymitch was. "How many?"

"There should be two."

He nodded to himself - that would agree. The people were had their own field-glasses on them and with hoods over their heads - but the glimpse of long blonde hair of one of them surprised him. Chaff saw it, too. "I think they're chicks."

Haymitch didn't like crossing his paths with women in this field. They were unpredictable - they were deadly, and he hated having to get all rough with them, even though he knew they'd snap his neck and so much more otherwise, so he was quite immune to that by now. Back in his FBI days, a girl stabbed him in his stomach, then cut it open - he could see his intestines. It took him two months of bed rest and painful sobriety to get well. Women were trouble. He could vouch for that - he had one at home.

"Let's just make this quick," he decided and looked through the gunsight again, targetting the one with the blonde hair. He tried to zoom a little better, but he couldn't see her face - and that was probably for the better. There were few things worse than having to look into the face of someone whose life you were about to take away. It was something he had learned the hard way, a lesson he took from both nights of insomnia and of nights haunted by the visions of faces in their last moments of being human, living, breathing. Murder was still murder, but it was easier to pull the trigger when the person in front of you didn't really seem like a person and more like some abstract pattern.

"I'll do the other one," said Chaff and dropped down next to him.

They targeted them carefully, Chaff slowly counting out loud from five to zero, and he was on three when the blonde woman in front of Haymitch's focus took off the glasses and her hood fell back a little, revealing her whole face and her wavy tresses, and then there was one when she moved so unfortunately he did get to see her face properly, and he almost had a heart attack when she looked up, even from all this distance he recognized that face, he'd always recognize it - he'd spent too many hours looking at it in the pale moonlight in their bedroom when she was asleep and he was too scared to close his eyes in case he missed something about her - and then there was zero, the finger on the trigger just didn't seem to be cooperating, and he heard a noise and saw the other woman fall to the ground. Suddenly, he wasn't looking at them anymore, he was jumping out of the way of a bullet that came from the other side, one that would have gone straight through Chaff's stomach had it not been for his bullet-proof vest.

"What the fuck?" yelled Chaff and covered his head with his arms when he fell down and rolled on his stomach. "Why didn't you shoot-"

Haymitch looked over his shoulder from the same position as Chaff on the ground. "We have to get out of here-"

"Yeah, you don't say!"

His eyes shot up to see how his friends were doing - Beetee was lying on his device to shield it with his own body and Chaff was unloading his gun.

"Don't!" he snarled at him.

Chaff narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean, don't?"

"Just don't," Haymitch got off the ground and, slowly gathering all his strength and common sense, helped Chaff back to his feet.

"What was that?" Chaff growled at his friend again.

"I don't know," he replied honestly, head spinning.

"They're calling it off," Beetee interrupted him, listening to someone talking in his earpiece. "The mission is cancelled. We missed him."

"Shit," Haymitch's riffle fell uselessly to the ground.

Beetee eyed the both of them, scowling at Haymitch. "What is going on?"

Haymitch shook his head dismissively. It was spinning and he just wanted a fucking drink. "I'll tell you later. Let's go back."

Chaff was frowning at him deeply when he walked past him towards the door leading back to the inside of the building. Beetee quickly got off the ground, gathered his stuff and gifted Haymitch with a vacant look before following Chaff's example.

ii.

Effie liked everything well-planned. All of her missions were always neatly lined up, with exact information and everything properly organized. And people around her knew it and never dared to protest or go against her design - because there were few things that could set her off as well as unpredicted changes of plans.

They had a good plan. They had a good place, too. The rooftop of Kendals provided them with both a great view and somewhat a great hiding spot, particularly the coop where they put their equipments and didn't have to stand outside in the cold. Effie hated autumn, she hated dark and she hated surprises.

"He's coming." Portia was sitting opposite her, laptop on her lap, typing something. "We've got about two minutes. We'll only have one opportunity."

"It will be fine," said Effie and unlocked the tablet with the map of the town. Cinna, who was monitoring the situation from the headquarters, sent her the coordinates of the airport. She quickly saved them into her report and then assigned the tablet to show her the surroundings. The view of twelve small screens appeared, a camera system they had previously put on. Everything seemed to be working well. She smiled to herself and stretched contently. "I can't wait to take a hot bath."

Portia scowled to herself and pulled up her black turtleneck. "I can't wait to get someplace where it isn't freezing. We should have brought heating along."

