Haymitch P.O.V.

It has been about three weeks since Katniss blew up the force field. Three weeks of pure hell. When we arrived here in District 13, I was immediately pulled aside by a group of doctors claiming to be my "detox team". They said that since there is no alcohol in District 13, I was going to need to be hospitalized during my withdrawal. It was at that moment that I knew I was not going to like it here.

They dragged me to a secluded, private hospital room. Probably so I don't disturb any other patients with my screams, I remember thinking. The doctors explained that I would most likely experience "life threatening withdrawal" and would need to be closely monitored for about two weeks until all the alcohol was out of my system. Those two weeks were probably some of the worst of my life. Tremors, hallucinations, insomnia. Nightmares that I haven't had for years started to come back, more vivid than ever. I relived my entire Games, start to finish. At one point, I specifically remember my entire body being covered in pink birds, pecking out my flesh. I was convinced that everyone I saw was trying to kill me. Apparently, I also injured a few nurses and doctors during my terrors. According to the doctors, I had three seizures. After about ten days, though, I started to come back to reality. I apologized to all the nurses and doctors I hurt. They said that it's okay, I didn't hurt them badly. Finally after two weeks, the doctors made the decision that I was stable enough to join everyone else in District 13.

The boy has been slowly losing his mind during our time here in District 13. When I told him on the hovercraft that we couldn't get to Katniss in time and that she is in the Capitol, he about killed me. It was actually Coin's decision to get Peeta instead of Katniss. "Better on camera, not as impulsive," she had said. I disagreed, saying that we should save both, but get Katniss before Peeta. She is the Mockingjay, the symbol of the rebellion, after all. Coin wouldn't have it though and was adamant about saving Peeta first. By the time we picked him up, Katniss was long gone. There was nothing I could do.

Peeta had agreed on our second day in District 13 to be the face of the rebellion and shoot some propos, as long as it meant a rescue mission would be arranged for Katniss and the others. According to Plutarch, Coin wanted to put off the rescue mission as long as possible since Peeta would most likely be rendered useless once Katniss was back. After about a week of Katniss, Annie, and Johanna being in the Capitol, a live interview with Annie and Caesar Flickerman aired. This sent Finnick over the edge. He became unreachable, almost catatonic. Peeta saw Finnick's collapse and had a really hard time staying strong. A few days ago, Peeta had a breakdown in front of everyone and had to be sedated. After that, it has been nearly impossible to get a propo out of him, much to Coin's dismay. She finally agreed to arrange the rescue as soon as possible.

Early yesterday morning, there was a dam attack that took out the power to the Capitol. Coin decided that this was an opportunity for us and sent out a rescue team last night. Both Peeta and Gale begged to go, but Coin refused for fear of their "emotions clouding their judgement".

It's now almost midnight. I've been sitting with Peeta in a quiet, abandoned corridor for hours now. We were in command, but Peeta couldn't handle watching the mission, so I took him out here. Neither of us speaks. There's nothing to be said. Command issued me a Communicuff just for today during the rescue. I'm supposed to get an alert when they're back, but I haven't gotten anything yet. Every few minutes, Peeta grabs my wrist and looks at the Communicuff. It's really annoying, but I let him be.

Suddenly, Peeta stands up and starts pacing. He runs his fingers through his hair. "What could possibly be taking so long?" He growls.

"I don't know. I wish I did, but I don't," I answer gently.

He looks up at me, his eyes wet with tears. His voice softens considerably. "I just want her to be okay," he manages.

"I know. Me too," I say. I clear my throat, fighting to keep my emotions in check.

Peeta nods solemnly and sits back down next to me. We sit there in relative silence for about fifteen minutes until the Communicuff starts beeping and vibrating. I jump, and Peeta looks over in confusion, probably thinking he's hearing things. He puts the pieces together fast though, because he shoots up and yanks me from the ground. He starts to speed-walk towards the hospital. He looks back and notices that I'm not even close to him.

"Come on, Haymitch," he says.

"I'm coming!" I yell back. I have to jog to keep up with him. Peeta arrives at the hospital first and opens the door. I jog behind him up to the door, and we both walk in together. The whole place is in chaos. Peeta looks around frantically, looking for any sign of Katniss. Instead we see Johanna. She is thinner than I've ever seen her, and her head is shaved. She is almost unrecognizable. Seeing her stops me in my tracks. It takes Peeta grabbing my arm and pulling me away to snap out of my trance. As we are moving, we come across Finnick and Annie, clinging to one another for dear life. Both of them are crying. Peeta glances but keeps up his pace. Peeta spots a room with a glass window in the front. He starts running up to it, but gets stopped at the last second by Boggs.

"Peeta, before you ask, yes, Katniss is in that room, and no, you can't see her right now. She's in really bad shape. The doctors are prepping her for surgery because she has a lot of major injuries," Boggs says grimly.

"What kind of injuries?" asks Peeta shakily, craning his neck to attempt to look through the window.

"The doctors haven't told me the specifics yet, but she was really bad when we got there. She was almost dead," says Boggs.

Suddenly, the door to Katniss' room flies open and a team of doctors come flowing out, barking orders at each other. They push a stretcher that has Katniss on it.

When I see her, I almost fall over. She is literally skin and bones. Her breaths are uneven as her diaphragm heaves and contracts, trying to force air into her lungs. She already has more tubes covering her body than I could even count. A clear mask covers her nose and mouth.

