Gales POV

As soon as the words leave Leanets mouth, I look at Katniss, she glances at Cloves father and then down towards her hands. Her grip on my hand is becoming increasingly tighter; I wasn't sure whether it was out of anger, fear or something else until I feel her shuffle towards me ever so slightly; fear.
"Excuse me, I must be going home. Vic come on" I speak at a normal tone which seems really loud due to the now silent room. I stand up bringing Katniss with me and walk straight out of the room glancing at Cannon, Cloves Father on the way out. It's only when we get into the elevator that I dare to look at Katniss again; I notice her shaking slightly and pull her into a hug. I notice Vic looking very awkward in the corner.
I feel Katniss move away and release her right before the elevator doors open and we walk out into the lobby, I see people look but no one dares approach us.
We get back home in record time, after giving Vic an encouraging squeeze on the shoulder so he knows I'm not angry at him, I take Katniss up stairs to my room and sit her on the bed. I wait.

Katniss' POV

Gale sits on the bed next to me, I'm waiting for him to apologise or say something, but he doesn't… he just sits there silently; he waiting for me. We had only been sitting for about a minute when I asked the first question that popped into my mind,

"Did you know who he was?"

"Yes"

One simple word answer that could mean so much or so little; give so much information at the same time as none at all. It takes at least 3 minutes before he elaborates.

"I stormed out of the building when I first realised he worked there. The next day they approached me, offered me a promotion to supervisor, when I asked about him they moved me to a completely different department where running into him was virtually impossible. The lunch meeting I was at isn't one I usually attend, it was invitation based that I was attending with one of the main managers that accepted my short and no notice vacation time I asked for. When he asked me to attend the lunch meeting before departing, I had to agree, we were mainly taking about work the whole time, I hadn't acknowledged anyone whilst in their until Vic peered around the door. I didn't even realise he was their until Leanet mentioned it, if I knew he was there, I wouldn't have been." He ensures me

I keep my focus on my hands; it's trying to convince me it's not his fault, which it isn't. How could it be?

"What do you know about him?" I ask, needing to know

"His name is Cannon, he's in his early 40s and I think he had 2 daughters, Clove and another one whose younger, I'm not sure of his name. He is a supervisor for the new workers; he keeps an eye on selected employees for the first 6 months or so. There are about 10 supervisors with the same job.

I nod in response, thinking it through, I still don't know what emotion he was looking at me with, it wasn't anger or hatred, wasn't envy, it seemed to have a tinge of hope in it like he was needing something, like he wanted to ask me something important but couldn't bring himself to.

"He wanted to ask me something" I say out loud in a low whisper

"Excuse me?" Gale asks as I look at him directly

"Cannon, Cloves Father. He eye's I've just worked out the emotion, he was fighting the urge to talk to me. Why would he want to talk to me?"

Gale suddenly becomes slightly awkward, which I see as strange behaviour "Thinking about it, there is a rumour, that his daughter, the one still alive might be ill and that maybe they don't know how to help her." He says like he's just made the connection, I'm about to say something before he interrupts me "No, you are not going to see him or his family, I wont let you near any of them. No don't even try convincing me, it won't work"

I just stare at him, he knows me so well, like he could read my thoughts, he knows I need to help that young girl, because I watched her sister die. I look towards Gale, he has his eyes closed, he knows I can break him, I can make him take me, we both know it, but I don't know if I want to make him do anything. Suddenly I remember, he's taken vacation off with no notice, he's done that for me… this seems more important to address, I'll mentions the girl later, when he hadn't seen me terrified recently.

"You didn't need to take time off of work for me" I say quietly, he eyes shoot open in surprise

"Excuse…. What?" he stumbled

"You said you took time off work, with no notice, no one in your family is ill, no one in your family technically needs you to be at home…" I start

"You are part of my family and always will be"

Now it's my turn to look at him with a look of surprise

Authors' Note:

So sorry this chapter has taken longer then other chapters

So sorry it is also shorter then other chapters

My Dad has decided I needed to spend more time revising and doing coursework then writing the story…

Thank you so much for reading

Thank you to all the reviews I have received