Here is the Chapter you've all been waiting for, you will finally find out what is going on with Gale.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games or any of its characters.

Chapter 10

The next morning Katniss woke up with her family still in the room. It was nice to see them for a change. Prim made Katniss get her schedule scanned on her arm, telling her it was the rules of living there and they must be followed. Katniss was curious to see what her schedule would look like. She could always skip the unimportant things. Breakfast was the first on the list, followed by a meeting with Dr. Halifax. This interested her. Maybe he finally had an answer for her. Then, there were a few hours of school. She could skip that part. Next was lunch, followed by another meeting with Coin, weapons training (whatever that meant), dinner, family time, and bed. She wondered if she had missed out on anything because she had failed to do this before. It seemed like someone had always tracked her down for all of the important things so she had never bothered before.

She ate breakfast with her family and the Hawthornes. She didn't pay much attention to the conversation. Instead, she thought about the meeting that followed. Once breakfast was finished, she said farewell to both families and made her way down to Dr. Halifax's office. He was sitting at a small conference table with a few other doctors that were working on Gale's case.

"Hello, Miss Everdeen." he said. "So nice of you to join us."

"What's wrong with him?" she asked. She didn't care about being cordial. She just wanted to know what was going on with the boy she loves.

"It seems the Capitol employed a variety of torturing techniques on Mr. Hawthorne. First, there is the Memory Modification. They've taken his memories from the Games and shuffled them around to manipulate his reality of what happened."

"That's why he thought Finnick and I were together." she said.

"Yes, precisely. We compiled a video from clips of the Games. This is probably similar to what they showed him." he said pointing a remote to the screen behind them. Images of Finnick and her flashed before her: Finnick pinning her to a tree and whispering into her ear, Finnick and her sleeping beside her with her arm around her waist (they managed to crop Gale out of the shot), Finnick kissing her (with a quick cut before she pushed him off her), and Katniss comforting Finnick after the jabberjay attack. It all looked so real...like they actually had feeling for each other.

"How many times do you think they made him watch that?" Katniss asked.

"Hundreds, maybe thousands. We think there might have been some subliminal messaging attached to it as well."

'No wonder he attacked Finnick.' she thought to herself. She now understood why he thought that. It must have torn him apart to have to watch that over and over again. "What about the touching? There has to be a reason why we aren't allowed to touch without him hearing those voices."

"He's been conditioned to respond to Touch Triggers."

"Is there anyone else that effects him like this?"

"No you are the only one. We had him interact with a variety of people he knew before he was captured: his family, your family, Johanna Mason, even Finnick Odair fared well after his initial attack." Dr. Halifax said. Great, the last thing she wanted was Johanna touching him. She could only imagine what she tried with him.

"How did they train him to recognize my touch? I wasn't there when they did this to him."

"We have no idea for sure. The Capitol has far more advance techniques then we do here. We think it's connected to his visual senses. He connects the image of you with the sensation of your touch. Then the voices come, followed by a trigger to harm you."

"Is there anything you can do to fix it?"

"We are still working on a solution. We've never seen anything like this before."

"Can I see him now? I want to talk to him."

"Not now. He's resting." Dr. Halifax said. Katniss questioned this statement. She wouldn't be surprised if they drugged him just so they could use the sleeping excuse. That seemed to be their solution for many things here. Katniss thanked them out of politeness and left the room. She didn't really know what do now. Class could be a nice distraction and she was curious as to what was taught in District 13. She found a floor map by the elevator to help her find where the classroom was located. She arrived with a few minutes to spare. She found an empty seat next to Peeta near the back of the room. She saw someone from District 13 try to sit there but he shook his head as he covered the seat with his hand. Katniss walked up to him.

"This seat taken?" she asked.

"No, I've been saving it for you."

"This whole time?"

"I knew you'd turn up eventually." he said with a smile.

"I just wanted to see what they learn here."

"It's pretty interesting."

"What's America? Is that the name of our teacher?" she asked motioning towards the board.

"No. America was Panem before it was Panem."

