Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.

Explosion

The following morning Rue changes the leaves on Katniss's stings and no more venom comes out. An hour after that Katniss wakes up.

"Katniss." I sigh instantly relaxing seeing her eyes open.

"Gale," she says desperately, "Oh Gale, you're okay!" she exclaims.

"Of course, I am, you were the one treed." I tell her.

She grasps my face and looks me over, "You weren't in the explosion?"

Explosion? "No honey, I'm right here, just fine. You were probably hallucinating from the trackerjacker venom."

She nods seeming relieved, "Thank goodness," she says and kisses me.

Rue giggles, and Katniss instantly pulls back, "We have an ally." I inform her.

Katniss blushes but smiles at Rue, "Did we get the bow?" Katniss asks me.

"Yup," I hand it to her, "And I've already hunted. Here." I hand her some meat and the water bottle.

She takes it and starts eating, "So what happened?"

"The girl from 1 and the boy from 4." I tell her.

"What happened to the boy from 4?"

"He got caught in one of my snares as they fled and the trackerjackers got him."

Katniss laughs, and Rue and I both startle by her reaction, "Bet they aren't thinking we are so dumb after all." She explains.

I smile and explain to Rue what we heard, but then sigh, "That also means they'll be looking for us."

"Where are they now?" Katniss asks.

"Down by the lake. They have all their supplies stacked up there, and the boy from 3 guarding. But they all got stung."

"That sounds tempting. We can feed ourselves, but can they?" Katniss asks.

"They don't have to, they have all the food from the cornucopia." Rue responds.

"But what if they didn't?" Katniss asks.

"Then it would truly be the hunger games, and we would have the advantage." I answer smiling.

"Once they are up they will be hunting us again. If we can draw them out then we can go in and destroy the supplies, throw them in the lake or something." Katniss says.

"We can lure them out with fires, they'll see the smoke." Rue adds.

"I could set up snares as well, to try and trap them when they go investigate. Might take out one or two of them and we wouldn't even have to be there. But I'll have to go back and get the rope from the other snares I've set up. If it's still there."

"Destroy their food supply and weaken their numbers again. I like it." Katniss says smiling at me.

Just then a parachute comes down and lands in the middle of us. I open it up and inside is a coil of rope, it will be more than enough, "Thank you Haymitch." I say aloud.

Katniss and Rue chat and sing to the mockingjays while I prepare the rope. Rue tells Katniss her mockingjay pin is why she decided to help her. Watching them together makes me think of Katniss and Prim, and I know, neither Katniss or I will be able to kill Rue now. There's no way. Katniss pokes Rue in the belly joking about eating the career's food and Rue giggles, she would make a great mother.

Whoa where did that come from? Of course she would. She has practically been a mother to Prim for years, just like I've been a father figure to Posy. I know she doesn't want children though because of these games. I have no doubt that she will be determined to never have any of her own once she wins too, especially since she went through them.

I shake my head, I'm getting ahead of myself, first I have to help her win, and it won't be like I can have kids with her, I'll be dead. Listening to them sing, I vow to cherish every moment with her I have left, no matter how few. I check the snares again and find another rabbit and a squirrel.

I start to light a fire to cook the meat to save for later but Katniss stops me concerned.

"I'm not worried. Most likely, they are still asleep and if they aren't, let them come you have a bow now you can pick them off from the trees." She agrees. We all head up to a tree later to get some sleep. Katniss cuts her sleeping bag in half wrapping half around Rue who is a couple branches above us and kisses her forehead before settling down against me. We put our jackets back on and wrap the blanket over us.

"I'm not hurting your burns am I?" she asks.

"No Catnip, and even if you were I wouldn't let you sleep anywhere else." Right here in my arms is just where I want her.

I kiss the side of her forehead, her ear, her cheek, the corner of her lips, her neck.

"Gale..." she says looking up to Rue.

"I'm just glad you are okay, and within my grasp tonight."

In the morning, a cannon goes off and it quickly sobers the lighter mood we were all in the night before. We finalize our plans to sabotage the careers supplies, and I don't like them. It involves us splitting up, but it makes the most sense. Katniss and Rue are going to hide in a place by the lake that Rue has been using to spy on them while I light two fires to distract them and pull them out to the woods. While they are in the woods Katniss and Rue will find a way to get rid of their food. I'm also going to set up a few snares at the first fire, hoping one of them will step into it. By the second fire I know they will be more careful.

I take two of the knives for the snares and hand out another one to Rue. She takes it carefully and slips it into her belt like I did with mine. "Don't hesitate to use it, if you have to." I tell her, "But if you can run or get up in the trees." She nods.

I hand Katniss and bow and arrows and the other knife. "What about you?" she asks.

"I won't need any." I tell her.

She shakes her head and hands me back the knife, sighing I accept it.

Katniss and Rue head out but before they get too far Katniss comes back to me and gives me a long lingering kiss, "Stay safe." She tells me.

"I'm holding you personally responsible if anything bad happens to you." I tell her, though I know I won't.

She smiles, "I'll see you for dinner." We agreed to meet back at our spot by the river for dinner.

I head to the spot of the first fire and set up two snares in the direction the careers will be coming in from. I don't think they will be able to see them, I hide them pretty well. Taking a deep breath, I light the fire and start towards the location of the second fire. When I get there, I build the fire, and I hear a cannon go off. I am hoping that it is one of them getting caught at the first fire, I don't even let myself consider another possibility. I don't have as much time as I thought to get away so I head up into a tree out of sight. I can see the fire, it's about twenty yards away from me.

There is only three of them when they get to the fire. The girl from 4 is missing and I'm guessing one of my snares worked. They are looking around the fire cautiously.

"They set us up!" Cato yells and stomps his feet, it's kind of comical how he's acting. Like a three-year-old who didn't get their way. Posy doesn't even act like this.

Part of me wishes I had the bow right now, I could pick them off. Then again, I'm not as good a shot as Katniss and I might miss and just end up giving away my location.

"Well at least we know how they got their training scores now," Clove says, "They know how to set traps."

"We will just have to be careful. Now that we know they won't be able to use it against us." The boy from 1 adds.

I smirk to myself, they don't know the half of it. They know how I got my score, but they don't know how Katniss got hers. I wonder how Rue and Katniss are doing. I hope they are almost done. Maybe they are heading back to the river by now.

That's when I hear an explosion go off near the lake, I can feel all the blood drain from my face. I don't hear a cannon but it could have easily been lost in the explosion.

Then I hear an evil chuckle come from Cato, "They aren't the only ones who know how to set traps, I bet one of them or both just got caught in ours."

"One of them had to light the fires." The girl points out.

"Well let's hope lover boy got caught in the explosion then."

They take off running towards the lake and my heart is pounding in my ears. Climbing down I head to the river but they aren't there. I start pacing, waiting. A cannon goes off and I nearly panic, but what can I do?