**I was totally going to write this last night but ended up at the ER for 8 hours. Not fun. Enjoy, leave comments! Comments and messaging keep me writing!**
I can feel the heat throughout my whole body now. I account some for the flame nearby, but the rest I account for Gale. Standing there in a crowd of people from the Capitol. Defying them. Surely he will be killed. How did he even get here? The audience moves to give him way so he can approach the stage. My breathing gets ragged as I step back towards the electric blue curtains and the flame nears me. Gale is now at the front of the audience. He can't do anything to stop them, I think as the woman with tight hair and a blood red dress comes closer, torch outstretched. Why burn me? I wonder. The two men on either side of me tighten their grip. My circulation is being cut off, no blood flow to my arms, they won't be important soon anyway I decide.
Suddenly Caesar throws his hand up and I hear someone else yell "Stop!" Everyone stops. Gale who has one leg up on the stage and struggling to get the other one up freezes. The men holding me slightly loosen their grip. The torch carrying woman stops moving closer and I can feel the silence in the air. I recognize the voice as it speaks again. President Snow. "People of the Capitol." Murmurs run through the attentive crowd as Gale finishes his climb onto the stage and walks swiftly towards me before Torch girl grabs him and makes him face the audience. I see Snow's face appear first fuzzy and then in the full effect on some screen in the back of the audience I didn't see before.
President Snow repeats, "People of the Capitol." Then his voice gets quiet, probably to add to the drama I think. "We have an objection." The audience gasps collectively and chatter begins everywhere. Then a hush falls over them as cameras zoom every which way in an attempt to get every possible person's face but my own. "We will try her in public and see what comes of it. We shall see, friend of Katniss' if she deserves the right to live." The screen goes dark then and Gale and I are dragged off stage.
I am thrown in a room. A room with one window and painted a putrid shade of green, which makes my stomach churn. I sit on the bed and look at my hands, which are shaking uncontrollably, which I wasn't even aware of. I see another bed and desperately hope Gale will be thrown in too. Where is he? What is the Capitol going to do with him? But when the doors open the Capitol's knight in shining armor stands there in all white. Peeta comes in and sits on the other bed. He doesn't say anything. All I can hear is my own ragged breathing, which I get under control quickly, I can't have Peeta see my weakness, even if it is Gale and he already knows that. After what feels like forever Peeta looks up at me. I don't make eye contact.
"Katniss." He whispers, his voice hoarse as if he had been inhaling smoke. "Katniss." He repeats. He doesn't need to say my name again, I think bitterly. "We need to talk. We need to be on the same page." His voice is coming back to normal. And then I realize its not smoke he has been inhaling, he was crying. They probably made him compose himself before coming in here. I still don't speak or move. He gets up and I can hear the bed, which bowed under his weight squeak slowly. He sits next to me. I don't do anything. He reaches over and puts his arm around my shoulder. "Don't you touch me!" I scream slapping his arm away and standing up, whirling around to face him. He stands too. "Katniss," he whispers. "I'm trying to help you."
"Help me?" I snort. "Oh, like how you helped me leave District 13-"
"I didn't know they were going to-"
"You are not here to help me!" I yell. I can feel the anger rising in me, where was Gale? What was the Capitol doing to him? I feel hot tears spill over onto my flushed cheeks. Peeta reaches out to hug me but I smack him hard across the face. He doesn't move. "I didn't know." He says hollowly. "Didn't know what?" I say, anger still in my voice. "I didn't know they were going to kill you-"
"Oh really?" I scoff.
"Really." There was a long pause before Peeta sighs and says, "Look Katniss, I was told they were going to take you and we would get married." I interject, "And you thought that was okay?" "No, but I love you and they would blow up Disctrict 13 otherwise." There was another pause before he continued. "And I know you love Gale and you wouldn't want him to die." The room was spinning. It was full and empty at the same time. I was furious and felt nothing at the same time. "And I wanted to save my parents if they were still alive." Peeta finishes. I am filled with one hundred emotions and don't know what to think or feel. "And you believed them?" I managed to say, my voice shaking. "Yes." Was all he responded, looking at his feet. I didn't say anything. Time passed, feeling like hours was probably only minutes. Peeta took a step toward me. I felt ready to collapse. I was strong. I was steady. I knew what I was doing and thought I could make it through anything. But I was wavering and didn't know how much more I could take. Peeta took my face in his hands turned it towards his and looked me in the eyes. "I love you." He said as he pressed his lips onto mine.