Effie smiled again and got up. "I'll take a look outside."

She opened the door of the coop and walked out, then sat down with her back against the wall. The hotel looked beautiful - a place she'd surely love to stay at, if she wasn't about to kill its owner. There was a lot of light pollution but the sky was starry, it was nice, because the last few days have been depressingly dark and hazy. Maybe the weather would be better tomorrow...

Her eyes fell to her wedding ring. It was a two-tone gold with a thin stripe of diamonds. She loved it, it was the most beautiful piece of jewerly she's ever seen and she remembered how excited she was when he bought it at that small Las Vegas jeweller's. The ring on her middle finger was the engagement ring that used to belong to Haymitch's mother. He gave it to her when they got back from their honeymoon, and he was so insecure about it. She knew that he grew up in rather poor conditions, his father was a miner and died when Haymitch was really young, and his mother was a seamstress with several other part-time jobs. This ring wasn't anything like Effie's, but he still wanted her to have it, and she genuinely liked it. Just a plain silver band that she wore next to her own golden one everyday, like a metaphor for their worlds, and often looked at it when she felt like she didn't understand anything anymore.

Effie took both of the rings off and hid them in the small inside pocket of her black leather jacket.

Suddenly, Portia opened the door violently.

"I think I saw someone," she told Effie and dropped on her stomach with her field-glasses. Effie followed her example.

"What?"

"On the rooftop. Somebody is there. And they have guns. They're targeting us."

She turned on the nightvision mode and zoomed better in the direction where Portia was pointing - and a bad feeling chlenched her stomach. "Do you think it's them again?" Her blood began to boil in her veins at them mere thought of that.

Portia shook her head unhappily. "It's possible."

"Bastards," Effie hissed and got up. Portia did, too, and they went back into the coop, quickly gathering their guns, and then ran out again.

Effie took off her nightvision glasses, exposing her face for a split of a second, and before her and Portia managed to target them and figure out what was even going on, Portia fell to the ground with a painful hiss. Effie reacted automatically - she jumped down, unloaded her gun and pulled the trigger. She got one of them - probably the one who shot at Portia. Then, through the rifle's gunsight, she saw him, one of the two other men, he was lying on the ground and moved so unfortunately that when he looked over his shoulder, she saw his face, and it was just a glimpse but it was enough for her to nearly fell off the edge of the roof. She stopped the gunfire and grabbed her field-glasses again.

They were getting up and she could now only see their backs - they were leaving without even shooting at them again. What was that? She was almost sure both her eyes and mind have completely betrayed her just seconds ago. Too shook to think staright, she remembered Portia.

She was already getting up, nearly unharmed thanks to the bullet-proof vest.

"Are you okay?" Effie asked and gripped her arm.

"Yes, I'm fine-" Portia let Effie help her to her feet and looked through her gunsight. They were already gone. "Where are they?"

Before Effie managed to answer, Portia's phone buzzed. She brought it out of her pocket and took the call. "Cinna?"

"Are you two okay?" Cinna's low voice wafted through the speakers.

"More or less," said Portia, "do you know what the hell was that?"

"No, but I know this - they're calling off the mission."

"What?" Effie frowned. "Why?"

"You missed him."

Effie whispered a curse and Portia shook her head in disbelief. "Are you serious?"

"You have to get out of there, they're all after you now," said Cinna and ended the call.

Effie still stared at the phone blankly, feeling sick from the stomach and dizzy all of a sudden. Portia nudged her with her elbow. "Effie?"

"It's fine," she replied absent-mindedly, "we have to go."

iii.

The white van stopped abruptly and parked by the sidewalk. Chaff looked over his shoulder from behind the steering wheel at Beetee and Haymitch, who were sitting in front of each other in the back of the van, Beetee's eyes fully focused on his laptop.

"What the hell?" Chaff climbed over to join them and slouched down next to Beetee.

"The trackers are still working," remarked the scientist and showed them the map, the two red dots representing the CAPITOL agents. "We can see where they're going."

Haymitch moved over to them to take a look. Whatever he saw on that roof left him scared shitless. He knew that something was wrong - there were nightmares, tremors, depressive moods and bad habits in general, like skipping meals or forgetting showers. It was bad, but hallucinations? He had never had those before and honestly, this fucked him up like nothing else has. Whatever he saw, it was just his tortured mind playing tricks on him. And still, if anyone asked him at gunpoint, he'd stand behind it - it was positively and undoubtly Effie he saw back there.