"They teach that here?" Katniss said shocked.

"They can teach whatever they want. They don't have the Capitol controlling what they teach."

Shortly after the teacher walked in. She looked like she was in her late 30s. She was about average height with brown eyes and a brown hair that hit her shoulders. She wore the same uniform that everyone else in District 13 wore.

"Ah, Miss Everdeen, how nice of you to join us." she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I would have made it here sooner if I wasn't constantly being drugged by the nurses." she said, her voice matching the teacher's. A few of the students from District 13 gasped and whispered at her reaction. Clearly she had crossed the line of respect.

"My name is Mrs. Northgate. Open your books to page 270." she said. Peeta slid his book over to her and got another one off the shelf. She was surprised that they were studying the year 1776. That was thousands of years ago. The textbooks in District 12 didn't go back that far. She watched as Mrs. Northgate wrote "The Declaration of Independence" on the board.

She began to listen to her speak but her mind wandered back to Gale. He could control himself until he made contact with her. He told her he heard the voices even when she was just around him but he managed to suppress them. It was when they touched that triggered the aggression. It's not like he wanted to her hurt her. He didn't have a choice in the matter. She wondered why Snow had decided to go down this path. Why not just train him to eliminate her as soon as she came into visual contact. It would have been a lot quicker.

Katniss then remembered something Snow had said to her when she talked to him from her house. He said that he didn't want her dead. It still didn't make sense to use the Touch Triggers. She thought about it some more. He obviously wanted to destroy what her and Gale had. That's what the Mind Modification did. He tricked Gale into believing that she never loved him. At least now Gale believed that she loved him. At least she thought he did. He still might be battling that internally.

Suddenly a phrase popped into Katniss' head. Look but don't touch. She then realized what a genius he was, an evil genius at that. What better way to disconnect two lovers than to take away their ability to touch other another? He gave enough leeway that they could be in the same room together but not much else. She didn't know what Gale was feeling but she knew she could barely stand it. She wanted to do all sorts of things to him: hug him, kiss him, fall asleep in his arms, have sex. She couldn't help but feel a longing for him even when he wasn't in her presence. Just thinking about him dredged up all the feelings she had been trying to suppress.

Katniss' concentration was interrupted when she felt Peeta's foot tap hers under the table, knocking her back to reality. He then muttered "John Hancock" while hiding his mouth with his hand. Katniss wasn't sure what he meant.

"Miss Everdeen, I asked you a question and I expect an answer." Mrs. Northgate said with authority.

"John Hancock." she said, repeating what Peeta muttered to her.

"Yes that is correct, John Hancock's signature was the largest of the document. Although next time it would be nice if she came up with the answer on her own, Mr. Mellark."

'Great, the teacher hates me and I got Peeta in trouble.' she thought. She turned to Peeta and mouthed 'I'm sorry.' to him. He didn't seem to mind much. Katniss made a point to pay more attention and even raised her hand for some of the other questions. It didn't really matter though. Mrs. Northgate wouldn't call on her. Katniss was relieved when the bell rang. She left the room with Peeta at her side as they made their way to the dining hall.

"Well that went well." she said with annoyance.

"She's usually not that hostile."

"She hates me."

"She's not used to having a celebrity in her class…Mockingjay." Peeta said bumping into her. Katniss rolled her eyes.

"I hate that name. It's all Madge's fault for giving me that stupid pin." she said. She then realized she didn't even know the fate of friend. "Peeta, did Madge make it out of District 12?"

"No, she didn't." he said quietly.

"I killed her." she said stopping in her tracks.

"Katniss, you didn't kill her."

"You were right. As soon as I released that arrow, I created a death sentence for everyone in District 12."

"I didn't really mean it Katniss. I was angry."

"If I didn't shoot that arrow, District 12 would still be here."

"But you wouldn't." he said, his brow wrinkled with sorrow. With the look he currently had on his face, she could tell he still loved her. Even the thought of her dead was enough to affect him.

"Let's get to lunch." she said, diffusing the situation. She continued to walk with him catching up to her. They quickly picked up their trays of food from the lunch line and sat down at the first available table.