Peeta, who is now as white as a ghost, follows closely behind the doctors. "Why is she breathing like that?" He asks, hysteria creeping into his voice. When no one answers, he asks more forcefully. "Why is she breathing like that?!"

A doctor lagging behind slows down to get to Peeta and gives him a sad smile. "Hi, Peeta. How about you come with me to the family waiting area. I'll explain what's going on then, okay?" She tells him.

"Okay," he answers, defeated. We watch as the doctors disappear with Katniss into a hallway labeled "Authorized Personnel Only".

"Haymitch, you can come, too," she says as she waves us in the direction of the waiting room.

As we are are approaching the waiting room, I see that there are other people there. As we get closer, I realize that those people are Prim and Ruth Everdeen, Katniss' mom. Gale is there as well.

The doctor motions for Peeta and I to sit down. "Hello, everyone. My name is Dr. Shepherd, and I will be helping to take care of Katniss throughout her recovery. I know that you all have a lot of questions, so I'll just start out by telling you what we know right now. On initial examination, we immediately noticed that Katniss' breathing was very erratic. She was having such a hard time that her lips were actually beginning to turn blue. The medics on the rescue team noticed this right away and tried giving her some oxygen. It helped slightly, but there was nothing else they could do until they arrived to the hospital. Once they got here, we took a chest X-Ray and noticed a very obvious rib fracture."

The doctor turns to a computer in the room and begins typing into it. She pulls up the X-Ray. It's clear, even to me, where the broken rib is. Dr. Shepherd points to the break and says, "Here you see the fracture. When the bone broke, it moved inwards towards her lung and punctured it, causing the lung to collapse. We don't know for sure how long her bone has been broken but a pretty good guess would be about a week. The rib probably didn't immediately puncture her lung. I believe that her lung has been punctured for about two or three days, at most. The surgeons are going to go in and set the rib in its normal position to let it heal. They will also place a chest tube into her chest cavity to drain extra air and fluid. She will likely need a ventilator to help her breathe for several days to let the lung reinflate," Dr. Shepherd pauses for a moment.

I glance around the room. Ruth and Prim are crying. Peeta looks dazed. Gale stares at the floor, his fists clenched tight.

"Does anyone have any questions so far?" asks Dr. Shepherd compassionately.

No one answers. The only sound is the quiet sniffling of Prim and Ruth.

Dr. Shepherd nods. "Okay. I know that this is very stressful for all of you. If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate. You can even interrupt me if you'd like. So next, after we looked at the broken rib, we noticed that several of her joints were dislocated. I want to say that there were eight dislocations all together. We relocated what we could, but a few joints were just too far out of place. The surgeons are going to open up those areas and relocate the joints manually. The good news is, the joints were not out of place long enough to cause any blood flow problems. The bad news is, she will probably need casts, braces, and therapy as they heal."

The doctor shifts some papers around before speaking again. "The next obvious problem we noticed is how malnourished she is. We started an IV with fluids for now, but we will be inserting a feeding tube that will be kept in for at least a few days until she is able to eat on her own. We also noticed several burn marks, lacerations, and bruises throughout her body. We will be giving her antibiotics to help prevent infection. And, of course, we will give her pain medication," Dr. Shepherd says.

As the doctor finishes talking, I feel something drip on my hand. I look down to find a tear. I quickly wipe my face. I can't cry here. Not yet at least.

Prim gives the doctor a long, hard look before asking a question. She is so quiet I can barely hear her. "So, is that everything wrong with her?"

"Well, for the physical part, yes. At least for now, that is all we know. However, I'm personally very concerned with the psychological aspect. We won't find out for a few days how her psychological state is because we will be keeping her in a medically induced coma. We don't yet know if the Capitol inflicted any mental torture and if so, how it affected her. She is a very strong young lady, but we have no way of predicting how three weeks of torture have affected her already fragile mental state," Dr. Shepherd explains carefully.

Peeta looks up and his eyes start to clear a bit. "So, what are you going to do?" He asks suddenly.

Dr. Shepherd answers, "Well, first of all, we're going to give her body plenty of time to heal. We will do that by letting her get as much rest as she needs once the surgery is over. That could last anywhere from a several hours to several days. It all depends on how fast she heals. We will have a psychologist on hand when she wakes up to assess her condition and determine what treatment, if any, will be needed. Another thing that I would like to do, as long as it's okay with all of you, is to have at least one close family member or friend in her room at all times while she is asleep. That way, if she does wake up, she won't be alone. That person could be either of you or anyone else Katniss trusts."

Ruth wrings her hands. "How long is this surgery going to take?" she asks.

"Probably about 3-6 hours," answers Dr. Shepherd. "I'll have a nurse let you know when they are finished. You might not be able to see her right away, however."

"How long until we can see her?" Asks Ruth.

"I don't know for sure, but it could be anywhere from 4 to 8 hours," says Dr. Shepherd. "Again, we will let you know afterwards and keep you updated throughout."

Everyone sits quietly for a few minutes before Dr. Shepherd asks, "Do you have any other questions, comments, concerns?"

We all shake our heads.

"Okay. Like I said, please don't hesitate to ask questions. There are plenty of nurses here, and I will also be around. We'll update when we can. In the meantime, you guys can just make yourselves at home here," says Dr. Shepherd. She stands up and starts making her way towards the door.

"Thank you, Doctor," says Mrs. Everdeen.

Dr. Shepherd turns around and gives a small smile. "My pleasure," she says as she leaves the room, closing the door behind her.