He knew Chaff was watching him, so he just moved his head slightly in a not now manner and focused on the screen.

"Looks like they're going to the City Circle," Beetee remarked.

"What would they be doing at City Circle?" Chaff raised his brow. "There are just offices."

The bad gut feeling Haymitch had, that strident stabbing in his stomach, had only gotten worse. City Circle... offices. They all realized it at the same time.

"Their headquarters," he said and Beetee nodded.

Chaff snorted. "After years and years of looking for them..."

"We don't know for sure," reminded him Beetee. The dots were still moving and they the three of them were just dumbly watching them.

"Should we go after them?"

"No, that's a bad idea," said Haymitch slowly, "we should go back. Coin's gonna gut someone, anyway."

"And that someone is gonna be you," mocked Chaff. "Did you lose your mind? We could have-"

"Shut up, Chaff," Haymitch gritted through his teeth. "If you listened to me and didn't shoot, either-"

Beetee interrupted them. "They're parking."

Haymitch took a look at the screen, and that horrible feeling was now spreading from his stomach to his chest where his heart sunk, and from chest to his limbs that became numb and limp, and then further to his throat that clenched and to his head that was left completely blank. He heard their voices but he didn't know what they were saying, because he could only think about the adress that was written on the screen in front of him. City Circle 112, Richmond, Virginia. Building he knew very well, because he had dropped her off and picked her up there countless times over the course of the past seven years. It was nothing but an office building, part of it was rented to a software agency, part of it to the management company that she was working for. The air wasn't coming to him. Capitol Management. CAPITOL. Roof. Effie.

That couldn't be real. This was the worst bad coincidence ever. Wrong place, wrong timing... stressed people see things they shouldn't be seeing.

And still, if you asked him with a barell pressed to his temple - he'd tell you it was her.

That was when it started making sense, while making no sense at all.

iv.

"I can't believe it!" Effie stormed through the rotating door, trembling with rage. She was in that state when she was mad at everything in the world, and the most at herself. How could she be so stupid? She was a professional. Never in her career had she made a mistake like this. That's not what they train you for at CAPITOL - there is no time for mistakes there. They train you for precision, for clean cuts and quiet solutions. They don't train you so you let a whole group of rivals who were shooting at you just seconds ago go without a fuss because your overwrought, silly brain makes you see things that aren't there. There was no place in hell she'd admit it out loud to anyone, though. She had no idea why something like this had to happen at the worst time possible.

Cinna looked over when her and Portia walked into the spacey meeting hall. CAPITOL's headquarters were located in the highest floor of one of the City Circle office buildings and it was a modern, airy place with the newest technical equipment, white-painted walls, fancy decors and huge windows always covered with white sunblinds, sunglight replaced by sharp white lights in the form of huge round neoteric-looking chandeliers. He was sitting on the dark purple sofa in the center of the room with a tablet and when he saw them coming, he stood up and greeted them, his handsome face tense with concern.

"Are you alright?"

Portia nodded and let him wrap his arms around her briefly. The bullet didn't even touch her - it was aimed straight at her heart, but she had a good bullet-proof vest. Cinna helped designing and developing those. "I'm fine," she reassured him and kissed his cheek.

"Effie?" Cinna looked at her with burrowed eyebrows.

"I'm furious," she replied and headed to one of the asymetrical desks, slumped down at the chair and logged into her account on the computer. "Could you please give me my rifle?"

Someone handed it to her wordlessly and she took it and connected it to the computer. Effie typed a password and the the two softwares allied and the recording from the gunsight started downloading. She did the same thing with another cable and her field-glasses. While it was loading, she got up and went to the minibar, brought out a bottle of Evian and took several proper gulps. That was it, she mused, she was dehydrated and tired. She pushed buttons on the coffee automat and went back to the desk. The recordings were almost loaded.

Portia and Cinna brought themselves chairs and stared at the screen when Effie sat down and started tapping at the desk with her long nails impatiently. The second video, the recording from the field-glasses, downloaded first and she opened it while her heart was racing and she was so annoyed as she didn't know how to calm it down. She was afraid of what she would see - in the end, she wouldn't see much.

"That's them?" asked Cinna.

"Yes," Portia nodded and pointed at one of them. "This one shot at us."

"I took him down," said Effie, "I should have aimed for his head."