"I wish we had just stayed in District 12." Katniss said with a sigh.

"They would have found us."

"Not if we stayed by the lake. They wouldn't think to look there. They would probably assume that we were captured or dead. Then we could have gone back to my house and just live in peace."

"Together?" he asked. She wasn't sure what he meant by this. Did he mean together as friends or together as a couple.

"It doesn't matter. It's not like it could ever happen now." she said skirting around the answer. Just then, Finnick appeared at their table.

"Ready for that meeting, Mockingjay?" Finnick asked, stealing the apple off her tray and taking a bite. She caught Peeta shaking his head at Finnick to warn him. The confused look on Finnick's face told her he clearly didn't get it. Katniss said goodbye to Peeta and started walking towards the Control Room with Finnick.

"What do you think it's about?" she asked him.

"They will probably tell us the next plan of attack. They should have one by now."

"What do you think it will be?"

"Target the Capitol in some way." he said. They entered the room and sat beside Haymitch.

"How are things with bread boy?" Haymitch asked.

"Fine." she said.

"He still likes you, you know?" he said.

"You'll never stop believing that, will you?" she spouted at him.

"He told me he did the other day, after you left. He asked about Gale too; wanted to know if he would stand a chance with you if he didn't get better. Oops, I forgot, I wasn't suppose to tell you." he snickered. She couldn't help but think that Haymitch intentionally told her this. It took every ounce of self-control to prevent her from hurting Haymitch at that time. Instead, she dragged him to the corner of the room so the others wouldn't hear.

"What did you tell him?" she asked him, with fire in her eyes.

"I told him that he still has a shot."

"You said what!"

"I think he'd be good for you."

"Well it's not going to happen. Finnick Odair has more a chance than he does." she said. Haymitch laughed. "What?" Katniss asked him.

"Funny you should mention that boy."

"Why is that?"

"Coin plans on having a little talk with you two after the meeting about the District's perception of you."

"I'm still not following."

"People are starting to question what you are to each other. Rumors have been flying."

"Rumors?"

"That your relationship goes deeper than friendship."

"But that's not true."

"There more. Some people even think that the two of you are trying to take over Coin's whole operation."

"What!" she exclaimed in disbelief.

"Why do you think they are drugging you all the time? It's not for the pain."

"I knew there was something suspicious about that."

"I'd be very careful when she talks to the two of you. Best not to piss her off." he said before walking back to his seat. Katniss joined him. Minutes later, Coin and Boggs entered the room and took their seats.

"Thank you everyone for joining us." Coin began. "We are holding this meeting to discuss our next steps in our war against the Capitol. After much consideration and planning, we are confident that we have come up with a plan to further our efforts to create a free Panem. I will now turn it over to Boggs to explain the details."

"Thank you President Coin. Our next plan of attack is to raid the Capitol with bombings. Not enough to destroy the city. We will mainly be targeting government buildings. We want to show them what we are capable of doing and give them an opportunity to surrender." he said. He then went into a more detailed explanation of the itinerary. An older man raised his hand and asked when they planned to leave on this mission. Boggs told him 'Tomorrow'. They would reach the Capitol in two days time.

Katniss didn't like this plan. How much good could it really do? It would only make the Capitol retaliate even more. It might also blow their cover that District 13 doesn't exist. While the hovercraft is unmarked, the smaller planes they would be transporting would be a give away. They looked very different from Capitol planes. She didn't say anything to the people in the room. She kept her mouth shut. She was already in enough trouble as it was. She couldn't have Coin thinking she didn't support her decision.

When the meeting concluded, Coin dismissed everyone but Katniss and Finnick.

"Miss Everdeen, Mr. Odair, I'm sure you are wondering why I kept you here so I'll just get right to the point. There are rumors that the two of you are now a couple." Coin said. Katniss looked over at Finnick who was too shocked to speak so she answered for him.

"We are just friends."

"The evidence is rather incriminating." Coin said looking down at a sheet of paper.

