:DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN 'THE HUNGER GAMES':

:IT BELONGS TO SUZANNE COLLINS:

FOUR

"Gale!" I scream at the phone in surprise. Haymitch reaches the room and sighs with relief when he hears Gales name.

"Why are you panting?" he asks

"Nothing. Its nothing." Haymitch leaves the room and closes the door. A few moments later I hear a loud grunt and a meow. I regain my breath. "So how's District 2?"

"I heard about Peeta." He whispers. My heart skips a beat. I knew he would know soon. District Two has navy bases in all the districts including Thirteen. Since Gale is one of the head leaders, he is entitled to know all the news in all the districts. I don't speak.

"Are you okay?" he asks.

"Yes." My voice falters. "Just a few cuts." I pause again. He's waiting for me to say something more. "Is Peeta—" He knows me well enough to understand what I mean.

"They tell me he's fine. He lost a lot of blood. You're mother's gone to Thirteen to help." My mother is in Thirteen. Why hasn't she called? Wouldn't she want me to know? Unless— unless she thinks it would be too hard for me to handle.

"Gale, I can't leave Twelve to go to Thirteen. They won't let me see him." I beg desperately. "Gale, please. I know they'll let you go. You've got authority. Go to Thirteen. I just need to know he's okay. I just need to" my voice trails off. For a while there is silence. Asking for this, I know it hurts Gale. It shows him that I have chosen Peeta instead of him. I am choked with despair. I don't mean to choose anyone. I love them both.

"Okay." He says finally.

"Okay?" I test.

"Sure, Catnip. I'll check up on him then I'll come visit you."

"Hey Gale?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks" There's nothing really I could say to him anymore. We say goodbye and I place to phone back in its cradle. I open the door and outside of the room, I find that Greasy Sae replaces Haymitch. She hears my footsteps and turns around from the kitchen counter. Her granddaughter is playing with Buttercup on the floor.

"I let Haymitch out. I made sure he was set in his house and came back here to make breakfast but I guess you've covered that already." She says with a sigh. She lifted her granddaughter off the floor and sets her on one of the chairs. Then her eyes find mine and somehow, I know that she knows it was Gale on the phone.

"He still loves you." She says. She knows very well not to believe the lie that Gale and I are in relations.

"I know." I pause. "I know. Even after all this time." My chest tightens as I articulate the reality I have always refused to believe until now. Without another word, I grab my bow and arrows and my game bag near the door and dash out of the house.

I need to think. I need to escape from all this. My feet takes me to the meadow and crawl under the fence and enter the place that was and will always be my livelihood, Seam or not. Once I step on the soil, I notice the silence that takes over the forest. Slowly, my instincts take over. I shoot several squirrels and rabbits and catch some fish. I pick some fruits and berries as I go along, popping some in my mouth. I trek up the slope of the forest and I find myself standing on the doorstep of the small house where I met Bonnie and Twill and where I asked Gale to run away with me.

I walk to the house and enter through the door. Nothing has changed. The windows are still broken and only the cement, covered with moss holds the house together. I place the game on the hard floor. I start a fire and clean my hunt of its entrails. I choose to clean one of the rabbits first and proceed on cooking it. My mind drifts off to the times before the games. Gale and I would be hunting today. Both of us armed with our weapons, me with my bow and arrows and he with his snares. Skulking deeper in the woods, saying whatever we want, free from the prying eyes and ears of the district.

What's happened between us? We've lost the easy connection we shared with each other. The way our thoughts always seem to be identical. The Games have taken Gale away from me but gave me Peeta in return. They have asked me to choose Peeta over Gale, and for my life, I had to. It was unfair for Peeta because I did not share the same feelings he had for me. It was unfair for Gale because I hardly knew Peeta whereas I knew Gale all my life and still I choose Peeta over him.

Katniss will pick whoever she thinks she can't live without

His voice echoes through my head and I am jolted back in Tigris's cellar. I think about this for a moment I would not have survived hunger without Peeta or Gale before the Games. Peeta saved my family with the bread, risking a beating from his mother. Gale became my partner in the woods and my best friend at the same time. Peeta and I were thrust into a relationship to survive the Games. In those Games Peeta saved me from Cato, earning himself blood poisoning. I think about the nights I have without Peeta and the nights I don't have with Gale. Of how I crumble in fear caused by the nightmares and of how only Peeta's arms can calm me. I think of the night I asked him to marry me.

It's Peeta it's always been him but I can't just abandon my feelings for Gale either.

I allow myself to nibble on the rabbit leg I cooked as I exit the tiny house. I walk back to the fence and through the meadow. It's nearly noon now. The sun is high. It has been three days since the accident. I make my way through to the bakery and find that it's been fixed. The shattered glass has been swept and the windows are fixed. Still, I enter cautiously as if the shards of glass may reappear at any second. I drop my things near the door. Everything is strangely in place. I lurk inside the kitchen and find myself facing the back door where I first met Peeta. Slowly, I open the door. I am shocked when I find the place has completely transformed from a place for trash bins to a shrine with all the most beautiful flowers. Peeta has painted the faces of his older brothers and parents on the walls and has littered the floor with vast colors of roses and dandelions.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" Leevy's voice startles me.

"Oh! I didn't know you were here." I said turning towards the door where she stands. Leevy has that Seam look. Dark hair and gray eyes. Our ages are not that far from each other.

"It's okay. I hope I didn't scare you." She answers and gestures toward Peeta's painting of his older brothers. "He's really good at painting."

"I know. Leevy, I-" I wanted to thank her but again my words fail me. Leevy always so ready to help me and I think of how I do not even try to see if she needs help sometimes. Since the rebellion ended, Peeta and I were always together. I didn't realize until now that without Peeta, I have no one. I miss Madge so much. I have no friend in the world and here is Leevy who i didn't even acknowledge until now. "Leevy, I wanted to thank you." I say at last. She smiles at me and walks toward me to give me a hug. I don't resist to return her hug. We release each other and for some reason we laugh hysterically. I missed this. Having a friend. I lost Peeta and Gale but now at least I have Leevy.