The video was shaky and blurry and the nightvision mode wasn't helpful. It ended after a few seconds and Effie closed it. Meanwhle, the first one finally loaded. Her fingers were shaking when she opened it and Cinna noticed, placing his palm over her hand. "Are you sure you're fine?"

"Of course," she insisted, but it wasn't the most convincing thing that's ever left her mouth. She was aware of them exchanging shady looks, but left them to it and clicked at the play button.

At first, the recording was absolutely useless - she couldn't make anything out of it. It was when she fell... then she shot at one of them. Into his stomach - yes, it was a good shot, but she should have gone for the head, that's always certain. That was when she was getting up... she was looking at the other two, they were all lying on the ground - one of them was lying on something that looked like an old television, for some reason shielding it instead of himself, but she wasn't shooting anymore, she was looking at the man between them... he was wearing all black, including a black beanie, but then he moved a bit and raised himself on his forearms, looked over his shoulder...

She inhaled sharply and Cinna and Portia, deep in their conversation about Portia's vest, glanced at her as she startled them. "What's that?"

It took Effie a few seconds to recover. She heard the automat's notification sound and the only thing that came to her mind was to ask them to go get her the coffee. It was Portia who got up, but Effie needed a moment alone. She had to look at it again. "Cinna, could you please go get me my flashdisc? Portia knows where it is."

Both Cinna and Portia must have been confused, but did what she asked of them without protests and when she didn't feel their presence in the room anymore, she replayed the video, running out of oxygen since she was holding her breath. She shot the one who fired at Portia - they all jumped to the ground - there were shaky movements as she adjusted her gunsight - the man in the beanie was lying on his stomach, then he looked over his shoulder-

Effie gasped again and replayed it once more, then, when it came to the sequence of him turning his head, she stopped it - it wasn't the most reliable image, they weren't using some IMAX cameras after all, but... she finally breathed out and gripped the edge of the desk. She moved closer to the screen... so close her eyes were hurting because of the brightness... she touched the screen as she studied the picture...

That couldn't be right. She was simply refusing to believe it. Who she was looking at was scarily resembling Haymitch - it was insane, but when she was looking at that video, she saw it quite clearly. She kept studying the video - it looked like him from the profile and also when he looked over his shoulder, that way, he was basically looking at the spot she was standing at... it even looked like him from the back, too, now that she almost convinced herself it was him.

She pulled back, got up and started breathing deeply. She was just tired and she was dealing with so much bullshit concerning Haymitch lately, it was probably just her mind warning her that she might need a bit of a break from everything. Yes, talking herself into that was easy when she thought she saw something she didn't see once, but now? Effie leant against the table and closed her eyes. When she felt like she was ready, she looked at the video again, once more stopping it in the moment when his face could be best seen...

"Oh my god," she whispered. "God..."

The world was spinning with her. Here, on the big screen right in front of her, she had an undeniable proof that she maybe wasn't crazy, but if that was truly the case, that could only mean one thing she wasn't able to understand yet.

"Effie?" Portia walked into the hall with the wireless landline phone's handset in her hand. "It's Haymitch. He says you aren't picking up - he just landed from New York. He'll be home at nine."

Effie hastily closed the video and turned around, forcing a smile on her lips. "Oh, that's great!" she disclaimed, trying to tame the trembling in her voice. "That's awesome, tell him... tell him I'll meet him there. And could you please bring me the flashdisc?"

"Okay." Her friend gave her a suspicious look and went back into her office. Effie collapsed onto the chair and gave herself a few minutes off. Just to catch her breath... and let herself process it.

Just twenty minutes ago, she had fired at her husband, who was supposed to be lecturing at University of Columbia but for some reason happened to be at the rooftop of a department store, while one of his friends was shooting at them. They were... following her? Did he know about all of this?

Then it hit her. PANEM.

Haymitch.

She closed her eyes.

How could it be? What kind of hellish coincidence would this have to be? It was just her paranoid conception...

And maybe it was but... what else could be the explanation?

Effie took a deep breath and cleared her throat, forcing herself back into her professional mode.

First of all, she needed her coffee. Then she was going to insure the recordings, and then she had to call Sae.

v.

Haymitch was sitting in his car in the driveway with his wrists rested on the steering wheel, fighting the urge to empty the flask in the compartment in one gulp. She was home - she had already put her car in the garage and the lights in the hall and kitchen were on. He had been going through it over and over the whole way home. Whatever it was that was going on, for now, he decided he was going to stay calm - and sober.