"What evidence?" Finnick pressed.

"The nurses have said that they would find you sharing a bed almost nightly." Coin said, her lips pursed in judging grin.

"It helped with the nightmares." Katniss said, defending their actions.

"You had also been seen entering each other's compartments and staying in there for hours at a time."

"So we could talk privately without anyone else hearing."

"For all they know you could have been doing anything in there." Coin said suggestively. "And then there is the fact that the two of you are constantly together."

"So what if we were dating? Why would that matter?" Finnick asked.

"It's bad for the cause. We can't people thinking that the two of you are together."

"I still don't understand why it's a problem." Finnick said. Katniss finally understood it. Everyone knew the two of them. They were the two most popular Victors in recent history. If the two of them were linked together, the District 13 people might look to them as the most important figures. They were already two important faces. People might even want to see them lead it, causing Coin to become obsolete.

"There is also talk about who is really in charge of this rebellion." Coin said. "It seems that the people are connecting the two of you as the leaders."

"That's not our fault. We were thrown into this. It's not like we wanted this." Katniss said, raising her voice slightly. When she realized this, she told herself to remain calm.

"Well it seemed like a good idea at the time. Let's get something straight, I am the one who makes the decisions and I am the leader here. If I find out you are doing anything to sway the citizens of District 13, I swear I will crush you." Katniss was a little frightened at the intensity in which she said those words. She could tell that Coin genuinely meant it.

"We understand." Katniss said nodding her head.

"Good, and as long as we have that understanding, you will have no need to worry." Coin said now smiling. She dismissed Katniss, saying she had to talk to Finnick for a few minutes in private. When Katniss exited the room, she saw Boggs waiting for her.

"Soldier Everdeen, Beetee is waiting for you in the Arsenal for your Weapons Training. I will accompany you there." he told her. Katniss walked silently behind Boggs until she reached her destination. Boggs left the room, leaving them alone.

"Ah, Katniss!" Beetee said walking over to her and giving her a hug.

"What am I doing here?"

"Thought you might want to try out the new bow I made for you." he said retrieving if from a table. Katniss couldn't believe her eyes. It was beautiful. It was unlike most of the other weapons in the room that were made of metal and composite material. It looked like it was wood but with it had a shine to it.

"What's it made out of?" she asked.

"Mahogany. With a few coats of lacquer of course." he said. Mahogany. Katniss laughed as she thought back to the time she drove a knife into a mahogany table on her way to the Capitol. Effie Trinket made such a fuss about it. Her face went serious when she thought about her former escort's fate. She hoped she was safe.

Katniss took the bow from Beetee's hands and plucked at the taut string. It seemed as though there was just the right amount of tension on it. Beetee then showed her arsenal of arrows included in the quiver. There were regular arrows, arrows that ignited with fire when shot, and arrows that exploded when it made contact. She practiced with the regular arrows since the other two were a hazard. It felt so good to use her bow once again.

"Have you seen Finnick today? He was supposed to learn how to use his new trident." Beetee told her.

"He was in a meeting with Snow. He should have been done by now." Katniss said.

"Maybe you could go fetch him for me." Beetee said. Katniss left the room and went on a search for Finnick. She tried his room first. He wasn't there. She then wandered around asking people if they had seen him. She heard from a boy around her age that he had seen him going to the Training Room. Katniss figured he was given the wrong room to meet Beetee in. When she reached the room, she found it dimly lit. She followed the sound of what sounded like punching, over and over again. She finally found him, weeping as the gloves on his hands made contact with the punching bag. She quickly ran over to him.

"Finnick, stop." she said. He ignored her. Katniss swooped in between him in the punching bag, grabbing both his wrists. "What did she say?" She watched as his lip quivered before sending a flood of tears down his face. She let go of his wrists and freed the gloves from his hand. His arms immediately went around her, pulling her closer to him. He buried his face in her shoulder. "Finnick, what was your meeting about?" she asked one more time.

"I have to shoot another propos." he said.

"About what?"

"They want me to tell everyone about what I do…about what Snow made me do." he said distraught.

"How did they…" she trailed off.

"They were listening to us Katniss. Everything we said in the hospital. They have been monitoring every thing we say and do." he whispered in her ear.

"Why?"

"To dig up any information they could use." he said.

"Why is Coin making you do this?"

"When they fly into the Capitol, Beetee is going to overrun the broadcast in the Capitol. She thinks it will distract everyone so the planes won't be detected as easily."

"That won't buy enough time." Katniss said.

"She wants me to tell the secrets too. I could go on for hours talking about that." he said. "I don't want to do it Katniss. I don't want people to know what I really am."

"Then don't do it." she said wiping the tears from his cheeks.

"If I don't do it, she'll kick me out of District 13."

"She wouldn't do that." she said. Where would he get an idea like that?

"Yes she would Katniss. In fact she already promised me that if I don't show up for the shoot tomorrow at noon, that I would be gone within the hour." he said. He sighed. "I have to do it. I have nowhere else to go." he said in defeat.

"Do you think they are listening to us now?" she whispered quietly to him.

"Probably."

"We need to go somewhere else to talk." she said, taking his hand and leading him to the highest level of District 13. She walked up to one of the guards. "Soldier Katniss Everdeen requesting permission to go outside. It's written in my conditions." she said.

"Might want to put a jacket on first." the guard said pointing to a wall of coats. She helped Finnick into his before finding one for herself. They were then lifted to the surface of District 13. Katniss was surprised to find that the leaves had already changed from green to vibrant shades of red, orange, and yellow. She didn't realize how much time had passed since their arrival at District 13. She took Finnick's hand and walked past the outdoor training yard into the woods. She looked around the trees, searching for any sign of cameras. It looked safe. She sat down on the forest floor with him close beside her, leaning on the trunk of a large tree.

"Something's going on here Finnick." she said.

"Yeah." he said. "Turns out Coin isn't that much better than Snow, huh?"

"Yeah, except she seems to get what she wants without having to use any sort of major threat."

"She threatened to kick me out, Katniss. That's pretty major, especially with the cold starting to set in."

"At least she didn't threaten to kill you…or anyone else for that matter." she said.

"She seems awfully worried about us." Finnick said.

"She is. Haymitch told me something, before the meeting started. He said that there was a reason they were drugging us. They wanted to make sure we didn't do anything unreasonable or find out too much about what is going on."

"Shit." Finnick said, like everything was clicking in his brain. "She really thinks we are a threat. Maybe it's time we take some of that power away from her."

"Finnick, how?"

"I'm sure we can work out a plan."

"Maybe we could wait a little, until they fix Gale." she said. She worried any sort of retaliation against Coin would result in her ending their efforts to try to make him better.

"Ok, nothing major until Gale is better. We can start off small anyway. Plan things that Coin won't even detect."

"We should get back. We wouldn't want the guards getting any ideas about what we are doing out here." Katniss said standing up. The walked back to the entrance to District 13. Katniss told him about his new trident Beetee had made him and he insisted that they go down the Arsenal right away. At least something could make Finnick happy. She left Finnick with Beetee and went down to the lowest level, hoping she could be able to see Gale. She needed to speeden up the process to getting him better. Maybe some more data would help them figure out a solution. She went to Dr. Halifax's office and asked if she could visit Gale. This time, he granted her permission. She walked into his room with two guards behind her. She saw Gale in the corner of the room at the table, playing a card game.

"Looks like they are keeping you busy." Katniss said standing across from him.

"I asked them to go hunting but they didn't it would be safe to give me a bow." he said with a smirk. He sounded better, much better than before. Maybe they were making progress. She watched him scoot his chair over. "Want to play with me?"

"Sure." she said bringing the chair to his side of the table. She spaced it so there was about a foot of space between them. He placed the deck of cards between them and explained the rules. They took turns flipping the cards and seeing if they could make a move. She couldn't believe how normal things felt between them.

"Gale, do you love me?" she asked nervously as she waited for her turn. He paused for a few seconds before turning to face her.