A task easier said than done.

He wondered if she had seen him, too. It was possible - she fired at Chaff, and then she just let them leave.

Of course, it could have all been just one huge coincidence - a really bad coincidence. It was pretty possible that he just saw a woman who looked a lot like his wife - that was possible. That, however, didn't explain the tracker. The people, whoever they were, had their headquarters at City Circle, in the exact same building Effie's office was. He knew that for sure, he had never been up in her office, but he had been to the building a few times. You needed special cards to check in there and the security was pretty high, but he had always thought it was because of the software company that was residing there.

Maybe those people were from there, but then again... Capitol Management. CAPITOL. It made sense, but it was also absolutely insane.

So for the past fifteen minutes, he was sitting in his car, a terrible inner battle happening inside his head, and then he decided that he didn't have a choice, anyway - whatever you fear, you'll have to face it one day, so you might as well face it now; waiting until you are ready is pointless, because that way, you'll keep saying to yourself that you aren't ready forever. That was something he had once heard his mother tell his little brother, and he sometimes remembered it when he felt like the only good thing to do was to turn on his heel and get lost forever. Ironically enough, he had only ever needed to think of those words in situations regarding Effie, like when he kept telling himself he wasn't ready to kiss her at that bar, and later, that he wasn't ready for love, for marriage, for a happier life... right now, he wasn't ready to face her.

But did he have a choice?

Haymitch parked the car in the garage and walked through the door that connected the garage with kitchen. A tasty smell of grilled meat, chocolate and wine hit his nose, soft jazz music was playing as a background and she was standing there with her back on him, scrubbing the counter, wearing a powder pink pencil dress he'd never seen on her before, turning to look at him when she heard his footsteps.

"Hi," Effie beamed at him and dried her hands in a dishtowel.

"Hey," he responded slowly and put his briefcase at the stool by the center island. "You were cooking?"

"I made dinner," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and taking his lower lip between her own, painted red. He reacted automatically, his hands shot to her hips and he bowed his head slightly to grant her better access since she was a lot shorter than him even in her louboutins. The kiss was slow and seductive, she tasted like wine, smelled sweet and was so warm and he didn't want to stop her, though he knew he should. After a while, she pulled back herself, a smirk plastered on her smug face. "And there may be a surprise or two."

He nodded dumbly and let her lead him to their dining room. The huge mahogany table was decorated with lit up candles, she used her favourite china (that was always too afraid to use because it was too delicate for him) and a bottle of champagne was rested in a silver bowl filled with ice. She must have been working on this the entire evening, he realized. There was a salomon, a salad, and a chocolate dip with strawberries served in a deep glass plate. He shook his head slowly, and Effie giggled softly and embraced him from behind, pressing a kiss to his shoulder. "I thought we could have a nice evening. I had a hard day today, and I'm sure you did, too."

"You didn't have to do all this," he told her, taken aback, "we could have just ordered something."

"No, we couldn't have, because we deserve something nice, something proper." She sat on one end of the table and he followed her example, settling down opposite her. "Wine?"

Haymitch may have craved a drink more than anything in the world, but he decided that he had to stay as sober as possible tonight. His desire once again won over his common sense, though. "Yeah, just a little bit."

She poured them two glasses of red wine and handed him his. The glasses clinked as they brushed them against each other's and then they both took a sip. "So, how was New York today?" Effie asked with an easy interest and started eating.

"It was okay," Haymitch said, hoping it didn't sound too suspicious. She was acting so clueless - it felt like any other evening. They didn't do it so much anymore, but they used to have dinners like this more often. It was nice, she had always tried to be the best wife she could, even though he was sometimes a bit of a sucker of a husband, and a candle-lit dining room, wine and Effie with that beatiful smile of hers waiting for him was something he adored coming back to. This wasn't like the old times, but he wisely chose to play along. Calm and sober. "Busy. Crowded."

"And the lecture, did it go well?" she sipped the wine again.

"Yeah," he shrugged, "but I'm getting tired of it. Kids are trouble."

"They're not kids, Haymitch," Effie laughed softly, "they're adults."

He rolled his eyes. "Then tell them to behave like ones."

They ate in a comfortable silence for a while. Every time he looked up from his plate, he caught her eyes and she gave him a small smile. That smile could usually always drum up butterflies in his stomach, but it only gave him cramps today. Suddenly, he felt sick. "How were you?"