"Katniss, I've never stopped loving you." he said. She could tell it was sincere.

"I thought you hated me." she said taking her turn.

"I didn't hate you. I just was angry. I thought that you wanted to be with Finnick." he explained. "What about you? Do you love me?"

"Yes, I do." she said blushing. She turned her body to find him smiling at her. She missed that smile…and those lips. She wanted more than anything to have those lips on hers.

"Gale, kiss me." she whispered, low enough that the guards wouldn't hear.

"Katniss I can't. What if something happens?"

"We'll never know until we try. Plus, that's what the guards are for." she said. She could tell that he was considering it. She silently hoped that he would go through with it. She saw him lean forward as he slightly tilted his head. His lips made contact, gently brushing hers in a brief kiss. He pulled away from her and she could see a smile appear on his face before his lips found hers again. He brought his hands up to her face, caressing her cheeks as he kissed her hungrily. She felt like she was caught up in a whirlwind of emotions. She kissed him back with as must passion as he was wielding. She then felt his hand move south, gently grazing the back of her neck. That's when things took a turn for the worst. She felt his fingers wrap tightly around her neck, preventing the air from getting to her lungs. Her vision started to get hazy. The guards moved quickly and pulled him off of her, slamming him again the wall. One guard moved away from him and started to escort her out of the room. She looked behind her to find the other guard trying to console a now weeping Gale. Before she exited, she could see Gale flip the table causing all the cards to fly into the air.

Dr. Halifax met Katniss outside the room.

"Are you ok?" he asked concerned.

"Yes, I think so." she said, still shaken up from what happened. He took her into an examination room to make sure there wasn't any damage.

"Just some light bruising. You should be fine." he said.

"Thank you." she said.

"Miss Everdeen, I thought I was clear about no physical contact."

"I know. It's hard though."

"He could have seriously hurt you."

"I'm sorry. I'll stay away from him from now on. Please let me know when you think of something to cure him." she said. He nodded his head before letting her go.

Katniss made her way back to her room, thinking about how shitty of a day it had been. She had the unfortunate luck of running into Peeta in the process.

"Katniss what happened?" he asked lightly touching her neck. She winced at the pain his touch had cause, which he apologized for.

"Gale did it." she said, her voice drained of any emotion.

"That's a shame." he said.

"You should be happy." she said as she started walking. After all Haymitch had told her how Peeta really felt.

"Wait, why should I be happy?" he asked as he caught up with her. He placed his hands on her shoulders to stop her.

"Haymitch told me everything you said to him in the kitchen office."

"What stuff?"

"Stop pretending like you don't know what you said. He told me that you hoped that Gale wouldn't get better so that you'd have a shot with me."

"Katniss I never said those words, I swear. In fact, he was telling me that you were the one that wanted to get back together with me but you were afraid that everyone would think you were horrible for leaving Gale for me."

"That asshole!" Katniss said as she charged down the hall to Haymitch's room. She knocked forcefully but there was no answer. Instead, she kicked in the door to find an empty room. She began to search the room.

"Katniss, what are you doing?"

"Taking back the liquor. Help me find it." she said. They searched the room until they found one full bottle left. Peeta insisted on keeping it, afraid that she would drink it herself. She agreed with his decision. She might in fact drink it. She needed it for bargaining power with Haymitch, especially with the possible plans she might make with Finnick. She apologized to Peeta before going down to the hospital. She complained about her neck pain and they had her lie on a bed while they administered the painkillers. Luckily for her, they were the kind that also knocked you out. She felt herself slowly fading into nothingness.

So what did you think about my decision with Gale? As you can see he's not hijacked (no tracker jacker venom was used) and he still loves Katniss. There was even a Galeniss kiss even though it didn't end well. Things are looking a little bleak for the pair but things will get better.

Also what do you think about Katniss and Finnick's plan?

Please review...I like to know what you are thinking, especially after a chapter like this one :)

I also posted the second chapter of my new story, The Peacekeeper's Son. If you are looking for something else to read, check it out!