"Oh, I had a great day!" she exclaimed. "Work ended earlier today, so I went shopping with Portia. I bought this dress."

Haymitch smirked. "It's nice."

"You wouldn't have noticed if I didn't tell you," she accused him jokingly and they exchanged amused looks. He missed this - the banter, the jokes. It was easy to fall for it.

"Where did you buy it?" he asked.

"Kendals," she replied with a wide smile, "have you ever been there?"

He almost choked on a tomato. Effie's eyes were twinkling with amusement at his reaction. His own eyes hardened. "No," he said, "I've never been there."

"It's in front of the new hotel," Effie continued and got up suddenly, which startled him. He glanced up at her and she scowled lightly and picked up her empty plate. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he affirmed her and handed her his plate. "I think I'm finished."

She took it and turned around with a wink. "It's time for dessert."

When she disappeared into the kitchen, he emptied his glass and poured himself another one. Effie came back and sat down. "Easy on the wine, darling," she advised him light-heartedly and set two small white bowls at their places.

Haymitch considered that a good advice for once.

She served them both a bowl full of strawberries and handed him a long, thin fork. He watched her as she dipped the fruit in the melted chocolate and brought it to her lips, gifting him with a flash of a seductive smile and a flutter of her eyelashes. Haymitch moved a bit on his chair. Now was not the time. He chose to catch up with the conversation instead. "So, you went to Kendals today, huh?"

"Yes, with Portia," Effie confirmed. "We were in one of the tallest floors and there is a balcony. I hate heights, but-"

"You hate heights?"

She blinked. "Yes. You didn't know that?"

Of course. Effie hated heights. She also hated blood, closed spaces, insects and being home alone, but she somehow never locked the door when he was away at night.

"I did, sorry," he said and put down his fork that was uselessly howering in the air, as the little bits of apetite had officially left him. "Why did you go there, then?"

"Portia insisted I had to see the view. You could see a lot of things from there. Do you know what's in the adjoining building?"

"Yeah?"

"They sell mostly home decorations there," Effie told him. "So I also bought us new curtains."

He looked over his shoulder. The windows were framed by bright red curtains that he previously didn't notice - maybe she did have a point - and that combined with the light green painting of the dining room looked weird to him. "I don't like them," he said.

She narrowed her eyes. He didn't know if it was him lowkey telling her their new curtains were hideous, or what it was that set her off - but the mood in the house had shifted.

Haymitch understood what she was doing when she picked up the wine bottle as if to pour herself another glass, and in the process, she tried to avoid the bowl with champagne in the center of the table, which meant she had to hold the bottle in the air next to the table for a few seconds; it slipped out of her fingers, and just a hundreth later, his own were wrapped around it - her eyes went cold and he wasn't sure who initiated it, but suddenly they both got up so fast the chairs flew away behind them, and before he collected himself, she, sitting closer to the door, was in the hall.

"Come back!" he yelled at her and followed her. His long strides were supposed to be a good match to her tiny high-heeled steps, but she was running in them as if it was the most natural thing to do. He caught up with her when she attempted to reach the front door and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. "Effie-"

"Let go!" she elbowed him. It took him by surprise, but he didn't let go of her, clasping her in his vice-like grip.

"Calm down-"

She stamped at his foot with her high heel and he relaxed his grip enough for her to turn around and fucking backslap him with much more strenght he thought she was capable of, his head fell to one side for a bit and she escaped his hold. He tried to reach for her arm but she was way faster than he expected her to be. Ignoring the stinging pain in his foot, he followed her. She was in the garage, already in her car, starting the engine while the garage door was slowly rolling up.

"Come back, Effie!" he shouted and tried to approach the car, but Effie was already backing towards the driveway, and drove out before he managed to. He ran out of the garage and towards the road, trying to block her way. "Effie, just get the hell out of the car and talk to me!"

"Move," she snapped at him.

"Eff-"

She depressed the pedal, going straight at him - he was walking backwards, hands in the air in a peaceful sign, but she simply went faster and he didn't have any other joice than to jump out of her car's way with a curse. He got up and looked after it - she was already too far away. For a second, he considered getting into his car and following her - after all, he knew where to find her now - but he was too unstable to do that now. He didn't think it was a good idea for them to meet - besides, she'd turn him away, anyway.

The only thing he knew was that he needed to get out of there as fast as he could.

Then, it occured to him.

All the pieces were falling into place...


Well. x